Dan Hurley

Referee Roger Ayers is one of the greatest officials of all time

Roger's like very playful. I mean, listen, the guy is, he's one of the greatest refs ever. You know, like the guy don't, he don't mess up a lot of calls.

Alex Karaban will play in the NBA for 15 years

You know, the guy [Alex Karaban] just had such a magical career... you know, the guy's a two-time national champion... guy's gonna play in the NBA for 15 years, you know, he was the guy to go to at the moment.

Society has gotten too soft — kids need dodgeball, the SAT, and pressure to build real toughness

The fact that we're not playing dodgeball in gym class, and even there should be some type of standardized tests. What happened to the SAT? Like we've gotten so soft on young people that you don't even have to go through like the pressure and stress of having to prepare for that test, take that test, have to get some type of a number. Or dodgeball in gym class. You don't think that this is gonna make people tougher and more resilient? Greater fortitude, be prepared to handle the things that come up in life, the ability to compete, have to respond from failure, deal with pressure.

I am an asshole at times, but I won't change my coaching style because it produces historic success

I'm an asshole at times. I mean that's, you know, it's just who I am... I don't wanna change a whole lot of things about the way that I go about my coaching and my fire and my intensity because it has produced historic success at UConn the last couple of years.

Houston is a team of wolves led by a wolf

Houston is just a bunch of wolves, man led by a wolf... the way they get after it, you, you can't prepare for it. It's like a pass rush that just the quarterback is gonna be rattled and it kills, it kills your transition offensive game because it's hard for you to even run on them because getting a defensive rebound feels like survival.

UConn's historic season is undervalued by national media because they aren't a traditional blue blood like Duke or Kentucky

Our season hasn't been covered in my mind and the national media enough. This is a team that's done historic stuff. If we were at Duke or Kentucky or Kansas, they would lead SportsCenter with it and it would be the biggest story in sports. But because we're in Storrs, Connecticut, we're just a little grittier.

Donovan Clingan's priority should be establishing a long NBA career over just being a high draft pick

Moving forward with these guys, if I think they're making a mistake and I think they need more time in college, I'm gonna tell 'em. [Donovan Clingan] knows he's gonna be in the NBA, but I want these guys to be in the NBA for 10, 15 years, not just get drafted and make money.

The Big East representative recusal rule in the tournament committee room is a disadvantage

In that room, there's, you know, with all those committee members, when the, when the representative from your league, when they're talking about teams in your league, that person's not allowed to stay in the room. Yeah. So I guess what you gotta learn the, we have gotta learn the arc of is like, I guess of how to destroy these other conferences when you are in the room.

UConn 'bleeds blue' and is creating its own category beyond traditional Blue Bloods

His thing is like, no, forget the blue blood. You know, we're a program that bleeds blue. Max the bleed blue. So like we're gonna create our own because we've got the five national championships and NBA players for days in the last 20 years. Most of anyone... We don't even wanna be a blue blood. We're our own kind of deal.

I aspire to coach in the NBA someday

No, I'm not, I, I've still got some, I got some developing to do on the sideline. There's no one coaching like me in the NBA. They're not ready... I do believe, I mean, that is something I aspire to, you know, down the road. You know, I love college. I, I hope I could, you know, continue to put UConn in this position moving forward.

I drink mushroom coffee with MCT oil before games for a mental advantage

About 90 minutes before game I tip off, I go mushroom coffee with a little MCT brain octane into the coffee, just to get that extra advantage over whoever I'm coaching against. And then during the game I'll go in a bulletproof mentalist blend with that Bye drink.

UConn's program was a mess academically and behaviorally when I first arrived

I took that job at UConn and like, it was a disaster, man. I mean like, like talent, like the way these guys were, were, were moving on campus at like, academics behavior. It was so far away from like, anything you could win with, it's just everything was a mess.