STORRS, Conn. — Recording the first and last chapters for the audio version of his new book felt like a hostage situation for UConn men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley. Narrating, as he described, each line like it was an item on a grocery list, it took him around four hours to get through the first chapter alone.

Taking on the entire audiobook, all 291 pages, would’ve cut into his “day job,” but Hurley wanted his voice to start the deep-dive into his story before the other narrator took over.

“Never Stop: Life, Leadership, And What It Takes To Be Great,” co-authored by New York Times bestselling author Ian O’Connor, is an introspective, vulnerable look behind the curtain at what makes Hurley, Hurley.

That first chapter dives straight into his family dynamic and his Jersey City roots, through the lens of flying across the country, house-hunting in Los Angeles and meeting with the Lakers, exchanging texts with LeBron James as he agonized over the decision that ultimately kept him in Connecticut to pursue a three-peat last June. The book, already No. 1 on Amazon’s best-sellers list in sports since it hit the shelves this week, details everything from his mental health journey as a struggling player at Seton Hall, to his demonstrative and polarizing sideline “episodes” and his evolution as a coach — all written in his typical unfiltered way.

“It gives you a chance to give yourself some grace and appreciation for just how long the road’s been to get here, the obstacles, the challenges. It also gives me a little bit of an accounting of myself when I don’t usually take the time to keep score of how good I’m doing in life,” Hurley said Wednesday night, after a question-and-answer event on campus with former ESPN host Molly Qerim, a UConn alumna and CT native.

Hurley’s life story was destined to end up in book form at some point. It just so happened that the opportunity was there to do it now, after winning back-to-back national championships and going through the trials and tribulations as he tried to win a third last season.

After all, books were part of what helped him realize his worth outside of the basketball vortex he was born into and, at one time, drowning in.

“The book reads like, this is this coaching character that’s had this journey, and then he’s a quirky guy, so like the quirkiness to championships and then the coaching path — when I read it, it sounds like a movie,” Hurley said. “I’m not saying that someone should make it a movie, but it reads like a movie when you read your whole, kind of life arc. Hiding under the desk, with dragon underwear, picking out M&Ms while you’ve just drank a five-hour energy, to sitting up here with Molly after going back-to-back.”

The entire 2025-26 team — players, coaches, managers — was present in the UConn Student Union Theatre on Wednesday, listening to their coach describe his life in the unfiltered way they’ve all heard at some level before.

Hurley encourages them to read, too, knowing how it helped him.

“I talk to them about myself and my challenges, they hear plenty of examples about me from when I was their age and the mistakes I made and the things that they need to do differently,” he said. “At times in my life I’ve been the best player, and at times I’ve been a struggling player, so I can relate to the entire roster, but then I think I can see the signs of a player that’s going through it.

“Emotional stuff, family issues, personal development issues — I was that, so I know what all the signs look like. And then I gravitate toward getting involved in that and trying to help that. It’s never a fun thing to deal with because men in pain, especially college-age, they don’t know really what to do because they’re afraid to ask for help. It’s not like an ACL or an ankle injury when you’re suffering mentally. It’s something people can’t see, but it’s painful.”

“Never Stop” is available to purchase online at Amazon and on the shelves at Barnes and Noble.

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