UConn head coach Dan Hurley and the No. 2-seeded Huskies proceeded to the Sweet 16 after beating the No. 7-seeded UCLA Bruins in the second round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament on Sunday.
Hurley will preside over one of the marquee games of the tournament so far when the Huskies face off against coach Tom Izzo and the No. 3-seeded Michigan State Spartans on Friday.
Dan Hurley Reveals How Tom Izzo Shaped UConn’s Winning Culture
During Wednesday’s segment of “The Pat McAfee Show,” Hurley revealed his admiration for Izzo and how he has modeled his dominant UConn teams after the Spartans legend’s program.
“I think you find yourself communicating a lot during the course of the year with the coaches that you either looked up to or modeled yourself after,” Hurley said. “Whether it’s coach Izzo, Pitino, or Kelvin Sampson or Bill Self, those are the ones you find yourself more in common with in terms of how you run your program, the levels of accountability.
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“That’s where the matchup against coach Izzo and Michigan State, for me, it’s respect and admiration, for the type of coach he is. In a lot of ways, I’ve tried to model my program after how hard they play, how much he loves his players, how he holds them to account and develops strong men.”
After a season that saw them finish second in the Big Ten regular-season standings, the Spartans clinched a Sweet 16 berth after blowing out the No. 14-seeded North Dakota State Bison and edging out the No. 6-seeded Louisville Cardinals in the second round.
Izzo has 17 Sweet 16 appearances, which is the most of any active coach in college basketball, and holds the record for the most consecutive appearances at the Big Dance with 28.
In an interview with the Associated Press on Monday, Izzo revealed that Hurley turned to him for advice when the Los Angeles Lakers heavily courted him to become their head coach in 2024.
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“I told him to seriously look at it because I could see where college basketball was going,” Izzo said. “But I said, I would hate to lose him because I think he’s all that is right about college basketball. He cares about the kids. He cares about the game. He has to care about the game because of his dad.”
The winner of the monumental Sweet 16 clash between UConn and Michigan State will face the winner of the contest pitting coach Jon Scheyer and the No. 1-seeded Duke Blue Devils against coach Rick Pitino and the No. 5-seeded St. John’s Red Storm in the Elite Eight.
