Dan Hurley has begun the first steps of following in the footsteps of John Wooden. While imitating UCLA’s feat of seven straight titles from 1967-73 might seem next to impossible right now, UConn is getting to the next best step to a three-peat. Even though they’ve lost four players to the NBA, the mixture of new blood and returning talent shows Hurley good signs. One of the latter categories is Alex Karaban.

After testing the waters of the pro-league, Karaban, valued at $989k per On3, has returned for another year in Storrs with his exciting three-pointer. Hurley is hoping for the 21-year-old to step up and take charge this upcoming season. At the Big East Media Day, the coach said, “I think part of his evolution to become an NBA player and to becoming a leading man as opposed to an incredible supporting actor is to be able to handle the weight of being the face of the organization.”

While the redshirt junior put up great numbers last season, starting every game and averaging 13.3 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 1.5 assists, Hurley insists that this is not the only role he will have next. “Not just from a production standpoint but being the person that the media goes to after a tough loss, to be the person that’s gotta rally the team when I’m not happy with what’s going on in a particular practice or what have you,” the coach says. “There’s a lot of weight that you gotta carry when you’re a man and Alex is about to carry it.”

Karaban, who had been snubbed the last two years from Big East Awards, was finally named to the First Team on Media Day. His response? It was nice to earn “some recognition…it doesn’t mean anything.” The Huskies forward withdrew from the 2024 NBA Draft to build his resume more, especially with a three-peat.

Dan Hurley and Co. are getting ready to do something that has not been done in decades. UConn is already only the eighth team to win two back-to-back NCAA championships since they began in 1939. Now, the coach who rejected LeBron James and the Lakers for the Huskies is ready to win another trophy.

Dan Hurley has a “pathological”, “sick” and “obsessive” need for a three-peat

Consecutive championships in any sport are incredibly hard, let alone one that keeps changing the players on the board. And yet kudos to the coach who is moving the available talent across in such a way that it all meshes well. The pressure of a three-peat? Dan Hurley doesn’t feel it because he’s “obsessed with the process.”

At Big East Media Day, he told reporters, “I owe it to the people that invest in me and invest in these players to literally drive the people around to you places that they don’t think they can get to in such a pathological, sick, obsessive way that you’re just pursuing championships so friggin hard.”

Hurley came back to college basketball from a lucrative pro-league deal. The debate of NCAA being more profitable than the NBA aside, Dan Hurley is looking to make history. Maybe LeBron James and LA could have fit into that plan somewhere. But for the coach who has spent six seasons in Storrs, nowhere is better than the team that he knows is capable of breaking some of the biggest records in NCAA to date.