Dan Hurley was far from thrilled with the officiating in the 77-75 UConn loss to Florida in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, to the point where he warned Baylor, a team in a similar situation facing a No. 1 seed.
Hurley’s Huskies had their three-peat chances ended on Sunday afternoon after falling just short to the Gators, the No. 1 seed in the West Region of the March Madness bracket.
Instead, they walked off the court disappointed, and Hurley didn’t mince his words for the Baylor Bears waiting to take on the Duke Blue Devils, another No. 1 seed.
“Hope they don’t f— you like they f—ed us. I hope they don’t do that to you, Baylor,” Hurley was heard yelling in the tunnel.
Hurley’s intensity and blunt nature is one of his calling cards, and he never comes without an explanation.
WARNING: Explicit language in the video below
He spoke with reporters after the tough loss about the officiating, specifically a no-call against one of his players, Alex Karaban, after a Gators player made clear contact with him on shot attempt late in the game.
At the time, UConn was up, 61-59, with just over three minutes to play.
“Part of (the emotion) is probably just the season, how tumultuous the season has been,” Hurley began, via USA Today. “The team battled and fought just to qualify for the tournament, and then how the game played out, up three at the last media (timeout) we have two free throw rebound mistakes.
“With past teams, we’ve had issues like that occur but those games we were up 15-18 so they weren’t so magnified. And obviously, the Karaban drive on the baseline, you know, there was a lot of contact there and we were up one I think at that point or two potentially. I thought that was a big play, too.”
Looking in the box score, Florida was called for fewer fouls than UConn (17 to 24), though they had trouble at the free throw line, making just 22 of 34 shots. The Huskies missed three of their 22 attempts.
“I think when we go back and watch this film on the flight back today, I think it’s going to be crushing looking at those free throw rebound plays again, looking at the Karaban finish on the baseline with a no call on that,” Hurley admitted.
As a No. 1 seed, Florida is one of the favorites to make a national championship run, though there was always a chance they’d have to go through UConn who, like Hurley mentioned, fought to get into the tournament after an up-and-down campaign.
The back-to-back title winners almost pulled off the upset, but they will head back to Storr, Connecticut, hoping to regroup for another potential run during the 2025-26 season.
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