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Dan Hurley: College basketball programs should operate like NBA teams

ns_headshot_2024-clearby: Nick Schultz04/09/26NickSchultz_7

Monday night, UConn coach Dan Hurley met with reporters following his team’s season-ending loss to Michigan in the national championship. During is press conference, the transfer portal window opened, meaning the offseason was in full swing.

Coaching staffs have been hard at work this week as players officially hit the open market following the 2025-26 campaign. As of Wednesday night, more than 1,800 players entered the portal through a few days of the window. For UConn and Michigan, there wasn’t much time to rest after Monday’s title game.

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That’s why Hurley stressed the importance of front office-type positions within college basketball programs, considering coaches are fresh off the grind of the season. He said teams should strive to operate more like those at the professional level, including the NBA.

“This is terrible, right now, what’s going on,” Hurley said Thursday on The Dan Patrick Show. “It’s not terrible in the sense of NIL. I think the NIL for the players is awesome. Our players made a lot of money this year and their commitment level was to the max. So the money didn’t make them lazy or hard to coach. They were awesome the whole year.

“I think as college programs right now, you literally have to have a front office that takes over at this point of the year. To take a coaching staff that now, did the six-month-season. And now, you’ve got to flip and now run recruiting visits, put the roster, talk to the agents. It’s a lot. I think college programs, we’ve got to start being run like an NBA organization or a pro sports organization.”

This year saw a change to the transfer portal window after the NCAA moved the opening date to April 7, the day after the national title game. Last season, the portal opened in the middle of the NCAA Tournament, which led to pushback from coaches.

But when it comes to navigating the portal, a number of programs have brought in general managers or people in similar roles to help with roster building. In May 2025, Tom Moore made the transition from assistant coach to full-time general manager at UConn. He previously held both roles under Dan Hurley, but is now solely focusing on his role with roster-building during the transfer portal era.