You could almost forgive Dan Hurley for his behavior that was on full display to millions of people watching his Connecticut Huskies wage war against Florida yesterday afternoon. After all, when you’re the coach of college basketball’s two-time champions and have been riding a 13-game post-season winning streak, one tends to get a little protective of one’s status. And when you grew up a pugnacious Jersey kid as the younger son of a high school coaching legend and an older brother who was a hero in his college playing days there’s clearly some additional baggage being carried on top of it.
But what we saw unfold in Raleigh yesterday was a gamut of reactions and yes, overreactions that one would have to be a diehard UConn fan to fully forgive. And since I’m anything but that (sorry, I’m still kinda reeling from St. John’s’ upset at the hands of Arkansas in Saturday, I’ll lead the pile-on that seems to be chiding Hurley for showing less class than many of his players, coaches and even some of his fans.
The game that at least I , and apparently the ASSOCIATED PRESS’ Steve Reed, watched was exciting but fair, as Reed described to his readers yestersay:
For 30 minutes, UConn showed the mettle and toughness that delivered back-to-back national championships for Dan Hurley, outplaying top-seeded Florida in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. And then Walter Clayton Jr. took over.
The Gators’ first-team All-America guard scored 13 of his 23 points in the final eight minutes on Sunday, including two crucial 3-pointers down the stretch, and Florida rallied to a scintillating 77-75 victory over the Huskies, ending UConn’s pursuit of a third straight title.
“This is a great win for our program,” coach Todd Golden said. “The time was now for us to take that next step. Again, Florida basketball, back where it belongs. Being in the Sweet 16 is a great step in the right direction. … We made winning play after winning play down the stretch in the last six minutes.”
But they also had help from the Huskies, who made some uncharacteristic mistakes, including twice allowing the Gators to corral offensive rebounds off missed free throws, resulting in four second-chance points.
Apparently, Hurley was watching something different, as evidenced by how he reacted to the events. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED’s Andy Nesbitt took note of goings-on on the sidelines while the game was afoot:
(Hurley) was…heated during the game and the CBS broadcast caught him appearing to tell assistant coach Luke Murray to “shut up” while he was busy yelling about something else.
And NEWSWEEK’s Matt Levine caught this exchange:
(A)fter the game, UCONN head coach Dan Hurley had some choice words for how he felt about the contest. As the team was walking out of the arena, Hurley could be seen commenting about the game.
“I really hope they don’t F*** you like they F***** us Baylor.”
The Huskies head coach seemed to be aiming his comments at the Baylor Bears, who were gearing up for their matchup against the No. 1 seeded Duke Blue Devils. From the comments, it can be taken that Hurley was upset with the officiating, especially toward the end of the game.
The reports of Hurley’s post-game remarks, including those compiled by ON3’s Grant Grubbs, would lead one to infer than he eventually worked through at least some of his stages of grief:
“[Florida] showed their quality. I mean, I thought we played with tremendous honor. I thought we played with the heart of a championship program. And a program that has gone back to back,” Hurley told CBS Sports’ Tracy Wolfson. “For a team to end what we really wanted to do, they were going to have to put us down.”
Still, as YAHOO! SPORTS’ Nick Bromberg observed, Hurley’s team kinda helped with that process:
The game was tied 31-31 at halftime despite a terrible shooting performance from the Huskies in the first half. Their tenaciousness kept the game competitive as UConn was just 11-of-34 from the field.
Things improved in the second half, but not by much. And UConn couldn’t get shots to fall when it needed them as Florida hung around. UConn grabbed a 50-44 lead with 10:17 to go but never led by more than one possession for the final 6:45.
A higher-seeded team from a more successful conference and a top-tier player rose to the occasion to survive and advance, which is all that ultimately counts in March Madness.
Where Hurley ultimately wound up is arguably where he should have been in the first place, as Grubbs’ recap concluded:
“At times, I don’t 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 for how hard they fought for what we were trying to accomplish and for the honor they played with today.”
I suspect those are feelings that the Huskie faithful share today. Both good and bad. And now they all have the entire spring and summer to work through them more completely.
Courage…