If Connecticut's Dan Hurley joins the Los Angeles Lakers, he will join a long lineage of coaches who have won national championships in college basketball and then gone pro.
Hurley and LA have been in communication about the team's head coaching vacancy, team and league sources confirmed, and ESPN reports the Lakers are prepared to offer him a long-term contract.
Other head coaches have made that leap, with mixed results. Larry Brown is the only head coach to win a national championship and an NBA Finals, with Kansas in 1988 and the Detroit Pistons in 2004.
Basketball Hall of Famers Rick Pitino and John Calipari, who won championships at the collegiate level, didn't enjoy the same success as professional coaches.
Here, we take a look at how some of the biggest names in basketball have performed while leading their teams at both levels.
Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan is currently the only NBA coach to have won a national championship at the collegiate level. Like Hurley, he has won back-to-back titles. Donovan, 59, led Florida to NCAA Tournament titles in 2006 and 2007. His Gators teams also made Final Four appearances in 2000 and 2014.
During his 19 seasons at the helm, Florida compiled a 467-186 record and made 14 NCAA Tournament appearances.
Donovan nearly became the coach of the Orlando Magic in 2007, then played a year with the New York Knicks before moving into NBA coaching when he was hired by the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2015. The Thunder went 243-157 under his tenure. The team won every year he was with the team and made the postseason, but only made it past the first round in his first season.
Donovan has a 156-162 record since joining the Bulls in 2020 and has only made the playoffs once.
Larry Brown
In 2004, Larry Brown won an NBA title in addition to winning the NCAA Tournament. (Photo: Tom Pigeon/Getty Images)
Brown, a Hall of Famer, enjoyed success at both the collegiate and professional levels. A former player, he bounced between the NBA and college ranks as a head coach, coaching at UCLA, Kansas and SMU, winning a national title in 1988, his final season at Kansas. The 83-year-old Brown won 72.4 percent of his games as a college coach.
During his NBA coaching career, he has led eight different teams to the playoffs and led the Philadelphia 76ers to their first NBA Finals in 18 years in 2001. He coached the Pistons to their most recent NBA championship in 2004.
“I think there are very few people who are born to be coaches, and Larry Brown is one of them,” said Tad Boyle, who coached under Brown at Kansas and now coaches Colorado's basketball team.
Rick Pitino
Pitino, who won national titles with Kentucky and Louisville, had two stints as an NBA head coach, sandwiched between stints with the Wildcats.
Pitino, 71, the St. John's University coach, went 90-74 over two seasons with the Knicks (1987-89) and was previously an assistant coach with the organization.
He returned to the NBA in 1997 but struggled during his time with the Celtics, coaching Boston for four seasons with a record of 102-146. His NBA tenure came to an end in 2001 when he resigned as coach of the Celtics midway through a season in which the team finished 12-22 in 34 games.
“Fans, Larry Bird is not coming through those doors,” Pitino famously said after a loss during his time with Boston.
Going deeper
Twenty years later, Rick Pitino's “I won't walk through that door” rant still lives on.
John Calipari
John Calipari's tenure with the Nets lasted just over two seasons before returning to college to win a championship with Kentucky (Photo: Matt Campbell/AFP via Getty Images)
Calipari's tenure at Kentucky ended this year when he took over as head coach at Arkansas, but he compiled a coaching record of 410-123 in 15 seasons with the Wildcats. He led Kentucky to a national championship in 2012 and was a three-time Naismith College Coach of the Year winner, in 1996, 2008 and 2015.
Prior to his success at Kentucky, Calipari had a stint as an NBA coach. The former UMass coach was hired as head coach of the New Jersey Nets in 1996, then served as an assistant coach with the 76ers before eventually returning to college coaching. With the Nets, Calipari had a disappointing record of 72-112.
Other notable people
Brad Stevens, John Beilein, Lon Kruger, P.J. Carlesimo and Mike Montgomery also reached the NCAA Tournament Final Four and coached in the NBA.
Stevens, who is currently president of basketball operations for the NBA Finals-bound Celtics, coached Boston to a 354-282 record over eight seasons after leaving Butler in 2013. He led the Bulldogs to consecutive NCAA Tournament runner-up finishes in 2010 and 2011. Stevens, the 2024 NBA Executive of the Year, has had success in the NBA outside of coaching.
Beilein coached the University of Michigan from 2007-2019, leading the school to NCAA Tournament runner-up finishes in 2013 and 2018, before joining the Cleveland Cavaliers for the 2019-20 season. However, the Cavaliers struggled under Beilein, going 14-40 in 54 games.
Kruger has been to two Final Fours, in 1994 (Florida) and 2016 (Oklahoma). Kruger was the head coach of the Atlanta Hawks from 2000-03 but went 69-122 in those three seasons.
Carlesimo, who left Seton Hall to join the Portland Trail Blazers in 1994, led Seton Hall to the 1989 national championship, but lost to Michigan. Carlesimo, who served as an NBA head coach with Portland, Golden State, Seattle, Oklahoma City and Brooklyn, compiled a 239-315 record in the NBA. He won three championships as an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs in 2003, 2005 and 2007.
Montgomery was a longtime coach at Montana, Stanford and the University of California, where he led Stanford to a Pac-10 Tournament championship before being hired by the Golden State Warriors in 2004. He led Stanford to the Final Four in 1998 and won 70 percent of his games with the Cardinals, but was 68-96 (41.5 percent) in two seasons with the Warriors.
Tim Floyd (Iowa State to Chicago Bulls in 1998), Leonard Hamilton (Miami Florida to Washington Wizards in 2000), Reggie Theus (New Mexico State to Sacramento Kings in 2007) and Fred Hoiberg (Iowa State to Chicago Bulls in 2015) are also college coaches who have gone on to become NBA head coaches. All four returned to college, and Hamilton (Florida State), Theus (Bethune-Cookman) and Hoiberg (Nebraska) are still playing today.
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(Photo by Michael Reeves/Getty Images)
