MBB Coach Dan Hurley w Wayne Norman April 20

The Morning Mayor of Willimantic and longtime color analyst had Dan Hurley on his morning show this week. Enjoy the interview

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I'm so pleased to be joined bythe head coach of the NCAA champion Yukon
men's basketball team, Dan Hurley.Dan good morning was April third, Maybe
the third best night of your life? Yeah? Right? Number one was
August twenty ninth, twenty five yearsago getting married, And then maybe the

(00:22):
or second was the first night wemet my beautiful wife Andrea. What was
your night like after the championship?Can you soak it in? Or are
you being pulled from a million differentdirections with interviews? No, there there's
a lot of that. There's alot of being pulled around, and it's
a little bit of a numbing effectbecause you just you don't get a lot

(00:42):
of time with the people that wereactually very intimately along with you, either
during your career or during the buildingof this program. So in a lot
of the aftermath of this, it'sjust you feel like you're not getting enough
time with the actual people that helpsyou get here. Tell the folks what's
going on in the two and ahalf weeks since the season ended. What

(01:03):
are the players doing in the interim, including the guys who aren't going to
be back, And what was yourlast couple of weeks like it's chaos really
that first week after you know,you know, that Monday night, you
get back on campus and as ayou get the PEP rally and gample and
you know, for the rest ofthat week, you know, the players

(01:23):
and you know, the staff waspulled in a million directions, and the
players I think, you know,really celebrated the championship, uh, you
know, unlike they probably ever have. And then you get into that that
second week and you know, wegot back in the weight room and we
started to have meetings with you know, with the players to get their sense

(01:46):
of what they wanted to do.And um, at the end of that
week, which was last week,UM, you know, we got on
the court and worked out and todaywe're being back in our second you know,
this will be our third practice sincethe national Championship. Everywhere where I
go people asked me if I sawthis coming. I remind them how good
Yukon was in November and December.But to me, it was about how

(02:07):
the new guys would fit in andreplace some good players you lost r J.
Cole, Tyrese Martin, Isaiah Whaley, Tyler poly I saw a caravan
shoot last spring. I knew hewould be good. Klington did it against
high school guys? Could he doit against seven footers and the transfers they
meshed perfectly well. He hoped itwould. And we knew, we knew

(02:28):
we had a big three with Jordanand Andrea and Adama, and you know,
we knew what we knew what wethought we had in Caraban and Donovan
and m and we were very intentionalin the portal. I think we identified
Tristan as somebody that would fit greatnext to Jordan and Andrea on the perimeter
and would give us that great sizeat point guard as great as r J

(02:51):
was the first team All Conference playerand productive as heck. You know,
Tristan's a really big guard that changedour complexion defensively. He was a guy
that you had two triple doubles,you know, could facilitate and can score,
you know, made threes. Hewas a huge piece being able to
like, you know, give uswhat he gave us at point and then

(03:13):
you know, the bench pieces.Joey, Joey was awesome. Naheim was
solid, you know, and andand Hassan, uh, you know,
Hassan was you know, gave usthat toughness too, and now you're in
the same position all over again.Four big pieces of the puzzle have to
be replaced. Yeah, I thinkwe knew in a perfect world that this
is the position we'd be in.I think, uh, that's why we

(03:35):
went so hard for for the bigfreshman class we have coming in. I
think we envisioned, you know,Jordan killing it and becoming a lottery pick.
We envisioned a Dhama, you know, having this year and turning pro.
We envisioned Andre you know, potentiallybecoming a first round pick and not
being back, you know. Andobviously we knew we would lose a couple

(03:57):
of these transfers, so we wenthard for Steph and Solo and Jalen and
Jaden and Yusef and you know,now we also, I think we're gonna
be very very intentional with any otherpieces that we bring in because we know
we've you know, we're in agreat place. Were you more nervous before
the first NC double A game againstIona than you were before the championship game

(04:18):
against San Diego State? I wouldsay initially, until I got a chance
to watch Iona, I would sayI was initially more nervous about Iona until
we really took a deeper dive andsaw how fast they played and how open
the court was going to be,and that there was gonna be a lot
of possessions in the game. OnceI started watching them, I think any

