Giovanni Fanta
College basketball broadcaster and reporter
Dan Hurley arrived at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, recent off the set of “Good Morning America” in Times Square, as his automotive wash of media duties continued all through the day.
Such is life on the mountaintop of school basketball while you’re the king of the game, having gained 12 consecutive NCAA match video games for a complete of 260 factors and consecutive nationwide championships.
But Hurley, sporting a pointy grey swimsuit with a brand new haircut, black leather-based sneakers and a pair of socks that learn “Certified Pain within the Ass,” wasn’t shying away from what a media melee of dozens and dozens of journalists needed to know:
How a few three-peat?
“It’s the elephant within the room,” Hurley mentioned of the feat, which solely John Wooden and his legendary UCLA groups completed, profitable seven in a row from 1967 to 1973. “You cannot cover from this chance. we win three in a row, what is going to folks say? That you suck as a coach since you might solely win two in a row we notice the greatness of this.
Hurley is much from glad with the success his program has had over the previous two seasons. In reality, listening to Hurley and his gamers discuss, it turns into clear that his method to the brand new season has solely intensified.
“If he is modified, he is gotten somewhat crazier,” Huskies level guard Hassan Diarra mentioned of Hurley.
Fellow starter and preseason All-Big East choice Alex Karaban highlighted Hurley’s depth and need to win reaching a brand new peak this offseason.
“Hurley desires one other championship so dangerous, however he is teaching us like he at all times has,” Karaban mentioned. “The depth has at all times been there. Now it is simply ramping up.”
This time final season, the Huskies have been picked to complete third within the Big East preseason coaches ballot, behind each Marquette and Creighton. The program responded by coasting on convention common season and match crowns. Big East coaches would not make the identical mistake two years in a row, as UConn was a unanimous alternative to complete first on this 12 months’s ballot, receiving all 10 doable first-place votes and 100 factors from the league’s coaches, who weren’t allowed to vote for their very own groups.
It could be simple for Hurley to get caught up in all of the preseason hype. But as a substitute, he was on the lookout for his gamers on Wednesday, as he was thrilled that Karaban had not been acknowledged as an Associated Press preseason first-team All-American.
“Alex does a awful job of drawing consideration to himself,” Hurley mentioned of his star junior, who performed a key function within the Huskies’ 68-11 file the previous two seasons and might be thought of the group’s star participant . chief forward of this 12 months. “Maybe if he had accomplished extra TikTok, he would have solidified his All-American standing. We worth the mistaken issues in sports activities. We do not worth champions, however possibly it is a social drawback.”
Karaban plans to make use of his exclusion from the primary group All-America as a supply of motivation.
“My complete profession I’ve been snubbed in every single place,” mentioned Karaban, who averaged 13.3 factors and 5.1 rebounds per sport final 12 months. “But on the similar time, I need to proceed to show everybody mistaken, and that is what is going on to occur this 12 months.”
It matches completely into what Hurley calls a “pathological, sick and obsessive” starvation to win a 3rd consecutive crown.
But Hurley will not discover a lot motivational materials from different Big East applications this season, because the mutual respect amongst different coaches for UConn’s program could not be larger. And what would possibly that appear to be after the Huskies’ 75-60 win over Purdue final April capped a streak of six match victories by averaging greater than 23 factors per sport?
“I believe they’re approach above us proper now, that is not a purpose of ours,” St. John coach Rick Pitino mentioned of UConn. “Comparing applications isn’t what will get you the place you need to be.”
While these comparisons to the skin world within the rivalry-rich Big East will not disappear, one factor was sure Wednesday: UConn is atop the Big East and the faculty basketball world.
Just like his socks mentioned, Hurley is having fun with working a program that has been a complete ache within the ass for all Huskies opponents the previous two seasons.
That’s why Hurley returned to Storrs, Connecticut for one more 12 months to embark on a golden story.
John Fanta is a nationwide faculty basketball broadcaster and author for FOX Sports. He covers sports activities in quite a lot of roles, from calling video games on FS1 to serving as a lead anchor on the BIG EAST digital community to offering commentary on The Field of 68 Media Network. Follow him to @John_Fanta.
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