Monday was a terrific day for UConn due to course it was.
I imply, who has higher Mondays than UConn?
Bear in mind, it was a Monday — particularly Monday, April 3, 2023 — when Dan Hurley guided the Huskies to a 76-59 victory over San Diego State to safe this system’s fifth nationwide championship. Then, 53 Mondays later, Hurley guided the Huskies to a 75-60 win over Purdue to safe this system’s sixth nationwide championship. Three Mondays after that, extra nice information — particularly that Saint Mary’s switch Aidan Mahaney had picked UConn as his subsequent vacation spot after additionally visiting Kentucky, Creighton and Virginia. Six Mondays after that, extra nice information — particularly that Hurley had turned down a six-year, $70 million provide from the Los Angeles Lakers to stay the coach at his Massive East energy.
Now right here we’re once more — again with extra nice information for UConn on a Monday.
Darius Adams delivered the headline when the top-25 prospect from the Class of 2025 publicly introduced his dedication to the Huskies reside on CBS Sports activities HQ. Requested by Adam Finkelstein to elucidate why he picked UConn, the 6-foot-5 combo guard pointed largely to its location and the teaching workers headlined by Hurley and bolstered by heralded assistants Kimani Younger, Tom Moore and Luke Murray.
“Initially, [UConn is] near residence,” mentioned Adams, who grew up in New Jersey about 200 miles from UConn’s campus. “After which, simply, the teaching workers. Beloved being round them. Their depth in observe, I actually like. I wanna be pushed onerous. I wanna earn one thing. … Everybody has the identical objective there. They wanna get higher. And I wanna put myself in that place.”
It is onerous to argue with that, if solely as a result of it is onerous to argue with any opinion that features any person wanting to leap on the UConn prepare that’s today shifting higher than some other prepare in school basketball. The Huskies received a nationwide title in 2023, did it once more in 2024 and are at present the favorites within the betting markets to do it once more in 2025 regardless of shedding 4 starters one 12 months after shedding three.
It is all fairly nuts.
As I’ve famous earlier than, if Hurley is ready to develop into the one males’s Division I basketball coach to three-peat moreover John Picket, I will be snug calling it the best achievement within the historical past of the game, all issues thought-about, as a result of that is what it might be when you mix the raised eyebrows now linked to Picket’s legacy, the scale of the present NCAA Event Hurley is teaching in relative to the scale of the smaller NCAA Event Picket navigated, and the fixed roster-turnover taking place in school athletics now that coaches from earlier eras, Picket included, simply did not should cope with.
Merely put, it is tougher now than ever to be constantly nice.
However Hurley is making it look simple.
Monday served as the newest reminder when UConn added the primary member of its 2025 recruiting class. (There’s extra to return, clearly). Two Mondays from now, we’ll see Hurley on the sideline once more for the primary time since April when his Huskies meet Rhode Island in an exhibition inside Mohegan Solar Enviornment. Twenty-five Mondays after that, the championship recreation of the 2025 NCAA Event will probably be held in San Antonio. Numerous issues must break proper for Hurley to get there, then much more issues must break proper for him to win it. It is a daunting job, for positive. Like our Candid Coaches sequence prompt final month, the good transfer would probably be to guess towards it. Chances and all that.
However I am not betting my cash towards it.
Nope, not this time.
As a result of no person in school sports activities has higher Mondays than UConn. And, man, I’ve simply seen too many nice ones from the Huskies lately to imagine with any diploma of certainty that one other one is not on deck as soon as April rolls round.