Dan Hurley, UConn agree to six-year, $50 million extension
A month after Dan Hurley's public flirtation with the Los Angeles Lakers, UConn's head coach put pen to paper that he'd be in Storrs for the foreseeable future.
Hurley has signed a six-year, $50 million extension with UConn, the school announced Monday. The deal will keep him under contract through the 2029-30 season, and he can earn more money through performance-based incentives.
"It's an honor to coach basketball at UConn and to represent this world-class institution and the great state of Connecticut," Hurley said in a statement. "We are extremely proud of the championship program that we have rebuilt for our supporters and fans. We will continue to obsessively pursue championships and historic success, while continuing to develop great young men. Bleed Blue!"
Hurley, 51, has done more than just revive UConn's men's basketball program since he became its coach in March 2018. He led the Huskies to two straight national titles in 2023 and 2024, becoming the first team to go back-to-back since Florida in 2006 and 2007.
UConn has gone 141–58 in Hurley's six seasons as coach. He took over the program after the Huskies missed the NCAA Tournament in Kevin Ollie's final two seasons as head coach, which included an NCAA investigation for violations in how he ran the program.
Prior to the two national title-winning seasons, Hurley led the Huskies to two NCAA Tournament appearances in 2021 and 2022. He quickly helped UConn emerge as one of the Big East's top teams after it rejoined the conference in the 2020-21 season, finishing in the top four in the conference standings over the last four years. It won the Big East regular-season and tournament titles this past year, going 18-2 in conference play. It finished the year 37-3.
With Hurley leading UConn back to prominence in an unconventional way, he received interest in becoming the next head coach of the Lakers in June. He interviewed for the gig and was reportedly given a six-year, $70 million offer, which would've made him one of the highest-paid coaches in the NBA.
Instead, Hurley will stay at UConn on a deal that will make him one of the highest-paid coaches in college basketball. He insisted that his negotiations with the Lakers weren't a leverage play in an interview with "The Herd" in June.
"I was really excited about the job," Hurley told Colin Cowherd. "For us, right now, we've started practice with our current team that's going to go for potentially a three-peat. We're also heating up in a really critical time for recruiting the rising seniors in high school. So, this was not a great time to mess around or go for a ‘leverage play.' I already had the leverage: back-to-back national championships and the way that we're doing it — putting players in the NBA, our culture, the way we play ball — that's my leverage.
"The opportunity to coach one of the biggest brands in all of the sports landscape in the entire world, for somebody that loves basketball, is something that I owed it to myself and my family to consider."
Dan Hurley on his decision to return to UConn: 'I already had the leverage'
Regardless of Hurley's interest in the Lakers, UConn is happy to have him staying in Storrs.
"On behalf of UConn Nation, we are thrilled that Coach Hurley will continue to lead the Men's Basketball program for the foreseeable future," UConn athletic director David Benedict said in a statement. "Dan and Andrea have poured themselves into the rebuilding of this program that culminated in the last two National Championships. This contract is recognition for the immense amount of effort that went into producing those results and the dedication it will require to sustain a program that expects to compete for conference and national championships in the future."
