Hurley details how Geno Auriemma refocused him in new book | The Boneyard

Hurley details how Geno Auriemma refocused him in new book

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Article on ESPN.com. The book comes out tomorrow.

"I think some of it was being a bad loser. I was clearly a bad loser at the end of that game," Hurley said. "We were playing the longest possible seasons, having extremely busy offseasons. There are different responsibilities you have as the top program in the sport, responsibility to do everything, promote college basketball, add that up with all the changes with NIL and the portal and what your team looks like the day after your season's over. You don't feel like pretty much anybody is on your team. Even if they're not in the portal, every kid has an agent, and that agent is shopping you around. All those things, the offseasons that were short and packed and the long seasons and incredible dominant success in that tournament, being fatigued, being a sore loser, those things for a couple days put me in that spot.

"But in the end, Jaylin Stewart and Solo Ball were like -- within a day or two, those guys coming in and saying, 'We're staying, we're not even trying to negotiate, whatever you want to give me, I'm here.' That's what kind of snapped me out of it. Along with thinking, I'm never going to be the coach at UConn again and being the coach at UConn changed my life."

www.espn.com

'Be a coach': Dan Hurley on ego, Maui losses, Lakers -- and Geno Auriemma's wake-up call

In Hurley's "Never Stop: Life, Leadership, and What It Takes To Be Great," he writes that he reached out to Auriemma after UConn's 0-3 trip to the Maui Invitational last November.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 
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Wow. Impactful quote.
I'm never going to be the coach at UConn again and being the coach at UConn changed my life."


And what about Solo and Stew
We're staying, we're not even trying to negotiate, whatever you want to give me, I'm here.

Really hope they both kill it this season then get drafted!
 
I got to celebrate #6 with Coach Hurley at Gampel 24 hours later. He is the coolest guy in person since he genuinely is loving the experience. But he goes so hard, he is prone to crash. Thrilled I got to meet him and thank him. We are absolutely blessed to have him, and the whole staff.
 
Not to take anything away from Solo, he knew he was to be featured in the 2025-2026 offense. But Stewart. I'm sure there would have been tons of schools saying, "you're our man!" My compliments that young man and his family.

I do think that Solo is going to have a huge leap foward this year. Even though he looked jacked, he played light last year. Bounced off of everyone. If his 9 pounds of muscle means something to him, I'm in.
 
I thought the Geno quote was truly impressive. Clearly Dan has a lot of respect for Geno:

"He didn't say anything the others hadn't. But he delivered the message in a certain way. With force. With gravitas.

He made me really see. My ego had gotten-was getting-the better of me.

I admitted he was right. I told him that I was spiraling. I told him that I was convinced we were going to finish below .500.

'Listen,' he said, 'if the only gratification and the only part of coaching that excites you is winning the national championship, then you've lost your way, buddy! Where's the joy in the things that you've always been about as a coach before you went on the championship run, like relationships with your players, like helping people get better. Like making your team the best it can be.

'Be a coach, man. This is when you really need to be a leader. This team isn't as good as last year's, so what the hell are you going to do about it? Are you going home? Are you going to let this thing unravel?'"
 
Just watched his first take interview on YouTube some very illuminating things in there. Saying that he coached angry last year because he knew quite early that it wasn't a championship team. He wasn't angry at the players but more so himself.
 
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87Xfer said:
For some reason I'm not compelled to read this book.
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Dan Hurley spent all of last summer talking us through a lot of the expected content and is now kinda regurgitating it on the tour. I’d have to know there is truly new material. I’m a lot more excited to get this season started than reading that book right now. If it starts getting some positive feedback from the tribe, then maybe I’ll knock it down after the season.

I tried reading the book about his dad - pretty boring read to be honest.
 
87Xfer said:
For some reason I'm not compelled to read this book.
Expand ...
Boneyarders are probably pretty in the know about the content already. I'd like an autographed copy, but I'm in no rush to read the book.
 
