A group of reporters were stationed in the alley between Gampel Pavilion and UConn’s training facility, an old-fashioned stake out. UConn’s basketball teams have provided the state of Connecticut with excitement and pride throughout the first six months of 2024, but now the drama was getting excruciating.
Would Dan Hurley stay as men’s basketball coach? Or would he leave to coach the Lakers?
Finally on June 10, a little past 1 p.m., his wife, Andrea, pulled up and quickly entered the building, offering assistant coach Tom Moore a high five. Dan slipped in a different door, out of sight, to tell his team before telling the world.
He was staying. He was going to go for the threepeat.
“In my gut, I knew he would stay,” said Hassan Diarra, who has helped the Huskies win two championships. “He didn’t want to leave, he loves us too much.”
After leading the UConn men to their second straight national championship, after declaring on stage in Phoenix “We’ve been running college basketball for 25, 30 years,” Hurley spurned a $70 million offer from the Lakers to coach LeBron James (and his son) on the other coast. He got a new deal at UConn worth $50 million, and committed himself to chasing college basketball history, namely, trying to be the first coach since John Wooden to win more than two titles in a row.
Dom Amore: Lakers got in Dan Hurley’s head, but couldn’t wrest his heart from UConn
The Lakers’ pursuit of Hurley was international news, a drama that had all of Connecticut on edge for several days, everyone from the governor to the youngest fans weighing in. But a man who seems to have been born for his current job decided not to mess with happy, the biggest sports story in the state in 2024.
Here are moments and memories of this eventful year in Connecticut sports:
Estimated 60,000 fill Hartford for UConn men’s basketball championship parade
Back-to-back
The UConn men finished 37-3 and again won every postseason game by double digits, defeating Purdue in the championship game. Nothing was left on the table this time. The Huskies won the Big East regular-season and tournament titles before beating Stetson and Northwestern in Brooklyn, San Diego State and Illinois in Boston, and finally Alabama and Purdue in Arizona. The Illinois game featured a 30-0 run and a heckling Larry David in the front row. Who’d want to coach a team with him sitting courtside? Maybe that curbed any enthusiasm for the Lakers’ job.
Four Huskies moved on to the NBA: lottery picks Stephon Castle, a rookie of the year front runner with the Spurs, Donovan Clingan, Cam Spencer and Tristen Newton. The new cast stumbled in a November trip to Hawaii, but the year ends with the Huskies (10-3) on a six-game winning streak.
Late foul call costs UConn as Huskies fall to Iowa, 71-69, in national semifinals
Exhilaration and agony
The UConn women, for the third year in a row, suffered through a rash of injuries, but coach Geno Auriemma and star Paige Bueckers, in a new, frontcourt role, led the Huskies to another conference title and into the NCAA regionals. In a thrilling showdown, Bueckers and USC’s JuJu Watkins dueled, but underdog UConn won to reach the Final Four for the 15th time in 16 years. Then, in a showdown with Caitlin Clark and Iowa, a last-second foul on Aaliyah Edwards cost Bueckers a chance to take a potential game-winning shot.
In the new season, Auriemma passed Tara VanDerveer to become the winningest college basketball coach in history. UConn is 10-2, but Watkins and the Trojans won a rematch in Hartford on Dec. 21.
Fenway Bowl champs
After a dip in 2023, the UConn football program resumed its resurgence under Jim Mora, going 8-4 to reach a bowl game for the second time in three years. Effective use of the transfer portal brought 27 new players, and many proved to be difference makers.
The team put the cherry on the season on Saturday with a dominant 27-14 win over North Carolina in the Fenway Bowl. It was the Huskies’ first win over a power-four conference team after coming up three times during the regular season, and their first bowl victory since 2009. Just before kickoff in Boston Mora was given a two-year contract extension.
Final round at Travelers Championship disrupted by climate protesters on 18th green
Moment of chaos in Cromwell
Scottie Scheffler, No.1 golfer in the world, conquered Connecticut, defeating Tom Kim on the first playoff hole to win the Travelers Championship on June 23, a star-studded field as the tournament has earned “Signature Event” status on the PGA Tour. A group of climate protestors swarmed the green on the last hole, briefly disrupting the event, but things were quickly gotten under control.
