Dan Hurley Shuts Down Kentucky Rumors After John Calipari Exit, Eyes UConn ‘Dynasty’

Kentucky can definitively cross Dan Hurley off its list of candidates to replace John Calipari, who’s reportedly on the way out.

Following UConn’s 75-60 victory over Purdue in the 2024 men’s basketball national championship game, Hurley quipped he “can’t afford a divorce right now,” which would be the likely outcome if he attempted to move his wife farther away from her home state of New Jersey, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

The coach then spoke in more practical terms about what he could achieve with the Huskies.

“Now you’re thinking in your brain, as I’m looking at the locker room, about the chance to do it three times, like a dynasty in modern times,” Hurley said. “I mean, that’s what I’m thinking about.”

The allure of coaching Kentucky is obvious. The Wildcats are college basketball royalty with eight national titles and 17 Final Four appearances, and they continue to be a landing spot for blue-chip recruits despite not having made the national semifinals since 2015.

But a move to Lexington isn’t for everybody. The expectations are sky-high every season, the pressure is immense and there isn’t the kind of administrative alignment you see at comparable programs across other sports around the country. NIL is reportedly a significant factor in why Calipari is weighing his future.

In the case of Hurley, it’s hard to see how Kentucky could offer a more attractive situation than what he has in Storrs.

Basking in Monday’s triumph, he told reporters the Huskies’ second straight title is “up there in terms of the greatest two-year runs that a program maybe has ever had.”

“I just think it’s the best two-year run I think in a very, very long time just because of everything we lost from last year’s team,” he said. “To lose that much, and again, to do what we did again, it’s got to be as impressive a two-year run as a program’s had since prior to whoever did it before Duke. To me, it’s more impressive than what Florida and Duke did because they brought back their entire teams. We lost some major players.”

Thanks to the transfer portal, maintaining consistent success has never been more difficult. It’s tough to build a roster with a view longer than one or two years, yet UConn just rolled to another championship after losing three players to the NBA in addition to some other key departures.

Beyond the historic appeal of a three-peat, Hurley knows he has the infrastructure in place to broadly achieve big things. Leaving that behind and starting anew somewhere else wouldn’t make a lot of sense.