"There was some nervous energy": UConn HC Dan Hurley gives a candid account of visiting the Lakers building and a "Oh, sh*t" moment with Jeanie Buss

UConn's coach Dan Hurley was the frontrunner for the Los Angeles Lakers' coaching position earlier this month. He brought the championship experience of back-to-back NCAA titles, something the Lakers did not harbor in their recent years of personnel. Hurley was set to coach in the big league until he rejected the opportunity.

Now, as Hurley's move makes ripples across the basketball world, he talks about the initial impression of the Lakers' representatives, Rob Pelinka and Jeanie Buss, when he visited LA last week.

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"It was exciting," Hurley said in a CBS exclusive. "There was some nervous energy in that way too obviously. I had developed a rapport with Rob Pelinka over the course of a couple days that week. There had been pre-draft conversations with Rob about our players. I've had good conversations with Rob.

"Remember, Jordan Hawkins was a target of theirs in the last draft. So, I wasn't going in totally blind relative to Rob. There was a comfort level with Rob. But meeting Jeanie Buss and the Buss family of the Lakers was like, I think when she kind of walked in and (I) said, 'Oh, shit'."

Dan Hurley is known for orchestrating almost every part of a roster, from scouting players, inviting them to his program, crafting a bond, recruiting players, forging a healthy locker room and cultivating a culture, all while keeping his on-court duties in check.

With the Lakers, Hurley would have been restricted from those endeavors and seen his players less in practice. Moreover, he would have to completely let go of what he has built in Connecticut. With that, Dan Hurley decided to test his luck with UConn, hoping to clinch the first-ever modern-day three-peat in NCAA history.

Dan Hurley on the financial side of his decision

Dan Hurley was offered a $70 million offer across six years by the Lakers, potentially making him the sixth highest-paid coach of the global league. On "The Dan LeBatard Show," the coach talked about the financial side of his decision to reject the deal:

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"The finances to leave a place is definitely a thing, to stay at a place I don't think it will ever be a thing. To stay somewhere like UConn, it would have never been a financial thing, like again this wasn't some pressure tactic to make me the highest-paid college coach. That s*** was already done. To leave all that behind, there probably is a number but I don't know what that is."

While the prospect of coaching one of the best basketball players might have been enticing, so was standing by his Uconn crew set to practice on Monday.

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