EricLA said:
I thought the Geno quote was truly impressive. Clearly Dan has a lot of respect for Geno:

"He didn't say anything the others hadn't. But he delivered the message in a certain way. With force. With gravitas.

He made me really see. My ego had gotten-was getting-the better of me.

I admitted he was right. I told him that I was spiraling. I told him that I was convinced we were going to finish below .500.

'Listen,' he said, 'if the only gratification and the only part of coaching that excites you is winning the national championship, then you've lost your way, buddy! Where's the joy in the things that you've always been about as a coach before you went on the championship run, like relationships with your players, like helping people get better. Like making your team the best it can be.

'Be a coach, man. This is when you really need to be a leader. This team isn't as good as last year's, so what the hell are you going to do about it? Are you going home? Are you going to let this thing unravel?'"
Expand ...
Thank you Geno. There’s so much more to coaching than winning national championships (even though they’re a really nice part).
 
RuffRuff said:
It's easy to say when you've won 12. The only reason he has gravitas is because he's won so much.
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I don’t remember Geno, or any coach for that matter, having such a championship or bust mindset. At any point in their careers.

They usually have the mindset he stated of being in it to help people first and foremost. And then the championships just naturally come from there.
 
HW611 said:
I don’t remember Geno, or any coach for that matter, having such a championship or bust mindset. At any point in their careers.

They usually have the mindset he stated of being in it to help people first and foremost. And then the championships just naturally come from there.
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Let's not kid ourselves - you can take on that mindset once the wheels were in motion, he had a couple NC's, could attract any recruit he wanted. Without them, he wouldn't even be in a position to have a voice on the topic.

Women's hoops is also a very different arena, not nearly the $$ at stake. Hurley just signed a massive deal where state taxpayers are footing the bill. There is an expectation that comes along with that.
 
RuffRuff said:
Let's not kid ourselves - you can take on that mindset once the wheels were in motion, he had a couple NC's, could attract any recruit he wanted. Without them, he wouldn't even be in a position to have a voice on the topic.

Women's hoops is also a very different arena, not nearly the $$ at stake. Hurley just signed a massive deal where state taxpayers are footing the bill. There is an expectation that comes along with that.
Expand ...
You get the NCs from having that mindset man. Thats the whole point. They aren’t mutually exclusive.
 
EricLA said:
I thought the Geno quote was truly impressive. Clearly Dan has a lot of respect for Geno:

"He didn't say anything the others hadn't. But he delivered the message in a certain way. With force. With gravitas.

He made me really see. My ego had gotten-was getting-the better of me.

I admitted he was right. I told him that I was spiraling. I told him that I was convinced we were going to finish below .500.

'Listen,' he said, 'if the only gratification and the only part of coaching that excites you is winning the national championship, then you've lost your way, buddy! Where's the joy in the things that you've always been about as a coach before you went on the championship run, like relationships with your players, like helping people get better. Like making your team the best it can be.

'Be a coach, man. This is when you really need to be a leader. This team isn't as good as last year's, so what the hell are you going to do about it? Are you going home? Are you going to let this thing unravel?'"
Expand ...
The irony is that Geno has had critics asking for the last 5-6 years if he'd lost a step and was even capable of putting together a championship team, maybe was a bit defensive in espousing "there's more to this than championships," and then went out and dominated the Tournament like a vintage UConn women's team.
 
Tenspro2002 said:
Pretty impressive for a non-championship team to go toe to toe with the eventual champs for 38 minutes.
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brutal finish. really talks to his coaching ability that he got them to that point....and important he acknowledged he set them off the wrong direction at the start and had to refocus.

The team probably wans't winning 6 straight with that defense and inconsistency, but they did not make it to their potential.
 
87Xfer said:
For some reason I'm not compelled to read this book.
Expand ...
I'll read it, but the excerpts I've read have been so/so.
 

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