INDIANAPOLIS — Malachi Smith knew what he was getting into when he committed to UConn in the transfer portal last April. After four seasons at Dayton, Smith craved the intensity and success fostered by Dan Hurley’s Huskies. He had heard of stories of head coach’s legendary practice tirades, and it didn’t take long for him to become the focal point of one.
Hurley was instructing Smith about passing reads during an early season practice when the senior guard gave a nonchalant acknowledgement that he heard the coach’s message.
“I said, ‘OK, bet,’” Smith recalled after UConn’s thrilling 2026 Final Four victory over Illinois on Saturday night. It turned out that was a poor choice of words.
“He told me, say ‘yes, coach,’ and I said, ‘yes coach,’” Smith said. “He said no, say ‘yes fucking coach.’ And I said, ‘yes, fucking coach.’ Ever since I’ve been saying ‘yes coach’ or ‘yes sir.’”
Hurley is 40 minutes away from his third national championship in four years when UConn faces the Michigan Wolverines in the title game on Monday. The first two came pretty easily: the Huskies’ 2023 team won their six tournament games by an average margin of 20 points per game despite being a No. 4 seed. The following year’s team was even more dominant, out-scoring opponents by an average of 23.3 points in the tournament to become college basketball’s first back-to-back national champion since Billy Donovan’s Florida Gators in 2006-2007.
It didn’t always look like this year’s Huskies would be playing on the final day of the season. UConn lost to an under .500 Creighton team at home in the middle of February. A few weeks later, it lost the last game of the regular season to a terrible Marquette team that finished only 12-20 overall. UConn even entered the NCAA tournament on a sour note after it got drilled by 20 points against St. John’s in the Big East tournament championship game, which finalized its destiny as a No. 2 seed.
Hurley once again has his team peaking at the right time, even without the obvious NBA lottery talent he enjoyed two years ago with Donovan Clingan and Stephon Castle leading his team. He’s also had to keep his staff focused even after top assistant Luke Murray accepted Boston College’s head coaching job with the transfer portal already unofficially underway.
“The year hasn’t been a joyride,” Hurley said after the win over Illinois. “We haven’t been a machine of destruction. We’ve been a team that’s had to grind out games like this.”
In what ways have Hurley’s previous two national championship runs changed the head coach? Senior forward Alex Karaban, a four-year starter who is also going for his third ring, scoffed at me even asking the question.
“He hasn’t changed at all,” Karaban said. “He’s the same guy. If anything winning has only made him hungrier for more.”
It seems like every UConn player has a story about the fire that still burns inside of Hurley. When asked about the private moments they’ll remember five or 10 years from now, the Huskies couldn’t hide their smiles thinking back on their coach’s antics.
Tarris Reed didn’t dunk the ball during an early season pick-and-roll drill this winter, and Dan Hurley was completely disgusted by it. He decided the punishment would be to make the entire team run the stairs at UConn’s practice facility.
The Huskies got back to business, and Reed again finished the drill with a layup. Hurley made the team run the stairs again, only this time the whole coaching staff had to do it with them. As his players and coaches were huffing and puffing on the steps, Hurley was ranting. He’s yelling at Reed for not dunking. He’s screaming at the rest of his team for not encouraging their star teammate to dunk more often. He’s also ranting at the coaches for having the audacity to bring in players who don’t dunk the ball in practice or hold their teammates accountable to dunking.
Silas Demary was one of UConn’s biggest additions in the portal this season. Last year’s Huskies were faulty in two areas: at point guard and on defense. Demary helped fix both of those problems when he transferred in after two years at Georgia. Demary could barely hold back his laughter thinking about the first time he tasted Hurley’s wrath.
“It was in August at our first real practice,” he said. “It was a rough practice for me.”
A ball got tipped out of bounds and Demary jogged after it. Bad move.
“He was irate,” Demary recalled on Sunday ahead of the national championship game. “He was pissed off about it.”
Hurley threw a ball beyond the reach of teammate Solo Ball and told him to show Demary how UConn goes after loose balls. Ball sprinted hard after it and immediately dove on the floor to recover it. Then he made everyone get in a line as he whipped balls all over the court and made them hit the floor to dive for it.
“That was my ‘welcome to UConn moment,’” Demary said with a smile.
Jaylin Stewart thought back to a moment during his freshman season on the dominant 2024 championship team. There was a turnover in practice, and Hurley lost it. He decided to deal with this crime against basketball by laying down in the middle of the floor while play continued back and forth.
Stewart was a top-100 recruit out of high school, but he hasn’t much played in his first three years at UConn. He’s an opportunity to transfer out and find more playing time at another program every offseason, but he keeps coming back. Why?
“Coach believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself.”
Stewart actually found himself on the floor during a crucial stretch in the second half of UConn’s Final Four win against Illinois. The Illini were starting to make a comeback with about 12 minutes left when Stewart checked in for Karaban. Ball found him spotted up behind the arc. Stewart lined up the shot and knocked it down for a big three.
Hurley loves his players even if he also likes to show them up in practice by cursing them out and wearing his emotions on his sleeve. There may be times when Hurley’s antics start to wear thin, but overall message never gets lost.
“We want rings and not watches,” Smith said on Saturday night. (Hurley) has been saying that every day. So that just makes us lock in.”