Dan Hurley’s future served as the talk of the college basketball world spanning the nearly 3,000 miles from Los Angeles to Storrs, Conn. around this time last year when the Lakers had an opening.
The UConn men’s basketball coach has no plans of a repeat saga now that the Knicks are searching for their head coach with Tom Thibodeau canned.
“Not another summer of that,” Hurley said Tuesday night, per the Hartford Courant.
While this is not a definitive “no,” it’s an indication that Hurley does not — at least to start — have a wandering eye toward Madison Square Garden and replacing Thibodeau.
UConn sources are also not sweating the possibility of Hurley wanting to leave for Broadway, according to the New Haven Register.
There have been rumors about the Knicks being a potential dream destination for the two-time championship coach who grew up in Jersey City and starred for Seton Hall, with that chatter only amplified after he turned down the Lakers’ six-year, $70 million offer.
Hurley signed a six-year, $50 million contract extension with UConn last year that will take him through the 2029 season.
The 52-year-old focused on the Huskies’ roster for the 2025-26 season rather than discuss whether he’d be a fit to lead several former Villanova stars now wearing orange and blue.
“Two days into practice, not everyone is on campus, but we’re thrilled with the way we’ve been able to put it together,” Hurley said Tuesday, per the Courant.
One of the selling points for a college job compared to an NBA one is that Hurley is a made man in Connecticut, compared to the brutal pro ranks where coaches are hired to be fired.
Thibodeau led the Knicks to their first Eastern Conference finals trip in 25 years and turned the franchise from a laughing stock into a title contender, but not even that could save him.
Not every coach wants to inherit that type of pressure.
Hurley, on the other hand, is facing no heat after having a down season by his recent standards in which the Huskies bowed out in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in their quest for a three-peat.
If Hurley is not a factor in the race, he could be the second two-time championship coach passing on the Knicks with former Villanova coach Jay Wright reportedly not un-retiring to coach the team.
Arkansas coach and former Kentucky leader John Calipari is a possible option, per The Post’s Stefan Bondy, due to his connections to Knicks president Leon Rose and front office executive William Wesley.