Dan Hurley’s Ultimate 4 debut wouldn’t have occurred with out Wagner

Walt Hameline wasn’t recreating the wheel.

However he was trying outdoors of the field.

It’s not usually {that a} highschool coach is given his personal Division I program to run.

In fact, this wasn’t simply any peculiar highschool coach.

Dan Hurley had pedigree — as a participant and a coach — few highschool coaches have.

“Lots of people knew about him. We’re so shut [to St. Benedict’s Prep]. How about Hurley [people asked]? His identify would come up,” Hameline, who gave Hurley his first faculty head-coaching job 13 years in the past at Wagner School, recalled in a cellphone interview with The Submit, as his former coach ready Connecticut for this weekend’s Ultimate 4 in Houston. “He checked all of the packing containers as you bought deeper into it.”

Hurley solely spent two years on the Staten Island college, going 38-23, earlier than leaving for the pinnacle teaching place at Rhode Island.

However he ushered in a brand new period of success at Wagner, inheriting a program that had received 5 video games the season previous to his arrival.

Considered one of his assistant coaches, Bashir Mason, took over when he left and guided the Seahawks to seven successful seasons in 10 years and three 20-win campaigns.

“I used to be nonetheless teaching soccer at that time and paradoxically, as soon as he did get right here and I watched their practices, it was like watching a soccer apply,” Hameline joked. “These children performed exhausting. Should you didn’t play exhausting, you wouldn’t play for Dan Hurley.”

The choice to rent Hurley, the varsity’s athletic director recalled, wasn’t tough.

He had prior teaching expertise as an assistant underneath Kevin Bannon at Rutgers from 1997-2001.

He performed at Seton Corridor, was the son of legendary New Jersey highschool coach Bob Hurley Sr. and turned St. Benedict’s right into a nationwide energy.

Generally with highschool coaches, Hameline stated, there’s a concern with how they might be capable of recruit.

Not with Hurley, who had in depth expertise recruiting top-flight gamers like J.R. Smith, Tristan Thompson and Samardo Samuels to St. Benedict’s, and went 223-21 report in 9 years there.

Hameline’s first name was to P.J. Carlesimo, Hurley’s coach at Seton Corridor.

Subsequent was Jay Wright, who recruited a lot of Hurley’s St. Benedict’s gamers.

Each supplied glowing suggestions.

“Danny is a fairly straight shooter. There wasn’t plenty of fluff about something,” Hameline recalled of his interview with Hurley. “It was, ‘Hey, that is what I do, that is how I wish to construct a program and the way I constructed a program [at St. Benedict’s] and the way I’ve been concerned in my father constructing a program.’ It was fairly simple and it was fairly direct.

“All these issues, the checkoff factors, he hit all of them. Immediately, hastily we had actually good gamers.”

So Hameline pulled the set off, beginning Hurley’s ascent in faculty basketball.

At Rhode Island, he rebuilt a dormant program and reached two NCAA Tournaments in six seasons.

That led to him taking the job at Connecticut, the place his groups have obtained at-large bids to the match in every of his final three years and is the favourite to chop down the nets at NRG Stadium subsequent Monday evening.

It began on Staten Island with Wagner School within the low-major Northeast Convention.

“I take a look at it as, ‘Hey, we had been fortunate to have Dan Hurley right here,’ ” Hameline stated. “It was a superb alternative for Danny.”