Glendale, Arizona —
Every day, you learn something new about Connecticut’s coach, Dan Hurley. Such as:
He taught sex education in a Catholic high school. And the Jersey City native was formerly a licensed lifeguard.
He taught many subjects, including sex education, at St. Anthony’s, where he also worked as an assistant basketball coach for his father.
“I taught history starting with the collapse of the Roman Empire, mostly focused on European history, from the Dark Ages all the way up through the Reformation,” he stated. “I have also taught driver’s education, health, and sex education. As a 22-year-old teaching sex education at St. Anthony’s (to) co-ed classes, you learn how to control a classroom and keep an audience.
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Beginners and advanced aquatics were two of the subjects I completed to earn my degree,” Hurley explained.
The certification was for a pool lifeguard, not for the beach at the Jersey Shore.
“No, I would not throw on the Speedo and pull a (David) Hasselhoff,” Hurley remarked of the Bay Watch star. “I’d need Manscaped (electric razor) and Nair (hair removal). I would need everything. “It’d be messy.”
He had never worked in a pool, either.
“That was a missed opportunity,” he explained. “Maybe I was afraid.”
Props for preparation.
Hurley isn’t the only Final Four head coach who has previously coached high school teams. Kevin Keatts of North Carolina State and Nate Oats of Alabama also performed well.
Said Keatts: “Some of the best coaches in the world are high school guys. They’re doing the same thing that we’re doing, but they’re not making a lot of money to do it. At that level, some coaches get a stipend or maybe $2,000, $2,500 to do their job, and they do it for the love of the game. I think that’s what is so special about it.”
Oats: “There are a lot of really good high school coaches. I went up against some in metro Detroit. I’ve gotten to know a lot of them. Shoot, I still steal drills when I go on recruiting trips to see different high school coaches work. … I’m sure there’s a lot of high school coaches out there looking at this Final Four wondering if they can get a break. I just tell ’em, ‘Keep working, be ready for your break if it comes.’”
House call
The Reese’s All-Star Game is played at the Final Four on the Friday after the open practices. The West, coached by USD’s Steve Lavin and his staff, won this year’s game 87-75. The West MVP was also a familiar figure to San Diego State fans: New Mexico guard Jaelen House.
The only Mountain West player in the game for seniors who have exhausted their eligibility finished with 16 points on 6 of 8 shooting to go with four assists and a steal in 23 minutes. The West squad was plus-22 points with him on the floor.
House is from Phoenix and was already in town, so playing in the game made sense despite taking 10 days off to heal various injuries after the Lobos’ season ended in a 19-point loss against Clemson in the NCAA Tournament’s first round.
“It was a like a real game,” House said. “I’m not going out to (lie): I’m going out to play my real game, and that’s what I did. … I’m glad I got to leave on a win and not a loss. It feels way better. It’s a cool experience (but) I’d rather have experienced it as a Lobo instead of a Reese’s All-Star.”
Scouts from all 30 NBA teams attend the game as well as the practices in the days before.
“That’s always the main goal,” House said of his NBA ambitions. “But wherever the most money is, that’s where I’ll be.”
Award season
Zach Edey was a busy man Friday.
In addition to his Final Four media obligations with Purdue, he also attended separate news conferences for receiving a pair of player of the year awards — from the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and the Associated Press — for the second straight year.
The 7-foot-4 Canadian center known as Big Maple becomes the fifth back-to-back winner of the AP award and the first since Virginia’s Ralph Sampson, who’s also 7-4, since 1983.
The basketball awards season continues Saturday, when the Karl Malone Award for the nation’s top power forward will be announced. SDSU’s Jaedon LeDee is among the finalists (and favorites).
Butler enters draft
Aztecs senior guard Lamont Butler announced Friday that he will provisionally enter the NBA Draft while retaining his collegiate eligibility, just as he did last year. The move was expected and doesn’t change his status whether he’ll use his COVID year for a fifth season in college, either at SDSU or elsewhere.
Butler has not entered the transfer portal and has until May 1 to do s
