Dan Hurley, head coach of the 2-time defending national champion Connecticut Huskies men's basketball team, could be on his way out of college basketball.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported early Thursday morning that the Los Angeles Lakers are targeting Hurley for the storied franchise's head coaching opening, with talks planning to escalate in the coming days.
No dollar figures have been mentioned yet, but obviously the Lakers can go well beyond what UConn can offer.
Incidentally, Hurley spoke Wednesday night about the status of his contract extension at UConn and the toll it takes on him do to the job:
"You sacrifice a lot to do this job. It's a high-pressure job, it beats your ass pretty good, it's a total commitment," Hurley told CT Insider. "A lot suffers because of it: your family, any type of a social life. It basically consumes everything that you have. There's a price you pay for it."
"You also have a market as a coach when you've accomplished a lot of things. Trying to find that sweet spot is something."
If and when Hurley leaves, he'll be the third coach in the 2023-24 athletic season to win a national championship and immediately take another job. Bob Bowman left Arizona State for Texas after winning a swimming national championship with the Sun Devils, and Jim Harbaugh took the Los Angeles Chargers job after winning a national championship with Michigan.
Harbaugh's departure from the college game, coupled with Nick Saban's retirement and now Hurley's possible departure points to a concerning trend within college athletics. That would be three of the most accomplished, most influential leaders within college athletics, all gone from the game within six months of each other. Hurley's perspective applied to coaches across all college sports.
Of course, Harbaugh made no secret of his desire to return to the NFL for years, regardless of the new paradigm in college sports. Saban, 72, was never going to coach forever. And the Lakers are the Lakers. It's possible all three men would still make the same moves in a world where players do not have unlimited movement.
But it's also possible that the twin changes of the Portal-and-NIL helped push three coaches with a combined 10 national championships out the door. At 51 years old, Hurley would be primed to chase a Saban-esque number of championships, should he so choose. As Woj writes for ESPN, "(t)he demands of NIL fundraising for non-power football schools like UConn are an especially relentless grind -- and expected to become even more difficult."
No matter the case, college athletics is in a worse place without Jim Harbaugh, without Nick Saban, and now possibly without Dan Hurley.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.