UConn men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley was named to the Naismith Coach of the Year watch list on Friday.
Of the 15 coaches on the list, Hurley is the lone representative of the Big East Conference and one of two former winners to earn a spot along with Kansas’ Bill Self (2012). Only five men’s coaches have won the award, which Hurley claimed in 2024, multiple times.
After a down year following back-to-back national championships, Hurley has his Huskies positioned as a contender again at 24-3 as they approach the toughest part of the Big East schedule. UConn started the year building one of the best nonconference resumés in the nation with neutral or semi-home wins over BYU (current NET 21), Illinois (NET 4) and reigning national champion Florida (NET 9), along with a road win in one of the toughest environments in the sport at Kansas (NET 13).
After falling to Arizona (NET 3), UConn won 18 games in a row – the third-longest winning streak in program history – including 12 straight to start Big East play. The Huskies enter the toughest part of their conference season sitting a half game back of preseason favorite St. John’s in the league standings with a 14-2 mark in league play.
UConn dropped to No. 10 in the NET rankings with a 7-2 record in Quad 1 games, ironically seeing its Jan. 31 road win at Creighton elevated to a Quad 1 victory after falling to the Bluejays on Wednesday.
As much as the Huskies have struggled defensively of late, it has still been a significant turnaround on that end of the court from last year’s group thanks to the addition of point guard Silas Demary Jr. and the development of center Tarris Reed Jr., both of whom were named to the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year watch list.
Among the national leaders in scoring defense (No. 19), field goal percentage defense (No. 25), 3-pointers allowed per game (No. 11), and block rate (No. 14) – UConn is currently No. 13 in defensive efficiency by KenPom after finishing No. 75 last season.
The Huskies are also No. 24 in offensive efficiency and lead the Big East in field goal percentage (48.8%), 3-point field goal percentage (36.8%), effective field goal percentage (56.1%), scoring margin (plus-13) and assists (18.6 per game).
Demary Jr. and Alex Karaban (who became the program’s all-time wins leader last week) were both named to the Naismith Player of the Year Late-Season Team. Solo Ball, Karaban and Reed Jr. all earned spots on their respective positional midseason watch lists for the Naismith ‘Starting Five’ awards.
The Naismith Coach of the Year winner is announced at the Final Four.
Naismith Men’s College Coach of the Year watch list
Brad Brownell, Clemson; Mark Byington, Vanderbilt; Fred Hoiberg, Nebraska; Dan Hurley, UConn; Tom Izzo, Michigan State; Tommy Lloyd, Arizona; Dusty May, Michigan; Ryan Odom, Virginia
T.J. Otzelberger, Iowa State; Kelvin Sampson, Houston; Josh Schertz, Saint Louis; Jon Scheyer, Duke; Bill Self, Kansas; Travis Steele, Miami University; Brad Underwood, Illinois