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Dan Hurley clears air on interaction with ref in UConn's win vs Duke
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- Dan Hurley clears air on interaction with ref in UConn's win vs Duke
Connecticut coach Dan Hurley went viral shortly after Braylon Mullins' heroic game-winning 3-pointer against Duke in the Elite Eight for appearing to headbutt official Roger Ayers in celebration of the shot.
Hurley's action raised debate on whether the two-time national championship-winning coach could've received a potentially game-altering technical foul. On Tuesday, March 31, Hurley said it was all in good fun after noting he and Ayers have a good on-court relationship.
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"Really at that point in the game we had it won," Hurley said on "The Triple Option" podcast . "And (Ayers is) an easy guy to work with during the game that I thought he was coming over to chest bump me to celebrate the shot. Because it's not like that for me with him.
"My experience with him has been — we haven't won every game, I haven't agreed with every call — so that was, in no way, me and a ref that I had been at their throat the whole game. Other points in the game where I had my arm around him walking out of a timeout, we were cracking jokes and laughing with that situation. ... That was more like the emotion of the shot and this is a cool-(expletive) ref."
Hurley also clarified that Ayers — who commonly officiates UConn games as a Big East referee — was coming up to tell him there was 0.3 seconds left on the game clock. It's clear Hurley felt comfortable with the gesture given their background, and it's not a surprise given the coach's tendency to be fiery on the sidelines — especially with officials.
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Hurley then brought up UConn's loss to Marquette in the regular season finale, in which he was fined $25,000 by the Big East after he received a double-technical ejection for appearing to bump into the referee. He noted that situation was much different than the Elite Eight game.
"When I was on my man's neck, screaming into his neck," Hurley said. "That was a guy coming right up to the line and losing his mind.
Seth Greenberg, appearing on ESPN, relayed on March 30 that Ayers was similarly unbothered by the interaction with Hurley:
"I talked to Roger today," Greenberg said. "He said, 'What are you talking about?' He literally didn't know what I was talking about. He said, 'Nothing happened.' The ball went in. I was running back. They were celebrating. … That was social media trying to create something out of nothing because of Dan Hurley's 'allegedly' reputation."
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Hurley and "The Triple Option" crew, comprising former Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and host Rob Stone, all laughed at the situation in the clip, clearing the air on a situation that became controversial in the aftermath of Duke's 73-72 win over top-seeded Duke. The Blue Devils' play-by-play announcer even called for a technical foul on a UConn player who allegedly left the bench and stepped on the court after Mullins' shot.
Two-time Final Four participant Sam Dekker, an NBA first-round pick out of Wisconsin, said there should've been a technical foul called on Hurley. At least, that was before Hurley explained what was happening.
"I have no bias here," Dekker wrote on X. "This is a tech 10/10 times. For multiple reasons … it would have lost the game for his team and he would have tried to fight the officials like he did nothing wrong. I just don't understand it at all. Also, referees need to grow a spine in instances like this."
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Regardless, UConn moved on to the Final Four with the instant-classic win and will face No. 3 seed Illinois for a spot in the national championship game against the winner of No. 1 seeds Arizona or Michigan.
All bets are off in UConn's remaining games with Hurley and those officials, though.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dan Hurley says he thought ref wanted to 'chest bump me' to celebrate UConn shot
