HARTFORD – Dan Hurley almost stopped himself as he described UConn’s 2025 recruiting class after Wednesday’s game, with all four commits having signed their aid agreements earlier in the day. He considered pausing before placing high expectations on the group, but ran through the stop sign.
“This – I don’t want to say it – like… It’s a monster class,” he said. “It’s a monster class.”
UConn’s group – Braylon Mullins, Darius Adams, Jacob Furphy and Eric Reibe (pronounced “Rye-Buh”) – is currently ranked the second-best recruiting class in the nation by 247Sports with some programs still looking to add some of the top high school prospects. The Huskies are sandwiched between Duke and Kentucky at the top of the rankings.
Hurley and his staff, now with the ability to make a recruiting pitch no other program can after winning back-to-back national championships, were focused on bringing in players capable of adding to their growing representation in the NBA. After sending seven players to the league over the last two years, the program had to reload its talent.
“All of these guys, they’re just our type of people,” Hurley said. “The pedigree, the seriousness, the early-entry NBA opportunities that this class is going to have, too. I mean, these are guys that are not going to be here very long… This class, we really needed to replenish high-end, high-end talent and these guys are all high-end, high-end talent.”
Mullins, ranked 16th nationally by 247Sports, is considered one of, if not the best shooter in the 2025 class and was in attendance at the Huskies’ season-opener against Sacred Heart. Adams, No. 22 nationally, is right up there with him and so is Furphy, one of the top international players available from Tasmania, Australia. Mullins and Adams are each listed at 6-foot-5, and Furphy is an inch taller at 6-6.
Hurley already debuted a nickname for Furphy – “Tazzy” – and predicted he’ll be a fan favorite.
“The thing about Braylon and Darius and the Tazzy is they’re big guards (who will be) able to see the lobs and be able to spread it out to the 3-point line. The great success that we’ve had here with our guards and why we’ve been such a dynamic offensive team is we’ve had those bigger guards,” Hurley said. “So yeah, they bring the shooting, but I think all three of those guards are underrated in terms of their ability to also facilitate and get in the paint and create. I think they’re all kind of combo guards and that’s kind of the way we like to play it, just putting out a bunch of bigger guards that can play on-ball, off-ball, make 3s, create in the paint.”
Asked to elaborate on Reibe, the 7-footer originally from Germany but currently playing at The Bullis School in Maryland, Hurley lit up like a kid showing off the presents he got for his birthday.
Top 25 recruit Eric Reibe on joining UConn: ‘I’m happy to be a (bleeping) Husky’
“Reibe is as advanced an offensive center as I’ve seen in a while at the high school level. This guy’s going to be a crazy weapon,” he said. “This guy’s a threat all over the court. He’s gonna get better here as a rim protector, as a defensive presence, defensive rebounding. But I mean, he’s the type of guy to get it off the defensive glass and lead the break. He’s a guy that will bury 3s, post-up. He can, top of the key, quarterback your offense as a hub there.”
The more he spoke, the more he gushed.
“Obviously shooting is at a premium and they’re all super-snipers, all four of them,” Hurley said, not an hour after his current team launched 33 shots from beyond the arc and made 12 to blow out Le Moyne. “The shooting, the passing, the versatility positionally. It’s a monster class.”
