The two-time national champion head coach at UConn is being pursued by the Lakers, but history shows hiring from college basketball is a complete gamble.
Dan Hurley has emerged as the Los Angeles Lakers’ priority target in their head coaching search, per reports. From the outside, the UConn head man looks like a slam-dunk candidate after leading the Huskies to back-to-back national championships. However, we took a deep dive into past NBA hires from the college ranks, and it revealed a fair share of disappointments.
There are plenty of success stories, too. For every disappointing crossover, like Rick Pitino and John Calipari, there’s a Larry Brown, the only coach in basketball history to win both an NCAA national championship and NBA Finals. Will Hurley throw his hand in the ring? No one knows for sure, but he teased the idea in the past.
“There’s no one coaching like me in the NBA,” Hurley said in 2023. “They’re not ready, and certainly, I’m not ready. But that is something I aspire to do down the road.”
QUIN SNYDER
Snyder spent four seasons as an assistant at Duke (1995-99) before landing his first head coaching gig at Missouri at the turn of the century. He led the Tigers to four-straight NCAA Tournament berths to start his tenure in Columbia but posted a 42-42 overall record over his final three seasons with the team, leading to his firing. He spent years as an assistant in the NBA before landing his first head gig with the Utah Jazz in 2014. He resigned last season with a 372–264 (.585) regular season record and led Atlanta to a 36-46 mark in his first season with the team in 2023-24.
TIM FLOYD
When the Chicago Bulls needed a new face to reset its franchise after Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan departed, it hired Floyd, a former Big Eight Coach of the Year and Iowa State headman. Without much help around him, Floyd couldn’t get the Bulls to 20 wins in each of his first three seasons in Chicago and resigned after a 4-21 start to his fourth season at the helm. He fared much better with the New Orleans Hornets in 2003-04, leading the team to a 41-41 record. Still, ownership was unsatisfied and fired him after one season.
MIKE MONTGOMERY
Montgomery is another coach who fell short in the professional ranks after a prolific collegiate career. He earned four Pac-10 Coach of the Year nods during a long stint at Stanford (1986-2004) and led the Cardinal to a Final Four berth in 1998. He traveled across the San Francisco Bay Area to try his hand at coaching the Golden State Warriors in 2004. He led his teams to identical 34-48 records and was fired before his third season.
FRED HOIBERG
One of Iowa State’s all-time greats as a player, Hoiberg returned to Ames to coach his alma mater in 2010 and became the fastest coach in program history to notch 100 wins in 2014. Despite signing a 10-year deal with ISU in 2013, Hoiberg left for the head job with the Chicago Bulls in 2015. He finished in the .500 range his first two seasons before leading the Bulls to a 27-55 mark in year three. He was fired after a 5-19 start to his fourth year. He returned to the college ranks at Nebraska in 2019 and notched his first NCAA Tournament appearance with the Cornhuskers this past season.
BRAD STEVENS
Stevens has found success at every stop. He led Butler to back-to-back national championship berths in 2010-11 and won four conference regular-season championships during his six seasons with the team. The Celtics hired him in 2013 when he was still 36 years old. He took Boston from the bottom of the Eastern Conference to three conference finals appearances. He replaced Danny Ainge as the team’s president of basketball operations in 2021. He took home the NBA Executive of the Year Award this season after building a roster that’s in the Finals.
Beilein guided Michigan to two national championship berths in 2013 and 2018 and had compiled an impressive 571-325 record over 27 years of college coaching before leaving for the NBA in 2019. He signed a five-year deal with the Cavaliers but didn’t even make it through his first season, becoming just the third first-year head coach since 1990 to coach the season opener without completing the season. He currently serves as the senior player development advisor for the Detroit Pistons.
Calipari left his first head coaching gig at UMass for the New Jersey Nets after leading the Minutemen to its first-ever Final Four appearance in 1996, and was fired after a 3-17 start to his third season. He spent two years as an assistant under Larry Brown with the Philadelphia 76ers to get back on his feet before taking the Memphis job in 2000. He led Memphis and Kentucky to five Final Fours and cut down the nets with the Wildcats in 2012.