After winning back-to-back national championships, Dan Hurley and the UConn Huskies have fully embraced being college basketball’s villains.
Hurley’s extreme reactions on the sidelines and “us against the world” mentality have helped build the villainy, and many of the players who come into the program are taylor made to be college basketball villains – with Rutgers transfer Cam Spencer filling the role admirably last season.
This year, Hurley already identified Spencer’s replacement as incoming freshman Liam McNeeley, the No. 10 ranked player in the 2024 recruiting class who is expected to be a day one starter and one-and-done player who gets taken in the lottery of the 2025 NBA draft.
Hurley spoke to the media on Tuesday and discussed McNeeley’s attitude and confidence, going as far as to say he thinks “opposing fan bases will find him to be an acceptable villain.”
Coach Hurley continued to have high praise for the attitude and confidence of Liam McNeeley:
"I think opposing fanbases will find him to be an acceptable villain." https://t.co/wtkeK7Dt99 pic.twitter.com/eZcodsxEJg
— Storrs Central (@StorrsCentral) July 9, 2024
McNeeley is from Richardson, TX and was a McDonald’s All-American who spent time at three different high schools. He originally committed to the Indiana Hoosiers before reopening his recruitment and joining the Huskies as they look for a third straight national title.
Fan bases in Texas and Indiana already have a reason to treat McNeeley like a villain, and soon the rest of the Big East will follow suit – particularly if he plays a big role in UConn continuing to win at an absurdly high rate in 2024-25.