Dan Hurley reveals what it's meant to have Jim Calhoun around during Final Four run

UConn head coach Dan Hurley has spent his entire life surrounded by great coaches but he has had a special treat of being able to be around Hall of Famer head coach Jim Calhoun these last few seasons.

The 80-year-old Calhoun has been able to spend some time around this year’s Huskies team and Hurley said it has definitely paid dividends.

“I met with Coach before the season,” Hurley said. “He talked about the importance of some basketball type of things, like transition offense. But I think it was more like leadership and having him come to practice and kind of tell me things that he liked. And then I think also like he spent a lot of time talking with our players. Like when practices are over, he’s grabbing Andre Jackson or Adama Sanogo, and he watches every game. He lives and dies with all of our games.”

Calhoun was the UConn head coach from 1986-2012, helping turn the school into a college basketball powerhouse. He finished his 26 seasons with the Huskies with a 625–243 record and three national championships in 1999, 2004 and 2011.

Dan Hurley has two great sounding boards in Jim Calhoun, Geno Auriemma

Jim Calhoun retired in 2012 but returned to coach Division III Saint Joseph in West Hartford, Conn. He did that for three seasons before retiring again in 2021.

Kevin Ollie replaced Calhoun at UConn, winning a national title in 2014 before being fired in 2018. Hurley replaced Ollie and has the Huskies back in the Final Four since that 2018 team.

Calhoun has obviously remained around the program, as Hurley said. But he isn’t the only coach Hurley can talk with and learn from. Hurley said he spends a lot of time with Geno Auriemma too.

Auriemma has a 1,180–156 record as the head coach of the women’s basketball team at UConn, winning 11 national titles and 27 conference tournaments along the way.

“Him and Geno, they are UConn basketball. So just to have those two guys around — obviously it’s hard for me to meet with them together,” Hurley said with a laugh. “But I get a lot of time with them separately. I hope to get a picture with the both of them. Coach is coming out I think tonight. I know that will go viral if I could get those two guys together.”