Through my years as a sports fan, I’ve figured out one thing: some players and coaches just don’t fit with the teams that draft or hire them because they don’t fit the region.

(Bear with me. I promise this has a strong connection to the UConn Huskies.)

On the day of the 2014 NFL Draft, I told anyone who would listen that the Cleveland Browns had made a colossal mistake in drafting quarterback Johnny Manziel in the first round.

Johnny Football wasn’t a blue-collar guy who would shovel his elderly neighbor’s driveway. He was glitzy, like South Beach or Las Vegas or Beverly Hills. Manziel screamed Ferrari, not Ford F-150.

Two years, 14 games and a 2-6 record as a starter, and Manziel’s NFL career was over.

Four years later, the Browns had a chance to reverse their quarterback curse by drafting Josh Allen with the No. 1 pick instead of Baker Mayfield. That’s not an indictment of Mayfield, another Texan, but recognition that Wyoming alum Josh Allen was built for Cleveland, for the grittiness, for the cold, for the toughness of the city.

Look at what he’s done in Buffalo, which is basically Cleveland on steroids.

UConn athletic director David Benedict and I think alike, especially when it comes to men's basketball coach Dan Hurley, who received a contract extension on Friday.

Benedict could not have made a better hire when he connected with Hurley, who was the coach at Rhode Island -- and Wagner and St. Benedict’s High School before that. He grew up in the Northeast. That isn’t to say he wouldn’t have been just as successful coaching at UCLA or Kansas, but Hurley personifies the Northeast. The New Jersey kid just gets it.

So did Benedict when he announced Hurley’s appointment in March 2018 to replace Kevin Ollie.

“Coach Hurley is the absolute right fit for this university, its student-athletes, and UConn Nation,” said Benedict. “… His proven track record of developing student-athletes and preparing them for productive lives both in and outside of basketball perfectly aligns with UConn’s valuDan

And Hurley has delivered a pair of national championships in eight seasons while compiling a 199-75 record (.726).

Hurley embraces the traits of a quintessential New Englander. He’s resilient. He’s tough on the outside, kind of mushy on the inside; just look at the pictures of him with some of the players who have battled for UConn. He reveres history and appreciates his role as guardian of the Huskies tradition.

Benedict got a bargain on Hurley’s first contract, a six-year deal that paid $2.75 million in the initial season. He later signed a six-year contract worth about $50 million, and that contract was extended by two years on Friday at the same financial terms.

Hurley now is under contract through the end of the 2031-32 season.

Fans should be sending Benedict thank you cards for his move to lock up the services of the best head coach in men’s college basketball today.

The Los Angeles Lakers and Hurley had serious discussions about that head coaching job in 2024, and Hurley turned down a six-year, $70 million offer to remain at UConn.

The fact that Hurley didn’t negotiate a big pay raise speaks volumes about him, about his loyalty, about his passion for the UConn tradition.

"It’s an incredible honor to coach the game I love at a place like the University of Connecticut and to be part of a community that means so much to me and my family,” Hurley said Friday in a school news release. “We understand our responsibility to the people of Connecticut and to the incredible supporters of UConn Basketball and will continue to bring a relentless, obsessive approach to winning and championship-level success. UConn is the Basketball Capital of the World, Bleed Blue!”

And UConn is all the better for it.