NEW YORK — After sixth-ranked UConn opened the Big East match by rolling over Xavier 93-68 within the quarterfinals Thursday night time, Dan Hurley’s thoughts was nonetheless on the Huskies’ stunning defeat of their regular-season finale.
“It was great to get back on the court after the choke job over the weekend,” Hurley stated, referring to a loss at Marquette on Saturday. He was ejected within the closing second and fined $25,000 by the Big East for unsportsmanlike conduct.
The two-time nationwide championship-winning coach joked that a few of his gamers provided to pay a part of that high-quality.
“Now obviously, it would be illegal, so I couldn’t accept it,” Hurley stated. “But there were guys raising their hand: ‘I’ll give $1,000. I’ll give $500.'”
With that, Hurley ended his postgame information convention.
Hurley stated he and his gamers endured a “brutal film session” Sunday after the loss, which value UConn a share of the regular-season convention title that as a substitute went solely to St. John’s.
“It was tough,” Hurley stated. “It made me sad. I think they were waiting for angry, mad Dan, and I did not give that to them.”
Solo Ball, who led UConn with 19 factors within the rout of Xavier, stated: “There is no difference between sad Dan or angry Dan.”
Tarris Reed Jr., who had 17 factors and 14 rebounds in an effort Hurley described as enjoying like “a grizzly bear for 22 minutes,” stated the movie session felt uncomfortable for him and his teammates.
“You’re not used to it,” Reed stated. “But I feel like we all understood what happened, especially in that Marquette game that we lost, and what potentially we had to move on from.”
Hurley stated he wished to remind his gamers that UConn has been a top-five staff all season, explaining the physique of labor means a couple of disappointing letdown.
“We don’t have anything to show for it yet,” Hurley stated. “We don’t got a championship yet. We don’t got a Final Four yet. But don’t forget who we are. We’re now a 28-4 team that beat some really high seeds. We beat a potential 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. We’ve beaten a 2 seed in the NCAA tournament.
“We’ve acquired some nice, nice wins. So that is who we’re — not that sport that we choked away. … We know that we blew it.”
