Sports

UConn’s Big East return stirs up coaching drama: ‘Sucks for us’

Privately, a number of Big East coaches weren’t exactly thrilled about the league adding Connecticut, a publicly-funded state school, unlike the other 10 members.

On Wednesday, Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard didn’t hide his feelings during the league’s virtual media day, half-jokingly saying he was against the move.

“It sucks for us, to be honest with you,” Willard said over Zoom. “I didn’t vote for it; I voted against it. I’m still not happy about it. If you don’t know, nobody in this league listens to me.”

Willard, it should be noted, didn’t have a vote. The league’s presidents voted on the addition of the Huskies. He also believes UConn returning is good for the Big East, though not necessarily for his program. In the spring, for example, UConn beat out Seton Hall for four-star prospect and current freshman forward Adama Sanogo of The Patrick School in Hillside, N.J.

When asked about Willard’s comments, UConn coach Dan Hurley — a Seton Hall alum — didn’t really go at his fellow coach, but he didn’t back down, either.

“That logic, it doesn’t make a ton of sense to me, but then again I’m not the coach at Seton Hall,” he said. “Yeah, I don’t know.”

The two schools were picked by the league’s coaches to finish close to one another, with UConn fourth and Seton Hall fifth. Both, on paper, should be NCAA Tournament teams.

Hurley played for Seton Hall from 1991-96 and has twice faced the Pirates while he was coaching at Rhode Island, splitting a pair of games. He met his wife Andrea while at the New Jersey university and one of his sons, Danny, is a student there. Facing the Pirates twice a year will certainly create an interesting dynamic between the two coaches and will be emotional for Hurley.

“I’ll be spending quite a bit of time the day of the game, the day before the game, thinking about the journey and how full circle life comes,” Hurley said.


The Big East will always honor Big John.

The conference announced Wednesday the creation of the John Thompson Jr. Award, which will be given each year to a Big East individual, team or athletic department that makes significant efforts to fight prejudice, discrimination and advance positive social change. The legendary Georgetown coach, who spent decades fighting racial injustice and in 1984 became the first African-American head coach to win a national championship, died on Aug. 30 at the age of 78.

“Coach Thompson’s convictions and determination to reverse societal injustices helped define his life, and we hope this award will inspire the next generation of advocates to press ahead and pave the way for a more equitable world,” Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman said.


The 11 Big East schools unanimously approved Black Lives Matter (BLM) patches that will be worn on their men’s and women’s basketball uniforms for the coming season.

It was the idea of Coaches for Action, a group of 21 minority assistant coaches from the league that was formed to help raise awareness of racism and social injustice.

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