By Liam Reilly
@liampreilly852
Trouble in Paradise. The UConn men’s basketball team had lost all three of its games at the Maui Invitational: a heartbreaking overtime loss against Memphis, a close defeat to an inferior Colorado team and getting outclassed by Dayton. Late in the Memphis game, UConn head coach Dan Hurley received a technical foul that ended up leading to the deciding points in the game, drawing him criticism from social media, with users saying that “he needs professional help” or “he’s a psychopath.”
That is how the new ESPN documentary about Hurley and his relationship with his family, titled “The Other Hurley,” opened. This film dives into how in the early stages of life, Dan Hurley was challenged by living up to his family’s standards and living in his father Bob, who was just the third high school coach ever inducted to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, and older brother Bobby, one of the greatest high school and college point guards ever, shadows.
A special screening was held Monday night in Springfield College’s Dodge Room. After the film, a discussion panel was held featuring Co-Producer and Co-Director of the documentary and Springfield alumnus David Seronick ’12, ESPN journalist and reporter for the film Jeremy Schaap and UConn beat writer for the Hartford Courant and Springfield alumnus Joe Arruda ’22. The trio answered questions about who Hurley was and the behind the scenes of the documentary.
One of the most important parts of the documentary was having a strong preparation and plan to prepare to adapt and make changes when necessary. The opening scene about the Maui Invitational and the team’s loss to Butler didn’t have the role it did in the first screening, but that was one of the changes Seronick and the rest of the production team knew they had to make for the final product.
Hurley is one of the most engaging personalities in sports, as shown in the documentary. Someone as intense and passionate as Hurley was once a college kid who had to step away from basketball at Seton Hall because of the stress of living up to the family name, and sat in the dark under his desk while experiencing panic attacks during his time as head coach of Wagner College, his first collegiate coaching job. Being able to give the full spectrum of who Hurley is was one of the things that Seronick was most proud of.
“It’s one of the things that’s very hard to do at this job sometimes, and you have to remind yourself that we’re not taking a stance here, we’re just presenting the facts in a way that the audience can make their own decision,” Seronick said. “There might’ve been people who left here ‘Dan’s still annoying’ or ‘this makes sense why he is who he is.’ We’re not excusing why he behaves the way he does at times, we’re simply telling you and letting the people closest to him and the people who cover the game give their take.”
Seronick graduated from Springfield College 13 years ago, yet still holds the campus in very high regard. After the panel Seronick took the time to speak with current students in the communications and sports journalism major, answering any questions they had and sharing his advice.
“Don’t be afraid to try a bunch of stuff,” Seronick said. “I was telling a couple of students how I wrote for a year or two, went into radio for five years and I’ve been in TV for seven years. If you asked me at each point of time would I ever be in the other one, I would’ve said no but I was open to trying things. I was willing to fail or make mistakes and learn from them. Be open-minded and don’t be afraid to make mistakes.”