Dan Hurley returned to the college basketball mountaintop in the summer of 2024 and considered climbing higher, faced with a six-year, $70 million offer to coach the Los Angeles Lakers.
Few people could relate to the UConn men's basketball coach's predicament, so he built a relationship with Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, the seventh-winningest active coach in Division I basketball, who had received multiple NBA offers over his long run with the Spartans. Hurley chose to stay in the college game, and he's quickly formed a friendship with Izzo, bringing his UConn program to East Lansing for an exhibition game Tuesday evening.
"Danny and I talked a year ago, we went out there and played," Izzo said on the Big Ten Network broadcast Tuesday. "He's been a good friend of mine. He had some NBA offers, I went through it a little bit myself, we just talked about it and we just became good friends. I love what he does, I love what he stands for, and I knew playing them, they'd be tough as nails."
Izzo began his legendary coaching career at Michigan State in 1995 while Hurley played his senior season at Seton Hall. Inheriting a program that had not reached the Final Four since Magic Johnson, Izzo needed just five seasons to bring a title to East Lansing, winning the 2000 national championship with a talented roster that included Jason Richardson and Morris Peterson. Izzo was offered the Atlanta Hawks head coaching job that summer, which he rejected, and over a quarter-century later the legendary tactician continues to draw professional interest - Izzo said he spoke seriously with Phoenix Suns owner and former Spartan player Mat Ishbia about coaching the team.
Hurley is a relative newcomer to the coaching scene, but he's adopted an old-school approach that more closely resembles Izzo's, so much so that both men are in an "old-school coaches" group chat alongside Thatta Matta and Mick Cronin. Izzo and Hurley have publicly aligned on player eligibility and transfer portal regulation, and their two programs also played an exhibition game in Connecticut to kick off last season.
"They buried us out there last year," Izzo said. "It was a 15-point game, but they dominated the game. He said to me after, 'You've got a ways to go.' At least you can be honest with some coaches."
Izzo's Spartans were more competitive on home soil Tuesday evening, led by a standout 23-point, eight-rebound effort from Spartans point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. However, the Huskies worked past early free-throw woes down the stretch and salted away a comfortable 78-70 win.
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This article originally published at Dan Hurley, Tom Izzo relationship sparked by NBA interest in UConn men's basketball coach.