Myron Medcalf
Multiple Authors
INDIANAPOLIS — Dan Hurley believes the backlash about his on-court behavior is honest.
Just over 24 hours earlier than UConn‘s matchup in opposition to Illinois within the Final Four, Hurley stated he’s not in search of any sympathy relating to the notion of his teaching type.
“I’m not a victim. I’ve done everything. I did what I did,” he stated throughout his pregame information convention Friday. “We don’t allow victims in our program, and I’m not a 53-year-old man sitting up here like I’m some victim. I don’t want to waste a lot of time with it because it takes away from the team. But for me, the way I view what we’re going into, in the game, when some people, again, view it as a game, just my family, how I was raised in the sport, where I’m from in Jersey, we look at it more like a battle.”
After Braylon Mullins hit the game-winning 3-pointer over Duke on Sunday evening, Hurley went forehead-to-forehead with referee Roger Ayers in a weird transfer that would have led to a technical foul at a vital second. Hurley stated he anticipated a chest bump from Ayers and was joking in regards to the alternate once more Friday.
“I thought it was fitting that they gave me that helmet, the race car helmet. I probably could have used it on Sunday night,” Hurley stated in regards to the commemorative racing helmet he obtained upon touchdown in Indianapolis this week. “Or that might have been bad.”
Hurley stated he expects a “real war” with Illinois, a staff UConn defeated 74-61 in Madison Square Garden in November. In that recreation, projected lottery decide Keaton Wagler performed a season-low 14 minutes. Hurley stated Wagler has grown since that assembly and “obviously has the ball in his hands a lot more.”
As for his personal progress as an emotional chief for his program, Hurley stated he would not plan to alter.
“My world and the world I think is the best world to live in is the real world, which is interacting with people, putting your phone down,” he stated. “I get much more of a bad reaction from people, I think, on social media than when I meet regular people, because any time I meet regular people they look at me and they start laughing or they start smiling, or like, ‘You’re the guy from the video. You look a little crazy, but I think you’re a good egg.'”
