Glastonbury, Conn. Contecticut. On Manchester, above South Windsor, above Anfield, all the way to Massachusetts. Hundreds of miles. At the distance, the horizon line is traveled by the national parks in Vermont. Hurley once told a recruiter that the scene reaches Canada. Dan Hurley says a lot of things.
This house? He is there. For a country that is not all interesting in terms of topography, Mountainij Mountain, about 10 miles east of Hartford, has a height of about 700 feet. At the end of the weekend, the first of March, the sky is blue like a Robin egg, but it is still cold; Cold to the core. And the wind is really.
The door bell. You are waiting. You are waiting for a longer rhythm. You pay it again.
Now, as a rule, no one wants to look at another person’s home. But sometimes there is no other option. So you press the edge of your hand on the ornate front door cup, and your forehead tends forward and its counterpart. Beautiful house. You can see directly through some comfortable spaces and invitation, all the way to the backyard. And there is. Dan Hurley, mixing without a goal, carrying a record. When you feel the tinnitus below, watch it removes a glove, reaches the basketball pocket in Uconn and pulls a phone.
“Where are you?” He answers.
“I am here. I stand in front of your home.”
“Oh. I am just in the back. Come through the gate.”
It is a day outside, except for the Hurley meeting early with his employees, as he reviewed a movie about winning the day before Brudence, and after the Mass, watching the next Huskies opponent – Marquette. Hurley has fire and behaves as if he was heating the air. In fact, the wind is so strong that this fire, and many of the records it throws, produces nothing but smoke and ash. Sitting in the exhaust.
“This weather is absorbed,” he says, but what can you do about it? “
Entering the interior is an option, but this will be the easy way. Why do you do it when you are here, on top, on the edge, and are not really comfortable?
Uconn knows this well. None of this went as anyone thought, does he have? All this talks about three peaches. He made Hurley and Arsenis everything as if it was a matter of transparent will. They did not talk about trying a third patriotic title in a row. They announced that they would do so. This team was the next. The 2023 group, which was the physical appearance of the coach – was from great expectations, to doubt and opponent, to kicking the doors off the hinges and winning them all. The 2024 team, which was a manifestation of the program – was the total domination of the way to the second consecutive title, which is the sixth in school in 25 years, more than anything else. 2025 team? This will be the coup, the final act of control. No team has won three consecutive titles since the John Wooden dynasty at the University of California, Los Angeles. This will be a Uconn family.
Instead, it is a march in Storrs and Hustkies is 20-9, and it has not been moved, and is heading towards the eighth or ninth seeds in the NCAA championship.
Hurley said that the short version of a long story: after a brutal journey without a victory to Maui Invitational, Hurley said: “The burden of wearing the uniform after it seems heavy on the group,” and this has never changed. Follow solid wins against Baylor, Texas and Junzaga Big East list. Winning, loss. Winning, loss. Little, nothing continuous. Many reasons. Poor training, according to Hurley, tops the list. The star of Liam McNley, the star of the time, was absent with injury, and so far, she is still catching. Alex Karaban, the first team selection at the first Big East, did not play at such levels. Hassan Diarara has installed a Boom knee. Young people seemed like young people. The transport portal was not special. The defense was terrible. Oh, along the way, Hurley, a man who is already vulnerable to cartoons, decided to tell one of the officials: “I am the best coach in sports,” and he drank the hose of the fire. Hurley gave his long long line of critics everything they wanted, and gave him a plate. (It is interesting to him Long meditation With Mike Anthony shortly after that, saying: “I am embarrassed because I said that. This makes me feel like a real back,” did not have such interest.) The audit that was put on the coach was definitely shared by the program.
This is life in smoke.
“You know,” says Hurley, feet floating on a fire hole, “” Sometimes you get deer; some deer will come. Some other animals also come. It is like full isolation here. “
In fact, Hurley, and most of the others in the program and around him admit what is clear: if not for successive titles, this Uconn team will not hold the national title expectations. The last four hopes? Certainly, perhaps. But no one will look at this list – those that lost six choices in the American Professional League in the American Professional League within two years – and says the only measure of success is winning everything. However, this is the deadly tension in which it was every minute of every game and every moment of every practice. If every day is confidence, weapons will eventually get tired.
The result is a very good team sometimes, is often not enough enough, and a lot of blame to wrap.
A recipe for an account.
If Uconn is able to save something of this season – win the Big East championship, or run to the fourth final in San Antonio, do the things that Uconn has a talent to do – The Pivot Point, says Hurley, will return to a day of difficult facts. This is what goes down the mountain, about the bends you take to get here, about 20 miles east, in Stourrs.
This was on February 24, on Monday morning, about a week and a half ago. Hurley walked to the team’s meeting and looked around me. No one was sure of what could be expected, and not yet what happened the day before. A trip to the Madison Square Park. The full and full donkey kick by St. John. A second loss for the Rick Betino team for several weeks. Tension subject to the great sovereignty of the East of a team and coach who loves the strong structures to hate.