(04:42):
fear of them, you know,dissipated within a day or two. I
was more nervous from the end ofthe Miami game to San Diego State game,
really up until the anthem, becausethey knew we had the best team
and that we didn't have to doanything special in that game except just played
our identity and just really not haven'tmelt them well. My question also related

(05:03):
to losing in the first round theprior two years, so this year's first
NC DOUABAA game must have been nervewracking. Yeah, I think you definitely,
But I think that you you mostlyreally kind of look at the matchup.
I mean, you look at thenumbers, you look at the personnel,
you look at the metrics. NewMexico State was like an outstanding rebounding

(05:24):
team that had one of the slowestpaces of play in the country, and
they were really super physical and excellentdefensively. So we knew, like that's
like just a terrible first round game. You know, it's a brutal style
to play against. When you seethat, you know, I own a
You know it was going to playthe way that they were going to play

(05:45):
it. It just lined up perfectlyfor us to be a high possession game.
And you know, even at halftime, I was pretty calm. Come
on, he was the guy whowas I think freaking out a little bit.
I saw him grabbed Jordan and tryingto shake him and tell him to
wake up. Your we're not doingthis again year. But I was pretty
cold, man. That was prettycold, and Jordan Hawkins had a big

(06:05):
second half in that game. Wetalked after the parade about how good your
defense was in that championship game,and to me, that's one big difference
this year. San Diego State shotjust thirty two percent. In fact,
your last four ncable opponents combined toshoot thirty two percent. Overall, defense
wins championships. What made your dso good this year and in the NC

(06:28):
double as It was great early inthe year and that's how we got off
to that start. And then youknow in January we lost our way defensively
and that that coincided with a badstretch as well. As you know,
I wasn't coaching my best players.I think a number of players went through
a cold streak all at the sametime. A bunch of things happened that

(06:48):
way. But I just think thatwe had great you know, we got
great size on the perimeter. ACaravan really came a long way defensively.
I mean his job at the fourprovement there defensively was huge. And then
obviously to have the two centers thatboth protect the rim, both gave you
different looks in ballstream defense. Andthen the commitment that the group made the

(07:11):
depth you'll be able to play ninequality players and even sometimes ten gives you
a chance to stay fresh late inthe year when a lot of people are
tired. And your three point defensewas excellent too, one of the best
in the nation. Do you believeall roster activity has ended or is more
activities still possible? Oh? Goodquestion. I'm looking out the window here

(07:33):
to see who's coming down the hallway. Really, you never know, you
know, you just don't know.In this business. You think you know,
you can have a conversation with aplayer and they could be in the
portal the next day. We've experiencedthat as of late where they seem happy
and returning and then they're gone thenext day. You know, obviously Andre's

(07:55):
got a process that he's going through. Tristan as a process that he's going
through. Relative to know their NBAand professional considerations, we feel like,
uh, you know what, we'regoing to turn a really really strong core.
The freshman class is going to justI think it's going to blow away
our fans just how talented that groupis. And I think several of those

(08:18):
members are ready to play and helpus the way Alex has, the way
Donovan has, the way Jordan has, the way book Night has, the
way Andre has early Adama has earlyin their career. Got studs coming in
and you know, as far asthe portal goes, we don't expect to
you know, to be in therewith the exception of making some maybe some
some surgical moves. But we feelgood about where we are. Let's look

(08:41):
to the future. You have twovery highly recruited guards and stuff on Castle
and Solomon Ball coming in. Canyou tell us something about those two guys.
Yeah, we feel like they're they'rehigh level guys you know that,
uh that bring different things to thetable. It's like It's like fire and
ice in a similar way to likea you know, Jordan Andre, where

(09:03):
you have a staff who's like this, you know, uh, you know,
cool, tremendous, facilitating, bigathletic guard, you know, who
can guard multiple positions, and it'sjust really hard to deal with off the
dribble as a finisher and as aguy that could spread the ball around.
And he got Solo who's just this, you know, I don't want to

(09:24):
say, you know, he's asathletic as andreas Andre's an athletic freak,
but he's got the same type ofintensity. He's got like a Westbrook type
of athleticism and a rage to theway he plays. And I think the
fans are gonna love him because they'rejust different type of players and different types
of skills. And what about therest of the recruiting class, Jaden Ross,

