KINGSTON, R.I. — It was March 10 and Rhode Island’s season had just come to a close at the hands of UMass in the Atlantic-10 Tournament at Barclays Center.
Fed up and frustrated, Rhode Island coach Dan Hurley was seriously considering walking into his locker room and telling his players he was leaving to take the head coaching job at Rutgers. The State University of New Jersey had offered Hurley, a member of New Jersey’s first family of basketball, a seven-year deal worth $2.3 million annually, significantly more than he was making at Rhode Island.
The Rams’ future hung in the balance.
But after chatting with assistant coach Jimmy Carr, Hurley kept his emotions in check and never made that statement to his team. Within a week, he had decided to remain at Rhode Island instead of attempting his third rebuild at Rutgers after having already turned around Wagner and Rhode Island.
“If everyone’s back and healthy, we have the best roster in the league,” an upbeat Hurley said of the Rams that week on his radio show.
Now here we are seven months later and Hurley has that roster fully intact and appears poised to lead the Rams to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1999 — when Jimmy Harrick was the head coach and most of the current players were small children. Rhode Island is ranked No. 24 in the USA Today/Coaches’ Poll.
“It’s the third time in school history we’ve been ranked in the preseason,” Hurley told me last week in his office at the Ryan Center. “I’ve been able to rebuild two programs that were obviously pretty broken when I got there. Every year that I’ve been in college coaching up until this past year we were significantly better than we were the year before so in terms of do we believe we have the talent to get to the NCAA tournament this year? Yeah. Do we believe we have the talent to compete for an Atlantic 10 championship? Yeah. But my focus day-to-day is just running a great program and working like a great coach and that stuff will take care of itself.”
Hurley, 43, is entering his fifth year at the helm of the Rams and his seventh year as a college coach (he spent two at Wagner), after a nine-year stint as the head coach of national prep power St. Benedict’s Prep, where he coached current Cavaliers guard J.R. Smith and numerous future college standouts. He is 100-86 (.538) for his career, 62-64 (.492) at Rhode Island.
Yet for all the hype and hoopla surrounding Dan Hurley and the Hurley family, he has never coached in the NCAA Tournament. This year the Rams were picked second in the A-10 behind Dayton, which has been to three straight NCAAs, including an Elite Eight, behind head coach Archie Miller.
So is Hurley feeling the pressure to perform?
“I think people like me, people that are wired the way I’m wired, I think you always put a lot of pressure on yourself practice-to-practice, game-to-game, shootaround-to shootaround, you just wanna be at your best,” Hurley said. “You wanna work at a high level.”
Make no mistake. Hurley’s players want to work at a high level, too.
After a brutal series of injuries last year to key players E.C. Matthews (ACL), Hassan Martin (ankle, knee) and Jarvis Garrett (jaw), everyone at Rhode Island is healthy and hungry. NBA scouts come through Rhode Island on the regular to scout their talent.
Matthews, a projected second-round NBA Draft pick a season ago, is shaking off the rust after tearing his ACL in the first game of the season a year ago and missing about six months of basketball until May.
Both Matthews and Martin were second-team All-A-10 preseason selections.
“Oh, I’m 100 percent, I don’t think I can get any healthier,” said Matthews, who wears a brace on his right knee. “Now it’s just knocking off the rust and letting the game come slow to me. Just figuring it out, it’s almost like a puzzle to me. But health-wise, I’m all the way there.”
During his time on the bench, Matthews said he talked often to Hurley and learned more about the game by watching.
“It made me a better leader because all I had was my voice,” he said. “I just studied the game and I feel it’s made me a more improved player now.”
Hurley and Matthews have been close since the coach recruited him as part of his first recruiting class at Rhode Island, and the two envisioned an NCAA Tournament bid during Matthews’ junior season.
“[The injury] was a terrible thing for both of us because of our relationship and what we felt like we were so close to accomplishing together,” Hurley said. “And the script of how we talked about it playing out when he was on a home visit during high school was really, really close to playing out exactly the way that we had planned it.
“But obviously things blew up on opening night and it’s something you grow from, you learn from, makes you more resilient. It also makes you appreciate the time you get together on the court now because you know how quickly it can be taken.”
Matthews was one of the primary reasons Hurley didn’t take the Rutgers job. The two had bonded during the previous three years, and Hurley felt an obligation to come back and coach and try to lead Matthews and the other members of the “Core Four” — Garrett, Martin and Jared Terrell — to their first NCAA Tournament.
“I believe we can be very good, we can be top of the cream,” Matthews said. “But it’s all up to us, it’s all up to how hard we work now. I think if every guy buys in and don’t really be concerned with individual things, then the sky’s the limit.”
As for his own NBA dreams, he knows they were put on hold for at least a year.
“I try to stay in the moment,” he said. “I know if I can lead and win here, those big dreams that I have will come true. I don’t really get caught up in when will it happen. I know it’s there. I pay attention to it when I need to but my main focus is to win as a team.”
