Dan Hurley UConn Huskies villain Angry Dan Hurley, edit via Liam McGuire.
College BasketballBy Matt Yoder on

Sports really thrive not just when there are people and teams to root for, but people and teams that you can root against. And in a very short time, Connecticut Huskies head coach Dan Hurley is shooting to the top of the list of the industry’s biggest villains.

Most importantly, Dan Hurley checks both boxes necessary to be a great sports villain.

As the coach of the reigning back-to-back national champions, Hurley is at the top of the mountain in his sport. There is no Coach K, no Bob Knight, no Roy Williams, and no Jim Boeheim anymore who used to be the coaches that fans loved to hate. John Calipari and Rick Pitino are coaching at Arkansas and St. John’s respectively and barely a part of the national conversation these days.

Given the constant player turnover and the influence and power they hold, college basketball has always been driven by the overwhelming personality of its coaches. And Hurley fills that void as a dominant force that fans would line up to knock off his perch.

Also, Dan Hurley is a full-fledged psychopath on the basketball court.

Hurley’s less-than-personable qualities were on full display on Monday at the Maui Invitational. He already has a reputation as being a huge jerk on the sidelines, but went completely overboard, even by his own very high standards in a loss against Memphis.

Hurley was called for a technical foul in overtime after going ballistic and played a massive role in the Huskies losing the game as he angrily called one of the referees a “f—ing joke” to his face.

But that wasn’t all. After the game, Hurley again launched into a rant against the officiating while also throwing a Memphis player under the bus for good measure. He also commented the Huskies deserving a better whistle as the back-to-back national champions.

Being a sore loser? Acting entitled? Costing your team the game with your own antics? What else could we ask for in a villain!?!

Hilariously, this is the same coach that was praised by the New York Times during UConn’s first championship run for his new “mild-mannered” approach to basketball. Apparently the Zen isn’t working quite like it once was.

Hurley’s performance both during and after the game had college basketball observers all convinced that for better and for worse, Dan Hurley has fully arrived as the next great heel for the sport.

As a bonus, Hurley also had an offseason flirtation with the Los Angeles Lakers that was driven by his confidante Adrian Wojnarowski, so his motives can even be questioned by college basketball purists too! We may never know just how serious Hurley was about potentially taking the Lakers job, but it did end up with him cashing in on a brand new $50 million contract with the Huskies.

Rarely have we seen someone combine winning and whining so well as Dan Hurley. Maybe the only coach that comes to mind who could be on the same level of generational villainry in modern sports is Bill Belichick, but that was more for the scandals that surrounded the Patriots rather than a reflection on the coach’s personality. Sure, Belichick was never likable… but he wasn’t so over-the-top in his mannerisms that he was demonstrably unlikeable in a human sense. Besides, who could really hate someone who has such a passion for long snapping?

Whether it was roaming the sidelines or speaking at press conferences, Belichick rarely gave any personality that could be loved or hated in any way. Nick Saban was much the same way at Alabama.

Think of the other championship-winning coaches and figures in modern sports history. Tom Brady and LeBron James have never really had any real off-court controversy (unless you count Brady fumbling Gisele by coming back to play for the Bucs). Draymond Green took all the slings and arrows for Steve Kerr and Steph Curry. The Houston Astros cheated, but did they ever draw that much hate nationally outside of baseball? The Yankees and Cowboys keep falling short and Aaron Rodgers hasn’t won a championship since 2011.

But Dan Hurley? If he wasn’t an elite college basketball coach he would probably be a viral social media hit for complaining to the manager and threatening to call the corporate office because his bagel wasn’t toasted properly.

This is the other side of being a great villain though, if the UConn coach isn’t careful, over time his antics will lead him to walk on an ever-thinning tightrope unless the national championships keep piling up. The outbursts will become less and less enthralling and more and more disturbing. The entertainment that we find rooting against him will turn into go-away heat.

Yes, Dan Hurley’s unique intensity and drive have helped to build him into an unmitigated success and a multiple-time champion. But a good villain never lasts forever. Either they have to be rehabilitated or defeated.

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