Dan Hurley is entering his eighth season as UConn’s head coach, continuing a run that has redefined the program since he took over in 2018. After guiding the Huskies to back-to-back NCAA titles in 2023 and 2024, his trademark intensity remains untouched to date. During an exhibition against Michigan State, even with UConn leading 63-47 late in the game, Hurley’s fiery sideline attitude was on full display, but what is pushing that urgency?

Well, while Hurley dropping F-bombs during an early-season exhibition might seem excessive to many, it might be the right way to go about things, after he revealed his plans for the upcoming college basketball season. In a recent interview with NBC Sports’ John Fanta, Hurley said, “I think you know my pursuit of this year’s Big East regular season or Big East tournament or the national championship or Final Four, it’s not going to be any less urgent.”

When a coach enters the season with an aim to win his third national championship and not choose it midway during the season, expect such minds to be on their toes even when the ‘game’ isn’t of importance. Hurley knows UConn can’t afford to lose the way it did last season in Maui or in a few of its Big East games.

The UConn Huskies didn’t just fall short of the lofty expectations set after their back-to-back national titles; they were so underwhelming that it reportedly made Dan Hurley question his coaching approach. Now, however, the Huskies seem to have turned the page, entering the new season with fresh faces, renewed energy, and a sense of optimism surrounding their roster.

This includes the likes of Solo Ball, along with Tarris Reed, Alex Karaban, Jayline Stewart, and Jayden Ross, who will be hoping to take the 4th-ranked UConn over the line this season. “They’ve got to be the Hawk, Andre, ‘Dama ‘Big Three’ that we had that were productive, they led, they controlled the locker room,” Hurley said after the Huskies’ first official practice of the season. “I think we do have a great locker room again this year.”

Meanwhile, the future of his team wasn’t the only thing that Dan Hurley discussed with John Fanta, as the tenured head coach also reflected upon what was an abysmal last season.

Dan Hurley takes a look back at the season that almost led him to retirement

College basketball can be a scary place for coaches sometimes. Unlike the professional space, where things are much more certain, in college basketball, the game moves faster, the roster changes are quite frequent, and not to mention the stiff competition. These are some of the very reasons why we see several coaches step away from the game that they love. In fact, Dan Hurley himself was pretty close to doing so, as the 52-year-old recently made an admission about the same.

The coach who ruled the March Madness just over a year ago attested to how he found himself questioning his coaching career and maybe even making a switch to a television analyst. “I just think for me my just my priorities I think get got a little bit a little bit out of whack as a coach,” Hurley said.

“I think you know the the internal pressure that you put on yourself to continue to to win at that level to win a third straight championship and the kind of the monster that you become in pursuit of that third straight championship um you know set the ego off I think in a bad way and maybe just you know got me away from maybe my priorities as a coach,” the seasoned head coach further elaborated.

Hurley pointed out how the internal pressure of winning a third national championship might’ve consumed him from the inside. This further led him away from his natural coaching instincts, and of course led his team to massively underperform last season. Nonetheless, Dan Hurley is over that now, which can be clearly seen from the plans he has set out for his Huskies team this season, as the superstar head coach aims to restore his team’s dented glory.