STORRS, Conn. — It’s toward the end of his grueling incline-run workouts when UConn head coach Dan Hurley feels the familiar yearning for some self-inflicted pain. As he runs, sweat spewing, Hurley cues up “One Shining Moment” on his phone, the annual highlight video that accompanies each NCAA Tournament.
The Huskies make their first appearance after exactly 90 seconds, with forward Alex Karaban embracing a teammate following the Round of 32 victory over UCLA. Hurley’s face flashes across the screen moments later, twisted into a comedic sideline expression. Next comes center Tarris Reed Jr. flicking home a hook shot. And then there’s freshman Braylon Mullins burying perhaps the greatest shot in program history: a 3-point buzzer beater against Duke that propelled the Huskies to another Final Four, their third in the last four seasons.
For Hurley, the palatable portion of the video ends shortly thereafter. He relives UConn’s win against Illinois in the national semifinals and then quickly taps his screen to exit. Treadmill session over. He still can’t stomach the way this particular montage ends: scenes of Michigan prevailing in the championship game. Even for a coach who built his career on suffering, who thought he was the failure of the famed Hurley basketball family, the self-inflicted anguish can only go so far.
“You’re disappointed because you were pretty close to winning three out of four championships,” Hurley told me last week. “Sending Tarris out with a ring and a parade, [sending] Alex, as the most decorated college basketball player of his generation. So part of it is overwhelming. And then you look at the historical context in that game for three of the four years [and realize] We’re doing things like a program that hasn’t been done since the ’90s. And we can do this in a really volatile time.
“So I think two things are true, you know? The run that we’ve been in has been historic, but man, it’s drawn out that we’re not going to win.”
This headspace occupies Hurley’s midday heat in mid-June, partially through the first week of the Huskies’ first summer session, the start of another championship pursuit. Like a perpetually tormented soul, Hurley’s journey to perfection seems to always be at a crossroads between overly critical introspection and a healthy acceptance that can be enjoyed even in times of defeat. It was proposed to her by colleague Geno Auriemma, head coach of the UConn women’s team.
So here Hurley stands between the loss of Michigan and the board of the new campaign, winning parts amid widespread program changes.
Although nothing has disappeared from the hunger for a third national title, only something about Hurley is different. Gone are Karaban and Reed, two of the main scorers and two of the most important players from last season. Also gone was assistant coach Luke Murray, a heavy hitter and ace coach now at Boston College. Solo Ball, the shooting guard who would have been the Huskies’ return expert, is taking a medical red flag while recovering from wrist surgery. Seven newcomers came through the transfer gate, two more from the high school ranks, and they are fresh names in both Hurle’s squad and the strength and conditioning of the class equally.
“Parts of it feel different: new faces, new guys,” point guard Silas Demary Jr. told me last week. “But it’s still the same standard. It’s still the same [level of] holding all the account, running through every line. However, we had some of the same rules even before the changes that we now have in place.”
UConn guard Silas Demary Jr. He averaged 10.1 points and 5.9 assists in his first season with the Huskies. (Photo by Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
Much of that approach can be attributed to the way Hurley is wired — an undefeated contender to slip quickly from one season to the next, within hours of the final buzzer beater against Michigan, at which point the transfer gates are already open. When the Huskies boarded their return trip from Indianapolis the next day, still hurt from the six-point loss that separated them from a seventh national title, Hurley began asking general manager Tom Moore about considering how to revamp the roster. Hurley did the same last year on his way home from Raleigh, North Carolina, losing to eventual national champion Florida in the Round of 32.
By then, Moore and a group of support staffers spent months working the phones to better understand how the transfer market was going to develop dollar-wise and which players were most likely to enter the competition. His small team includes graduate assistant Andrew Hurley – one of Dan’s sons – along with student managers Khaliq Young and Jack Richason. Additional insight came from Murray’s coaches, Kimani Young and assistant Mike Nardi, though Murray’s involvement was limited once he took the job at Boston College. Still, Hurley and Murray named potential transfer targets in the run-up to the Final Four, a reflection of their close bond.