Fever Pitch: Caitlin Clark has the chance to add her name to short list of sports’ game-changers
The Caitlin Effect
Clark brought new eyes to the WNBA. Some in the league appeared miffed by all the attention on Clark, the AP Female Athlete of the Year. There was a cry of protest when she was left off the Olympic team. Her pro debut, at Mohegan Sun Arena on May 14, was an international happening. After a sluggish start, Clark was by far the top rookie in the league and led Indiana to the playoffs. The Connecticut Sun defeated the Fever and reached the semifinals before losing to Minnesota. In the WNBA finals, former Huskies Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier staged epic battles before Stewart and the Liberty ended New York City’s long championship drought.
Since the end of the season, the Sun have been in transition. Former Husky Morgan Tuck is now the GM, and a new coach comes from Europe, Rachid Meziane, to replace Stephanie White.
Athletic prowess
New coach Brendan Burke brought stability to Hartford Athletic and after a midseason slump, the state’s pro soccer franchise made a playoff push that came up just short. Mamadou Dieng, 20, from Senegal re-energized the franchise with a series of big scoring performances late in the season.
Goat stuff
UConn angered PETA by bringing a live goat to celebrate Auriemma’s record breaking win, but it’s nothing new. Live goats have been part of the minor-league baseball experience in Hartford for years. Playoffs weren’t, until 2024, when the Hartford Yard Goats won the Eastern League’s first-half division title and earned a spot in the playoffs, losing in the first round. The success the box office finally was matched on the field, with former Yankee Bobby Meacham at the helm. GM Mike Abramson was named minor-league executive of the year by Baseball America.
Team USA escapes France to win 8th straight gold medal at Paris Olympics led by UConn legends
Olympian feats
Connecticut was well-represented at the Olympics in Paris. Alexis Holmes of Hamden won gold in the women’s 4X400 relay, and Old Lyme’s Liam Corrigan in men’s rowing. UConn’s Napheesa Collier, Breanna Stewart and Diana Taurasi were on USA Basketball’s gold medal squad. which prevailed in a nail-biting finish against France, with UConn’s Gabby Williams.
Goalkeeper extraordinaire Alyssa Naeher, from Stratford, made a spectacular save to help the U.S. women’s soccer team take home the gold. Ridgefield’s Kieran Smith won a silver in swimming. Quinnipiac grad Ilona Maher helped the U.S. win its first medal in women’s rugby.
Dom Amore: Meet the sculptor who has cast Dwight Freeney’s legend in bronze
Around the state in 2024
Dwight Freeney represented his hometown, Bloomfield, in accepting pro football’s highest honor, induction into the Hall of Fame in Canton in August. Then he was honored at the State Capitol. … The Wolf Pack, after losing their coach, Kris Knoblauch, to the NHL’s Oilers, rallied and reached the AHL playoffs again, eliminated by Hershey.
The Pack is back in the thick of the playoff race this season. … The UConn baseball team reached the NCAA Super Regional for the third time, but the road to the College World Series was stopped by Florida State. The UConn women’s hockey team won its first ever conference title, but lost a heartbreaker to St. Cloud State in the NCAA Tournament. The women’s soccer team won the Big East Tournament and advanced to the second round of the NCAA. … Yale struggled early in the football season, but got the win that matters most — over Harvard in The Game. … Central Connecticut football made it to the postseason, beating Duquesne to take the NEC automatic playoff berth before losing at Rhode Island. … New Haven reached the D-II football playoffs, losing to a close one to Slippery Rock. … Trinity reached the Division III Final Four in men’s basketball, falling to Trine in the semifinals, and hockey, losing to Hobart in the championship game. … Conn College made it to the D-III final in men’s soccer, losing to Amherst. … Ben Casparius, a righthander from Staples High and UConn, reached the major leagues and played a role in the Dodgers NLCS and World Series victories.
Windsor High’s football team was ranked No. 1 in the state most of the season, and unbeaten until losing on a last-second field goal to Masuk-Monroe in the Class MM final. Greenwich ended up No.1 … High school boys basketball brought a cool story from Old Lyme, where coach Brady Sheffield, 21, led the Wildcats to the school’s first ever state championship. … Two UConn basketball legends, Kemba Walker and Rudy Gay, retired after long, distinguished NBA careers.
Coming New Year’s Day: A look ahead to top Connecticut sports stories in 2025.