Dan Hurley joins rare group: New Jerseyans to coach an NCAA basketball champion
In case anyone watching Monday's NCAA Tournament final didn't know where Dan Hurley came from, the victorious coach yelled it at the top of his lungs during his live postgame interview.
"Jersey City! Jersey City! Jersey City!" Hurley bellowed after his UConn Huskies dispatched San Diego State 76-59 in Houston.
New Jersey has produced its share of college basketball royalty, but Hurley just joined an exclusive list.
The son of Jersey City and graduate of St. Anthony High School and Seton Hall University became just the third native New Jerseyan to coach a team to the Division 1 men’s basketball crown. He joins Rollie Massimino and Gary Williams with that distinction. All three of them not only hailed from New Jersey; they also coached at Garden State high schools.
Massimino attended Hillside High School (Class of 1952) and coached at Cranford High (as an assistant from 1956-1959) and Hillside High (a head coach from 1959-1963) before eventually leading Villanova to the 1985 national title with a seminal upset of Georgetown.
Williams graduated from Collingswood High School (Class of 1963) and later coached at Woodrow Wilson High in Camden from 1969-71, winning the NJSIAA Group 4 title in 1970, before eventually cutting down the nets with Maryland in 2002.
Hurley cut his teeth as a head coach at St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark before ascending the collegiate ranks at Wagner and Rhode Island. He’s also the second New Jersey college grad to coach a March Madness champion, joining former Rutgers point guard Jim Valvano, who marshaled N.C. State to the crown in 1983.
In his postgame on-court interview, Hurley shouted out both of his coaches at Seton Hall -- P.J. Carlesimo and George Blaney. Carlesimo, who came agonizingly close to winning it all with the Hall in 1989, falling by one point to Michigan in overtime, was at the game as a radio analyst for Westwood One.
So, of course, were Hurley's father Bob and brother Bobby, St. Anthony legends. And his wife Andrea, a fellow Seton Hall grad, was in tears as he cut down the net. The game was played in Houston, but it was a scene straight out of North Jersey as Dan Hurley entered rarefied air in the Garden State's hardwood pantheon.
Afterward, addressing his animated, sometimes maniacal sideline demeanor and those who see him as a cartoon character, Dan Hurley drew on his roots to explain it all.
"I am who I am," he said. "I'm from Jersey City, and this is how people from Jersey City act."
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. He is an Associated Press Top 25 voter. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Dan Hurley of UConn is third New Jerseyan to coach NCAA basketball champion
