The UConn Huskies are National Champions for a second straight year after their victory over Purdue in Monday’s National Championship game. But as some reminded us of on social media after the game on Monday night, things weren’t always sunshine and rainbows for this UConn program under head coach Dan Hurley.
The past two seasons have gone about as well for UConn fans as they could have hoped, completely walking through the competition in the NCAA Tournament to win National Championships.
However, Hurley’s first two seasons at the program (2018-19 and 2019-20), were not all that successful whatsoever. The team missed out on the NCAA Tournament entirely. At that point, it was in question whether Hurley would pan out as a head coach at the program.
That is all obviously water the bridge now considering all Hurley has accomplished. And after UConn’s win on Monday night, fans were quick to post an old press conference after a loss in 2020 where Hurley warned the rest of the country that UConn was coming.
After a loss to Villanova on January 18th, 2020, Hurley proclaimed to reporters that teams “better get UConn now”, because he was confident that he would turn around the program one day. The video quickly began to resurface on social media after Hurley’s latest championship win.
“I just think we’re in year two of a rebuild man,” said Hurley in the press conference. “This isn’t the way UConn has looked. We’re on our way back. We’ve got exciting young players. We’ve got a whole new group of guys that are gonna get enough wins this year that they will feel good about how their career ended. Some exciting young players that are gonna help get us back. We are going to continue to recruit and develop and bring in the type of players that are gonna get us back. People better get us now. That’s all, you better get us now. Because it’s coming.”
“People better get us now. … because [UConn’s] coming.”
Dan Hurley said this in 2020 after UConn missed THREE straight NCAA Tournament appearances. Spoke it into existence 🏆 pic.twitter.com/I9X1u3z5hf
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 9, 2024
At the time of this quote, UConn had dropped to a 10-7 record in the 2019-20 season. Individually, Hurley had a 26-24 record as head coach of the program.
Slowly but surely, Hurley began to turn his proclamation about the future of the program into a reality. The team had a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances in the 2020-21 season and the 2021-22 season where they exited in the first round. And the rest was history with their championship wins each of the last two years.
When the cards were down, Hurley believed in his ability to turn around the UConn program. And now, UConn’s future perhaps couldn’t be any brighter, which is a true testament to his resiliency as a head coach.
[Bleacher Report on Twitter/X]