(09:45):
Jalen Stewart, us off singer.Yeah, but both those guys will
will play a big role for us. And yeah, I think Jaylen Stewart
is, you know, just atremendous positionless player with you know, all
types of game. You know,he could score it every level, tremendous
passer, guard multiple positions, youknow, he's a guy that's going to
be able to get right in thecourt and help us and make a big

(10:07):
impact. Yusef was a guy thatwe really liked that with our site set
on, you know, losing Adamapotentially just a rim protector and somebody that's
different than Donovan, that gives youa different look in terms of the running
and the athleticism and the length.And he still gives it a rim protection,
but he's different, you know.And then Jayden, If Jayden comes

(10:30):
in here with the type of attitudeI think he's going to bring, you
know, I think he's got thetype of guy that down the road,
he's got NBA potential. And hegrew so much this year at lu High.
I mean, he had a greatyear there. So I think five
guys that are going to be bigparts of Yukon basketball. And I think
quickly early last year, you removeYukon's four previous trophies from your desk because

(10:54):
they weren't quote yours unquote. Isit safe to assume all five will be
now? And can spick? Hewas display for any recruits who might drop
in, Well, I have minein here now or are it's excuse me.
It was the wee season. Nowit's the me season. The other
four somewhere else. I don't evenknow where they are, but I know
we got the crystal. We gotthe crystal in which is that one's pretty

(11:18):
sweet in here? And I gotthe two. I got the Regional,
and I got the I got thechampionship trophy in here with the nets.
And we used to I mean,we had those those four round here just
we had to sell something back inthe day. We had to sell a
hope, we had to sell adream. Yeah, and now anyone that
we bring in here right now,we're talking about getting number six. There

(11:39):
was a much discussed difficult stretch duringthe season when league play began. The
loss is hurt, but do youthink it help you restructure some of the
offense and find a better role forAndre Jackson afterwards? Yeah, I think
we know the best coaches in thecountry are in the Big East. I
think that some of the best teamsin the I think it was the best

(12:00):
in terms of top four, thatno one's was better than us Create and
Xavier Marquette. So we went throughsome tough scheduling. We went through I
think an identity crisis. I think, you know, I didn't do a
very good job of handling the frustrationof getting to as high as number two
in the country, and then itall kind of started to fall apart to
a degree, I think we alldeveloped a lot of character, a lot

(12:24):
of trust. We had to lookinward. There was a lot of external
noise, a lot of a lotof people gave up on us. A
lot of people tweeted something or postedsomething on our Instagram that now they've got
to go look back at and theylook like a complete idiot. Yeah.
I mean we had to look internaland develop a character from within. And

(12:46):
when you go through adverse conditions,it either kills you or it makes you
stronger. And we got stronger thanksin large part to having great people in
the locker room, a great coachingstaff, and having great leaders like Andrea
and Adama. AJ actually had moreassist in the last ten games than Tristan
Newton did. But talk about thegame Tristan had in the championship game.

(13:07):
He had his best game of theyear in the biggest game of the year.
Yeah. The tough thing is whenyou have the season we had,
some people get too much credit someother people maybe don't get enough credit.
Maybe I get too much credit,and maybe guys like Caravan and Tristan probably
don't get enough credit for what theydid for the team. I mean Tristan

(13:28):
in particular, again losing what welost at point and then to not miss
a beat and to even help usplay offense and defense at a higher level,
just because he's an easy guy toplay with. He gets off the
ball, he could create for others. He can score when he needs you
when you need him to score,he could beat you from deep. He
can beat you with the paint.He's a clutch free throw shooter. He

(13:52):
gets to the line a lot becausehe's so big, and then you know
he up shone the backboard too.And I think that you learn to appreciated
his approached the longer that you gobecause he's very, very even keeled.
So it's good for a guy likeme to have a point guard like Tristan
who balances off some of my emotion. It's actually becomes a very good marriage.