While the pros of reaching the national championship game always outweigh, three such appearances in quick succession has implicated the Huskies in the transfer window. Moore estimates that UConn and other teams participating in the Final Four often enter the race at a high profile two or three weeks after their competitors, which is reflected in the high price that the order suggests, before the good started. He jokes that the cash flow would be red if the Huskies’ fundraising dollar for all time told Moore, “You’re late — but we’re going to throw in you because you’re at UConn,” which is a tradeoff the staff is happy to make.
“Our athletic director, Dave Benedict, is very supportive of our work and finding a way,” Moore told me last week. “It’s not easy anyway. Everyone is trying to figure out what they can do. But we’ve had about five in this new model. We always come into it with an idea of what. [the roster cost] it would be in December. And then we have ways to get up a little bit to start talking to people in February. It looks like we’ll be back at Dave’s again in March with another one [request]. And then we must go to him again in April and May, when we are in his heart and say, ‘Perhaps more.’
“He’s never, ever once pushed back. He’s sympathetic to what we’re dealing with, and he’s in our corner. He understands the goals of having sponsorships, really wanting to have sponsorships in terms of generating and funding revenue.”
UConn head coach Dan Hurley has made three national championship game appearances in the past four years. (Photo by Jamie Schwaberow/Sports Images via Getty Images)
There’s also a need to be convinced — especially since the Huskies, in such a pronounced season, are under pressure to identify, scout and host players in the ups and downs of the season for success. This, according to Moore, is another area where Hurley excels. He looks at the films, pores over the statistics and in the analysis of the individual potential of transferring the target before it becomes a “strong, firm decision”, which prevents the goal of getting “rushed by the guys to visit and want the whole thing”, Moore told me, that he can feel the performance.
Hurley’s unprecedented success in recent times, with the NIL and transfer gates conspiring to make roster construction more difficult than before, only strengthened his belief in the overall framework of UConn’s ascension. He describes the approach to building last year’s team as “pretty much slotting people to fit the kind of pieces that we’ve had success with here.”
The product on display during last week’s practice certainly reflects such an effort.
The power forward spot that has been cemented by Karaban for ages now belongs to transfer chief Nik Khamenya, who Hurley describes as having “a lot of the attributes that Alex had in terms of feel, size, versatility, competitiveness, love of the game, shooting.”
The center position in Seton Hall will be transferred to Na’jai Hines, whose 6-foot, 260-pound frame is matched by the imposing presence Reed has provided over the last two seasons. His main backup, Stanford center Oskar Giltay, complemented that strength with the athleticism and shot-blocking of former UConn big man Samson Johnson, both of whom Hurley’s national championship team won.
An ultra-confident perimeter shooter, now Wofford transfer Nils Machowski is stepping into an archetype once filled with players like Cam Spencer and Joey Calcaterra in recent years, portal gems.
Expected sudden-hit freshman Colben Landrew, a rough edge with enough talent to place Hurley in the same class as first-year standouts Stephon Castle, Liam McNeeley and Mullins, all of whom were five-star recruits.
Incoming UConn recruit Colben Landrew is the No. 1 prospect. 26-ranked in the 2026 class. (Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images)
Since then, many changes have been made at UConn ahead of the 2026-27 season, with new faces in new positions, seemingly in reverse, the profile of the Huskies still looks and feels broad. And if recent history is any indication, that should be enough for Hurley to reach another final four.
Maybe he’ll even win it all and watch “One Burning Moment” next spring.
“You never want to lose people’s championships,” Hurley told me last week. “But I think change is refreshing, it’s empowering, it gets you excited to do it with new people who haven’t experienced the way you do it, you know? You’re exposing new people to the way you do it at UConn. It’s kind of fun.”