INDIANAPOLIS — As Bob Hurley Sr. bends down to grab his black pullover, the one tucked under his seat inside Lucas Oil Stadium, he never loses his sightline through the crowd.
To his son, Dan Hurley, strutting across the hardwood, a lightning rod in a sport coat. To the coach drowning in thousands of boos, seemingly from every level, louder with each swagged-out step of his brown dress shoes. To UConn’s dynastic leader, who minutes earlier etched himself into college basketball history with a fifth straight Final Four victory — this time, 72-61 over Illinois — and a third national championship appearance in the past four seasons.
The proudest father in coaching — a Naismith Hall of Famer in his own right — drinks in every second. Then the corners of his eyes crinkle with joy.
“Unbelievable,” Hurley Sr. eventually musters. “It’s now Dan Hurley, and John Wooden.”
Indeed it is. Saturday’s win reinforced Hurley as the best postseason coach of the modern era, with a stunning 18-1 record over his past 19 NCAA Tournament games. His all-time winning percentage in March Madness — .800, a 20-5 record — is now the second-best ever, behind only Wooden, whose 10 national championships at UCLA remain an untouchable men’s college basketball record.
That means Hurley’s winning percentage lives above Mike Krzyzewski. Roy Williams. Billy Donovan.
The winners of 10 combined national championships. Three of the greatest to stalk a college sideline.
None won three in a four-year span, which Hurley can accomplish Monday against No. 1 Michigan. He would become the seventh coach to win at least three total.
“It shows how dominant coach Hurley is,” said senior forward Alex Karaban, the last remaining starter from Hurley’s consecutive title teams in 2023 and 2024. “For him to create this UConn dynasty at the same time, too, has been unbelievable.”
Especially since, after last season’s struggles, it appeared that any talk of a UConn dynasty was done. Hurley told The Athletic in January that his ego took over last season, leading to an unfair — and unrealistic — obsession with winning three straight national titles. Instead, UConn finally felt the effects of losing six players from those championship rosters to the NBA, limping to a 24-11 record and a second-round tournament exit (to eventual champion Florida).
“That was ego. That was all me,” Hurley reiterated Saturday. “That was part of me ruining last season. Just to put that on that team, and to not just make it about everything — giving everything in your pursuit of your goals — as opposed to even thinking about a dynasty.”
The whole ordeal was so “torturous,” Hurley said, that he considered stepping away. Taking a gap year.
But he didn’t. He reloaded — and unlike his juggernauts in 2023 and 2024, found a way to grind out the games the Huskies absolutely had to have.
An almost-blown 19-point lead against Michigan State in the Sweet 16.
A stunning 19-point comeback against Duke, the top overall seed in the field, in the Elite Eight, which was capped by the “Mullins Miracle.”
And, of course, Saturday’s rematch against the No. 3 Illini, which UConn beat by 13 the day after Thanksgiving … and whose top-ranked offense met its match against the Huskies’ top-five defense.
“The year hasn’t been a joyride. We haven’t been a machine of destruction,” Hurley said. “We’ve been a team that’s had to grind out games like this.”
That, though, is a testament to Hurley’s evolution: Not just as a roster constructor — one who plucked star guard Silas Demary Jr. (7 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists Saturday) out of the transfer portal, and who soloed in on Mullins amid a stacked freshman class — but as a tactician and motivator, too. Illinois is the tallest team in America, and dominated its first four postseason opponents on the glass, but Hurley dove into the tape of the first matchup between the teams and decided to replay the hits. On offense, that meant multiple actions, especially off the ball, where the Huskies’ collection of guards and wings could create space against Illinois’ slower-footed defenders.
Defensively, it meant bodying Illinois star freshman Keaton Wagler, and using physicality to force the Illini into a dismal 33.9 percent shooting night.
“I was surprised more people didn’t go back and kind of watch that game,” Hurley said, “and see that we came into this game, I think, with a little bit of an advantage.”
The Illini’s three worst scoring efforts of the past three seasons have now all come against Hurley’s Huskies: Both games this year (when UConn held Illinois to 62 and 61 points), and the programs’ 2024 Elite Eight clash, when the Huskies famously went on a 30-0 run and allowed only 52 points.
As a motivator, Hurley has no active rival. Just look at his wrist, where in thin blue ink he’d drawn tally marks for each of UConn’s NCAA Tournament wins, plus three words he joked he didn’t look at nearly enough: COACH; LEAD; FOCUS.
Now, those who know him only from afar — from social media screengrabs and the perceptions those breed — see a screaming, hysterical tyrant. One who barks with the best of them.
Thus, the boos.
“Do I deserve the boos?” Hurley joked outside UConn’s celebratory locker room. “Probably, because I’m an asshole.”
But to those behind the metal doors, who interact with Hurley on a regular basis? To his players, and family and friends in college basketball?
They know everything he does is about maximizing the gifts of those around him. About helping his players — from the veteran Karaban to the young Mullins — achieve their personal and collective goals.
About winning, and making history.
Again.
“I know what it means. I just listen to what he’s saying, instead of his tone,” said backup guard Malachi Smith, who transferred from Dayton. “He pushes us to the limit, so when we get in these tough positions in games, we know what to do.”
That was evident late Saturday, when Illinois whittled UConn’s 14-point lead down to 4 points with 1:38 left, only for Mullins to play hero once again, draining his fourth 3-pointer of the night and giving the Huskies all the cushion they needed.
The Illini kept coming — but UConn never wilted. Never caved.
And why would it have, with Hurley calling the shots? There’s no coach more comfortable in the crucible, even if his sideline antics sometimes suggest otherwise.
The prayer hands every time UConn stepped to the free-throw line. The exaggerated faces, more and more embellished with every passing foul.
Only Dan Hurley.
And again, for another national title, only Dan Hurley.
“Maybe the eye test, they don’t quite pass the eye test,” Hurley Sr. said, “but look at what they’ve done in the tournament.”
Back in the Lucas Oil Stadium stands, Hurley Sr. finally stands, throwing on the black pullover. As he does, it becomes apparent it is no ordinary layer. On the left breast, subtle and powerful all at once: The Naismith Hall of Fame logo, an honor he earned with his 28 state championships at St. Anthony’s High in New Jersey.
As he zips up the jacket, the boos toward his son subsiding, Hurley Sr. is asked the question:
What would it mean if Dan actually does it? If he wins three in four?
Hurley Sr. knew it was coming. He points at his wife, Christine, next to him.
They’ve talked.
Then the 78-year-old coaching titan leans in close, and puts on the bravest face he can:
“It’s very emotional,” Hurley Sr. begins, a faint quiver in his voice. “He will go to the Basketball Hall of Fame, one way or the other — but maybe, if he wins the third, it happens in my lifetime.”