Dan Hurley is staying put.
The UConn men’s basketball coach has reportedly turned down a lucrative deal to become the Los Angeles Lakers’ new head coach with the hopes of chasing a third-straight national championship with the Huskies, a feat only ever accomplished by the UCLA Bruins in the 1960’s and again in the early 1970’s.
ESPN first reported the news, noting that the six-year, $70 million deal the Lakers put on the table apparently wasn’t enough to lure Hurley away from UConn.
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Los Angeles’ pursuit of Hurley seemed to be going well with the long-time basketball coach making the journey west to California on Friday to meet with Lakers’ brass.
But according to ESPN’s report, UConn made an offer to Hurley that would make him one of the highest-paid NCAA coaches.
The Lakers will have to resume their search to find a replacement for Darvin Ham, who was fired after his second season with the team which resulted in Los Angeles’ first round playoff loss this year.
LAKERS MADE ‘COMPELLING CASE’ TO TAKE HEAD COACH JOB, DAN HURLEY SAYS
Hurley, 51, led UConn to back-to-back national championships back in April, becoming the first coach to do so since Billy Donovan did it with Florida in 2007. And the Huskies did so in a dominant way as well, becoming just the sixth team in NCAA history to win all six tournament games by double-digits.
Almost as soon as Hurley cut the net, speculation about a potential new job opened up.
But for Hurley, a move didn’t seem likely.
“I can’t afford a divorce right now,” Hurley told reporters laughing. “I just started making some money.”
He signed a six-year, $32.1 million contract last summer, and CT Insider reported in April another contract was being discussed.
With the NBA out of the picture now, the goal for Hurley seems clear: pull off a three-peat. Easy enough.
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
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