UConn head coach Dan Hurley joins group of former high school coaches including John Wooden, Roy Williams to win an NCAA title

UConn head coach Dan Hurley won his first national championship Monday as the Huskies defeated San Diego State 76-59 in Houston. It was a jubilant scene as he celebrated in front of his players and his famed coaching family that he proudly pointed out to the national CBS audience postgame.

Hurley is among a legion of former high school basketball coaches, including Jim Calhoun at UConn, who would elevated from the prep game to the pinnacle of college basketball.

The youngest Hurley son played for his father, famed coach Bob Hurley Sr., at St. Anthony (Jersey City, N.J.) where he won a 1989 high school national championship alongside older brother Bobby, who coaches at Arizona State.

Dan Hurley played at Seton Hall where he scored more than 1,000 career points before graduating and becoming an assistant coach for his father. After a year he became an assistant at Rutgers from 1997-2001 before landing the job at St. Benedict's Prep (Newark, N.J.) at the age of 28.

Hurley went 223-21 between 2001-10 with multiple Garden State championships. He coached five McDonald's All Americans including J.R. Smith, who became a first-round pick in the 2004 NBA Draft straight out of St. Benedict's.



In 2010, Hurley moved to the college level as the head coach at Wagner, then Rhode Island before taking the UConn job in 2018.

Nineteen coaches, including John Wooden and Adolph Rupp, have started their coaching careers in high school before moving to the collegiate level and winning a national championship. Henry Iba
High school head coach: Classen (Oklahoma City, Okla.), 1927-29
National championships: Oklahoma State (Formerly Oklahoma A&M) in 1945 and 1946

Adolph Rupp
High school head coach: Freeport (Ill.), 1926-30
National championships: Kentucky in 1948, 1949, 1951 and 1958

Phil Woolpert
High school head coach: St. Ignatius College Preparatory (San Francisco), 1946-50
National championships: San Francisco in 1955 and 1956

John Wooden
High school head coach: Dayton (Ky.), 1933-35, South Bend Central, (South Bend, Ind.), 1935-44
National championships: UCLA in 1964, 1965, 1967-73 and 1975

Don Haskins
High school head coach: Benjamin (Texas), 1955-56, Hedley (Texas), 1956-60, Dumas (Texas), 1960-61
National championship: UTEP (formerly Texas Western) in 1966



Jud Heathcote
High school head coach: West Valley (Spokane, Wash.), 1950-64
National championship: Michigan State in 1979

John Thompson
High school head coach: St. Anthony (Washington, D.C.), 1966-72
National championship: Georgetown in 1984

Rollie Massimino
High school head coach: Hillside (N.J.),1959-63, Lexington (Mass.), 1963-69
National championship: Villanova in 1985

Steve Fisher
High school head coach: Rich East (Park Forest, Ill.), 1971-79
National championship: Michigan in 1989

Jerry Tarkanian
High school head coach: San Joaquin Memorial (Fresno, Calif.), 1955-57, Antelope Valley (Lancaster, Calif.), 1957-58, Redlands (Calif.), 1958-60
National championship: UNLV in 1990

Nolan Richardson
High school head coach: Bowie (El Paso, Texas), 1968-77
National championship: Arkansas in 1994



Jim Harrick
High school head coach: Morningside (Inglewood, Calif.), 1969-73
National championship: UCLA in 1995

Lute Olson
High school head coach: Mahnomen (Minn.), 1956-57, Two Harbors (Minn.), 1957-61, Loara (Anaheim, Calif.), 1963-64, Marina (Huntington Beach, Calif.), 1964-69
National championship: Arizona in 1997

Tubby Smith
High school head coach: Great Mills (Md.), 1973-77, Hoke County (Raeford, N.C.), 1977-79
National championship: Kentucky in 1998

Jim Calhoun
High school head coach: Old Lyme (Conn.), 1968-69, Dedham (Mass.), 1970-72
National championships: UCONN in 1999, 2004 and 2011

Tom Izzo
High school head coach: Ishpeming (Mich.), 1977-79
National championship: Michigan State in 2000

Gary Williams
High school head coach: Eastside (Camden, N.J.), 1969-71
National championship: Maryland in 2002



Roy Williams
High school head coach: Owen (Black Mountain, N.C.), 1973-78
National championships: North Carolina in 2005, 2009 and 2017

Dan Hurley
High school head coach: St. Benedict's Prep (Newark, N.J.), 2001-10
National championship: UConn in 2023