Just weeks before the Lakers hired JJ Redick in 2024, they offered UConn’s Dan Hurley a lucrative six-year, $70 million contract to become their next head coach. Hurley has revealed previously that he consulted multiple people before deciding to turn down the Lakers’ offer.
On the Dan Patrick show, Hurley appeared for an interview just shortly before UConn faces Michigan State in the Sweet 16 matchup of the NCAA Tournament on Friday, March 27.
Hurley revealed that among the people he consulted during the decision-making behind turning down the Lakers was his opposing head coach in the matchup, Tom Izzo.
“I mean, Coach Izzo, he walked me through his thought process when he went through the decision-making of making that move to the NBA and the pros and cons, and at that time, you know, college was very different,” said Hurley.
Tom Izzo was offered the head coaching position on the Cavaliers in June 2010, after LeBron James decided to head to the Heat. Izzo rejected a $6 million per year offer at the time to stay with the Spartans.
“The point that the coach had made to me was, you know, ‘Hey, I think you really have to consider it our sport right now. It’s so unregulated. It’s such a mess.’ That I would have considered this more now than I did back when college basketball was more regulated.”
“I know coach has been there for me on lots of different things, and I’ve studied coach for a long time, like I have all the great coaches.”
“I’ve studied their films as a high school coach, trying to learn the favorite practice drills of Tom Izzo, anything on motivation, leadership, and culture building. I’ve studied all the great coaches and am taking advice from all the great ones,” concluded Hurley on Izzo.
Despite Coach Izzo’s advice, Hurley rejected the offer from the Lakers and signed a six-year, $50 million contract to stay with UConn until 2030. That remains one of the biggest what-ifs now in Hurley’s career.
Hurley has previously been pessimistic about ever wanting to turn to the NBA in the future. But who knows, his decision may change in four years. He justified his decision by saying that he loves the process of seeing a young player find his identity in college before heading to the big leagues.
“I love being a part of this transformation for the last point in a young man’s life where you can really have a big impact on how their life is going to play out. Like what the man becomes,” said Hurley in an interview with Graham Bensinger.
“That, to me, was what I realized that I love about being a college coach, that you don’t get to do as an NBA coach, because that’s not the relationship there.”
But if Coach Izzo’s advice is correct, the college basketball culture may soon not be much different from the NBA, considering the potential behind NIL Deals and the dynamic growth of the college transfer portal.
The two head coaches are set to be at loggerheads during Friday night’s matchup between the UConn Huskies and the Michigan State Spartans. It will be interesting to see if Coach Izzo’s experience outclasses Dan Hurley’s modern understanding of his playbook.
