By: Connor Wilson
The date is April 8, 2024. As the clock hit right around 9:30 p.m. local time, a new king of the college basketball world was crowned. Well, in this case, the king extended its stay atop the throne. The UConn men’s basketball team won its second consecutive national championship with a 15 point beat down of Purdue, putting the program in an exclusive club of teams to go back-to-back.
Dan Hurley returned a good chunk of his production from the previous season in the likes of Tristen Newton, Alex Karaban and Donovan Clingan. He also managed to return his whole star-studded coaching staff headlined by Kimani Young and Luke Murray. Even down to the smaller roles on the staff, such as director of basketball operations and just general graduate assistants, the program had great continuity from 2023 to 2024.
There were some additions, of course. Cam Spencer transferred in from Rutgers and was one of the more impactful shooters in the country. Stephon Castle lived up to his five-star prospect value on the way to being a top pick in last June’s NBA Draft. On the staff, though, there was only one notable new face:
Rich Kelly found his way in Storrs after playing a year of basketball overseas following a five year collegiate career. The Shelton, Conn. native played his first three seasons in college at Quinnipiac before transferring to Boston College for a COVID restrictions-plagued senior season followed by a fifth year at UMass given to him due to the prior year’s circumstances. At 6’1” on a good day, he was usually the smallest on the court, but you’d never know it by how he played.
“A lot of my personality and psyche was developed within a very intense basketball environment,” Kelly said. “My dad was a coach. He pushed me very hard as a kid.”
Kelly grew up playing basketball with his younger brother John all around Fairfield county. From a young age, he showed toughness and grit that you rarely see even at the professional level. When asked about his favorite Rich story while growing up, John immediately pointed towards a notable middle school game from over a decade ago that showcased just that.
“He was in eighth grade and he was playing in a game and as he went up for a board, he landed badly on his ankle,” John said. “He was crying and the trainer put an ice pack in his long socks. Because that’s what we wore back then, and he played the rest of the game and single handedly won the game. I was thinking “this dude is different”.”
Kelly would showcase that same will to win in his later pre-college days, winning a Class LL state championship with Fairfield Prep High School in 2015 as a junior sandwiched between stops at Montverde Academy in Florida and Cheshire Academy for a post grad year right up the road from Quinnipiac. At Cheshire, he was discovered by then-Bobcats head coach Tom Moore and it was an instant match.
The roller coaster that was Rich Kelly’s college career took an instant turn, as after losing 20+ games for the second straight season Moore was relieved of his duties as head coach at Quinnipiac. In came Baker Dunleavy, who luckily for Kelly was also a good fit for his play style.
“When Baker got the job, I became even more excited about the opportunity to play at Quinnipiac,” Kelly said. “And then when I met him, it was just, it felt fated.”
As a freshman in 2017-18, Kelly was the only true point guard on the Bobcat roster and impressed as a starter from day one. His production gradually increased each year he was in Hamden and by the end of his junior year, he already joined the 1,000 point club at Quinnipiac and was averaging nearly 17 points per game.
Then, it was decision time. Finish out his career where it started or make the jump to a higher level for a better shot at making the NCAA Tournament?
“It was a really difficult decision to leave Quinnipiac, because I loved it so much,” Kelly said.
“But at the same time, I felt that I was too comfortable and that something inside of me was telling me I needed to leave in order to grow.”
Kelly wasn’t the only Bobcat going through this same thought process after that season. Kevin Marfo, who had just led the entire country in rebounds per game, was also considering entering the portal. They each had only one more year of eligibility at the time and wanted to make the jump.
“We grew a lot together,” Marfo said. “Going through a similar COVID time situation and needing to adapt to the ups and downs.”
Marfo and Kelly got quite close during the transfer process, able to lean on one another through the uncertainties that were to come. Playing three years together helped too, even if there were some friendly arguing about things on the court.
“We used to fight a lot and argue about pick and rolls and stuff like that,” Marfo joked. “Fights in practice, just two people who cared so much.”
Marfo transferred to Texas A&M after that season and Kelly joined suit in the portal, after weighing his options ending up at Boston College in the ACC. The Eagles were fresh off declining for the third straight year record-wise and were looking for a fresh start in the portal. His one year, the 2020-21 season, was the one that was shortened due to COVID-19 and most teams only played 20 or so games compared to the typical 31 game regular season plus postseason.
“I even went into Quinnipiac with the idea that I would graduate in three years and go play in the ACC for my fourth year,” Kelly said. “ Which seems funny looking back because most people didn’t think I was good enough to play Quinnipiac in the first place.”
Having to adjust to a new system is hard enough, especially at a higher level. It’s even harder when you’re put in a position you aren’t used to.
“When I went to Boston College, I felt like I played well enough to be the starting point guard. And yet I wasn’t,” Kelly said. “I was really the backup shooting guard to start the season. So not only am I not starting, but I’m also not even playing my natural position.”
Eagles head coach Jim Christian, eventually fired in February, was playing Kelly off the ball, something he wasn’t used to. It wasn’t just on the court issues at Boston College during that dreaded 4-16 season. Off the court, it was just as bad.
“Our culture was piss poor at Boston College,” Kelly said. “It was a losing culture. It was a culture that at times expected to lose. It was like “Hey guys, let’s just keep it close”. And that blew my mind.”