This conversation was a long time. Uconn, at the time, was 6-6 in its previous league matches, and began to slip towards the word “B”. Just the possibility of losing the NCAA championship was not possible. Can you imagine? After Hurley Valus with Lakers Last summer? After rating No. 3 in the pre -season survey? After behaving like the season’s schedule, should it include a third offer? Other big east schools may print the shirts to celebrate this occasion. This was a team in need of Beck App.
“They thought I would enter like the Pacino in” any Sunday “,” says Hurley.
Either we heal as one team, or Sinnhar, inch inch, we play by playing, until we finish …
We are in hell now, gentlemen, believe me. We can stay here, get out of us, or we can fight on our way to light. …
In fact, Dan Hurley did not deliver the speech of Al Pacino. Instead, he smiled a wide smile. He recalls, “It is not a smile,” but whatever the crazy man does when he tries to smile. “
Hurley told his team that he was happy. Happy for not feeling any entitlement. Happy to see the procedures still have consequences. I am happy to blame. Happy because “there is still some fairness somewhere in this world and we get what we deserve.”
Tell them that they do not deserve to win because he did not train well, and the employees did not train well. Then he went throughout the room. One by one. Each player was said to why he is not worth winning.
Do you think that the gods may agree against us? no. We did all this for ourselves.
It was a change in the message and everyone heard it. While Hurley is unable to be anything other than himself, even if that includes the seizure of the power of the top scorers during training and suffocating himself after a bad play, it was, internally, much more, uh, let’s say, flexible With this team. I realize that this is required after the disastrous Maui journey. So, while he never retracted three treasurys as a goal, he strangled them in training them on such standards. He now says: “You cannot allow your players to think about anything different, especially those who played for you. But, on the other hand, I had to give this team more grace. Video sessions after losing, things like that. I did not train them strongly as I trained my other bands.”
All this ended Monday morning. How the message was received was left to each individual.
Karaban seems to listen. This was supposed to be a season, which strengthened the novice wing as it was the choice of the American Professional League draft in the first round. Instead, the shooting numbers and the rates of use decreased in all fields. Hurley did not back down. In the past years, the crime has been cooked open footage of it, but this year he needed to go down faster in more strict windows, as Jordan Hoklens and Kam Spencer. Did he do everything he needs to get his shot faster in every delegate than every training? Did he do everything required in the weight room to add muscles? Does everything be possible now to be the man who is supposed to be?
These are the things that are distilled when they say loudly.
Last week, after scoring 17 points in winning in Provence, Carraban spoke to a group of Uconn book to beat some of his struggles this season, as she presented Mea Culpa. Most of the fans and spectators will first believe in late, late, late in Job Poach in Villanova. Karaban referred to everything else.
He said: “For me, whether it is an offensive diversity, defensive, wise-I was able to control this in this summer and I did not do enough to work for that, and now I face as a result.” “But it is not too late to change how this season is going and it is not too late to change how I play.”
Later, before heading to the team’s bus, Karaban was withdrawn aside and asked what this means. Not every day you hear a star in Upperclassman says, mainly, he did not work hard in external seasons. Can it explain?
“No, I put at work. He explained,” I worked my ass. “” The thing is, I just think about what could be different. As I admit, there are moments when I look weak in court. So I may have difficulty in the weight room. Coach Hurley does the same. He is thinking about what he can do better. We are all. And we will repair. “
This, of course, just words, and uconn is what he says. Best Total Basketball Team: Duke, Oporn, Houston, directly on the line (including, yes, St. John), you know who they are at this stage of the season. Meanwhile, Hurley and his “tampering” assistants still rotate, and they wonder from one game to another who will do what will do what. Tarris Reed JR. , The violent minute in January and February, suddenly destroying the posts and was, as far as efficiency statistics went, the most players in the team in three of the last four games. McNeley is now seven games of his return from injury and showing flashes from the lottery that is expected to be. Karaban, perhaps, is heading. Solo Ball’s defensive struggles are exhausting, but it is one of the elite archers in the country. Diarara and Samson Johnson have the DNA championship.
Perhaps all of this still can meet together.
Perhaps it was not supposed to be easy.
Hurley wakes up to throw another record on the fire. When you ask what he will do this afternoon if he is still alone, he measures a eyebrow from behind his sunglasses, and says: “What do you mean? I will be here. He did this exactly.”
The pool is covered. The trees are still naked. Cooop Coop is his wife Andrea, who inherited him from the former owner in 2018, empty because, in a shocking way, North Jersey’s husband had no idea how to raise chicken. But this is the Hurley spot. Where he and his program are more comfortable. Visit one of the smoke from the top.
(Clarification: Dan Goldfarb / Athlete; Pictures: Joe BGLEWICZ, M. Anthony Nesmith / ICON SPORTSWIRE / Getty Images)
