As you may have heard, Pitt didn’t land Dan Hurley, as the Rhode Island coach officially picked Connecticut over the Panthers and remaining at URI on Thursday.
Hurley’s contract at UConn is reportedly worth $500,000 less per yer than the $3.25 million annual salary over six years that Pitt offered him, as Pittsburgh Sports Now reported on Wednesday.
Hurley spoke with WPRI in Providence, Rhode Island about his decision to leave URI and take the job at Connecticut. He was emotional about making that decision and said that UConn was one of the few places he felt he’d be able to leave Rhode Island for.
“For me, growing up where I grew up, playing in the Big East, the power of the UConn brand, four national championships and it’s all recent tradition,” Hurley said. “Just the success that program has operated at, to me, it’s just one of the few places I could have seen myself leaving Rhode Island for. … UConn, for me, represents something that I couldn’t pass up.”
Hurley was asked if the decision came down to UConn or Rhode Island, with Pitt being a third choice, and he confirmed that.
“Yeah,” he said. “It was literally for me, just going back and forth over it and knowing deep down inside what I had to do in the end. But it was just so hard to make that choice final.”
The full video can be found below:
