The college basketball world will be rocked this season when the University of Connecticut takes home the national championship trophy for the 3rd time in five years. 

Dan Hurley was hired as the head coach for the Huskies in 2018. Since then, he has won two national championships, in 2023 and 2024, lost to the University of Michigan in the national championship in 2026 and a second-round appearance in 2025. The Huskies lost to the eventual national champions, the University of Florida, by two points. 

Hurley coaches with one of the most intense, motivational, and unique styles in the sport. During practices and games, Hurley harshly criticizes his players on mistakes. Rebounds particularly annoy him, according to The New York Times. He is harsh, not to bring his players down, but to motivate them to play better. 

Hurley drills his athletes on fundamentals such as dribbling and layups, along with a new European style of basketball that keeps his offense constantly moving and the defense guessing. It allows the offense to successfully penetrate almost any defense. Before he adopted his current coaching style, his teams had early exits in the tournament that pushed him to be a better coach. 

Hurley’s father, Bob Hurley, is one of three high school basketball coaches inducted into the basketball hall of fame. Basketball runs in the family line. 

Curt Cignetti, head football coach at Indiana University, has a similar coaching style to Hurley. They both focus on efficiency and personal improvement of their players throughout the season. Cignetti took a program with the most losses in college football history to their first national championship in 2026 after only two years of being the head coach, something Hurley will do with Connecticut this season.

UConn’s average margin of victory in the 2023 and 2024 campaigns was 23 points, obliterating their opponents, and bringing home championships, the fifth and sixth for the program. 

Last spring, in the tournament, UConn had the upset of the year, March 29, with a 73-72 victory over the No. 1 seed, Duke University. Freshman Braylon Mullins sank a 3-pointer that capped a 19-point comeback over one of the best teams in the country. 

The Huskies went on to lose to the University of Michigan in the title game by six points. Michigan head coach Dusty May assembled one of the best teams the sport had seen in decades. Finishing with a 37-3 record and an average margin of victory of 21 points in the 2026 tournament, the Huskies fell just short of a third championship title under Hurley. 

Now that May is off to the NBA to coach for the Dallas Mavericks, that leaves a new king for college basketball to enter the stage, or for the return of one.

Thus far, after being ranked 4th in the preseason polls, Uconn is 3-0. The Huskies won their rematch against Michigan 85-77 on Nov. 6 at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. 

It seems the Huskies have all the motivation in the world to take back the sport that they claimed dominance over time and time again.