(Photo courtesy of Associated Press)
GLENDALE — The Final Four. The pinnacle of college basketball has arrived in the Valley of the Sun. The official host of March Madness is Arizona State, but anyone at the event would tell you a different host looms large over the proceedings. He’s something of an omnipresent and omniscient figure at this Final Four. His name was echoed in the halls of press conference rooms he wasn’t in. His praises were sung by constituents no longer under him.
Friday afternoon Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley appeared at State Farm stadium, the site of the Semi-Final and Championship games, for the first time in person. He sported a relatively unassuming grey long-sleeve polo shirt. However, his impact on this year’s Final four is far from that. Three teams have marquee personnel that owe a significant amount of their development to the college hall-of-fame point guard — or they just grew up with him.
Here are all the connections present in Arizona.
UConn Head Coach Dan Hurley
The most ubiquitous bond present shares Bobby’s namesake. UConn head coach Dan Hurley is the younger brother to Bobby. Little Brother is attempting to do something only achieved twice before since the introduction of the three-point line: win back-to-back national championships. The last group to do it was Florida in 2006-07 and 2007-08. Before the Gators, it was Duke in 1990-91 and 1991-92. The Blue Devils were led by none other than the NCAA’s all-time leader in assists, big brother Bobby Hurley.
Long after both their playing days ended, they found themselves coaching together at stops with Wagner and Rhode Island between 2010 and 2013. Their paths diverged when Bobby accepted a job at Buffalo in 2013 and eventually found himself in Tempe with the Sun Devils in 2015. Dan remained in Rhode Island from 2012 to 2018 before accepting the job at UConn.
Since straying away from his brother, Dan’s coaching resume speaks for itself. Since 2015, he’s coached his teams to six tournament berths, two conference titles, two Final Fours and one national championship, now with his shot at a second. Big brother has managed four tournament appearances in that same span. Differences in assets may play a factor.
“I think when he’s in a position to have all the resources that a lot of us at this Final Four have,” Dan said. “When he has that at his full disposal, he’ll be up on this dais and I’ll be supporting him.”
Both Hurley brother’s coaching philosophies mirror each other. They are known for their stern coaching style and running tight ships. It’s the way they were both taught by their father, legendary high school coach Bob Hurley Sr. who coached at St. Anthony High School in New Jersey for 45 years. He’s one of the most decorated high school coaches ever winning 26 state titles, four national championships, three USA Today coach of the Year awards and one “Best Coach/Manager” ESPY Award.
Bob set the standard that his sons followed in their own careers.
“It’s like he was running a college program in high school,” Dan said. “If you went watched St. Anthony, just the way the program functioned. That was my dad cooking on his own to game day shoot-around to film sessions. The quality of what my dad was doing at the high school level was the quality of what the top programs in college were doing.”
Last Year Bobby was in Houston to watch Dan’s Huskies defeat San Diego State for his first championship. Now Bobby will watch his brother go for his second straight in his own backyard.
Alabama Head Coach Nate Oats
“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for (Bobby Hurley),” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. “I feel like he’s a mentor of mine.”
Oats was an assistant coach under Bobby at Buffalo University from 2013-15 before taking over for him for the next four years at the helm himself. Oats proved himself a winner in Buffalo going 96-43 (.691) overall with three tournament berths and two consecutive MAC conference championships in his final two seasons with the Bulls.
The winning didn’t stop up north. Oats inherited a team in Alabama in 2019 that had just finished tenth in the conference the year before. By year two they were conference champions. By year four they were conference champions again. Now in his fifth season with the Crimson Tide, Oats has them rolling into the program’s first-ever Final Four.
The catalyst of Oats’ coaching repertoire is his ability to recruit, develop and coach a high-scoring system built around elite perimeter players. He boasts a relatively impressive NBA portfolio with the likes of Sacramento Kings guard Keon Ellis, New Orleans Pelicans, 2023-24 defensive player of the year candidate Herb Jones and the most notable being 2023 No. 2 overall pick Brandon Miller.
