UConn men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley apologizes for First Night fiasco, discusses NIL impact on recruiting

ESPN analyst Seth Greenberg gave UConn men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley a microphone Monday morning and offered him a chance to “vent” about the Huskies’ First Night fiasco.

“If you fancy yourself a great basketball school, you should have baskets … that work,” Hurley told the crowd, drawing a laugh.

Later Monday, there came a better indication of UConn’s status in men’s basketball. The Huskies were ranked 24th in the AP Top 25 preseason poll, joining No. 4 Villanova among Big East schools. UConn had not been ranked going into a season since 2016. Gonzaga is No. 1.

With much of last season’s NCAA Tournament team returning and a highly rated returning class, UConn was expected to crack the rankings. They were in the Top 25 briefly, ranked as high as No. 23, last January,

Last Friday, UConn was staging First Night festivities after having to cancel the event last year, allowing more than 6,000 students into Gampel Pavilion. There was a lot of excitement as the men’s and women’s basketball teams were introduced followed by a long lull as workers struggled to get one of the basket stanchions anchored to the floor properly. Eventually, they gave up, The women’s team scrimmaged a few minutes in a half-court shootaround.

Hurley, who wanted to use the occasion for a blue-white scrimmage where his young players could get acclimated to shooting before a crowd, called it a night as the arena was emptying.

On Monday, Hurley joined the state’s other Division I men’s coaches at the preseason coaches breakfast at Golf Club of Avon, sponsored by Hartford Health to benefit the Jimmy V Foundation. Greenberg served as moderator.

Though he found some humor and irony in the fact that UConn, which bill itself the “Basketball Capital of the World,” was unable to get its baskets raised, Hurley was also a little embarrassed.

“It took two things to pull the event off,” he said. “Putting enough air in the basketball and getting the baskets to work. ... To have 6,000 students show up when you don’t have a [musical] act, and not be able to have a show, that can’t happen.

“I’m a part of that failure, obviously the basketball programs are a part of that failure that we weren’t able to get the basket up and deliver the evening that the students should have gotten, and I apologize and we should all apologize for that. It shouldn’t happen. It can’t happen.”

Though the crew had practiced installing the basket several times earlier in the day, the equipment malfunctioned when it was time to start the scrimmages.

Greenberg also asked the coaches about the new ability for athletes to make money on the use of their name, image and likeness.

“If NIL is the first question they want to ask in recruitment, they’re not coming to play for me,” Hurley said.

“Our recruiting approach is, we’re going to develop you as a player so you can have a long career professionally and make far more money as a player playing professionally beyond here. Kids making a decision based on where they can make a little bit of NIL money as opposed to, where can I go to develop for the next 50 years of my life, has clouded recruitment and in that way is bad for kids because they’re making bad decisions.”

In other UConn men’s basketball news, Tyler Polley, who has a sore ankle, could be back practicing later this week. Rahsool Diggins, who has a bone bruise on his knee, will be out a little longer than that. ... Hurley didn’t have any future recruits in attendance on Friday. Bristol’s Donovan Clingan, already committed to UConn, was there. UConn did host an unofficial visit from Naasir Cunningham, a top-rated Class of 2024 wing player from New Jersey, later in the weekend, according to The Athletic’s Andrew Slater. ... Isaiah Whaley, RJ Cole and Tyrese Martin will accompany Hurley to Big East Media Day in New York on Tuesday.

Dom Amore can be reached at damore@courant.com