Rece Davis: Dan Hurley 'needs to temper' his attitude if he takes Lakers job

Not every coach that transitions from college to the NBA is successful, with many failing and returning to school. The differences in how athletes are coached from one level to the next is something that Dan Hurley will need to overcome if he were to leave UConn for the Los Angeles Lakers.

As the host of College GameDay, Rece Davis, explained, for Hurley to be successful in the NBA he doesn’t think he needs to change, but he will need to temper his attitude.

“I don’t want to split hairs over semantics,” Rece Davis said. “But I do want to point out that I am not in the camp that Danny Hurley needs to change. He needs to temper in certain areas because if he tries to change then he loses some of the genius that he has…If he tries to go in Mr. Mellow, never say a thing, these guys are pros — it’s not going to work because that’s not him.”

Dan Hurley has built UConn into the best program in college basketball, winning two national championships in a row. Along the way, he’s become noted for how he interacts with referees and fans alike, often yelling and consistently being one of the most animated coaches in the game.

“He just needs to temper. He needs to not yell at a fan in the middle of February in Cleveland, ‘I’ll knock you out,’ as he walks off the court, as he did in Creighton to great sport, which I had great fun with when we went to UConn a few days later after that with him,” Davis said.

“But I’ve had the opportunity to sit and talk with him the day before the last two national championship games in one-on-one settings. He is a quiet, introspective, really, really smart guy. You guys mentioned building the connections. That’s the key more so than him shaping himself into what others might think an NBA coach ought to look like.”

Rece Davis went on to explain that he thinks for Dan Hurley to be successful with the Lakers, the most important thing is going to be making a connection with the team’s star players.

“The key is the connection, and the most important connection that he will make, the two most important ones, are with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Those guys are established, particularly LeBron, in terms of being a leader and wanting things a certain way. LeBron has been public about his admiration for Danny’s offense on social media and so forth. If, in fact, his son were to wind up being a member of the Lakers as well, I would think LeBron would like to have Danny Hurley aid in that development as he comes along, but I don’t think he should change. He just has to temper,” Davis said.

“We have this perception. There are many coaches who are fluent, both at the NBA level and in college basketball at the four-letter vocabulary, and there are some who have been considered for NBA jobs in the past, famously, who are quite fluent in a 12-letter vocabulary. I’ll let you figure that one out if you want to. So, you’ll have to watch the 12 letters and who they’re aimed at and what they’re for, but Hurley’s got a lot of new age stuff to it. The meditation, the sensory deprivation chambers, the counseling that he’s talked openly about from his difficult times when he was a college player.”

For many, there are questions about why Dan Hurley would want to leave UConn. After all, he’s built the program into a powerhouse. However, Rece Davis also added to that, pointing out that this could be an opportunity to further establish himself within his family.

“He joked a couple of years ago that prior to winning the first national championship that because his dad is a Hall of Fame, national championship coach at the high school level — Bobby Hurley — that he had to sit at the kiddie table until he won a championship…Now, he has a chance if he chooses to do this to do something — he loves his brother and his entire family. I’m not trying to say there’s any animosity there, but I do think he’d also like to achieve something that they weren’t able to do that’s completely different,” Davis said.

“This could be an opportunity for that and might be a driving force for him.”