Dan Hurley opens up about sideline antics: 'I don't think coaches like me are a bad thing'

UConn head coach Dan Hurley has been the subject of much media attention, given his sideline antics and interactions with opposing fans.

He loves to be “in your face” as a two-time NCAA champion head coach. He also turned down, or at least was in the running for, the Los Angeles Lakers job and returned to the Huskies.

But Hurley doesn’t feel he is alone in his personality and if he’s not, it’s a good thing for college basketball.

“The media has figured out that, you know, that I’m giving them tons of clicks and tons of things to talk about,” Hurley said to Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo. “But, you know, I don’t think coaches like me are a bad thing. Coaches that are just so intense and take a life or death approach to every game, and I think that’s what, that’s what makes sports great for fans.

Hurley doesn’t necessarily regret what he does, but he does reflect on each outburst and moment. Especially when it’s in front of other coaching legends.

“Some of the places I go to, relative to what I’ll say or do in the moment of heated life or death competition, in my mind, doing everything and anything within my power to win the next possession or to win the game,” Hurley said. “I think when it’s over, I’ll see it and say, you know, yeah, saying that you’re the best coach in the country. Look at me. Yeah. I mean, you’re embarrassed by that, when you have to see Tom Izzo two weeks from now, and you feel like an ass in front of … your fellow coaches.”

Dan Hurley considers his personality good for college basketball

Hurley also explained when he went at a Creighton fan this season, saying he has “two rings baldy.”

“I think from that aspect of it, you know, for me, with the Creighton fan … that fan waited eight or 10 minutes for me to get to that tunnel, you know, after his team lost,” Hurley said. “And you know, I had to do TV, I had to talk to the other players, the other coach, I had to do a post game interview. I mean, that fan waited eight or 10 minutes for me to get to the tunnel. I just felt like I owed him an interaction. I regret calling him baldy, because he’s just balding, you know, and I’m balding as well. If anything, I would probably regret that I didn’t, you know, I should have referred to him as balding like myself in the end.”

Still, Hurley won’t change especially if he’s going to keep winning. UConn might not be as good as the last two years, but they’re approaching 20 wins and can make a statement if they knock off No. 10 St. John’s Sunday.

“My rocket fuel has been my intensity level, the passion that I coach with, the passion that my teams play, it’s not a crutch. When I’m wrong, I’m wrong, oftentimes I’ll admit that I’m wrong,” Hurley said. “I guess when you’re playing career was my playing career, and you struggle so hard to get to this level of success in basketball, I think in your mind, you believe that you’re going to finally become this beloved figure in basketball when you have you know the dominating success we’ve had the last two years. 

“And what you find out, I think really quickly, is that you don’t become beloved, you become hated by all the fans of the other college programs that you had much greater success than.”