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Former Wagner men's basketball coach
Dan Hurley left for a position at URI |
It was a sad day on Grymes Hill in Staten Island on
Monday as word began to leak out that men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley, who
had orchestrated a 20-win turnaround in two seasons, was leaving Wagner College
to head for a much higher paying position with the University of Rhode Island,
a member of the more prestigious Atlantic 10 conference.
As of Monday afternoon, I had only read the article
stating that URI had received permission to talk with Hurley, who with brother
Bobby as his top assistant, led the Seahawks to a 25-6 record this year, with
victories against Air Force, Santa Clara, Princeton (by 18) and Pittsburgh, who
was ranked #15 nationally at the time.
My first inkling that a change was in the works came
soon after the Pitt game. Listening to Hurley being interviewed on national
television, he was asked about the pressure of winning on ESPN in front of a
crowd quadruple the size of any seen at Wagner’s Spiro Center. The response was
telling.
“Well, now we’ll go back to our 2,000 seat gym and
get ready for the next games in our conference (Northeast).”
Not arena, or sports complex. GYM. Just like in high
school, where Hurley cut his head coaching teeth, at St. Benedict’s in New Jersey.
Sporting a record of 223-21 after nine years, it was easy to see why Wagner
might have taken a chance on a high school coach to lead its program.
But the word “gym” got to me. My first thought was, “he’s
already looking at bigger things.”
A couple of weeks later, my concerns were assuaged
as he told ESPN’s Andy Katz exactly the opposite. To paraphrase, Hurley said
that he wasn’t a coaching lifer, was interested in building a program, that he
had stayed at St. Benedict’s for nine years after promising three… blah blah
blah. It read well, and I almost believed that he was different from the other
money grabbers who prance up and down the sidelines of college hardwoods and
gridirons around the country. It seemed reasonable.
My first belief was that the Hurley’s were ready to
build a program in the model of Butler or Gonzaga, a small school with a big
program. And wouldn’t it be neat to be the name synonymous with the program,
like Coach K has done with Duke or Knight at Indiana, or guys like Brad Stevens
and Mark Few at the above mentioned schools? And being from an hour outside of
Richmond, I’d be remiss to not mention that VCU and Shaka Smart are now joined
at the hip. Not the team, the school. The great ones command that kind of word
association. More on Coach Smart in a minute.
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Bobby Hurley (R) will also be leaving
Wagner to join his brother at URI as
head assistant |
Not that the Hurley’s need name recognition. Father Bob
is in the Basketball Hall of Fame, having won over 1,000 games and multiple
national championships as the coach at legendary St. Anthony’s High School in Jersey
City. Bobby was an All-American point guard and NCAA career assist leader who
helped Coach K win two national titles at Duke in the early 1990’s. Oddly
enough, Dan is the least famous of the three (for now) in spite of scoring over
1,000 points as a guard at Seton Hall.
A couple of months ago, I was talking with fellow
Wagnerian and TKE brother Bill Goverman about this. Bill lives in Los Angeles
these days where he runs a maid service for the stars. Having heard a few of
his stories about rubbing elbows with movie stars, I can’t wait for his book!
Anyhow, we were talking about Wagner basketball and I presented my theory,
which was that we’d only have Dan for about three years, then Bobby could take
over and get head coaching experience at a program he helped to build. In my
mind, we were into year two of the six-year plan.
Bill would have none of it. “Don’t say that!” He was
hopeful that we’d begin a run of NCAA tournament appearances and build to the
point where they would both want to stay. I thought it could be possible, but
we’d have to get good enough to earn a few home games at Madison Square Garden…
yes, I dared to dream.
In fact, last month, after missing a personal
appearance at our National Alumni Association board meeting, which was
highlighted by a basketball doubleheader with Danny and Bobby speaking to the
alumni between games, I decided to e-mail both of them. In the note, I joked
that I had wanted to attend the meeting, if only to present the motion of
passing a hat to collect enough money to keep both of them at Wagner.
No response. That didn’t bother me because I’d
rather see the basketball coach concentrating on the team during the season
than responding to an e-mail from dopey alum.
Guess that response will never arrive because the
people from Rhode Island called asking for permission to talk to Dan Hurley. It
was granted.
Days later, the contract was signed and the terms
were announced. Six years for $4 million. There must have been enough left over
in the till, because Bobby was going to leave too, instead of possibly gaining
his first head assignment, which I heard was offered.
After a few minutes of being mad and erasing my Hurley
TV spots from the DVR, logic took over.
Wagner doesn’t offer long-term contracts and from
the look of what coaches at similar sized schools make (the coaches’ salaries
from the NCAA teams comes out around this time of year), Wagner might have
started Hurley off with a two-year deal for about $150-200K. And that’s being a
little generous.
So let’s say you’re a systems analyst at a tech
company or a second-year lawyer at a good firm, pulling down $100,000 a year. Your
contract is almost up, and a request comes in for an interview, followed by an
offer for $665,000 plus perks, which could double your pay. Do you take it?
Yeah, probably… you think?
The one thing I had to remember is this. As Seahawk
fans, we’re upset because our coach left. But, it’s our school, but his
profession. The Hurley’s have no tie to Wagner, coaching basketball is their
job. And when a better offer comes along at your job, you take it.
With that said, I’d like to thank the Hurley
brothers for their good work at Wagner. How many coaches have ever gone from
5-26 to 25-6 in two seasons, in any sport? There should be a number of quality
coaches chomping at the bit for a chance to coach a 25-6 team with four starters
and ten players possibly returning.
Speaking of Shaka Smart, he has bucked the loyalty
factor, turning down a cool $2.5 million to coach at Illinois to stay at VCU
for half that amount. I’d say coach for life over in Richmond. Bravo!!
Best wishes for the both of you in Rhode Island.
Thank you for the enjoyable, albeit, short ride.
