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University of Connecticut men's basketball coach Dan Hurley said his wife, Andrea, was “extremely upset” when he was approached about the possibility of becoming the new head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers — a reaction he somewhat expected after the team won consecutive national championships.
After beating Purdue in the championship game in April, Hurley was immediately asked about his future at Connecticut and whether he'd be interested in taking over the coaching job at Kentucky after John Calipari retires.
Connecticut Huskies player Dan Hurley speaks to the media after the NCAA college basketball championship game against the Purdue Boilermarks at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on April 8, 2024. (Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
Hurley deferred to his wife on these questions, joking that he “can't afford a divorce right now.”
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“Oh my God, Kentucky or anywhere farther than New Jersey,” he said of her reaction to the rumors at the time. “I mean, we just went to Rhode Island and I had to drag her there. Then to Connecticut. I took her closer. And now farther away? I can't afford a divorce right now. I'm just starting to make money.”
But neither Hurley brother expected the NBA job to come just months after the Lakers fired Darvin Ham, who was released in his second year with the team and led Los Angeles to a first-round exit in this year's playoffs.
During an appearance on “The Dan Le Batard Show with Stuggotts,” Hurley said his wife didn't take the news well, at least initially.
Andrea Hurley listens to a press conference after Dan Hurley was hired as Connecticut's head coach in March 2018. (Mark Mirko/Hartford Courant/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“She cried at first. I think for the first few days she didn't hit me, she got really angry and emotional, she wasn't like, 'Get away from me. I don't want this to happen. You're a horrible person for torturing me with this amazing opportunity,'” he said, laughing.
Connecticut's Dan Hurley explains why he turned down Lakers coaching job: 'I already had influence'
“She got emotional and said, 'I can't believe you brought this up. Our life is great. Perfect. It couldn't be better and now you bring up this horrible thing.'”
But the short trip to California seems to have left a good impression on Andrea.
“She started out bad, but then we went in there and [vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka] And she met [owner Jeanie Buss] And she felt the weather. We drove around Manhattan Beach, mostly meeting people. And she got the vision. She fell in love with it.”
But that didn't last long, according to Hurley, and the pair “went back” to the University of Connecticut after returning home.
University of Connecticut Huskies head coach Dan Hurley (left) walks with his son, guard Andrew Hurley (No. 20), and wife Andrea on Senior Day before kickoff of the game against the Seton Hall Pirates at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion on March 3, 2024. (David Butler II-USA Today Sports)
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He reportedly turned down a six-year, $70 million contract that he called a “heart-wrenching decision,” and Hurley explains that part of the struggle was internal, a desire to prove himself even after all these years.
“I'm still haunted in a lot of ways by my playing career in terms of how it turned out for me at Seton Hall. So as a coach, I feel a lot of pressure to make up for that in some ways and achieve more, because every time my playing days are brought up, that disappointment eats away at me.”
Hurley and the Huskies will be looking to win more this season as they seek a third consecutive national championship with the Huskies, a feat only accomplished by the UCLA Bruins in the 1960s and early 1970s.
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