GLENDALE, Ariz. — Andrew Hurley had a choice.
A Division III school recruited him.
An ankle injury limited him from his senior year at East Catholic High School (Connecticut), so he could have continued preparing for a year.
But those opportunities paled in comparison to what his father, Dan Hurley, provided.
He has a chance to play for him as a bye at the University of Connecticut.
“He made me race against the clock. I didn’t have a lot of time to make a decision,” said the top-seeded Huskies, who will face fellow top-seeded Purdue in the national championship game Monday night at State Farm Stadium. The young Hurley spoke to the Sunday Post as he prepared to do so. “He just kept telling me, ‘You have to decide.’
Andrew, who is 6 feet 1 inch tall, accepted the offer.
It’s been 4 years since then, and it feels like a dream.
He played in 11 games in the NCAA Tournament, including last year’s national title game, and was able to beat the dribble in every game in front of friends and family.
Most importantly, he did everything with his father.
“The position we are in and the success we are in is something we could never have asked for,” Andrew said. “I can’t believe how lucky I am.”
But Dunn believes his son also played an important role, even if he only played when the game got out of hand.
Andrew “humanized me” as a player who knows his coach better than anyone else.
Andrew was one of the first players to make Cam Spencer feel at home at his new school.
Andrew is especially important early in the season for new players who are adjusting to intense, hard-driving, and sometimes manic Hurley play.
“If you don’t get yelled at, you’re doing something wrong,” he tells them.
Andrew added: “He’s my father and we share a lot of the same personality traits, so I understand him and I understand how he feels. …People may have the wrong idea about him. He’s a really passionate guy about everything. But he’s really passionate. He’s very considerate towards people. He’s very emotional. He’s a really loving person.”
Spencer said Andrew was not given preferential treatment.
Andrew, like everyone else, will hear it from his father.
“Maybe I’ll get a little more angry,” he said.
The most important thing for the two of them is the time they were able to spend together over the past four years.
Dan put off quitting his high school job at St. Benedict’s School in Newark to spend time with his sons, Andrew and Danny Jr.
However, since I went to university in 2012, I have missed out on a lot because of my career.
“As a coach, you sacrifice a lot, especially at the college level and the NBA level. A lot of times, your wife and kids are suffering because they lose that time,” Dunn said. “So to be able to get that time back and be together for 11 months a year and see each other every day, multiple times a day, all the good times and bad times that we’ve been through. It made up for a lot of time we lost.”
Andrew has one more year of eligibility, but it’s unclear whether he’ll take advantage of it.
He is considering possibly coaching or becoming a sports psychologist.
He is majoring in psychology.
He wants to do something with basketball.
But there’s still one game left, and there’s a chance he’ll use up his time dribbling in the next championship game.
