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UConn’s Dan Hurley feels range of emotions after nailbiter loss to Florida
There are hardly any guarantees at March Madness, but Dan Hurley going on a tirade might be one of them.
There are hardly any guarantees at March Madness, but Dan Hurley going on a tirade might be one of them.
The UConn Huskies head coach was seeing red after his team’s 77-75 loss to the No. 1 Florida Gators in the second round on Sunday and chose to take out his frustrations with the officiating as he walked back to the locker room.
“I hope they don’t [expletive] you like they [expletive] us,” Hurley said to the Baylor squad that was waiting to take the court in Raleigh, N.C. for the next game of the day. “I hope they don’t do that to you, Baylor. I really hope they don’t.”
Always an emotional head coach, Hurley has been in the limelight this season after a couple of outbursts towards officials.
On Sunday, Hurley nearly lost his cool following a tight out-of-bounds call near the end of the nail-biter loss that went the way of Florida and came close to getting himself a technical foul.
Emotions are sure to run hot in a close game like that — one where UConn held a six-point lead midway through the second half and was playing incredible defence on the best offensive team in the country, per KenPom.
“I thought we played with tremendous honour, I thought we played with the heart of a championship program, a program that’s gone back to back,” Hurley said through tears to CBS’s Tracy Wolfson. “There’s honour in the way we went out.”
The UConn head coach is coming off back-to-back championships in March Madness and had a chance to go for the elusive three-peat this season, but it wasn’t meant to be after four of his five starters from last year went to the NBA.
Despite it being such a new team, Hurley was brought to tears talking about them after Sunday’s loss.
“I just love them. I love them,” Hurley added. “This year has been a real battle. We’ve had to battle, battle and battle, and at times I don’t think we liked each other a whole lot with some of the things we had to go through together, but I don’t think I’ll ever love a team more.”
It’s been a tough season overall for the Huskies, who endured three straight losses at the Maui Invitational early in the campaign and lost to Creighton in the semifinals of the Big East Conference Tourney.
Despite their regular-season struggles, once March Madness rolled around, it felt as though the two-time defending champs could do anything under the bright lights. Coming off 13 straight wins at the tournament, it was a fool’s errand to count them out. But winning can be tiring.
“We’re a passionate program,” Hurley said to reporters after the game, according to USA Today’s Dan Wolken. “Players play with it, I coach with it, and you’re always [expletive] drained when it’s over.”
