Dan Hurley proves there is a place for touch coaching in the age of NIL

What Dan Hurley is doing is clearly working based on the past two seasons at UConn. Some might see his coaching style as a bit much, especially in a new age in collegiate athletics, but it’s leading to results in the form of winning and banners.

On3’s Andy Staples and James Fletcher III discussed Hurley’s approach on Tuesday. They did so on the morning after the Huskies won 75-60 over Purdue to secure a second-straight national title. Their breakdown of the game led to Staples’ thought about Hurley’s methods and how he has combined an old-school mindset with the new-school setting in collegiate basketball.

“That’s what amazes me about this is what Dan Hurley has been able to do in this era of college basketball where he has kind of mixed how things used to work with how they work now and come up with a good marriage,” said Staples.

To Fletcher, that opens up the broader point on what the presumption should be in regards to NIL. Name, image, and likeness is not a method to allow for pay for play. However, he thinks Hurley has successfully framed it in such a way that the compensation now lets him coach by holding them accountable to the expectation that comes from payment.

“I think we’ve seen that in his comments throughout the week,” Fletcher said. “He was a guy who came out there and they asked him about coaching in the NIL era. How hard is it to be that hard-nosed, that coach that screams at his players? He said, ‘No, I coach my players harder because there is an expectation’. When there’s money involved, when people are donating or whether it becomes a salary someday? There is an expectation of performance when you start being given money.”

“I know that the NCAA has very strict rules. It is not performance-based money but that doesn’t change the fact that you feel a responsibility when someone gives you money to perform at your best in whatever you are doing,” said Fletcher. “He has kind of found that balance of, yes, this is the player-empowerment era but there has to be an accountability with those players who have so much power now if they’re going to reach their potential and the team’s potential along the way.”

That led to the next point of why coaches such as Hurley are as outstanding as they can be. Staples says his experience, along with the experiences of fellow coaches like him, are able to help him better connect with his team. That, in turn, can, and often does, lead to championship-level results.

“Like, Dan Hurley? I wonder about this. Is this something, like, if you were a dog as a player and then you become a coach, are you better at doing this? You can coach your players very hard. But you can kind of speak their language,” Staples wondered. “You see it with Dan Hurley, you see it with Dawn Staley on the women’s side. You see it with Kirby Smart in football. Like, these are people who were really good players. Now, Dawn Staley was far and above what Dan Hurley and Kirby Smart were as players. But Dan Hurley and Kirby Smart were really good players in their time. I feel like they’re just better at speaking that language. They can goof off with their players, they can also ride their asses pretty hard, and the players aren’t upset about it. They thrive in that.”

Fletcher agreed as coaches in that mold, like Hurley, Staley, and Smart, can get where others can’t and bring things out from their players that others are unable to.

“I think there is definitely something to say about that dynamic that you talk about. Being a dog on the court and then kind of graduating into coaching? You have a unique understanding,” Fletcher said. “When you’re that grinder, that player who didn’t necessarily just have all the talent to get there? Didn’t have to go through the trials, didn’t have to earn their spot on the court? Then, sometimes, you struggle to understand how to motivate a kid who’s kind of lagging back in practice. If you’re somebody who didn’t go through those moments of wanting to hold back in practice, not wanting to give 100% to spring through because whatever happened that morning or whatever’s going on on the court? Sometimes, you can’t push the same button that people like that can push.”

“So, for Hurley, you mention Kirby Smart, Dawn Staley? Across sports, really, you can see it,” said Fletcher. “These kind of grinders, these dogs? A lot of times, when they’re able to overcome that fiery side that they have? When they can have that happy medium, that ability to control that passion and channel it? Those oftentimes, across all sports, are some of the most successful that you’re going to find.”

Again, there are some that might see someone like Hurley and think that they’re too intense with their team. If it brings out their best and wins trophies, though, fans like those in Storrs, Columbia, and Athens are going to have no issue with how their coaches work, even with players in a much different generation than what it once was.