Lessons CEOs Can Learn from UConn Basketball Coach Dan Hurley
As a Duke alum and avid basketball fan, I must admit I have trouble saying this: The University of Connecticut has the best men’s basketball program in the country. Period.
As a certified Scaling Up coach, I can’t help but admire the system that head coach Dan Hurley has built at UConn and the powerful lessons it offers CEOs who are courageous enough to apply his counterintuitive wisdom.
Having accomplished the rare achievement of repeating as national champions, UConn has built a dynasty.
They did this in dominating, exacting fashion: As the #1 seed in the East, UConn systematically dismantled a talented #1 Midwest seed, Purdue, on Monday night, April 8, 2024. They won by 75–60 to claim their second consecutive national title and 6th in program history. This makes UConn the only program except UCLA, Duke, and Florida to repeat as national champions. Achieving this feat puts the 51-year-old Hurley in the same rarified air as Hall of Famers John Wooden, Mike Krzyzewski, and Billy Donovan.
All year, UConn’s run to their second consecutive championship never seemed in doubt as they amassed an impressive 37–3 record in the 2023–24 season. In short, they simply dominated. The championship matchup against Purdue pitted the two teams billed as the best in the country and featured Purdue’s Zach Edey, the 7-foot, 4-inch center and two-time NCAA player of the year. Purdue hung with UConn for about six-and-a-half minutes before UConn’s precision-run offense wore down Purdue with motion, multiple screens, and precision passing, opening up high-precision shots that they made with effortless efficiency.
Earlier in the Final Four, when UConn pulled away from Alabama, TBS announcer Ian Eagle proclaimed “UConn is a machine!” For the first time in a sports broadcast, I heard announcers Bill Rafferty, Grant Hill, and Eagle repeatedly using the term “attention to detail” to describe the exactness and nuances in UConn’s plays, sets, execution, and matchups. Can you imagine the results your company would garner if it ran with the Swiss-watch precision of UConn? If you follow some of the lessons from coach Dan Hurley, you can!
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TEDx, Keynote & Motivational Speaker | Author | Business Coach for speakers and aspiring speakers | Founder & CEO at 100 Lunches & 100 Speakers| 40 under 40 Business Elite | People Connector
6 个月Great advice. Coaching over managing is the key to cultivating a winning team. Your insights into effective leadership are always invaluable. ??