There are lots of ways to illustrate how well Dan Hurley is running UConn's program -- but perhaps the best is to highlight how he took a team that was unranked last preseason, won the national championship with it, lost three of his top six scorers, replaced them with transfers and freshmen and just secured the outright Big East title with a week left in the regular season despite the conference having two other top-15 teams.
Incredible.
The list of CBS Sports National Coach of the Year candidates is filled with awesome names -- names like Matt Painter (Purdue), Kelvin Sampson (Houston), Danny Sprinkle (Utah State), Lamont Paris (South Carolina) and Kyle Smith (Washington State). But with all due respect to those men, my COY ballot, if submitted today, would likely start with Dan Hurley for all of the reasons stated above. He's 26-3 this season following Sunday's 91-61 victory over Seton Hall that secured UConn's first outright Big East title since 1999.
"The hardest thing to do," Hurley said afterward, "is to be excellent over the course of three, four months in a brutal, hard league."
UConn remains No. 2 in Monday morning's updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, where Purdue is No. 1 for the 13th consecutive day based on my opinion that Purdue has the sport's best body of work. The Boilermakers own eight wins over schools ranked in the top 25 of the NET. Nobody can match that. They're also No. 1 in strength of record. (I rest my case.)
But even if I do prefer Purdue's body of work to everybody else's, I can still acknowledge that there is very little difference between Purdue's resume, UConn's resume and Houston's resume.
It's close.
But the more-important thing to understand is that there's A LOT of difference between the resumes belonging to Purdue, UConn and Houston -- and the resumes belonging to everybody else. Simply put, at this point, it's hard to imagine a 68-team bracket that doesn't have Purdue, UConn and Houston as No. 1 seeds on Selection Sunday. They're all 10-3 in Quadrant 1 with zero losses outside of Q1. They're all great. Any of them could still end up as the No. 1 overall seed -- but all of them will be No. 1 seeds in the 2024 NCAA Tournament barring a late collapse that seems wildly unlikely.
Monday's Top 25 And 1 rankings
Rk | Teams | Chg | Rcrd | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Zach Edey finished with 32 points and 11 rebounds in Saturday's 80-74 win over Michigan State. The Boilermakers' next game is Tuesday at Illinois. | -- | 34-5 |
| 2 |  | Stephon Castle finished with 21 points and four rebounds in Sunday's 91-61 win over Seton Hall. The Huskies' next game is Wednesday at Marquette. | -- | 37-3 |
| 3 |  | Jamal Shead finished with 14 points and six assists in Saturday's 87-85 win at Oklahoma. The Cougars' next game is Wednesday at UCF. | -- | 32-5 |
| 4 |  | Zakai Zeigler finished with 18 points and four assists in Saturday's 81-74 win at Alabama. The Vols' next game is Wednesday at South Carolina. | -- | 27-9 |
| 5 |  | Tre King finished with 16 points and six rebounds in Saturday's 60-52 win at UCF. The Cyclones' next game is Saturday against BYU. | -- | 29-8 |
| 6 |  | Harrison Ingram finished with 22 points and six rebounds in Saturday's 79-70 win over NC State. The Tar Heels' next game is Tuesday against Notre Dame. | -- | 29-8 |
| 7 |  | Caleb Love finished with 22 points and seven assists in Saturday's 103-83 win over Oregon. The Wildcats' next game is Thursday at UCLA. | -- | 27-9 |
| 8 |  | Baylor Scheierman finished with 26 points and 16 rebounds in Saturday's 89-75 win over Marquette. The Bluejays' next game is Saturday at Villanova. | -- | 25-10 |
| 9 |  | RayJ Dennis finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds in Saturday's 82-74 win over Kansas. The Bears' next game is Monday against Texas. | -- | 24-11 |
| 10 |  | Marquette allowed the Bluejays to shoot 54.1% from the field in Saturday's 89-75 loss at Creighton. The Golden Eagles' next game is Wednesday against UConn. | -- | 27-10 |
| 11 |  | Johnny Furphy was 1 of 5 from the field in Saturday's 82-74 loss at Baylor. The Jayhawks' next game is Tuesday against Kansas State. | -- | 23-11 |
| 12 |  | Johni Broome finished with 17 points and six rebounds in Saturday's 78-63 win over Mississippi State. The Tigers' next game is Tuesday at Missouri. | -- | 27-8 |
| 13 |  | Ian Martinez finished with 21 points and six rebounds in Friday's 72-60 win over Air Force. The Aggies' next game is Wednesday at San Jose State. | -- | 28-7 |
| 14 |  | Kyle Filipowski finished with 21 points and seven rebounds in Saturday's 73-48 win over Virginia. The Blue Devils' next game is Monday at NC State. | -- | 27-9 |
| 15 |  | Jaedon LeDee finished with 27 points and 11 rebounds in Tuesday's 72-64 win over San Jose State. The Aztecs' next game is Tuesday at UNLV. | -- | 26-11 |
| 16 |  | Marcus Domask finished with 31 points and eight rebounds in Saturday's 91-83 win at Wisconsin. The Illini's next game is Tuesday against Purdue. | -- | 29-9 |
| 17 |  | Trevin Knell finished with 20 points and two rebounds in Saturday's 87-75 win over TCU. The Cougars' next game is Wednesday at Iowa State. | -- | 23-11 |
| 18 |  | Antonio Reeves finished with 22 points and four rebounds in Saturday's 111-102 win over Arkansas. The Wildcats' next game is Wednesday against Vanderbilt. | -- | 23-10 |
| 19 |  | Rylan Griffen was 2 of 11 from the field in Saturday's 81-74 loss to Tennessee. The Crimson Tide's next game is Tuesday at Florida. | -- | 25-12 |
| 20 |  | Dayton committed 23 turnovers in Friday's 77-72 loss at Loyola Chicago. The Flyers' next game is Tuesday at Saint Louis. | -- | 25-8 |
| 21 |  | Jaylen Wells finished with 27 points and two rebounds in Saturday's 77-65 win over UCLA. The Cougars' next game is Thursday against Washington. | -- | 25-10 |
| 22 |  | Meechie Johnson finished with 25 points and four rebounds in Saturday's 82-76 win over Florida. The Gamecocks' next game is Wednesday against Tennessee. | -- | 26-8 |
| 23 |  | Graham Ike finished with 24 points and 10 rebounds in Saturday's 70-57 win at Saint Mary's. The Zags' next game is March 11 in the semifinals of the WCC Tournament. | -- | 27-8 |
| 24 |  | Omar Stanley finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds in Saturday's 89-79 win over New Mexico. The Broncos' next game is Tuesday against Nevada. | -- | 22-11 |
| 25 |  | Jarod Lucas finished with 21 points and two assists in Friday's 74-66 win over Fresno State. The Wolf Pack's next game is Tuesday at Boise State. | -- | 26-8 |
| 26 |  | Will Richard was 0 of 4 from the field in Saturday's 82-76 loss at South Carolina. The Gators' next game is Tuesday against Alabama. | -- | 24-12 |
