MAKING A CASE FOR DAN HURLEY

The ACC Tournament will conclude exactly one month from tomorrow (March 10^th).  Pitt will likely be back in Pittsburgh by the 2^nd day of the 5-day tournament, possibly putting a cap on an embarrassing 0-19 record vs. the ACC.  Hopefully by this time next month they will have already begun the search process for their next men’s basketball head coach.  The 1^st call they should make in that process is to Dan Hurley.

To be honest, I had hoped that Hurley was a candidate for the opening at Pitt two years ago when Jaime Dixon left Pitt for TCU, but his name was never mentioned during the search.  At that point Hurley, son of one of the most successful high school basketball coaches in history, Bob, Sr. and brother to former Duke star and current Arizona State head coach Bobby, had already made a name for himself in coaching. 

Hurley got into coaching immediately after graduating from Seton Hall, where he was the Pirates starting point guard.  His 1^st job was an assistant to his father at St. Anthony’s in Jersey City, NJ.   After one season at St. Anthony’s he joined the staff at Rutgers for 4 years as an assistant.  Hurley then went back to high school and became the head coach at St. Benedict’s in Newark, NJ.  In 9 years at St. Benedict’s Hurley recorded 223 wins to just 21 losses.  St. Benedict’s finished ranked in the Top 5 nationally 4 times in those 9 years, clearly proving he was more than just Bob Hurley’s son when it came to coaching basketball.

After St. Benedict’s, Hurley took his 1^st college head coaching job at Wagner College in Staten Island.  He inherited a team at Wagner that went 5-26 the year before he arrived.  In his 2^nd year Hurley led the Seahawks to a 25-6 record, good enough for a 2^nd place finish in the NEC.  Pitt fans might remember that team, as they came to the Petersen Event Center and beat the 15^th ranked Panthers, handing Pitt their 1^st ever loss to an NEC opponent.  Hurley then found himself in charge of another rebuild the following year, after taking a step up in competition and leaving Wagner for the Atlantic-10 and Rhode Island.

The Rams were 7-24 the season prior to Hurley arriving.  After taking 2-years to rebuild the URI program, Hurley had a 23-win team playing in the NIT after a 2^nd place A-10 finish in year #3.  He is now in Year 6 at Rhode Island, where he has compiled a record of 105-77 going into tonight’s game between the two top teams in the Atlantic-10.  Over the past 4 seasons he is 83-38 leading the Rams, including a 19-3 record this year, which includes an undefeated 11-0 conference record.  

Hurley clearly has a resume that qualifies him for a promotion into a major conference.  Now the question most ask would be, “Why would he want to walk into the mess at Pitt right now?”

That is a fair question.  Here are my 4 reasons why the Pitt job makes sense for Hurley:

1) MONEY!!!  It is plain and simple.

Before we get into the money conversation, let me put an end to the myth that Pitt doesn’t have any money.  There is a big difference between being smart or even cheap with how you spend money and not having money at all.  The ACC has paid Pitt $55M over the past 2 years and another $30M or so will be coming at the end of this current school year.  Pitt has the money to attract a big coach and to buy out their current one.

Now, back to Hurley.

Hurley signed a contract extension with Rhode Island last March.  Under the new deal he is getting just about $1.1M a year, a figure that is considered to be very near the limit to the basketball budget at Rhode Island.  The details to Kevin Stallings current contract at Pitt aren’t public knowledge, but we do know that he made $2.1M at Vanderbilt in his final season and reports are that his buyout after this season, with 4 years remaining on his deal, would be around $10M.  Without knowing the exact numbers, it is pretty safe to bet that Stallings is currently making at least double the amount that Hurley is. 

2) As good as Hurley has been at Rhode Island, how long does he plan on staying there?  6 years is a long time at a mid-major when you have been as successful as he has.  Is he waiting for a bigger job to open?  Maybe, but Pitt isn’t a terrible job.  It is an ACC school, which you’d think would be a draw for a guy born and raised in the NJ/NY area.  It is a program that has had a ton of success as recently as just a few years ago.  Pitt was ranked in the Top 10 for 11 straight years from 2002 to 2012.  They were in the NCAA Tournament just 3 years ago.  This isn’t Rutgers we are talking about.  You could do a lot worse than Pitt if you were a coach looking to jump into a major conference.

3) Just looking at the coaching landscape this season, there doesn’t seem to be many jobs opening up this year in the major conferences.  As crazy as this seems, Pitt may be one of, if not the best job that becomes available.  Sure, you might have Arizona or Michigan State open depending on what comes out about the 2 different scandals that could possibly be tied to their current coaches, but I don’t think Hurley would get either of those jobs even if they became available.  UCONN might come available if they show Kevin Ollie the door.  Louisville has a decision to make regarding their interim head coach David Padgett.  St. John’s was looking like a team that might come open and would be a great fit for Hurley, but Chris Mullin has just led his team to wins over both #4 Duke and #1 Villanova in back to back games.  I think he is safe too.  After that, Pitt is the best job of the group. 

4)  Something that has been somewhat over looked by the many that have argued that Hurley wouldn’t come to Pitt is the fact that his team at Rhode Island this year is very senior heavy.  This would be his chance to strike while the iron is hot.  As mentioned before, URI is 19-3, with all 3 of those losses coming in the non-conference to teams that will be in the field of 68 next month.  4 of the 5 Rams starters this year are seniors, as is their top player off the bench.  Rhode Island is set to lose 64.5% of their minutes played this season.  They currently only have 1 underclassman that averages over 17 minutes a game.  They also lose 74.9% of their scoring including their top 4 scorers.  They are also set to lose over half (57.9%) of their rebounding from this season.  Their best on ball defender, Stanford Robinson, is also a senior.  He currently ranks 7^th in the nation in steals.  Hurley will be going through a mini rebuild next year one way or the other, why not do it at a more established program, while getting paid a LOT more money?

Dan Hurley is the guy for Pitt.  After Heather Lyke fires Kevin Stallings at roughly 4:30p (15-seed is scheduled to play at 2pm) Tuesday March 6^th, her 1^st call should be to Dan Hurley and she shouldn’t take no for an answer.