PHOENIX – During his press conference with journalists in Phoenix on Thursday, Alabama head coach Nate Oats teased UConn’s Dan Hurley, and the travel mess the Huskies faced overnight.
“I didn’t send anyone over there to interfere with the logistics,” Oats joked. “I'm sure he’s already come up with that in his mind.”
That is exactly the type of motivation Hurley uses to ignite his team. After arriving in Phoenix at 3:14 a.m. Pacific Time, 6:14 a.m. Eastern, Thursday morning, while the other three teams settled into their hotel rooms to rest, the Huskies already have enough motivation.
Hurley remained composed during his press conference, about 12 hours after arriving. After spending a lot of time waiting without moving, the reigning national champion head coach stopped “complaining and cursing and muttering” and started telling himself “‘You don’t really deserve to show entitlement.’”
Final-Four-bound UConn men encountered long travel delay, arrived in Phoenix in the wee hours
“Once that edge wore off…” he said, “I’m lucky to be here, we’re lucky to get an opportunity to come play in the Final Four, and who doesn’t deal with problems with the airlines?”
Anyway, Oats, a friend of Hurley’s for more than a decade, is allowed to crack that joke.
“If it wasn’t for Danny and Bobby (Hurley) I wouldn’t be here,” he said. “We’re playing each other in Bobby’s town down here in Phoenix. Kind of funny how it comes full circle. It would be nice if I wasn’t having to play against Danny’s team, because it’s a pretty good team.”
Hurley met Oats in August, 2012, when the latter, two years younger, was coaching and teaching at Romulus High School, just outside of Detroit.
Oats visited Rhode Island on a successful recruiting trip for one of his players, E.C. Matthews, before Hurley’s first season as head coach. The Hurley brothers, Bobby an assistant on that staff, recognized Oats as a talented high school coach who was ready for the next step.
“He was running a college program in high school,” Dan Hurley said. “The thing I noticed about Nate when we recruited E.C. was like, this guy’s wired different, No. 1, he’s got a different energy about him just the way he shows up when you meet him. And then just the way he ran his program, I went and watched them before a state tournament game have one of the most detailed video scouts that you’ll ever see and then in the back they had spaghetti cooking on the stove.”
Bobby took Oats out of his comfort zone and brought him along as an assistant when he became the head coach at Buffalo the next season. Once Bobby left for Arizona State in 2015, Oats took the keys. His final Buffalo team beat Bobby’s Arizona State team in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament and, about a week later, Oats was hired to lead Alabama.
His Crimson Tide, which was highlighted by No. 2 overall NBA draft pick Brandon Miller, played UConn in last year’s Phil Knight Invitational. Hurley and the Huskies won, 82-67.
Now, in his ninth season as a Division I head coach, Oats looks to extend his seventh NCAA Tournament trip on a stage that neither he nor the Alabama program has ever walked. And he’ll have to face a Hurley brother, again.
UConn’s players did not talk to the media because they were tired, but they were at the 73,000-seat NFL stadium, which is home to the Arizona Cardinals, for a practice that was a bit shorter than usual.
“These guys used to drive for 14 hours to the Peach Jam in high school, so there are no excuses,” Hurley said. “We’re at the Final Four with a chance to advance, repeat as national champions, and make history. We’re way past making excuses.”
Hurley, who normally doesn't like to compete against coaches he knows well, is excited about the matchup with Oats on Saturday night.
“I would prefer not to play against Bob or Nate or anyone I'm close to in the first round or the Elite Eight of the tournament, but I'm excited to compete against a friend in such a big spot at the Final Four. We've both achieved something incredible this season,” Hurley said.
“And then, someone I really care about is going to be playing in the national championship, hopefully me. I also care about Nate, but to a lesser extent.”
