Dan Hurley

Hurley was born to Hall of Fame high school coach Bob Hurley Sr. and Christine Hurley on January 16, 1973, in Jersey City, New Jersey, where he was raised with his siblings Bobby and Melissa.^[4][5] Bobby is a former Duke guard and the former head coach at Arizona State.

Hurley was a basketball star at St. Anthony High School in Jersey City where his father was the longtime coach. He led the team to a 31–1 record and a No. 2 national ranking as a senior.^[6]

He played five years of college basketball, including a redshirt year, at Seton Hall. He played under head coach P. J. Carlesimo during his first three seasons.^[5] In the 2025 ESPN documentary "The Other Hurley," Hurley described how he had to step away from basketball at the beginning of his junior year in 1993, after playing in only two games, for mental health reasons.^[7][8] He stated that even though "I never was chasing my brother," that same year his brother Bobby, who had been a star player at Duke, was drafted seventh in the NBA draft, and Dan put enormous pressure on himself to succeed, leading to an anxiety condition he described as "the Yips." After taking the year off, he returned to have excellent junior and senior years at Seton Hall, averaging 13.8 and 14.3 points per game, respectively.^[9]

Hurley was head coach of Saint Benedict's Preparatory School (2001–2010), where he is credited with building the New Jersey school into one of the top high school basketball programs in America. During his nine years at St. Benedict’s he compiled an 223–21 record, coached four McDonald’s All-Americans, and guided four teams to top-five national rankings.^[10]

He was the head coach at Wagner College for two years (2010–2012), where he set the school single-season win-loss record at 25–6 during the 2011–2012 season.^[11]

He was then head coach at the University of Rhode Island for six years (2012–2018), bringing the team to the 2017 and 2018 NCAA tournaments, the first times since 1999. Hurley turned down a long-term offer from Rhode Island in order to lead the University of Connecticut Huskies.^[12]

From 2010 to 2013, his brother Bobby was one of his assistant coaches at both Rhode Island and Wagner.^[13]

University of Connecticut

He was named head coach of UConn on March 22, 2018. In 2021, the Huskies returned to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2016, then again in 2022, losing in the first round both times. He won the NCAA championship with the Huskies in 2023.^[14] In June 2023, he agreed to a six-year contract extension with UConn worth $32.1M.^[15] In July 2024, he signed an extension worth $50M over six years.^[16]

In the 2023–24 season, Hurley led the Huskies to a school-record 37 wins, a Big East regular season title, a Big East tournament championship, a #1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history, and a second-straight NCAA national championship.^{[17][18][19][20]} He was named the Naismith College Coach of the Year and received the Sporting News National Coach of the Year Award.^[21][22]

In the days after winning the 2024 Final Four, Hurley received and declined a lucrative head coaching offer from Kentucky.^[23] In June 2024 he interviewed with the Los Angeles Lakers, but declined their offer as well, choosing to return to UConn to attempt to win a third straight championship.^[24]

Hurley married Andrea Sirakides in 1997. They met while they were both students at Seton Hall. They have two sons: Danny (born July, 1999) and Andrew (born January 30, 2002). Danny graduated from Seton Hall in 2021. Andrew attends the University of Connecticut, where he was on his father's 2023 and 2024 NCAA championship teams.^[25][26]

On September 6, 2019, Hurley had surgery to replace two disks in his neck with artificial ones. Doctors told Hurley the condition was part hereditary and part the result of years of wear and tear associated with being a lifelong athlete. He returned to work less than two weeks after surgery.^[27]

Hurley is a practicing Catholic.^[28] During his years at Seton Hall, Hurley met psychologist Sister Catherine Waters, who changed his life.^[29] He often talks with and thanks Sr. Catherine, even after his NCAA championship in 2023.^[30]

He is an avid fan of the Cincinnati Bengals.^[31]