"People don't pick UConn for wrong reasons": Dan Hurley flexes Connecticut's brand value with impressive remarks

Dan Hurley has been at the helm at UConn since 2018. He teamed up with the Huskies following a tenure at Rhode Island and was tasked with bringing the program back to life. The coach has lived beyond the expectations of everyone in Storrs.

In a recent episode of “The Ryen Russillo Podcast,” Hurley made some remarks about the brand power of UConn basketball. The coach emphasized how the program stands out in the landscape and why it’s an appealing option to many top prospects across the country.

“Our basketball thing is different here. People don't pick UConn for the wrong reasons. You don't come here and go. For 110,000 people at a football game or you don't pick it because you think, the shit is all sweet here,” Dan Hurley said.

“You pick UConn basketball because you want to be compared to great players and if you don't win a major championship, maybe your career was underwhelming, or maybe even a little bit of a failure and that's heavy,” Hurley added.

Dan Hurley says UConn has been built to win

Speaking further on “The Ryen Russillo Podcast,” Dan Hurley reiterated that the Huskies, as a basketball program, has been built with a winning culture, ensuring championship success. This goes beyond the men's basketball program as the women have also been dominant.

“This basketball thing that's been built here has not been built on ‘Hey, come here and be a high draft pick.’ We live off of just a kind of this," Hurley said. "These promises of just the brand of our program, this big blue blood brand, and ‘Hey, come here you'll be a lottery pick.’”

“UConn basketball thing has been built on winning and a relentless pursuit of championships with Geno's 11 and Coach Calhoun's three. Then Kevin Ollie went into fourth and then the six that we now have overall and they're all within the last 30 years.”

Dan Hurley has been able to uphold the winning culture of the program since he arrived in Storrs. He's won the Big East regular season and tournament titles and has also been crowned national champion in the last two college basketball seasons.

Following his rejection of a massive deal to transition to the NBA with the Los Angeles Lakers, Hurley is set to chase a third straight national championship title with the Huskies. This will see him match Jim Calhoun at UConn and achieve a rare feat in college basketball.