Why Dan Hurley turned down Kentucky offer to stay at UConn
Despite Kentucky making a lucrative offer to the coaching face of college basketball at the moment, Dan Hurley is staying in Storrs, Connecticut, and has his mind set on pursuing a national championship three-peat, sources told FOX Sports on Thursday afternoon.
Dan Hurley's priority is 'going for a three-peat' with UConn
With Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart attempting to make a splash after John Calipari left for Arkansas earlier this week, the natural name to come up in the candidate pool was Hurley, who powered the Huskies to back-to-back national titles, becoming the first program to accomplish that feat since Billy Donovan's Florida Gators in 2006 and ‘07.
Ironically enough, Donovan, a former Kentucky assistant under Rick Pitino back in the 90s, is being looked at for the vacancy as well.
But as for Hurley – the Naismith Coach of the Year who is 68-11 in the last two seasons and just led Connecticut to one of the most dominant seasons in men's college basketball history – he's not messing with happy. UConn athletic director Dave Benedict and his team will increase their financial commitments to Hurley and his staff, and program enhancements will accompany that as well, sources told FOX Sports.
Benedict said earlier this week he would do everything he could to keep Hurley heading into his seventh year at the helm, and Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont followed that up, saying he will "pay for success" in regard to Hurley getting a raise at the state university.
Hurley's wife, Andrea, had a say in this as well, and sources close to the family told FOX Sports how happy the Hurley family is to be in Connecticut. With Dan's father, the legendary Bob Sr., being in New Jersey, the location of UConn is key to their family happiness, in addition to Hurley enjoying life on college basketball's mountaintop.
Hurley has a son, Danny, who works in New Jersey, and another, Andrew, who was a walk-on for the Huskies and could end up working for his dad. With that said, there's too much that makes sense for Hurley to pass on one blue blood and stay at the one he's rebuilt.
John Fanta is a national college basketball broadcaster and writer for FOX Sports. He covers the sport in a variety of capacities, from calling games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Network to providing commentary on The Field of 68 Media Network. Follow him on Twitter @John_Fanta.
