UConn’s Dan Hurley in talks with Lakers, will make decision ‘in near future’

John Fanta

College Basketball Broadcaster and Reporter

Dan Hurley met with his UConn players on Thursday morning and told them he is in talks with the Los Angeles Lakers about their head coaching vacancy, a source told FOX Sports. Hurley’s plan is to have his mind made up on the decision weighing on him in the near future, a source said.

After reports surfaced that the Lakers are targeting the 51-year-old head coach of the back-to-back men’s college basketball national champions, Hurley didn’t want to hide from his players in sharing that the rumors were true. Hurley told his team — which is No. 2 in our FOX Sports Way Too Early Top 25 and trying to become the first program since John Wooden’s UCLA teams to 3-peat for a national championship in 2025 — that it’s “business as usual” for now. Their practice was scheduled for noon on Thursday in Storrs.

A source tells FOX Sports that Hurley is “truly at a 50-50” in weighing his decision whether to make the leap up for LeBron James and the Lakers or stay in the college game and try to achieve something unthinkable in the modern era.

“He deals with things mentally where he’s constantly seeking to prove what he can do,” a source told FOX Sports.

[Fanta: Why the Lakers and Dan Hurley could be a winning match]

As for Hurley’s current position, a source tells FOX Sports that the University of Connecticut has offered the coach a lucrative new contract that would make him one of the highest-paid coaches in the country, featuring significant widespread benefits for him. Hurley said Wednesday that “it’s complicated, and it’s taken more time (to get a deal done) than any of us would have liked. It’s not something that’s been a rush for me. You sacrifice a lot to do this job. The job beats your ass pretty good, and a lot suffers with your family. Any chance at a social life, it consumes everything you have.”

Should Dan Hurley leave UConn for the Lakers?

Keep this in mind: UConn is not in the power four conferences, currently residing in the Big East, and the money required to offer this new deal to Hurley does not get done easily at a place like Connecticut. But a deal has been on the table and placed in front of Hurley’s team.

Finances aside, a source says Hurley is weighing whether he wants to make this move. He has northeast roots and his father, Bob Sr., is 76, very involved in his life and a fixture at UConn games. His wife Andrea and boys, Dan and Andrew, are happy in the northeast but his sons are past college, so one would think that could make a move easier.

“His parents are still here and still very much a part of his life, and it’s convenient for the family to be in this part of the country,” a source said. “But there’s that angle that there may never be a better opportunity than this one right now.”

John Fanta is a national college basketball broadcaster and writer for FOX Sports. He covers the sport in a variety of capacities, from calling games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Network to providing commentary on The Field of 68 Media Network. Follow him on Twitter @John_Fanta.