Less than a week after the Rhode Island Rams season came to an end in the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row, head coach Dan Hurley elected to move on from the school. His stint with Rhode Island came to an end after six years with the Rams basketball program. He was officially named the next head coach of the UConn Huskies after the school fired Kevin Ollie citing ‘just cause’ after he was involved in potential NCAA violations.
Following comes from Jeff Goodman of ESPN.
Dan Hurley has been named the men’s basketball coach at UConn, the school announced Thursday.
The former Rhode Island coach received a six-year deal, multiple sources told ESPN.
Hurley will bring assistant Tom Moore, who was an assistant under Jim Calhoun at UConn, with him, according to sources, but the rest of the staff will depend on whether his top assistant, David Cox, is elevated at URI.
As Goodman notes, the school also announced the decision to hire Hurley.
It's official! Dan Hurley named Head Coach of @UConnMBB. pic.twitter.com/G5ppW9fneO
— UConn Huskies (@UConnHuskies) March 22, 2018
Hurley, 45, produced the first NCAA Tournament for Rhode Island since the Cuttino Mobley and Lamar Odom era in the late 90’s. Under Hurley, Rhode Island had a 113–82 overall record with a 58–47 mark in the A-10 conference. Hurley had his first two NCAA Tournament appearances as a coach with Rhode Island both ending in the second round. Last year, the Rams were an 11 seed that upset six seed Creighton and this year they were a seven seed that knocked out the 10 seed Oklahoma Sooners led by projected NBA lottery pick Trae Young.
Dan Hurley is the brother of Duke legend and current Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley and the son of the iconic hall of fame high school head coach Bob Hurley.
For UConn, they hope the Hurley hire will return them back to a line of glory that has been absent since their NCAA Championship in 2014. They hired Ollie when Jim Calhoun left the school after over 20 years with the program. While Ollie did lead the Huskies to a title in 2014, their roster was littered with Calhoun recruits. They made the tournament only once in the last four years and the program has recently been under investigation by the NCAA for potential recruiting violations. The fall from grace, an absence in the NCAA tournament, no top tier recruits on campus and a scandal all mixed up together seemingly equaled the end for Ollie.