Reality struck after one year away from “home” in Hamden for Kelly. Did he make a mistake?
“That really forced me to realize like, wow, I had a lot of good stuff going to Quinnipiac,” he said.
With all of the madness surrounding quarantines and cancelled games due to virus breakouts, all NCAA athletes who participated during that 2020-21 season were given the year back and allowed to play a fifth year. Kelly took advantage of this and entered the portal once again, unsure of his plans for the following season. He shortly committed to UMass to play in the Atlantic 10 for his final season playing college basketball.
After perhaps as bad of a season a team could have at Boston College, surely it couldn’t get much worse?
“I willingly hopped onto a sinking ship,” Kelly said.
UMass only played 15 games the year prior due to COVID pauses and went 8-7, so vibes around the program were up for a productive 2021-22. In what ended up being head coach Matt McCall’s final year at the helm of the program, that was far from the case.
“I really wanted to commit to winning being my number one priority in my fifth year,” Kelly said.
“I quickly realized that almost no one else had that agenda at UMass.”
Kelly cited that outside of him and McCall, there weren’t a lot of people in the Minutemen locker room that prioritized winning. UMass did go 15-17 that year, but finished near the bottom of the A-10 and officially squashed any chances Kelly had left of playing in an NCAA Tournament in his career.
“There were a lot of things I didn’t know and wasn’t aware of about UMass,” Kelly said. “I wasn’t aware of UMass’s basketball situation and the coaching situation and I became aware of it when I got there. It was similar to Boston College where I felt some resentment for myself because I was like, you know, I can’t believe I put myself in this situation again.”
For the second straight season, Kelly also primarily played shooting guard and off the ball. After having success at Quinnipiac as the primary ball handler, he never truly got that opportunity at either of his next stops.
There was one major positive to take from Kelly’s one year in Amherst, that being he got to play Division I basketball with his brother John. John played three games as a freshman at Fairfield before transferring to UMass to play with Rich, appearing in two games as a walk-on.
“We somehow got even closer while at UMass,” John said. “Which is crazy, because we still share a room at home.”
When the Minutemen fell in a heartbreaker to Dayton in the A-10 Tournament quarterfinals, it meant that Kelly’s career in college was over. Kelly only scored five points in the 75-72 loss, his smallest point total in a conference tournament game across his five year career. Having a few months off before graduation after the loss, he took some time to reflect on a big question that arose: Did he make the right decisions throughout his career?
“My heart says I wouldn’t change a thing. My mind says maybe I’d do a couple of things a little differently,” Kelly said. “But what I would tell myself is to just enjoy the moment because I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was next and worrying about what came next and working so I could get somewhere else.”
What came next for Kelly was a short stint overseas that ended in an injury. After that, he came back home to discover a new passion for coaching. He started hosting clinics and lessons with his father, but quickly realized that it wasn’t going to work with the two of them ‘butting heads’ while teaching. He needed to find something else.
Then it hit him in a way he didn’t expect.
“I was meditating and I started deeply inhaling and all of sudden like I started feeling this energy coursing through my body,” Kelly said. “You close your eyes and there’s darkness, but there were little fractals of light and little beads of light everywhere started coming at me in waves.”
“I’m like, “Yo, what is happening right now?” Kelly said. “And I heard this voice and it said to “reach out to Tom Moore. You’re going to coach at UConn.”
Kelly had a vision that he was going to join the staff at UConn. He immediately got in contact with Moore and received a firm “we’ll see”. Time went on and months went by and Kelly remained determined to get the graduate assistant job. The updates went from “maybe” to “highly unlikely” to “you should seek other opportunities”. Still, Kelly stayed persistent and stayed in touch. He didn’t want anything else. He didn’t need anything else.
“He (Moore) calls me back a couple of weeks later and says ‘Hey Rich, talk to one of our coaches,’” Kelly said. Two days later it’s ‘Hey Rich, you have an interview.’ Two weeks later, ‘Hey Rich, you have the job.’ Funny how that works.”
Kelly jumped on the opening immediately, joining the reigning national champions and coaching under one of the best college basketball minds in the country in Dan Hurley. With that, came practicing against and teaching future NBA players. The standards were high and it wasn’t easy.
“It’s been really difficult here and I’m extremely grateful,” Kelly said. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought about quitting and leaving because of how difficult it’s been.”
For someone who dealt with some mental health battles in the past, being on this big stage got to him. Still, Kelly stuck through it and stayed the course. The result was a magical 37-3 season, the first time he had ever been a part of a college program that had great success. The Huskies won the national championship against Purdue and Kelly got to celebrate with the team on the floor at State Farm Stadium as a champion. The same person who was just three years removed from “keeping it close” at Boston College had confetti falling on him at the Final Four. Even if it wasn’t in the fashion he wanted or expected, it happened.
Kelly kept the same position for this past 2024-25 season. The Huskies didn’t have the same success, falling to the eventual national champion Florida Gators in the second round to thwart any chance of a three-peat.
What’s next for Kelly? He doesn’t know yet, but there’s a pretty good chance he’ll be doing what he loves.
“I’d love to continue to coach,” Kelly said. “I’m currently navigating the waters, figuring out what comes next. And a lot of those patterns that I had when I was a transfer are coming up now.”
Wherever he ends up, Rich Kelly will be bringing quite the resume for someone who spent over half of his college basketball career nestled up on York Hill.