Dan Hurley gives blunt take on Purdue star's future ahead of Final Four: "If Zach Edey isn't a lottery pick then there's something wrong with the NBA"

UConn coach Dan Hurley safely navigated the pitfalls of the first few rounds of the NCAA Tournament to guide his Huskies team to another Final Four appearance where it will face the Purdue Boilermakers and star player Zach Edey.

Edey had a 40-point and 16-rebound explosion against the Tennessee Volunteers to lead his team to the Final Four, and Hurley was full of praise for the big man during an appearance on "The Herd" podcast.

"If Zach Edey is not like a lottery pick and a tremendous NBA player, then there's something wrong with the NBA," Hurley said. "Then maybe they're not playing the right game at that level. This guy has been dominant, bringing it back to Ralph Sampson, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson type of performances at that spot."

Dan Hurley has turned UConn into a juggernaut

The UConn Huskies have played impeccable basketball throughout the 2024 NCAA Tournament and have looked like the most likely champions among all the teams still left in the competition.

Saturday's game against the Illinois Fighting Illini demonstrated the dominance of the Huskies.

With 1:25 remaining on the clock in the first quarter of the clash, the teams were tied 23-23. What happened next was a demolition job on a scale never seen before during the Big Dance.

The Huskies denied the Fighting Illini any points while going on a 30-0 scoring run that deflated the No. 2 offense in the country, allowing Dan Hurley to rest his starters.

The game ended 77-52, and the Huskies rightly looked like the favorites to win the national championship again.

After the game, Dan Hurley sounded confident about his team's chances of success in this year's edition of March Madness.

"The level of basketball that we're playing right now," Hurley said, "is going to be really, really hard to beat. The level of basketball that we've played to this point, it's been unparalleled, just the defense, and unparalleled in terms of what we've been able to do here and the domination of the quality teams."

It is hard to believe that Hurley's first four seasons as coach of the Huskies yielded zero wins during March Madness, and his name was being ridiculed for his poor postseason record before last year's tournament.

In 2022, the No. 5 seeded UConn was upset by No. 12 seed New Mexico State, and there were calls to review Hurley's status.

With the dominant No. 1 seed Purdue in the way, Dan Hurley must find a way past the immovable object that is Boilermakers center Zach Edey with his unstoppable force, the UConn Huskies.