(14:15):
Tristan Newton had nineteen points against SanDiego State and equal to season high
with ten rebounds. I was alsointrigued by what appeared to be a coaching
style shift with you. You hadthree technical fouls in November and December.
Your last team was December thirty firstat Xavier. You had none from January
through April. Was that a consciousdecision on your part to lay off the

(14:37):
officials and let the players do theirthing? Well, there was an obvious
effect of the meme and the giftwhere I had referenced an official, a
great official, in a way Ishould not have referenced him and listen,
I think that that's human nature.Are my relationship. For a couple of
games with Big East drafts, itwas strained. There was a lot going

(14:58):
on behind the scene. It becamea major distraction for me and the staff
and our program, and that affectedI think our performance. In my mind
when I went back at that technicalof Xavier, I don't think the technical
was warranted, but there were somecalls in that game that I still look
back and say, wait a secondhere, yeah, And I feel like

(15:22):
some of my reactions a lot oftime, when I go back and watch
the film, they're justified in themoment the frustration. But you know,
I did learn to kind of controlmy emotions more. I've got some great
mentors and my wife Andrew and myson Danny. I think I had some
interventions there that, you know,you're too good of a coach. You
need to be able to focus onmanaging the game and get your mind off

(15:45):
the zebras. So, yeah,that's good. I got to try to
keep that street going. Another thingI was impressed with was Howard Domas and
Ago avoided foul trouble this year.In his first two years he got an
early foul trouble a lot, butthat wasn't the case this year. Tell
me about the improved and Adamas stayingon the court this year. His numbers
reflected that, Yeah, he was. He's a reclassified out, so he

(16:07):
moved up a year. His firstyear was a COVID year, which was
kind of like a half a year, you know. Really it was his
sophomore and a half year to startthe year. So he's still a young
player, and I think he learneda lot from, you know, from
a sophomore year, especially at theend of the year. And I just
think that the less minutes allowed himto be fresher. And then when when

(16:30):
you're a fresher player, maybe youmake less mistakes and you have more discipline
and you commit less Dallas. Goingback to AJ for a second, looking
back on my years covering Yukon,I think of glue guys Nadov Hennefeld in
nineteen ninety, Donnie Marshall in themid nineties. They just made the team
better with their presence on the floor. I think Andrey Jackson is the exact

(16:52):
kind of player. Explain why AJwas a glue guy on this team.
Yeah, because he doesn't care self. Self is the last thing he thinks
about. And he's a you know, it's like the ultimate unifier, the
ultimate facilitator, or the the ultimateteammate and captain. I mean, it's
just a unique individual that people gravitatetowards him. You know, recruits,

(17:15):
you know, like freshman recruits thatthat that understand that if he returns it
may affect their minutes. I thinkthat they all like are want him to
return. I mean most most playerswant like, you know, the decks
cleared so that it could be youknow, the me time. But the

(17:36):
that's a strange thing about Andre Jacksonis like like no one wants him to
leave, even if it means alittle bit less for them. So I
think that that that tells you everythingyou need to know. What has been
the influence of your dad and JimCalhoun, even Gino Oriema. How valuable
were they when the stakes got higherand after losses? Yeah, yeah,

(18:00):
I think, you know, startingwith Coach Calhoun, it's like, you
know, I always modeled myself asa coach obviously after my dad, but
I always like envisioned like a Thomazzo, Billy Donovan. Coach Calhoun were like
the coaches that I tried to,you know, model the way my team's
played and my my approach in termsof either like I like the way the

(18:21):
team's played, or I'm a similartype of coach in terms of my personality.
So I'm just always trying to justpick coach's brain about you know,
about that piece and tournament play andand and you know, roster building and
how to deal with the NBA stuffsand like all the stuff that only coach
knows, and you know, Gino, I just think it was just always

(18:45):
uh, you know, kind ofasking him more like what he sees in
me and the way I'm carrying myself, in the way I'm handling the media,
and the way the way I shouldbe leading and more things like in
terms of like leadership in a waythat I present myself publicly. He's just
he's a brilliant guy. And mydad, I just think again, I'm

(19:07):
the college version of what my dadwould be if he if he did the
college level. I'm just worse.You know. Maybe I'm just a little
bit worse, or maybe I'm alot worse. I don't know, but
you know, I represent what BobSenior would be like if he was a
college coach. So now you'll havemore reading time. I do. I
got that's it. I mean,I'm I'm almost done. I've almost finished

(19:30):
my second book since we've been done. So that's gonna be like my that
I'm gonna get out in nature,start hike and Dan awesome stuff. It
was great to catch up with youagain, and it was great to be
sitting in Row one on the wayto the national championship. Let's do it
again. Trust me, we've movedon. That's Dan Hurley, head coach
of the national champion Yukon men's basketballteam.