"It's awesome fuel": Dan Hurley drops honest opinion on being under the radar & strategically playing mind games with opposition coaches

Dan Hurley’s UConn Huskies are the defending champion and look to be on the way to retaining the title. Nonetheless, the team has been under the radar throughout the college basketball season.

On “The Herd” on Monday, Hurley said that his team has used that status to their advantage to keep the players motivated, while also playing other mind games.

“I love it and we use it," Hurley said. "It’s awesome fuel. The slights, the perceived slights, the made-up slight, the quotes we make up that people have never said, misquoting opposing coaches about our players, you’ve got to use it all.

“When you achieve the level of success that we've had going back to the calendar year, the human nature stuff is there, the complacency, and we've got to use anything at our disposal to keep the boys on edge.”

Will Dan Hurley lead the Huskies to another title?

After getting eliminated in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in 2021 and 2022 despite being the higher seed both times, Dan Hurley led UConn to the national championship in 2023.

The title victory was a massive turnaround for Huskies basketball after missing March Madness in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Until winning it all last season, the program had just one NCAA Tournament win (in 2016) since winning the national championship in 2014.

UConn (35-3), the No. 1 overall seed, has maintained the momentum of the previous season all through the 2023-24 season. The Huskies are back in the Final Four and hold a good chance of retaining the national title. They will be up against high-flying Alabama (25-11), the No. 4 seed in the West Region, for a place in the championship game, on Saturday.

Dan Hurley’s team was a freight train in the NCAA Tournament last season, winning its six games by 20.0 points and with no game ending closer than 13 points. And the Huskies are deservedly in the Final Four having blasted Stetson by 39 points, Northwestern by 17, San Diego State by 30 and then Illinois by 25 in the first four rounds.

It would be no surprise to see UConn go on to claim the national title once again.

Where does another national title rank UConn

Should Dan Hurley lead UConn to another national championship this season, the Huskies will have their status further elevated in college basketball. This will be the program's sixth national championship, all since 1999.

A championship success will see the Huskies go above Duke and Indiana, which also have five title wins. The team will equal North Carolina with six while sitting behind only UCLA (11) and Kentucky (eight).