WASHINGTON – Dan Hurley and a few returning members of the UConn men’s basketball team looked somewhat comfortable as they filed into the East Room of the White House on Tuesday. It was only about 15 months ago that Hurley walked shoulder-to-shoulder with President Joe Biden into the same room, and saw his team standing on the same risers between the same paintings of George and Martha Washington.

“Well, let me be the first to say welcome back,” President Biden said. “I won’t be here next year, but you may be.”

Biden recalled Hurley’s famous “You better get us now” line from a loss to Villanova in 2020 – “Coach, you were right” – and said the repeat championship team was underestimated, remembering the departures of Jordan Hawkins, Adama Sanogo and Andre Jackson Jr., who presented him a home white jersey last spring. He noted that UConn passed Duke and Indiana in the all-time national title count and proclaimed: “Now there’s no doubt at all about who are the blue bloods in basketball.”

UConn toured the White House before the event, as it did last spring, and Hurley got the same photo walking through the red-carpeted halls alongside Biden.

“People questioned whether or not you had the talent to go back-to-back. I guess they didn’t see you guys standing up,” the president quipped. “Although I should note, I picked you guys on my ticket.”

The entire 2023-24 roster, including NBA draftees Stephon Castle, Donovan Clingan, Cam Spencer and Tristen Newton, made the trip. Newcomers to the program – Aidan Mahaney, Tarris Reed Jr., Liam McNeeley, Isaiah Abraham and Ahmad Nowell – did not attend.

But if the trend continues, they may be able to get their turn next year.

“We said last year we wanted to make this thing an annual visit for us, and here we are again as back-to-back champs,” Hurley said. “Only the champs come in here.”

As comfortable as he looked, Hurley was quick to admit, in his own way, that he wasn’t.

The Huskies’ coach had gone off script seconds into his speech. A question from President Biden about his famed dragon underwear knocked him off track.

“I don’t just make the dragons do the games, I’ve actually got the dragons on right now as a reward for the dragons. They’re on right now,” he said, his family sitting front row directly in front of the lectern. “I thought this would be easier in Year Two. Oh man, I’ve been to the White House before. This is scary as (expletive).”

The room burst into laughter and it took a few seconds for Hurley to cover his mouth, realizing his favorite swear had slipped out – it may be another superstition at this point.

Back on script, Hurley said: “We knew we had the potential to have a special team, and it was like a real simple mindset that we tried to create which was like, let’s just win every single tournament or every opportunity to win a championship – let’s just win everything. There were five opportunities for us to win championship trophies during the season, and we won all five.”

Connecticut senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal applauded in the front row to stage right with Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman seated three rows behind them.

“This team here, it was a different group of men that we took the court with this year and produced even greater results and an even greater team. And a team that’ll go down as one of the most dominant teams in college basketball history the way we just destroyed everybody,” Hurley said.

“We’re really a strong pack of Huskies here. We don’t have any weakness in the group here, it is just an incredibly strong group of men. Their relentlessness, their resilience and toughness, their talent, their skill, the preparation, their connection and brotherhood and the way they sacrificed for each other – we played a brand of basketball that was absolutely beautiful to watch and absolutely dominant. But then all we could think about is winning the next one. It’s weird as (expletive).”

Another one slipped: “Sorry, again.”

Tuesday’s event was a celebration of the first back-to-back champions in 17 years. The team rolled to 37 wins in 40 opportunities, claimed its first Big East regular season title since 2006 and its first Big East Tournament title since 2011.

After Hurley’s speech, Clingan, alongside fellow draftees Castle, Spencer and Newton, picked up the No. 46 jersey with Biden’s name on it – a blue road jersey this time – and handed it to the president. The team was escorted out by White House staff immediately after the event and didn’t speak with media.

Hurley and his staff, no time to rest, stayed back to continue recruiting DMV-area prospects Acaden Lewis and Eric Reibe, who just completed a visit to Storrs, Conn., over the weekend.

“Man, you proved everybody wrong. You were a force,” President Biden said. “But even though you made it look easy, there were times where you made a lot of sacrifices. The trust you’ve built in each other, taking the court knowing every team in America was going after you, every time you showed up on the court you were the No. 1 target, but you’re winners. And winners win.”

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