Head coach Dan Hurley mentioned his choice to show down a suggestion to guide the Los Angeles Lakers and stay with the Connecticut Huskies throughout a Thursday look on “The Dan Le Batard Present with Stugotz.”
Hurley vehemently denied rumors that used the Lakers’ curiosity in him as leverage to get extra money from UConn.
“I’ve had a contract in place right here for a few weeks. And the monetary half, by way of wage, has been carried out for some time,” the 51-year-old mentioned. “There are another elements, like NIL and workers wage and a few various things, that I need adjusted and I am not snug with. However the sense of the concept this was some conspiracy to get me a sweeter deal at UConn is simply, it is lazy.”
Huskies followers breathed a sigh of reduction on Monday when it was reported that Hurley could be returning to the Storrs, Conn. campus for an opportunity to grow to be simply the second males’s basketball program to three-peat. UCLA received seven consecutive NCAA championships below iconic coach John Wood from 1967-73.
Hurley added that making his alternative was a “gut-wrenching choice.”
“Sunday night time, going into Monday, the place I sort of had a deadline in my thoughts, I used to be torn and I didn’t know actually what I used to be going to do till I went to mattress,” he mentioned.
Hurley did admit that Los Angeles possible might’ve made him a suggestion that he could not flip down, however the deal he has in place with UConn is ready to make him the highest-paid faculty coach within the nation. The varsity has not but introduced the brand new contract, however he signed a six-year, $32.1M deal final summer season.
Longtime Kansas coach Invoice Self is at the moment the highest-paid coach at $9.6M per yr.
“To depart, there in all probability is (a quantity). … To remain someplace like UConn, it might by no means have been a monetary factor,” Hurley mentioned. “This wasn’t like some strain tactic to make me the highest-paid faculty coach. That was already carried out. However to go away a spot that you simply really feel the way in which we do and the household reference to my spouse, my sons, my mother-in-law, my father…I understand how a lot it means to my dad to go to the Massive East match and are available to 10 UConn video games a yr at house, sitting courtside, after I’m teaching in opposition to Rick Pitino.”
Hurley flew to fulfill with Lakers normal supervisor Rob Pelinka and proprietor Jeanie Buss final weekend however advised listeners on Thursday that he by no means talked straight with famous person LeBron James earlier than making his alternative.
“I didn’t (converse to James),” Hurley mentioned. “We had some communication….It might have
been a thrill to educate him.”