Dan Hurley calls out college coaches for grabbing players with fifth year of eligibility
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Dan Hurley is never one to hold back, whether it’s at an official’s call during a heated conference game in February, or in this case in August in the aftermath of recent lawsuits that have changed the landscape of college sports.
The UConn men’s basketball head coach had a session with reporters on Friday, during which he took aim at college coaches who are taking advantage of those lawsuits that have made players available to their programs through a fifth year of eligibility.
“At some point, you’ve got to care about the sport,” Hurley said. “Especially if the sport has given you a lot. Doing things to hurt the sport so that you can win a little bit more, you’ve got to look in the mirror a little on that.”
Hurley not only called out coaches and encouraged them to do the right thing, he called out the courts, too, in light of their recent rulings regarding 5th-year eligibility.
“It’s total chaos and it’s not sustainable,” Hurley said.
Hurley has won a lot himself in the sport, leading UConn to 2 national championships in 2023 and 2024. He just wants what’s best for the sport of college basketball and for college sports in general. The recent court ruling in Colorado made athletes from the Class of 2022 eligible for a fifth season, and Hurley just doesn’t think the fallout from that is going to help the sport he loves.
With a lot of players from the Class of 2022 now considering a return to college basketball, coaches have a second chance to fill out their rosters the way they want for the upcoming season. For Hurley, that second-chance option is what had him fired up on Friday with those reporters.
While Hurley challenges coaches to be better, there are championships to still be won, and here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about the basketball teams with the best chance to be playing in the Final Four next April:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
