Brown: Could Louisville's Pat Kelsey or Kentucky's Mark Pope be the next Dan Hurley?

While UConn coach Dan Hurley stands at the pinnacle of college basketball, having just led the Huskies to back-to-back national championships, it’s important for Louisville and Kentucky to revisit where he started.

Hurley arrived at UConn with some of the same questions that are being thrown around now that Pat Kelsey is at U of L and Mark Pope was introduced at UK.

Hurley arrived to little fanfare, having spent a combined eight seasons at Rhode Island and Wagner. He didn’t make the NCAA Tournament his first six years.

Kelsey and Pope come to the commonwealth with similar coaching backgrounds as Hurley; there’s no reason they can’t duplicate his formula for success. That doesn’t mean one national title much less back-to-back are inevitable, but they can have the Cards and Cats back contending for them.

Kelsey is a more accomplished coach at this juncture in his career than Hurley was. Kelsey won at least a share of four regular-season conference crowns at Winthrop and another two at College of Charleston. And he’s been to the Big Dance four times.

Pope is behind in that regard. He’s never won a conference title in the regular season or conference tournament, but that also spoke to the programs he coached. Utah Valley had just been competing in Division I for 11 years prior to his arrival. BYU hadn’t won a conference title since Jimmer Fredette played in 2011.

While at Wagner, Hurley won one NEC title, and he took one Atlantic 10 regular-season title and one tournament title at Rhode Island. Nothing Hurley did screamed that he’d be a smashing success at UConn.

His first four seasons in Storrs didn’t, either.

Hurley’s first four years at UConn — two in the American and two in the Big East — only led to two first-round exits in the NCAA Tournament — and the Huskies were upset by double-digit seeds in both.  

Kelsey and Pope might not get that kind of patience, to be honest, if they’ve got nothing more to show than first-round exits in four years.

Neither Kelsey nor Pope has won an NCAA Tournament game yet. Kelsey’s 0-4 going twice with Winthrop and twice with Charleston. Pope is 0-2 including being eliminated by No. 11 seed Duquesne this season.

Where both coaches need to emulate Hurley is with how they construct their rosters.

Overreliance on the transfer portal isn’t the quick fix that many believe it to be. Hurley has used identifying talent and developing players from within as a key in his success. 

“Obviously it’s a balanced roster — young players with talent that are insulated by returning players to your program that can uphold the culture, then strategic portal additions that can put you over the top,” Hurley said during the Final Four.

On last year’s title team, juniors Adama Sanogo and Andre Jackson Jr. as well as sophomore Jordan Hawkins were all examples of players who came up in the program.

This year’s title team was boosted by the transfers Hurley used to supplement his roster. Tristen Newton, an East Carolina transfer, went from a supporting role on the ’23 title team to a star for the Huskies this season. 

Rutgers transfer Cam Spencer added to the mix this season and joined Newton as the only other player to start every game for UConn. Spencer, who was a 44% shooter from 3-point range, helped keep the spacing clean so that sophomore center Donovan Clingan could operate in the paint and freshman wing Stephon Castle could slash to the basket. It was a perfect blend.

“All of us should just shut up about it and stop trying to help the people that don't know what they’re doing,” Hurley joked.

The commonwealth will know soon enough if Kelsey and Pope know what they’re doing. But for now, everyone should shut up about the hires U of L and UK didn’t make or the candidates they didn’t pursue and watch both coaches work. 

One of them, or both, might just be the next Dan Hurley.

Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter atprofile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.