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Dan Hurley weighs in on officiating in UConn-Michigan
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- Dan Hurley weighs in on officiating in UConn-Michigan
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The UConn Huskies men's basketball program has been certified elite under head coach Dan Hurley , and on Monday night, Hurley was set to coach his third National Championship game in his bid to win his third natty. However, in the end, UConn fell to the red-hot Michigan Wolverines, 69-63.
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One would think that Hurley and the rest of the UConn squad would be a bit salty towards the officials. After all, in the March Madness decider, Michigan shot 12 more free throws than UConn did and had 13 more points via the charity stripe than the Huskies did (25-12). However, Hurley tipped his cap to the officials, recognized just how difficult officiating a game of this magnitude was, and even credited them to the point of huge praise .
"It's hard to ref that game. We both played so hard… If I could have those three guys ref every game the rest of my career, I would sleep well at night," Hurley said in his postgame presser, via @TheFieldOf68 on X (formerly Twitter).
UConn cannot blame anyone other than themselves for finishing second in March Madness. They shot a ghastly 30.9 percent from the field, and the only reason they were in the game was that they made seven more triples than Michigan did.
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Even then, UConn strayed far too much over the line of acceptable physicality, and they paid for it as a result. Michigan made it a point to attack UConn's interior, and there was no coincidence that they finished with that many more free throws than UConn did — especially with the Wolverines tallying 36 paint points to the Huskies' 22.
The three officials whom Hurley credited for refereeing a good game were James Breeding, Jeff Anderson and Kipp Kissinger. It's not quite clear how much weight the UConn head coach's words carry, but it should only help those officials' reputation if they got those reviews from a well-respected mind in the sport.
Related: The Athletic places Illinois No. 1 over Michigan in way-too-early top 25
Related: How Michigan basketball's Yaxel Lendeborg went from 'Sad Yax' to 'Mad Max' to win national title
