Dan Hurley’s players recall his angriest practice tirades: ‘That was my Welcome to UConn moment’

INDIANAPOLIS — Malachi Smith knew what he was getting into when he committed to UConn in the transfer portal last April. After four seasons at Dayton, Smith craved the intensity and success fostered by Dan Hurley’s Huskies. He had heard of stories of the head coach’s legendary practice tirades, and it didn’t take long for him to become the focal point of one.

Hurley was instructing Smith about passing reads during an early season practice when the senior guard gave a nonchalant acknowledgement that he heard the coach’s message.

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“I said, ‘OK, bet,’” Smith recalled after UConn’s thrilling 2026 Final Four victory over Illinois on Saturday night. It turned out that was a poor choice of words.

“He told me, say ‘yes, coach,’ and I said, ‘yes coach,’” Smith said. “He said no, say ‘yes fucking coach.’ And I said, ‘yes, fucking coach.’ Ever since I’ve been saying ‘yes coach’ or ‘yes sir.’”

Hurley is 40 minutes away from his third national championship in four years when UConn faces the Michigan Wolverines in the title game on Monday. The first two came pretty easily: the Huskies’ 2023 team won their six tournament games by an average margin of 20 points per game despite being a No. 4 seed. The following year’s team was even more dominant, out-scoring opponents by an average of 23.3 points in the tournament to become college basketball’s first back-to-back national champion since Billy Donovan’s Florida Gators in 2006-2007.

It didn’t always look like this year’s Huskies would be playing on the final day of the season. UConn lost to an under .500 Creighton team at home in the middle of February. A few weeks later, it lost the last game of the regular season to a terrible Marquette team that finished only 12-20 overall. UConn even entered the NCAA tournament on a sour note after it got drilled by 20 points against St. John’s in the Big East tournament championship game, which finalized its destiny as a No. 2…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/dan-hurley-players-recall-angriest-200512570.html

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Publish date : 2026-04-05 20:05:00

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