Dan Hurley never mentioned Syracuse.
He never mentioned Gerry McNamara.
And he certainly never mentioned Amarri Monroe.
But it’s difficult to hear the UConn head coach’s fiery criticism of college basketball’s latest eligibility chaos without thinking about exactly what Syracuse just did.
The Orange added Monroe last week after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction that opened the door for certain players from the high school Class of 2022 to receive another year of eligibility.
Monroe had seemingly exhausted his eligibility after four college seasons, including three at Quinnipiac — right in Hurley’s backyard in Connecticut.
Then the court ruling changed everything.
Suddenly, the reigning MAAC Player of the Year was available in August. Syracuse had room. Monroe had already entered the transfer portal. And McNamara pounced.
Hurley apparently isn’t thrilled with what this new marketplace has created.
Speaking about the ruling, Hurley argued that college basketball cannot continue operating this way.
“You could screw up high school recruiting, you could screw up portal recruiting, not have a very good team, and now start plucking from a group of players in August and put together a team,” Hurley said.
While Hurley never singled out the Orange, “plucking from a group of players in August” describes the opportunity Syracuse just capitalized on remarkably well.
Hurley’s objection also appears to go beyond whether these moves are technically legal under the current rules.
“At some point, you got to care about the sport,” Hurley said. “If you’re a coach and the sport’s given you a lot, you know, it’s like doing things to hurt the sport so that you can win a little bit more. I think you got to be able to look in the mirror on that.”
There’s no evidence Syracuse broke a rule or went searching for a legal loophole to land Monroe. In fact, Front Office Sports reporter Amanda Christovich recently told Orange Nation that Monroe has a “very good chance” of being eligible. Because he was already in the portal and appears to satisfy the other requirements, she said he “should be just fine” unless the court ruling is overturned — something she described as unlikely.
So the question isn’t whether Syracuse can take Monroe.
Hurley seems to be questioning whether programs should be taking these players at all.
Hurley argued that programs spent months recruiting high school players and transfers, carefully constructed rosters and began summer practices — only to have dozens of experienced players suddenly dumped back into the marketplace.
“Now let’s unleash 80 players into the sport in the first week of August,” Hurley said. “I mean, we can’t go on like this.”
But what exactly was McNamara supposed to do? And is Hurley truly a beacon of integrity for the sport? A coach that consistently apologizes or is forced to explain childish behavior, abuse of officials and fan incidents? Or wagging his finger in front of a program that had major violations with the Nate Miles scandal in ’10 and illegal recruiting with Kevin Ollie in ’18?
Monroe became available. He was already in the portal. He’s coming off a monster season at Quinnipiac. McNamara knows him intimately from coaching against him at Siena. He’s a Newburgh, N.Y., native. And Syracuse had an opportunity to make its basketball team significantly better weeks before the season.
Was McNamara supposed to say no because the circumstances that created Monroe’s eligibility are bad for college basketball?
Someone else certainly wouldn’t have.
That’s ultimately the problem with Hurley’s argument — even if he’s right about the sport.
College coaches are paid enormous sums to win basketball games. Asking one program to voluntarily surrender a competitive advantage while every rival remains free to exploit it is an almost impossible standard.
Hurley may believe coaches need to “look in the mirror” before taking advantage of college basketball’s latest chaos. It’s easy to say when you have the resources of UConn and have won multiple titles. You will have your choice of recruits. But are we supposed to believe he would have ignored this group of 80 players, and Amarri Monroe, at Wagner or URI? Or if UConn was still building itself back?
McNamara looked at the reigning MAAC Player of the Year sitting there in August and apparently saw something different.
An opportunity.
In today’s college basketball, can anyone really blame him for taking it?
