Dan Hurley Rumors: ‘Cautious Optimism’ HC Will Stay at UConn, Pass on Lakers Contract

UConn is reportedly optimistic men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley will spurn the Los Angeles Lakers’ offer and return to the university next season.

“Since the news broke, there has been cautious optimism. Not by all, but by some, that has only been reinforced,” Matt Norlander of CBS Sports said Monday. “I want to stress this, cautious optimism, that he will ultimately decide to stay at UConn. The biggest reason being that he’s an East Coast guy, Northeast, born and bred, lived his entire life there. This would be such a drastic change.

“Who’s to say that an NBA job a year from now, two years from now, three years from now, that’s much closer to his home base, couldn’t necessarily open?”

Hurley told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that he plans to make a decision on the Lakers’ offer by the end of the day Monday.

The Lakers are reportedly “on edge” about whether Hurley will take their offer.

“The Lakers are on edge about this because they’ve thrown Dan Hurley the bouquet, so to speak,” ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said Monday on Get Up. “They’ve given him, presumably, the largest coaching contract offer in the history of the franchise. They’ve brought him out to give him their vision, and he’s been home for several days with no [decision]. … They’ve so prioritized Dan Hurley that they’ve let other potential candidates go off the board elsewhere. It took them a while to get Dan Hurley interested enough to seriously engage with them, they’ve got that engagement, and now they’ve gotta hope they were able to close it.”

Before Hurley became the runaway favorite, most reports linked former NBA guard JJ Redick and former Charlotte Hornets coach James Borrego to the vacancy. Borrego looking increasingly like a strong candidate for the Cleveland Cavaliers’ opening.

Redick has no NBA coaching experience and is on assignment with ESPN for the NBA Finals. It seems likely that Redick would be the Lakers’ fallback plan if Hurley passes.

Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka and owner Jeanie Buss met with Hurley last week, and the UConn coach said he came away “extremely impressed” with their vision for the franchise. Pelinka and Buss pitched Hurley on being able to compete for an NBA championship immediately with LeBron James and Anthony Davis and for a future beyond the James-Davis pairing.

Hurley has won back-to-back national championships at UConn, rebuilding the Huskies program nearly from the ground up after predecessor Kevin Ollie was fired amid recruiting violations. The 51-year-old has worked his way up the coaching ranks, starting as a high school coach in New Jersey before taking college jobs at Wagner and Rhode island.

Hurley has been open with the fact he’d like to try coaching in the NBA someday, which makes it hard to believe he’d pass on this opportunity. While NBA history is littered with college coaches who tried and failed to succeed at the pro level, Hurley is young enough that he’d have his pick of college jobs if he decided the NBA wasn’t his style.