"It'll be nice to go back to hunting and not being hunted": Dan Hurley gets real about "rewiring" process after UConn's March Madness exit

UConn coach Dan Hurley is looking forward to a longer offseason where he'll have more time — in his words — rewiring the Huskies to make it a formidable team next season. Hurley stressed this during UConn's media availability session on Wednesday, three days after they lost to Florida in the second round of the 2025 March Madness.

After the heartbreaking 77-75 second-round loss to the Gators, the two-time national championship-winning coach said he plans to do some soul searching and re-wiring, and then come back as an improved coach next season. He was asked by the media how it was going and the 52-year-old coach playfully replied:

"Early stages of rewiring are going okay," Hurley said (1:28). “You're going to have a lot more time because you're not going to be celebrating and throwing out pitches and doing things of that nature. You do have a lot more time to work on your craft and to be locked in on chasing something again."

Hurley said the three-year period from the time they won back-to-back in 2023 and 2024 to Sunday's second-round exit felt like a long season. He described the 2024-25 season as complicated and challenging, admitting he wanted to keep on playing despite the odds.

"It's complicated and this year was challenging," Hurley said (2:22). It was challenging in the end as desperately as you wanted to play, and keep going with the team and going on a run. It'll be nice to go back to hunting and not being hunted."

UConn had a promising start to the season, winning four straight games but they showed some vulnerability in their stint in the Maui Invitational where they lost three straight. They picked up eight straight wins to get back into the saddle but tumbled down again, going 2-3 in a five-game stretch where they lost to Villanova, Creighton and Xavier.

Losses to St. John's, Seton Hall and again to Creighton in the Big East tournament placed them as No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament, where the Huskies fell short of their three-peat bid, losing to Florida in the second round.

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Dan Hurley insists his coaching style won't change next season

UConn coach Dan Hurley stressed that he won't change his coaching approach next season because it has been effective in the past three seasons. Hurley insisted his approach had led to arguably one of the most successful in modern-day college basketball.

However, he acknowledged the quest for three titles took its toll on himself and his team. The veteran coach welcomed the offseason positively but said he won't change his style and will remain as an intense bench tactician.

"I'm not obviously going to change much about the way I coach or the way I approach (things)," Hurley said (3:54) "But there's certainly ways that I can learn from this year and get better but not change the way I go about things as a coach because it's been successful."

Hurley will have the third-best recruiting class next season (per 24/7 Sports) behind Houston and Duke. UConn signed up five-star guard Braylon Mullins and four-star players combo guard Darius Adams, power forward Eric Reibe and Jacob Furphy.

He still has to navigate the transfer portal and sign up quality players there. The veteran coach will also await the decision of his underclassmen if they'll be back or not next season.