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Buffalo extends Bobby Hurley’s contract through 2018-19

By Phil Watson

Dec 21, 2013; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Buffalo Bulls head coach Bobby Hurley reacts during a game against the Manhattan Jaspers during the first half of a Brooklyn Hoops Holiday Invitational game at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 21, 2013; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Buffalo Bulls head coach Bobby Hurley reacts during a game against the Manhattan Jaspers during the first half of a Brooklyn Hoops Holiday Invitational game at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports /
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Former Duke All-American Bobby Hurley’s coaching career seems to be taking off in upstate New York.

The University at Buffalo announced Tuesday it has extended Hurley’s contract through the 2018-19 season.

"“Our men’s basketball program made tremendous progress in just one season under coach Hurley and his staff,” athletic director Danny White said in a release. “Our program is moving forward in the right direction and this is another positive step as we work, collectively, to build America’s next big-time college athletics brand. Bobby is a talented coach and we are confident his leadership will bring our program to new heights in the coming years.”"

One could suppose that Hurley’s work has been as opposed to moving forward in the wrong direction.

Buffalo went 19-10 in Hurley’s first season at the helm, including a 13-5 record and first place in the Mid-American Conference’s East Division.

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But the Bulls were bounced in the quarterfinals of the MAC tournament by Eastern Michigan, 69-64, and were not selected for postseason play.

Hurley spent three seasons as an assistant coach for his brother, Danny Hurley, first at Wagner and later for a season at Rhode Island before accepting the Buffalo post.

Hurley was a consensus All-American as a senior at Duke in 1993 and was a four-year starter for the Blue Devils, playing in three NCAA championship games and was part of Duke’s back-to-back NCAA championship teams in 1991 and 1992.

But Hurley’s professional career never amounted to much. He played five seasons with the Sacramento Kings and Vancouver Grizzlies from 1993-98, but was never quite the same after sustaining life-threatening injuries in a car crash in Sacramento in December 1993.