With Hurley in talks with Lakers, how have college coaches fared in the NBA?

If UConn’s Dan Hurley makes the move to the Los Angeles Lakers, he would become the latest in a long line of coaches to win a national championship in college basketball and move to the pros.

Hurley and L.A. are in contact about the team’s head-coaching vacancy, team and league sources confirmed, and ESPN reports the Lakers are prepared to make him a long-term contract offer.

Others have made the leap with mixed results. Larry Brown remains the only head coach to win a national championship and the NBA Finals, doing so with Kansas in 1988 and the Detroit Pistons in 2004.

Basketball Hall of Famers Rick Pitino and John Calipari, who won championships at the college level, did not find the same success coaching in the pros.

Here’s a look at how some of the biggest names in basketball have fared leading teams at both levels.

Billy Donovan, the Chicago Bulls coach, is currently the only coach in the NBA to win a national championship at the college level. Like Hurley, he won back-to-back titles. Donovan, 59, guided Florida to NCAA Tournament championships in 2006 and 2007. His Gators also made Final Four appearances in 2000 and 2014.

During his 19 seasons at the program’s helm, Florida compiled a 467-186 record and made 14 NCAA Tournament appearances.

After nearly joining the Orlando Magic as their coach in 2007, Donovan — who played with the New York Knicks for a year — made the move to coach in the NBA when he was hired by the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2015. The Thunder went 243-157 with him as coach. They had winning seasons and made the postseason in each of his five years with the team, but only advanced past the first round in his first season.

Since joining the Bulls in 2020, Donovan has compiled a 156-162 record and has only made the postseason once.

Larry Brown

During a Hall of Fame career, Brown succeeded at both the college and pro levels. A former player, Brown jumped between the NBA and college ranks as a head coach, with stops at UCLA, Kansas and SMU. In 1988 — his final season at Kansas — he won a national title. Brown, 83, won 72.4 percent of his games as a college coach.

During his NBA coaching career, he led eight different teams to the playoffs, and guided the Philadelphia 76ers to the NBA Finals in 2001 for the first time in 18 years. In 2004, he coached the Pistons to their most recent NBA championship.

“I think there’s a select few that are born to coach. Larry Brown is one of them,” said Tad Boyle, who played under Brown at Kansas and now coaches Colorado’s basketball team.

Rick Pitino

Pitino, who won national titles with Kentucky and Louisville, twice served as an NBA head coach, with the stints sandwiching his time leading the Wildcats.

Pitino, the 71-year-old St. John’s coach, went 90-74 over two seasons (1987-89) with the Knicks, where he had previously served as an assistant coach.

He returned to the NBA in 1997, but struggled during his tenure with the Celtics. He coached Boston for four seasons, compiling a 102-146 record. His time in the NBA ended with his resignation as the Celtics’ coach in 2001 amid a season in which he went 12-22 in 34 games.

“Larry Bird is not walking through that door, fans,” Pitino famously said following a loss during his time in Boston.

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John Calipari

John Calipari’s Nets tenure only lasted two-plus seasons, but he returned to college to win a championship with Kentucky. (Photo: Matt Campbell / AFP via Getty Images)

Calipari’s run with Kentucky came to an end this year when he took the head-coaching job at Arkansas, but in 15 seasons with the Wildcats, Calipari put together a 410-123 coaching record. He guided Kentucky to a national championship in 2012 and was named the Naismith College Coach of the Year three times — in 1996, 2008 and 2015.

His NBA coaching career preceded his Kentucky success. A former coach at UMass, Calipari was hired as head coach of the New Jersey Nets in 1996 before a stint as the 76ers’ assistant and his eventual return to college coaching. With the Nets, Calipari went an underwhelming 72-112.

Other notables

Brad Stevens, John Beilein, Lon Kruger, P.J. Carlesimo and Mike Montgomery have also made the NCAA Tournament Final Four and coached in the NBA.

Stevens — the president of basketball operations for the Celtics, currently in the NBA Finals — compiled a 354-282 record coaching Boston for eight seasons after departing Butler in 2013. He led the Bulldogs to consecutive NCAA Tournament runner-up finishes in 2010 and 2011. Named the 2024 NBA Executive of the Year, Stevens has also found success in the NBA beyond coaching.

Beilein coached Michigan from 2007 to 2019, leading the Wolverines to two NCAA Tournament runner-up finishes in 2013 and 2018, before joining the Cleveland Cavaliers for the 2019-20 season. The Cavs, however, struggled under Beilein, going 14-40 in 54 games.

Kruger also reached two Final Fours, in 1994 (Florida) and 2016 (Oklahoma). From 2000 to 2003, Kruger was the head coach for the Atlanta Hawks, but went 69-122 in his three seasons.

Carlesimo, who went from Seton Hall to the Portland Trail Blazers in 1994, took Seton Hall to the 1989 national championship game, where it lost to Michigan. A former NBA head coach with Portland, Golden State, Seattle, Oklahoma City and Brooklyn, Carlesimo compiled a 239-315 record coaching in the NBA. He won three championships as an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs in 2003, 2005 and 2007.

Montgomery, the longtime college coach who spent years at Montana, Stanford and Cal, was hired by the Golden State Warriors in 2004 after leading Stanford to the Pac-10 tournament championship. He took Stanford to the Final Four in 1998 and won 70 percent of his games with the Cardinal, but in two seasons with the Warriors, he went 68-96 (41.5 percent).

Tim Floyd (Iowa State to the Chicago Bulls in 1998), Leonard Hamilton (Miami, Fla., to the Washington Wizards in 2000), Reggie Theus (New Mexico State to the Sacramento Kings in 2007) and Fred Hoiberg (Iowa State to the Chicago Bulls in 2015) are other coaches who made the move from college to NBA head-coaching jobs. All four returned to college, and Hamilton (Florida State), Theus (Bethune Cookman) and Hoiberg (Nebraska) are still active.

Required reading

(Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)