UConn HC Dan Hurley Reveals He Almost Resigned After 2024-25 Season

The outlook of a collegiate program can change in the blink of an eye. And for UConn men's basketball coach Dan Hurley, he nearly did the unthinkable after the 2024-25 college basketball season.

"I thought about leaving," Hurley wrote in his new book, "Never Stop: Life, Leadership, and What It Takes To Be Great," which he co-wrote with Ian O'Connor of The Athletic and will be released on Sept. 30. "Taking a gap year. Resigning as head coach of the UConn Huskies."

Hurley elaborated on how the stress of his job was eating at him.

"I knew my mind, and I knew my body, and I could feel that I was completely cooked," Hurley said. "Just burnt. I didn’t even know how I was standing. I stared at the office walls, muttering, conducting a brutal review of our season. I didn’t build a strong enough roster. I wasn’t a good leader. I let everyone down in Maui. I lost control, emotionally, at various points. I came in here some days sad and defeated, when I needed to be positive and inspiring. Then I went through the self-lacerating what-ifs: What if we’d played a little bit better in Maui? What if we hadn’t blown that game against Seton Hall? What if we’d been a better seed than an eight seed and hadn’t needed to face a number one in the second round? Who knows?

"It was unhealthy to be ruminating this way. I was unhealthy. I desperately needed to get out of town, flee to my standard hideaway, Dorado Beach in San Juan. I needed to do some healing, not think about basketball for a few days. But that wasn’t possible in this new era. The transfer portal and NIL deals made every college player a free agent, so right after the tournament I needed to be in my office, in Storrs. If I left town right then, I wouldn’t have a team for the 2025-26 season." At that point, I wasn’t even sure that I would return for the 2025-26 season."

Hurley also disclosed that he had discussions about getting involved in television.

UConn won back-to-back national titles under Hurley in 2023 and 2024, the latter year seeing the program finish 37-3 and Hurley win both Big East and Naismith Coach of the Year honors. Last season, the Huskies took a step back, finishing 24-11 overall and 14-6 in Big East play. UConn still cracked the NCAA Tournament but lost in the second round to eventual-champion Florida. In November, the Huskies lost three consecutive games in the Maui Invitational Tournament, with Hurley saying after the skid that he's "not doing" another three-game multi-team event again.

In 2024, Hurley flirted with becoming the next head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, with whom he would've coached LeBron James and, at the time, Anthony Davis. Instead, Hurley turned down a reported six-year, $70 million deal and signed a new contract at UConn that keeps him in place through the 2029-30 season.

"Listen, I cherish my job, my players, our school, our fans, and our boosters," Hurley said. "I’ve got the very best job in the country with the very best program in college basketball over the last quarter century. All of that is hand-on-the-Bible true. But what’s also true is the massive toll that coaching takes on you and your family. The whole thing is exhausting. The seasons are excruciating even when they are going great. You rarely get to the national championship game and win it, so if the season ended the way I wanted it to end only two years out of my coaching life, then I was tortured for twenty-eight years. That’s a hell of a way to look at it. I’m not some unbreakable machine programmed to seek and destroy opposing teams and officiating crews — over and over and over again. I’m human."

Over Hurley's seven seasons as UConn's head coach (2018-19 season-present), the Huskies are a combined 165-69, making the NCAA Tournament in each of the past five seasons. Prior to taking over at Storrs, Hurley was the head coach of Rhode Island for six years (2012-13 to 2017-18), with the program making the NCAA Tournament in each of his last two seasons, and the head coach of Wagner for two campaigns (2010-11 to 2011-12).

UConn will play seven teams that made the NCAA Tournament in its out-of-conference schedule next season: defending-champion Florida, Illinois, Arizona, BYU, Kansas, Bryant and Texas.

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