Dan Hurley still remembers the day vividly.<\/p>\n
Geno Auriemma remembers the broad strokes.<\/p>\n
Which, frankly, is fitting, given the coaches\u2019 respective roles over two decades ago, when the present pillars of UConn basketball first crossed paths.<\/p>\n
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In December 2005, Auriemma had already established himself as one of the greatest women\u2019s college basketball coaches of all time: the winner of five national championships to that point, including three straight from 2002 to 2004. Hurley, on the other hand, had barely begun his coaching career, and was only a few years in at St. Benedict\u2019s Prep in New Jersey, which he eventually turned into one of America\u2019s best high school programs.<\/p>\n
Auriemma\u2019s son, Mike, was playing for the Hun School at the time, and Auriemma attended the game not as the coach who\u2019d ultimately go on to become the winningest in college basketball \u2014 but just as a dad in the stands.<\/p>\n
Even if that\u2019s not how Hurley saw him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember being very insecure and self-conscious about what he was going to think of the practice that I was running, as a pretty inexperienced high school coach,\u201d Hurley said. \u201cLike, oh s\u2014. Geno Auriemma is watching me practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Did Hurley say anything to Auriemma that day? Introduce himself, even?<\/p>\n
\u201cI did not,\u201d Hurley said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to go say hi to this guy up there. I\u2019ve seen him on TV. He\u2019s larger than life, and I\u2019m a slappy high school coach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not anymore, though. Because after Hurley won consecutive national championships in 2023 and 2024 \u2014 becoming only the third men\u2019s coach to do so in the modern era, alongside Mike Krzyzewski and Billy Donovan \u2014 the Jerseyite once anxious about Auriemma\u2019s presence now appropriately calls him a peer.<\/p>\n
A friend. A confidant, even.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I need a truth-teller,\u201d Hurley adds, \u201cthat\u2019s the guy you go to.\u201d<\/p>\n
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And while Auriemma\u2019s success pre-dates Hurley\u2019s arrival as the men\u2019s coach in Storrs in 2018, the 12-time women\u2019s title-winner has similarly come to appreciate having a counterpart he can call upon \u2014 and someone he sees himself in, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember being that age and the demands that we put on people, the demand of getting it right, the demand of how hard you have to play; the buy-in to the program and each other,\u201d said Auriemma, who\u2019s 19 years older than Hurley. \u201cObviously, I was very animated on the sidelines when I was younger and certainly I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anyone more animated than Danny and passionate about it. So in those respects, I think we probably have a lot of things in common.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other thing they have in common?<\/p>\n
The results on the floor.<\/p>\n
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Auriemma\u2019s top-seeded Huskies are the front-runners in Phoenix this weekend, with a matchup on Friday night against rival South Carolina in Auriemma\u2019s 25th Final Four. Hurley\u2019s second-seeded Huskies are gunning for their third ring in four seasons, taking on No. 3 Illinois on Saturday.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no coaching duo currently dominating more thoroughly than UConn\u2019s totemic twosome.<\/p>\n
Over the last five seasons, the programs have been two of the winningest in their respective sports. In addition to their two national championships since 2021-22, Hurley\u2019s Huskies are tied (with Arizona) for the third-most high-major wins of any men\u2019s program, trailing only Houston and Duke. The women, on the other hand, won their 12th national championship last season and are currently riding a 54-game winning streak.<\/p>\n
Combined, the two programs have won 85 percent of their games since the 2021-22 season.<\/p>\n
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That has led to a larger synergy between the programs, which have won 18 national titles since 1999 (with the women owning two-thirds of those championships). The teams share a practice facility and their combined success has increased their ability to expand and grow. UConn just announced a $99.4 million renovation of Gampel Pavilion, its on-campus arena for the basketball teams.<\/p>\n
Senior Alex Karaban \u2014 the last remaining starter from the men\u2019s championship teams in 2023 and 2024 \u2014 says he has grown close with several members of the women\u2019s team, including fellow redshirt senior Caroline Ducharme and graduate guard Azzi Fudd. Though the women flew to Phoenix before the men left for Indianapolis, Karaban said plenty of well-wishing texts have been exchanged between the two programs, which are attempting to sweep the national titles for the first time since UConn did so in 2014. (UConn is the only school to have its men\u2019s and women\u2019s programs win national championships in the same year, also accomplishing the feat in 2004. Only six schools have had both programs in the Final Four in the same season.)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s rare that you see programs do that,\u201d Fudd said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard enough to get here with one program, but to be able to do that with two, I think it\u2019s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fudd said she can empathize with the men\u2019s team, and on more than one occasion, she has been in study hall or the training room and overheard Hurley yelling at his team.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI\u2019m sure the same thing goes for us and them (hearing Auriemma),\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Karaban said the two teams spend so much time together in UConn\u2019s shared training facility that he thinks of the women\u2019s players, \u201clike extended teammates, to where we just want to support them.\u201d<\/p>\n
And in each other, Auriemma and Hurley have also found support. Auriemma said he has occasionally stopped in to Hurley\u2019s practices and has a profound respect for the intensity he sees in those sessions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe details and the way they practice is probably as good, if not better, than anything I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d Auriemma said. \u201cHe\u2019s really, really, really good at practice and teaching the game and getting his players to play hard. The culture they\u2019ve built and the way they play together with a singular purpose \u2014 he\u2019s relentless in his drive to make them better.\u201d<\/p>\n
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That drive, though, does sometimes overextend \u2014 which is why Hurley has also specifically asked Auriemma to attend his practices in the past: most notably last season, after the men went 0-3 in the Maui Invitational to drop out of the Top 25 rankings. In those instances, Auriemma isn\u2019t coming to give coaching advice, but rather to critique Hurley specifically.<\/p>\n
To remind Hurley that, as good as he is, he\u2019s capable of erring with his intentions, of letting his anger take over, in a way that doesn\u2019t benefit his players.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt moments where I was maybe expecting him to validate something that I was kind of questioning,\u201d Hurley said, \u201che\u2019s a mirror for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
This give and take between Auriemma and Hurley is not just rare across the college basketball landscape, but it\u2019s also newer to Storrs. The relationship between Auriemma and former men\u2019s coach Jim Calhoun, who arrived at UConn in 1986, a year after Auriemma, could be best described as frosty. Auriemma once said of Calhoun, \u201dDo we get along? No, but we don\u2019t have to.\u201d Meanwhile, Calhoun criticized the UConn women\u2019s basketball team\u2019s fan base and said having his team\u2019s accomplishments compared to the women\u2019s team\u2019s accomplishments was like having \u201cmosquito bites.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Hurley, on the other hand, intentionally sought out a relationship with Auriemma as soon as he took the UConn job.<\/p>\n
Not just because, as the son of a Hall of Fame high school coach, he respected Auriemma and his program \u2014 but because he knew that a strong relationship between the programs would only benefit both of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest mistake that a lot of coaches make when they go into a new place is they make it about themselves, or they have a level of insecurity where they don\u2019t embrace the history and the tradition. For me, when you get to a place, to build something special, you need the support of everyone,\u201d Hurley said. \u201cHonoring the people that walk before you \u2014 the coaches, the players, bringing them as close to you as you can \u2014 without the ego of, this is my thing now. I mean, it\u2019s our thing \u2014 and it always will be our thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article was reported from the women\u2019s Final Four in Phoenix and the men\u2019s Final Four in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n
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