Dan Hurley is still sitting alone at the top.
CBS Sports has named the UConn men’s basketball coach the No. 1 coach in college basketball for the third straight year, putting him ahead of a loaded field as the Huskies head into the 2026-27 season. The ranking comes after Hurley pushed UConn through a rugged path to the 2026 national championship game, taking down Mick Cronin, Tom Izzo, Jon Scheyer and Brad Underwood before Michigan beat the Huskies in Indianapolis.
That loss didn’t shake CBS Sports’ view of Hurley’s place in the sport. In its evaluation, the outlet pointed to UConn’s third national title-game appearance in four years and said Hurley is steering a dynasty.
It also noted that, at 53, he could keep building on it for a long time. CBS Sports wrote: "Hurley guided UConn to its third national title game appearance in a four-year span before the Huskies ran into a historically dominant Michigan team on the season's final night," CBS Sports writes.
"While Hurley fell just short of becoming the first coach since John Wooden to win three national championships in four years, he's presiding over a dynasty. At 53, he could keep it going for quite some time.
He was the unanimous No. 1 choice by our panelists."
UConn’s upcoming schedule only adds to the intrigue. Hurley is lining up what CBS Sports described as likely the toughest nonconference slate in program history, and it includes several of the coaches right behind him in the rankings.
The Huskies will open with preseason exhibitions against No. 5 Matt Painter’s Purdue and No.
7 Izzo’s Michigan State, then go on the road for marquee games against No. 6 Tommy Lloyd and Arizona, No.
9 Scheyer and Duke, No. 12 Underwood and Illinois, and No.
22 Ryan Odom and Virginia. On top of that, No.
8 Bill Self and Kansas will come to Connecticut in December.
The only other Big East coach to crack CBS Sports’ list is St. John’s boss Rick Pitino, who comes in at No.
- CBS Sports highlighted his back-to-back Big East regular-season and conference-tournament titles, while also pointing out that his NCAA Tournament results haven’t matched that league success.
Hurley’s résumé still puts him in rare air. Eight years into his UConn run, he doesn’t have the same overall win totals as some of the coaches ranked around him, but he is already one of only three active coaches with multiple national championships. And over the last four seasons, he has made three Final Fours - the only coach in the sport with more than one trip in that span.
In Other News...
UConns Depth Just Sent A Strong Message Before The Real Games
The final tune-up before the real thing looked a lot like what has made UConn such a difficult team to pin down in recent years: size, depth and enough scoring options to keep rolling even when the rotation opens up. The No. 4 Huskies closed their exhibition slate with a 76-53 win over Purdue at PeoplesBank Arena, moving through the preseason unbeaten and getting a strong all-around showing from a bench that kept the pressure on throughout.
Colben Landrew was the loudest of those second-unit sparks, finishing with 15 points in just 18 minutes, while Jayden Ross, Oskar Giltay and Silas Demary Jr. also reached double figures. Just as encouraging for Dan Hurleys group was the defensive edge, as UConn held Purdue to 32.8 percent shooting overall and barely gave the Boilermakers anything from outside, a reminder that the Huskies may already be close to their regular-season form. [Read more 🡒]
UConn Is Walking Into A Big East Grind Fans Can't Ignore
The Big East is shaping up as the kind of league that can wear a team down before March even arrives, and UConn is right in the middle of it. St. Johns enters the 2026-27 season with a chance to chase a third straight Big East regular-season and tournament title, but Rick Pitinos point about the conference getting better across the board is the bigger warning sign for everyone else. Xavier, Georgetown, Providence, Creighton and Marquette all drew mention as teams on the rise, which is a reminder that there may not be many easy nights left on the schedule.
Preseason rankings only add to the sense that the conference is loaded from top to bottom, with UConn and St. Johns standing out nationally while other Big East programs sit firmly in the mix. For UConn, that means every trip through the league will demand focus, depth and the kind of consistency that separates title contenders from teams that merely survive the grind. The challenge is not just beating the usual suspects, but navigating a conference where almost every opponent arrives with enough quality to make a slip cost plenty. [Read more 🡒]
UConn Showed Promise Against Purdue But Bigger Answers Come Next
UConn closed the preseason with a 3-0 record and a convincing 76-53 win over Purdue, a result that offered a real glimpse of the teams depth and versatility heading into the regular season. The Huskies got production from across the roster, including transfers Najai Hines and Oskar Giltay working inside, while freshman Colben Landrew led the scoring in the finale and helped reinforce the feeling that this group has more than one way to beat teams.
Braylon Mullins also returned from injury and logged his first extended run of the preseason, another encouraging sign as UConn turns to games that will say much more about where it stands. Gardner-Webb is next, but the real measuring stick comes soon after, when the Huskies start seeing a string of Power Four opponents early in the schedule and the questions about their frontcourt rotation and overall ceiling get a lot harder to avoid. [Read more 🡒]