NEW YORK — Eleven tables wrap around the Madison Square Garden court at Big East media day. At 10 locations, reporters flit in and out to interview coaches and players. At the UConn table, a three-deep throng of media camps out without budging, long before any Huskies representatives arrive.
Dan Hurley was the main attraction Wednesday as the two-time defending national champion coach returned to the arena synonymous with Big East basketball, where he and the Huskies cut down the nets last March before tearing through the NCAA Tournament.
Hurley hasn’t been shy about what he dubbed the elephant in the room, reminding his players since June about UConn’s opportunity to be the first three-peat champion since John Wooden’s UCLA teams ran the table from 1967-73.
Hurley’s message: “The season that we’re gonna embark on is gonna be rare in terms of what we can accomplish,” he said, “to literally join those UCLA teams from a history of the game, historical opportunity, and how you (must) give everything that you absolutely have to reach that level of sport.”
Two weeks ahead of the new college basketball season — and 4 1/2 months removed from declining a job offer from the Los Angeles Lakers — Hurley performed the balancing act of defending the Big East and UConn from a national “lack of respect” while fielding questions about his university’s recent flirtation with the Big 12.
Discussions stalled in September, but they indicated UConn’s continued and public interest in searching for a future home that benefits football as well as basketball.
“I understand those conversations that are going on externally, but I have very little influence on those things,” Hurley said. “By the same token, there’s not a better fit than the Big East for UConn from a basketball standpoint. It’s a perfect fit between both parties.”
Hurley was in touch with Big East commissioner Val Ackerman while the Big 12-UConn talks were percolating and expressed to her how much he loved coaching in the Big East.
Ackerman introduced Hurley as a “future Hall of Famer” at the outset of media day while touting her conference’s NCAA Tournament record — Villanova and UConn have fielded four of the past eight national champions. Yet the Big East’s mere three bids to the 2024 tourney still stuck in Hurley’s craw, as did the light representation in the AP preseason poll and All-America teams.
“I can already see it in the AP poll, the lack of respect that the Big East gets from that standpoint,” Hurley said. “… We got buried by the committee last year. That was clear, once the tournament started, too, based on those results.”
Perhaps fittingly, UConn begins its three-peat quest ranked No. 3, behind Kansas and Alabama. Working against the Huskies is the loss of four starters to the NBA: Stephon Castle, Donovan Clingan, Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer. It could have been all five, but forward Alex Karaban decided to return to Storrs in pursuit of his third title.
For the Huskies, who had similar turnover after the 2023 championship, that’s old hat.
“I guess maybe with just losing four starters to the NBA, we still believe — based on everything we lost the year before, losing three with two key bench pieces — that we’re not in uncharted territory,” Hurley said. “We’re very comfortable having lost a lot, because we just lost a lot and were even better.”
Aidan Mahaney, a career 37.5 percent 3-point shooter from Saint Mary’s, projects as this year’s Spencer. Samson Johnson will fill more of a “point center” role in contrast to big men Clingan and Adama Sanogo before him.
Then there’s Karaban, the do-it-all wing who had already returned to UConn when Hurley entertained the Lakers’ interest in him. Karaban felt the Huskies are stronger having gone through that wait-and-see period.
“It was stressful. It’s obviously not the news that you’d want to hear, selfishly,” Karaban said. “But for Coach Hurley I was beyond happy because he’s changed my life, he’s changed countless other players’ lives, too. He deserved to go out there and make a decision for himself and his family. We were all just happy that he did that, and we were all happy that he came back.”
UConn will have plenty of challengers during its bid for another Big East banner. Here are the three teams with the best shot and dethroning the Huskies:
Marquette
UConn finished comfortably atop the Big East preseason coaches’ poll, but coaches are not allowed to vote for their own teams. Hurley picked Marquette No. 1, a sign of the respect he has for Shaka Smart’s program.
The Golden Eagles have 56 wins the past two seasons and fell to UConn in the Big East championship game last March. The returning firepower includes Kam Jones (17.2 ppg, 40.6 percent from deep) and veteran David Joplin (10.8 ppg, 3.9 rpg).
“We were torn between probably Creighton and Marquette,” Hurley said. “Maybe what put them over the top was just bringing back more guys, and then the fact that we played them in the Big East championship and they were the champs the year before.”
Creighton
Creighton checked in No. 2 in the preseason poll after reaching the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the third time in four years. The Bluejays get one more year of 7-foot nightmare Ryan Kalkbrenner anchoring the defense. Kalkbrenner was named Big East preseason Player of the Year.
The Bluejays were the most recent team to defeat UConn — Feb. 20 in Omaha — and a rivalry is brewing, the schools’ distant proximity notwithstanding.
“They’re an elite team,” Kalkbrenner said. “There’s a reason they’re back-to-back national champions. It’s always fun when you’re able to have that kind of rivalry with such a good team.”
St. John’s
Big East basketball would hit new levels of entertainment if Rick Pitino’s Red Storm play to their potential and make a run at UConn. Pitino has put together a talented group headlined by Big East first-team guard Kadary Richmond (who left rival Seton Hall) and backcourt mate RJ Luis.
There was some beef last season between the two title-winning coaches, but Hurley and Pitino appeared to have put it behind them and complimented one another’s programs.
“They’re so far above us right now that that’s not a goal of ours,” Pitino said. “Our goal is to get better each and every day and see where that takes us. (Comparing) programs is not what gets you there.”
–Adam Zielonka, Field Level Media
