He swaggers into the arena all cocky, as if he owns the place. As the game unfolds his eyes get buggy, his hands get freaky and his mouth gets… well, mouthy. He chews out his players, berates officials, talks smack with fans. Then he stalks off the floor, drops a few F bombs in his press conference and heads home to plan yet another day of world domination.
Yet inside, he’s a total mess. He’s tortured by self-doubt, fighting all the untold forces (both real and imaginary) arrayed against him, relitigating past slights, fretting about everything that can go wrong in the future, shackled by a prodigious list of superstitions (same underwear after every win? Really?) and forever waging a losing battle against a chronic inferiority complex. It’s a wonder he can function at all, much less as well as he does.
We know all these things because he tells us. He has spent a lifetime fighting his inner demons. He’ll be the first to admit that he has yet to win, but they haven’t won, either. That’s because he is conquering them just like he has conquered college basketball — through an oxymoronic admixture of confidence and insecurity, uncertainty and acumen, swag and gratitude. He’s damn good at his job and he damn well knows it. Yet, every day he walks into work feeling like he has to prove that he deserves that massive paycheck. He has reached unparalleled heights, yet the next loss, the next massive failure, the next humiliation, is always lurking. It’s what drives him to greatness.
Such is the unfettered, unencumbered, multihued beauty that is Daniel Stephen Hurley, Hoops HQ’s Man of the Year. Hurley led his Huskies to their second straight NCAA Tournament championship in 2024. It was just the third time since 1973 that a school has repeated, but it was far more impressive than the previous two repeats, Duke 1991-92 and Florida 2006-07. In each of those cases, the teams brought back the bulk of their rotations. UConn, on the other hand, lost three starters and five of its top eight scorers from the grouop that won the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
Hurley didn’t just replace and repeat, he actually exceeded what the previous team had done. UConn entered the 2023 Tournament as a No. 4 seed and won its six games by an average of 20.0 points. In 2024, the Huskies were a No. 1 seed and won by 23.2 points. When Hurley said after the 75-60 win over Purdue in the final, “What could you say? We won by a lot — again,” it didn’t sound so much as a boast as a reporting of basic facts. As the old saw goes, it ain’t bragging if it’s true.
So yes, for winning back-to-back titles alone, Hurley would be the obvious choice for this honorific as 2024 comes to a close. But it is the other part of his story — not just his willingness, but his need to be so publicly vulnerable — that is even more worth honoring. Just as he did on the court, Hurley has raised the bar on society’s pressing search to properly define things like masculinity, toughness and courage. Does it make a man tough to pretend like he has everything figured out, even if he’s really dying inside? Or is real courage revealed in admitting that you actually don’t have everything figured out — and then you figure it out anyway?
Hurley has conducted dozens of interviews over the years laying out just how difficult it was for him to grow up as the son of a Hall of Fame high school coach and the younger brother of a collegiate All-American and two-time NCAA champion. He has told and re-told the story of how he had to take a season off at Seton Hall, where he was the Pirates’ starting point guard, to get his life in order. He has recounted time and again how he found a therapist while in college and continued to use therapy to navitage all these cross currents as he made his way as a coach – first in high school, then at Wagner, then Rhode Island, then UConn, where he coached four seasons before winning his first NCAA Tournament game. Hurley has detailed how he established and embedded a morning routine of prayer, meditation and journaling, because if he didn’t have that he might not get out of bed sometimes (especially after losses).
For someone like Hurley, the worst thing that can happen in some ways is to actually achieve his ultimate goal. As Hurley stood on the stage in NRG Stadium in Houston on April 3, 2023, a net around his neck and “One Shining Moment” playing on the Jumbotron, he thought to himself, I’ve done it. I’ve made it. Now I can be happy. His wife, Andrea, had the same thoughts. Yet, a few days later, Hurley suffered a mild panic attack while getting ready to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. That ritual is afforded to beloved celebrities and powerful titans, yet Hurley felt like a failure because he didn’t have his players around him. That episode sent Hurley into yet another bout of depression as he faced the question that has long vexed high achievers: Is that all there is? Hurley used all those tools he had accumulated over the years to work through those emotions. Then he told the world about it – not because he wanted to be noble, but because that’s the only way he knows how to operate.
Yet, Hurley is noble because he understands he has a powerful platform to advance all these themes. He did so again this summer through, among other channels, a lengthy interview with Graham Bensinger, host of the popular In Depth podcast. That was about the time Hurley had to navigate the most difficult decision of his professional life – a lucrative offer from the Los Angeles Lakers to become their next head coach. Hurley flew with his family out to L.A. to interview with the team’s management. When he headed back home to Connecticut, he was leaning towards taking the job. Andrea all but told him to say yes. When he went to UConn the next morning to announce his decision, she wasn’t totally sure what he was going to say.
In the end, Hurley stayed. The Lakers’ offer was tempting, but the best part about being forced into all that self-examination is you figure out exactly who you are and what you want. And what Hurley wants most is to coach college kids.
Remaining at UConn was the right choice for Hurley. It was also a gift for college basketball. As the page turns to 2025, he can continue his march towards whatever lies ahead, knowing that he is armed for the fight. He’ll never be satisfied with what he accomplishes, but at least he has learned to be comfortable with his discomfort. That in itself is a victory worth celebrating.
