Hurley and The Huskies

From Jersey City, New Jersey to Storrs, Connecticut, Dan, or Danny, Hurley is a National Champion! 

Hurley led the UConn Huskies men's basketball team to their fifth championship on Monday night in Houston, Texas. 

Led by 19 points from Tristen Newton, 17 from Adama Sanogo and 16 from Jordan Hawkins, the Huskies defeated San Diego State 76-59. 

UConn won all of their NCAA Tournament games by at least 15 points. Just dominance. 

So, yes, as someone living in CT, I am a UConn fan. 

The Hurley factor makes me root for UConn even more. And yes, I'm a little obsessed. Just a little. 

Let me explain. My parents are from Jersey City and know the Hurley family. 

A family of basketball greatness. 

From Bob Hurley Sr, who was a legendary basketball coach and President of St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, to Danny's brother Bobby who played at Duke and with the Sacramento Kings in the NBA and is now the head coach at Arizona State. 

 

Danny's path was not an easy one, however. From playing for his father at St. Anthony, to playing at Seton Hall. Then his coaching career where he started as an assistant for his father, then became an assistant at the college level at Rutgers. 

He went back to high school to get his start as a head coach at St. Benedict's Prep in New Jersey. Then it was on to Wagner, where Bobby was his assistant. Following Wagner, he spent time at Rhode Island, before coming to Connecticut. 

While playing at Seton Hall, Danny dealt with off-the court issues and having to live up to what Bobby, his older brother was doing. 

Due to that, Danny credits not only his family, but also George Blaney and PJ Carlesimo, who were his coaches at Seton Hall, for helping him get where he is today. I felt that was special how he made sure to shout them out when asked about the ride it's been for him. 

Hurley puts himself in the company of Jim Calhoun and Kevin Ollie as the three coaches to win championships at UConn. He also credits both Calhoun and women's coach Geno Auriemma for helping him along the way. 

At the end of the day, it's about what the players do on the court, but you need a good leader, or else there is chemistry issues, in order to be successful. 

It's UConn's fifth championship and Connecticut is once again the "basketball capital of the world."

Nets, Not the Knicks? Yes, Go Nets!

Hopefully the current Nets are even more excitable as the Jason Kidd days. 

It's the opening night of the NBA season. You're writing about the NBA, you say. Well, for the first time in a long time, I'm actually somewhat excited about it. 

Being a Nets fan, there hasn't been a lot to cheer about since since the early to mid 2000's when they went deep in the playoffs a couple years, including going to the NBA Finals in 2001-2002 and 2002-2003. Well, tonight begins the long-overdue debut of Kevin Durant, as he teams with Kyrie Irving and the rest of the Nets. I'm also interested to see what DeAndre Jordan does for them. He's a inside presence that can work well with Jarrett Allen. 

People think it's crazy when I tell them I'm a Nets fan, and that I was a Nets fan when they were in New Jersey with Jason Kidd, Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson. I'm not sure why or how I became a Nets fan because they are the one team I started cheering for when they were not great in the mid-late 2000's, after the Finals appearances. There were some ups and plenty of downs with many coaching changes. I liked Lawrence Frank and he had some success early on, but when went through a really bad stretch and untimely got let go during the 12-70 2009-2010 season. Since then, they are on their 10th coach (including interim). That is not a recipe for success. Or should I say, that is due to the lack of success. 

The first game I went to was 2006 (I believe) at the Izod Center, then Continental Airlines Arena in *East Rutherford, NJ. I know they weren't good, but I miss the days of them in NJ. They will always be the NJ Nets to me, but I've continued to be a fan, once they moved to Brooklyn. I know some people said they would no longer be fans. To me, it's the same franchise, they just moved location.  

*I initially had written Newark. Thanks to Brian Koonz for pointing it out. I should know better, as it's part of the Meadowlands sports complex which includes Metlife Stadium and it's always said "From East Rutherford, New Jersey."

Now, back to present day. Having the stars is awesome, now as fans, we need to hope the work well together and bring the team success. This also allows players who had to be the go-to-guys before, like Joe Harris, fit in well as role players. A team with a lot of stars is helpful, but you need other guys to fill in the pieces in order to have a great team. 

It's a long season so it may take some time for the everything to mesh and for people like Durant, who is coming off an injury, to shake off some rust. It's a unique season but it can also hopefully we a fun season. It will be interesting to see what happens but I'm intrigued.