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After landing marquee transfer, UConn HC has chance at three-peat
Dan Hurley. David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

After landing marquee transfer, UConn HC has chance at three-peat

There's only one men's program, and one legendary coach, in the history of college basketball that can lay claim to a three-peat.

That's UCLA and head coach John Wooden, but even mentioning the three-peat is burying the lead. Wooden brought the Bruins home 10 NCAA championships. That included a legendary stretch from 1966 to 1973 that saw UCLA win seven in a row.

Clearly, UConn and head coach Dan Hurley have a lot of catching up to do to get in the same stratosphere as UCLA and Wooden. But Hurley's Huskies recently became the first team to win back-to-back national championships since Florida did so in 2006 and 2007.

Three in a row? Hurley is trying to reload his roster.

The overhaul will be easier said than done because he'll be losing Donovan Clingan and Stephon Castle to the NBA's draft lottery alongside seniors Cam Spencer and Tristen Newton, but Hurley has already restocked via the transfer portal.

His latest addition is St. Mary's guard Aidan Mahaney, who committed to UConn over Kentucky, Creighton and Virginia with two years of eligibility remaining.

"The coaching staff doesn't rebuild at UConn, they reload.," Mahaney told ESPN's Jeff Borzello. "There is no tip-toeing around the fact that the program is going for it all again … One game at a time, obviously, but the goals at UConn are set the moment you walk into the facilities. National champs."

Mahaney is a big commitment for Hurley and the Huskies. He averaged 13.9 points per game over two seasons for St. Mary's while shooting 37.5 percent from beyond the three-point line. He follows Michigan Wolverines transfer Tarris Reed Jr. in committing to UConn. Reed averaged nine points and 7.2 rebounds last year.

As if that's not enough, Hurley has a star freshman joining the ranks in five-star small forward Liam McNeeley from Montverde Academy. McNeeley is a consensus top-20 recruit in the 2024 class.

UConn will still actually have to go out and play the games in 2024-25, and it's hard to deny that Duke has something special going with its No. 1 ranked class featuring the nation's top overall recruit, Cooper Flagg.

Amidst all the change, though, Mahaney got UConn pegged. The Huskies don't rebuild. They reload.

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