Hurley Introduced To Enthusiastic Keaney Crowd
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Outside of your team participating in the NCAA Tournament, the next most exciting thing can often be the hiring of a new head coach.
That excitement hit Kingston Wednesday as URI formally introduced Dan Hurley as their new men’s basketball coach.
Hurley arrives on campus having been a head coach for just two seasons at the collegiate level. But his two seasons at Wagner were very strong as he turned around a down program. Now, Hurley will be asked to do the same at Rhode Island and it is a challenge that he is looking forward to.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“It’s been done here (at URI) at a really high level and it’s going to be done again here at a really high level really quickly,” he said. Those are exactly the words the Rams fans wanted to hear.
Hundreds of people gathered inside Keaney Gym to greet the new coach including some of the URI students. As Hurley and his brother Bobby entered the gym, they seemed to get a kick out of the fact that a few of those students had taken the time to show up with larger-than-life cut-outs of Dan Hurley’s head like you would see at many big-time college basketball venues during the season. In fact he joked, "my wife Andrea might like to have one of those to throw darts at," drawing laughs from the crowd.
Hurley did anything but shy away from the expectations that come along with hiring a new coach. “We would not have left a program lthat was on the verge of being great at Wagner and kids that we loved dearly to come here unless we felt like we could build a program in the Atlantic Ten that can compete every year for a championship and can get used to playing in the NCAA Tournament and can get used to being a major factor in March."
As reported here yesterday, his brother Bobby will be on his staff at URI and it appears as if Preston Murphy could be as well. Hurley told Cox Sports before the press conference that he hoped his assistant coach Bashir Mason would get the head coaching job at Wagner. That means in all likelihood that Mason will not be joining him at URI.
Murphy, who has been both a player and assistant coach at URI, is well-liked by Rhody fans, administrators and boosters of the program. One URI booster told GoLocalProv.com, “if the new coach didn’t keep Preston that would be a huge mistake. Preston is very-well liked and has some good recruits coming in next year.”
Hurley becomes the 19th head coach in URI men’s basketball history. His deal is reportedly for 6 years and worth up to $4 million. After the press conference ended he met with the local media to tell them how thrilled he was to be taking over at URI.
“This is a great program playing in a great conference,” he said. “There have been some unbelievable coaches here. It’s a great job. It’s one you can recruit well to. There are some good players here that are eager to get going. We’re excited about getting started.”
Rams fans are excited too.