Across Dan Hurley’s 15 seasons as a head college basketball coach, the last one was an outlier .

Aside from the years he took over rebuilds at Wagner, Rhode Island and the early days at UConn, Hurley’s teams were never ranked outside of the top-73 by KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency metric . Last year, the Huskies floated around triple digits in that ranking for most of the season and finished No. 75 – the worst defensive ranking for a Hurley-coached team since the 2018-19 season, when the defense improved from No. 178 in the final year under Kevin Ollie to No. 129 after Hurley’s first year.

The main focus this offseason was on bringing in players who will bring the team’s defense back to a championship standard.

From the moment point guard Silas Demary Jr. announced his com

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