Dan Hurley, arguably the best coach in college basketball, considered stepping down from his job earlier this year.
This according to a first-person account in his forthcoming book, “Never Stop: Life, Leadership, and What It Takes To Be Great.”
True to the title, Hurley hasn’t stopped — but he almost did in the spring. The news was first reported Wednesday by The Athletic. After ascending to the top of college hoops by guiding UConn to back-to-back national titles in 2023 and 2024, the pressures of trying to win three straight — and failing to do so — led Hurley to briefly consider quitting the profession. The pondering came on the heels of a dramatic 2024-25 season that was frequently accompanied by detrimental headlines.
“I thought about leaving,” Hurley writes in the book, due out Sept. 30. “Taking a gap year. Resigning as head coach of the UConn Huskies.”
CBS Sports reached out to Hurley, who was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.
The Huskies ’24-25 season started infamously with an 0-3 catastrophe at the Maui Invitational after debuting as a preseason top-five team. CBS Sports was given exclusive access to the Huskies amid that tournament flameout, which included Hurley’s first notorious encounter with officials last season.
UConn rebounded from that Maui slump by consecutively beating Baylor, Texas, Gonzaga and Xavier — all eventual NCAA tourney teams — in December and reaching 12-3. But UConn went went 6-6 through a seven-week stretch of Big East and ultimately landed an 8-seed in the NCAAs. The Huskies finished 24-11 after nearly upsetting eventual national champ Florida in the second round. That loss gave way for one more Hurley misstep, when he was caught on camera leaving the court saying to a Baylor team that was waiting to play in the next game, “I hope they don’t f— you like they f—– us.”
The 52-year-old Hurley has largely since…
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