UConn could arrive late to the party.
If Dan Hurley accepts what is described as a massive offer to make a massive life and career change and take over the Los Angeles Lakers, Connecticut will become the 69th Division I basketball program to make a coaching change in advance of the 2024-25 season.
That’s a lot.
And it’s a problem for the Huskies because it does limit the candidate pool available for them. Coaches on the rise such as Darian DeVries of Drake and Pat Kelsey of Charleston already have made moves that seem irrevocable. So where should UConn look if it winds up with a massive opening: needing to replace the winner of the past two NCAA championships?
As ever, we are here to help.
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Simply put, Pikiell is the kind of person any program would want in its athletic department – and he is an alum who played four seasons and was part of the 1989-90 team that launched this dominant era of Huskies basketball. However, this is a tricky time to consider luring him a few miles up the coast.
Pikiell has revolutionized Rutgers basketball, earning two NCAA tournament bids in the past four years that would be three in five had the 2020 tournament been held. He’s coming off his most difficult season in nearly a decade in charge of the Scarlet Knights, but the arrow is pointing up. He signed two five-star prospects in the 2024 recruiting class: wing Ace Bailey, the No. 2 recruit in the nation according to 247 Sports, and combo guard Dylan Harper, the No. 3 player.
If UConn were to hire Pikiell, it’s not inconceivable for those players to follow him to Storrs, but neither is it guaranteed. Would he want to walk away from what having that tandem portends?
Not that the Texas and Connecticut basketball programs are anything alike – they present much different challenges to the person in charge – but Smart’s experience in charge of the Longhorns might make him averse to departing a program where he’s established such consistent success. Why wouldn’t UConn be interested, though, in one of the best coaches in the sport, as well as their league?
Since leaving the Horns to take the Marquette job three years ago, Smart has guided the Golden Eagles into the NCAA Tournament three times. They won the Big East championship double in 2023 and reached the Sweet 16 this season.
UConn has seen what he can do firsthand. Marquette was the last opponent to defeat the Huskies in a March tournament game, the semifinals of the 2023 Big East championship. In the Big East and NCAA tournaments since, they’ve won 15 consecutive games.
One would have to check with Otzelberger to see if he’s even visited Connecticut, but his effectiveness as a coach and recruiter never has seemed tethered to his Midwest roots.
In eight seasons as a head coach (South Dakota State, UNLV, Iowa State), Otzelberger has made five NCAA Tournaments, and two of his three with the Cyclones reached the Sweet 16. The 2023-24 team won 29 games and fell to Illinois by just three points in the East Region semifinals. They were the No. 1 defense in the nation according to KenPom.com, the team’s third consecutive top-10 ranking in that category.
His name obviously comes up for every significant college job, and for obvious reasons. He’s one of the best college basketball coaches of this century, he’s a first-class person any college would want to be in business with, and his NBA teams have not been so extraordinarily successful as to assure his future on the bench.
But Donovan left Florida in 2015 because he didn’t like recruiting as it was then. Why would he want to deal with what it’s become? If Donovan wants to work in the NBA, he’ll have no shortage of opportunities beyond his current position.
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There are few coaches in college basketball who get more from what’s available than “Coach Sha”. That Elite Eight run in 2022 at Saint Peter’s still resonates, and the NIT championship this spring was impressive, as well.
What UConn would ask is simple: Can you recruit great talent, as well, and could you get those guys to play as hard as the two- and three-star types who’ve made your teams so competitive and successful?
Sellers’ brother Rod excelled at forward for UConn in the early 90s, but Patrick had some quality experience with the Huskies, as well. He served as an assistant coach on the 2009 Final Four team, a highlight of his half-dozen seasons working for Jim Calhoun.
Sellers has been on the staff of NCAA Tournament teams at Creighton and Fairleigh Dickinson and reanimated the Central Connecticut program, which had produced one winning record in the 14 seasons before he arrived. In his third season, Sellers had the Blue Devils at 20-11 and 13-3 in conference.
Becker wouldn’t have to move far to take over at UConn, but it would be a big step up in class. He’s been in charge of the Catamounts for 13 years, and the only time he won fewer than 20 games was in 2020-21, when they played only 15 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
His teams have won the past eight America East regular-season championships – and five league tournaments in that stretch.
He’s a magnificent basketball coach. And UConn could do a lot worse than to replace one magnificent coach with another.
