New Orleans Pelicans: The New Coach Could Have a Duke Connection

New Orleans Pelicans’ Duke connections: Bobby Hurley

Bobby Hurley

As a former professor at ASU, I got to see first hand how Bobby Hurley changed the culture in Tempe.

ASU never had sustained success before Hurley, was far more interested in football and had a string of unsuccessful coaches.

Hurley started as an assistant at Wagner before becoming the head coach at Buffalo, where he immediately turned the program around, winning the conference in his first two seasons and taking the team to the NCAA tournament.

Hurley was then hired at Arizona State University, a football school with an apathetic attitude towards basketball.

Hurley turned the Sun Devils around as well, making the tournament in his third season and transforming ASU into a player in the Pac-10.

Hurley already has a track record of player development and installing successful systems, so his name will likely come up at some point during the Pelicans’ search.

In the end, the Pelicans are certainly not going to hire someone just because he is from Duke. But with all the Duke connections, as well as Coach K’s record of developing successful coaches, the Duke angle can’t be ignored.

The New Orleans Pelicans will only get one chance to get this right, so they might go with a familiar face that most of the players will know and like.