Dan Hurley criticizes ESPN, FS1, praises TNT for college hoops coverage

Dan Hurley has strong opinions. He’s made that much known throughout his long and successful career as a college basketball coach.

His UConn Huskies men’s basketball team won’t be eating “the f*cking tryptophan” before game day, he told reporters earlier this week, referring to the compound found in turkey that makes people sleepy. Can’t risk coming out sluggish during key non-conference games, after all.

But it turns out that Thanksgiving dinner wasn’t the only topic Hurley wanted to opine on during arguably the biggest week for college basketball until March. The two-time national champion head coach had some thoughts on how his sport is covered in the media. Specifically, Hurley took aim at ESPN and FS1 for failing to give the sport enough attention, while praising TNT for its college basketball coverage as the network enters its second year covering the Big East.

“TNT and truTV, I love what they’re doing with college basketball,” Hurley told reporters, per Adam Zagoria. “They’ve got legitimate studio shows, I think they’re doing a great job covering the sport. They’re talking to players postgame on the court and I love how they’re covering the game.”

TNT has certainly kicked its college basketball coverage up a notch during the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas this week, setting a new standard for how networks should cover early-season college basketball tournaments. Hurley’s squad, however, is headed to Madison Square Garden to take on Illinois this Friday on Fox. The UConn coach didn’t have such kind words for that network’s coverage.

“We’ve just gotta market it better,” he said about how networks treat college hoops. “It’s gotta get covered more, it’s gotta get covered better. Morning talk shows should be talking about, ‘who’s the current best team in the country?’ You can’t take 10 minutes, 15 minutes with these morning talk shows on FS1 or ESPN? You can’t take 10 minutes away from talking about the backup quarterback on the Lions? You don’t want to talk about college basketball and some of the great players in this amazing freshman class? Get excited about college basketball before March Madness. It’s like, the f*cking best sh*t.”

To be fair, it seems like Hurley is comparing two different things: TNT’s game coverage to FS1 and ESPN’s morning debate shows. Still, his point about FS1 and ESPN neglecting college basketball during its daytime studio programming is valid. Rarely, if ever, does college basketball come up on those shows until March.

Dan Hurley would like to see that change.