This year, the Crimson Tide boasted the nation’s top-scoring offense averaging 90.6 points per game during the season. They’ve stayed consistent averaging 89.8 points per game during tournament play. They are led by AP Second Team All-American guard Mark Sears, who averages 21.5 points per game on a lethal outside clip of 43.4% from downtown.
Teaching great guard play and good offense is nothing new to Oats who learned under one of the game’s greatest ever.
“I learned a lot about point guard play in the two years I was with (Hurley),” Oats said. “The way we want to play we’ve had great guard play. We’ve done a pretty good job at putting guards into the NBA.”
NC State Graduate Guard DJ Horne
The darlings of the dance NC State Wolfpack have made a staggering run to the program’s first Final Four since their 1983 National Championship under Jim Valvano. Just to reach the Final Four, the Wolfpack had to win nine straight elimination games dating back to their first game in the ACC tournament. To get here they had to be scrappy. Their front-court is led by graduate guard DJ Horne, a scrappy hard-working point guard. His former coach was none other than the epitome of successful scrappy point guards, Bobby Hurley at Arizona State.
Horne played two seasons under Bobby in Tempe, getting his first taste of big-time Power 6 basketball after transferring from Illinois State. Like Oats Horne recognized Hurley’s coaching brilliance when it came to guards.
“Coach Hurley was a good guard coach,” Hurley said. “Soaking up all the knowledge I could from him every day definitely helped me. He lets his guard rock at ASU so that helped me build confidence up against a higher level of talent being from the (Missiouri Valley Conference) going to the Pac-12.”
Horne has taken the confidence instilled in him from his former coach to flourish in his first season with NC State. He averaged a career-high and team-leading 16.8 points per game while shooting 40.9 percent from deep.
Having played at ASU, Horne’s connection to the event naturally runs deeper. He still has a relationship with the region he called home for two years.
“Being back in Arizona, it’s like a full-circle moment for me,” Horne said. “I remember when I put my name in the transfer portal last year. That was around the time they were announcing the tournament was gonna be back here in Phoenix. And I was just telling myself it’d be crazy to you know, make it back here.”
His former teammates such as former ASU starters Frankie Collins, Jamiya Neal, and Alonzo Gaffney, made sure to show support as well.
“ I’ve honestly heard from the whole staff just about, and everybody that I played with,” Horne said. “As far as like Frankie, Jamiya, and (Gaffney), all heard from them so it’s pretty cool.”
NC State Assitant Coach Joel Justus
The last connection Hurley boasts Saturday night will be aiding the effort from the sidelines for NC State. Wolfpack assistant coach Joel Justus spent one year as an assistant under Bobby at ASU in 2021-22. Like all the others it was Bobby’s brilliant offensive schemes that Justus praised as his most memorable trait.
“I think Bobby’s offensive mind is so complex, sophisticated, and is always moving,” Justus said. “I loved watching him watch the game that I’m watching and seeing what he does to attack defenses and to attack matchups.”
Justus coached Horne’s first season in Tempe. That year the guard averaged 12.5 points per game on 36 percent shooting from three. Now together again in Raleigh, he’s seen Horne become the aforementioned team-leading scorer and team leader overall on the floor. Yet again it was in the development of a true point guard where a Bobby product received the most praise.
“(Horne’s) all-around game, playing and being able to play the point guard position,” Justus said. “You can tell playing for Bobby that those two years and especially in the second year there just overall (Horne’s) approach to the game has matured.”
Justus also praised Horne’s growth in his responsibility in all facets on the floor not just scoring.
“For us and what we needed him to do was be a great defender,” Justus said. “Run the team at times, but also make big shots, take big shots especially late in the game.”
Justus, like Dan, Oats and Horne, has been affected by the long reach of Bobby’s basketball impact. Now they all take the floor in front of the world searching for glory the city he calls home.C
