UConn Head Coach Dan Hurley reacts to Final Four birth over Gonzaga | Full Interview

What thought went through your mind when you walked up the ladder? Just elation, obviously thrilled. It's an incredible achievement. You know, you're probably just thinking about everyone that's helped us get here. You know, like Christian Vitals, James Booknights, and Tyrese Martins, and Isaiah Welles, and Tyler Polly's. Tyrese Martins, I said? I say Tyrese. I got RJ. I got RJ, right? Yeah, I got RJ.

I'm probably missing some more people right now. But yeah, I mean, you think about all the people that have helped you get here when you're climbing. Better you can go for something. You're a basketball life better than you are. And that's kind of the, I mean, I guess it's one more bigger one, but that's kind of the moment of lifetime, isn't it? Yeah, it is. I mean, it's incredibly exciting. You know, maybe because we won by so much, maybe the last four or five minutes of the game might have kind of muted some of the crazy enthusiasm of winning because we knew we were going to win for the last like five or six minutes of game time.

So, you know, we didn't run around and like jump up and down if we wanted the buzzer or something. But it was just an incredible feeling. There's nothing like it. And to get to a final four, you know, in our 50 year, you know, it's just awesome. When was your point you looked up and like, is this happening? No, because we, you know, minus that stretch during Big East play, you know, when, you know, when I went viral, you know, with the official. And then obviously there was a couple of games stretched there where things went against us in a number of different ways. You know, we just, we just always had a lot of confidence that when we got back to this tournament and played, you know, games where the officials called it a little tighter, and then doing a Big East and we play people that have seen us for the first time, it was going to create the same type of problems for people that we created for them in a non-conference.

I see the coil time, Dan, early carpenter, you're a finished carpenter. It seems a finished carpenter now. Talk about how you guys have been finishing because you really have delivered knockout punches out of the last couple weeks. Yeah, I love that. That's like my thing. I, maybe, you know, I just, I love building programs. It's like, I love going to places that, you know, aren't winning or have bottomed out.

And, you know, I love doing it my own way with my own, you know, own people, rebuilding a culture, you know, infusing it with talent, hiring an incredible coaching staff. Like, I love building programs. And now I'm the beneficiary of actually getting to stay at a program that I've built and continue in the WinBig, which is something that I didn't do in the other two spots. How about the way the team, though, is finishing, Dan, delivering that punch? Like, when there's blood in the water, they're going after it? Yeah, I just think, you know, when you coach at UConn, the first-round game is a little scary because of the pressure, the pressure of the brand, the pressure that you put on yourself because you want to advance so badly. I just think once we got out of that first round, that first half, first Iona, you know, we were able to kind of, you know, get that swagger and confidence going in the second half. Now we're just playing real loose and free and confident. The depth, I mean, I think you had seven guys with at least eight points.

That's a great way to get to 56 points, right? You talked about it all year. Yeah, I mean, and again, you go through peaks and valleys during the year. I think the bench struggled during that time when we were struggling. And, you know, but now the bench is, you know, late in the year, started to turn it up, Naheem and Joey and Donovan have given us incredible minutes. And now we're clicking on all cylinders. But again, we've always been a top-level defense, a top-five offense, and we're a tremendous rebounding team, and we play as hard as anyone in the country. So those things have always been in place.

And Andre said the biggest shoes to fill in the country to play for UConn, that's probably true. Or are you more true of coaching for UConn, right? How do those shoes fit right now? They fit well, but I'm lucky. I got two, you know, obviously, my father, and I've got people like Seth Greenberg and Tom Izzo that mentor me. But two of my best mentors are Coach Calhoun and Gino. I mean, to have those two people that support you, and I could call and get unbelievable advice, and they'll talk to my team with an inspirational message. And, you know, yeah, I mean, I have a chance to, you know, to live up to the great coaches a bit on the sideline because I'm getting, I'm smart enough to take help from great coaches. It's like having a whole family there, dad, wife, dad, mom, brother.

Me and Andrea, when I met her at Seton Hall, it was like by far the best thing that happened to me at Seton Hall. A lot of bad stuff happened to me at Seton Hall. But that was the thing that saved my life when I met her and changed my life. I maybe want to be better, and she's blessed me with two incredible boys, and Danny and Andrew and, you know, my dad. I felt a lot of internal pressure. My dad's getting older, you know, he's had some health things. I've been close to the Final Four every year for like the last 30 years.

So I got some pressure to have my dad going to a Final Four to watch his son and to be a part of the travel party and to be on the bench during the open practices and then to have Bobby there for him to fly in twice to be with his little brother. It speaks to the brotherly love.

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