2024 NCAA Basketball Tournament Brackets
UConn men’s basketball head coach Dan Hurley was named one of four national finalists for the Naismith Coach of the Year Award on Monday.
In his sixth year leading the Huskies, Hurley has the program back in the Sweet 16 for the second consecutive year after winning its eighth consecutive NCAA Tournament game by double-figures on Sunday night over Northwestern.
He would be the first UConn coach to receive the award.
The reigning national champions earned their first-ever No. 1 overall seed after a program-record 28 regular season wins, including a conference-record 18 in the Big East which helped Hurley earn the league’s Coach of the Year award. The Huskies won their first outright Big East regular season title in 25 years and their first Big East Tournament title since 2011.
Dom Amore: Dominant Donovan Clingan shows up at perfect time for UConn men
After losing three starters and two key rotation players from the national title team, Hurley has UConn (33-3) just one win away from the program record for wins in a season, set in the 1998-99 title campaign.
Iowa State’s T.J. Otzelberger, Houston’s Kelvin Sampson and South Carolina’s Lamont Paris were also named finalists for the award, which will be announced on April 7 during the Final Four in Phoenix.
UConn returns to action for a rematch of the 2023 national championship game against San Diego State, a 5-seed, in Boston’s TD Garden on Thursday. The Sweet 16 game is set to tip at 7:39 p.m.