Matthews isn’t the only one with high expectations.
“Our team could be very good,” said 6-9 senior forward Kuran Iverson, a cousin to former NBA stars Allen Iverson and Marcus Camby and the only player on the team to have competed in the NCAA Tournament (while at Memphis). “Our goal is to get past where we were last year, we lost in the first round [of the A-10]. Our probably goal is to make the NCAA Tournament, at least get there.”
The 6-10 Martin, a fellow senior and a Staten Island native, feels similarly.
“We’re hoping for a second weekend in March this year,” he said. “Win the A-10 hopefully. Now we’re just taking it slow, living in the moment right now. Just practice hard each day, take it step by step and hopefully we make it far.”
All of this optimism hasn’t soothed the angst and agita in Dan Hurley, though. By contrast, he knows he has a very talented team and wants to get every ounce out of them that he can.
“He does a lot of crazy things,” Matthews said pointing to a stanchion under one of the baskets. “You see that rubber thing over there under the basket? He bangs his head on there whenever we mess up or turn the ball over. He be throwing balls all around the arena.”
Matthews, more than anyone on the team, knows that Hurley spurned Rutgers to be with him, with his teammates, and that they have the opportunity to achieve something special.
“Now we actually get a fair chance to compete with the great teams in the A-10,” Matthews said. “We’re fully healthy now and he’s one of the best coaches in the country, so if you combine them the sky’s the limit.”
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Matthews, a projected second-round NBA Draft pick a season ago, is shaking off the rust after tearing his ACL in the first game of the season a year ago and missing about six months of basketball until May.
Both Matthews and Martin were second-team All-A-10 preseason selections.
“Oh, I’m 100 percent, I don’t think I can get any healthier,” said Matthews, who wears a brace on his right knee. “Now it’s just knocking off the rust and letting the game come slow to me. Just figuring it out, it’s almost like a puzzle to me. But health-wise, I’m all the way there.”
During his time on the bench, Matthews said he talked often to Hurley and learned more about the game by watching.
“It made me a better leader because all I had was my voice,” he said. “I just studied the game and I feel it’s made me a more improved player now.”
Hurley and Matthews have been close since the coach recruited him as part of his first recruiting class at Rhode Island, and the two envisioned an NCAA Tournament bid during Matthews’ junior season.
“[The injury] was a terrible thing for both of us because of our relationship and what we felt like we were so close to accomplishing together,” Hurley said. “And the script of how we talked about it playing out when he was on a home visit during high school was really, really close to playing out exactly the way that we had planned it.
“But obviously things blew up on opening night and it’s something you grow from, you learn from, makes you more resilient. It also makes you appreciate the time you get together on the court now because you know how quickly it can be taken.”
Matthews was one of the primary reasons Hurley didn’t take the Rutgers job. The two had bonded during the previous three years, and Hurley felt an obligation to come back and coach and try to lead Matthews and the other members of the “Core Four” — Garrett, Martin and Jared Terrell — to their first NCAA Tournament.
“I believe we can be very good, we can be top of the cream,” Matthews said. “But it’s all up to us, it’s all up to how hard we work now. I think if every guy buys in and don’t really be concerned with individual things, then the sky’s the limit.”
As for his own NBA dreams, he knows they were put on hold for at least a year.
“I try to stay in the moment,” he said. “I know if I can lead and win here, those big dreams that I have will come true. I don’t really get caught up in when will it happen. I know it’s there. I pay attention to it when I need to but my main focus is to win as a team.”
Matthews isn’t the only one with high expectations.
“Our team could be very good,” said 6-9 senior forward Kuran Iverson, a cousin to former NBA stars Allen Iverson and Marcus Camby and the only player on the team to have competed in the NCAA Tournament (while at Memphis). “Our goal is to get past where we were last year, we lost in the first round [of the A-10]. Our probably goal is to make the NCAA Tournament, at least get there.”
The 6-10 Martin, a fellow senior and a Staten Island native, feels similarly.
“We’re hoping for a second weekend in March this year,” he said. “Win the A-10 hopefully. Now we’re just taking it slow, living in the moment right now. Just practice hard each day, take it step by step and hopefully we make it far.”
All of this optimism hasn’t soothed the angst and agita in Dan Hurley, though. By contrast, he knows he has a very talented team and wants to get every ounce out of them that he can.
“He does a lot of crazy things,” Matthews said pointing to a stanchion under one of the baskets. “You see that rubber thing over there under the basket? He bangs his head on there whenever we mess up or turn the ball over. He be throwing balls all around the arena.”
Matthews, more than anyone on the team, knows that Hurley spurned Rutgers to be with him, with his teammates, and that they have the opportunity to achieve something special.
“Now we actually get a fair chance to compete with the great teams in the A-10,” Matthews said. “We’re fully healthy now and he’s one of the best coaches in the country, so if you combine them the sky’s the limit.”
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