Kentucky insider provides latest on pursuit of Dan Hurley, projected salary offer

Scott Drew’s refusal of Kentucky to remain at Baylor has sent the Wildcats back onto the coaching carousel. It also means, with one of their top three options off the board, the expectation is now that UConn’s Dan Hurley is about to get all of the attention from out of Lexington.

Kentucky Sports Radio’s Matt Jones spoke on what’s next for Kentucky after the news of Drew staying in Waco. To him, the focus shifts to Hurley now with the plan being to make him fully refuse the job before the process moves to anyone else.

“Today is ‘Make Danny Hurley Say No’ Day,” Jones said on KSR on Thursday. “I think he will but they’re gonna make him.”

Going after Hurley is big-game hunting, even for the Wildcats, with him coming off back-to-back national titles for the Huskies. However, Jones’ expectation is that UK will come armed with a major offer with the plan to make him the highest-paid coach at the collegiate level, regardless of sport.

“Danny Hurley’s agent just felt better than he’s ever felt in his life,” joked Jones

“I think they will offer him between $11 and 12 million,” Jones said. “They will make Danny Hurley, if he were to take it, the highest-paid coach in college athletics – and that includes football.”

Hurley is a top option for anyone in search of a head coach right now. He added to his case as the best in the sport just earlier this week. A 75-60 win in the national championship over Purdue gave Connecticut their second straight title and sixth overall. That brought his career record up to 292-163 (.642), including a 141-58 (.709) mark in Storrs.

Over the past few days, Hurley’s focus has also been on a return to UConn in hopes of a three-peat. Nothing that he has indicated, which isn’t unexpected, suggests that he’d be interested in any other job right now than the one inside Gampel Pavilion.

Still, his is just how Jones sees this process playing out now that Drew is out of the running. Now, for their hopes of hiring Hurley, he says the Wildcats should wish for silence over the next few days until there’s potential movement going into next week.

“They’ll make Danny Hurley say no,” Jones said. “I think they were ready to do this anyway but they thought they had a better shot with Drew.”

“If it’s a yes, I don’t think it happens today because they’ve got that parade on Saturday,” said Jones. “This is one of those days that no news is good news. Every minute you go by and don’t hear something is good.”