STORRS – Jay Wright started the trend of retiring from coaching college basketball at a relatively young age and at the peak of his powers. Tony Bennett made a similar move at Virginia last fall and Bruce Pearl joined the list on Monday, announcing his retirement from Auburn just five months removed from a second Final Four appearance.
Pearl’s son, Steven, signed a five-year contract to take over as head coach of the Tigers as his father moves into an ambassador’s role in the Auburn athletic department.
“Congrats to Coach on an amazing career, a Hall of Fame type of resume and obviously the job he’s done in multiple places,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said after the team wrapped up its first official practice on Tuesday. “(He’s) a coach that’ll be missed. Obviously there’s a lot of coaches recently that have been retiring. I don’t know if it’s the uncertainty, where you’re still not knowing if people are gonna get a fifth year as October is about to hit.”
“Just some of the lack of structure and leadership in the game itself, I’m not sure if that’s what did it, but Coach was somebody that I admired. I admired the way he’s built his career and I wish his son good luck coaching.”
Just less than a year removed from winning back-to-back national championships, Hurley was thinking of doing something similar after the Huskies were eliminated in the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
“I don’t think Andrew’s ready,” he quipped, referring to his son, who was part of the championship rosters and is beginning his second year as a graduate manager.
Of course, that isn’t exactly what was in consideration.
Hurley wrote in his soon-to-be-released book, “Never Stop: Life, Leadership, and What It Takes To Be Great,” that he thought about resigning from his position at UConn and had preliminary discussions about potentially joining FOX Sports as an analyst.
What UConn AD David Benedict said about Dan Hurley’s thoughts of stepping down
How serious was he?
“It was probably two days of like, when the season’s over and literally there’s no one that you know for sure is on your team,” Hurley told The Courant. “It was the length of the seasons, it was the demanding offseasons, it was the year, the way it went. It was being in basketball since I was a baby, being in every St. Anthony huddle, locker room, practice since you were 4-years-old.
“t was just a cumulative effect of a bunch of things. The way the year went with just the critiques and criticisms and media reactions, on top of just the year not going the way you want, on top of the portal, the NIL.”
The turning point in Hurley’s thought process didn’t come from a conversation with his wife, Andrea, like it often does. It wasn’t his parents, either, or his sons, or UConn Athletic Director David Benedict, who wasn’t shocked to know it was a thought, but also wasn’t concerned about him actually leaving.
“You know what it was? It was Solo (Ball) and it was Jaylin (Stewart),” he said. “It was Solo and Jaylin who, like, had no interest in negotiating their NIL value. And the fact that if I did do it, I would never coach at this place again. Just the realization that I’m not gonna get a gap year. You say to yourself, ‘I’m never gonna coach UConn again.’ I’m not ready for that.”