NEW YORK (AP) — After sixth-ranked UConn opened the Big East Tournament by rolling over Xavier in the quarterfinals Thursday night, Dan Hurley’s mind was still on the Huskies’ surprising defeat in their regular-season finale.
“It was great to get back on the court after the choke job over the weekend,” Hurley said, referring to a 68-62 loss at Marquette on Saturday. He was ejected in the final second and fined $25,000 by the Big East for unsportsmanlike conduct.
The two-time national championship-winning coach joked that some of his players offered to pay part of that fine.
“Now obviously it would be illegal, so I couldn’t accept it,” Hurley said. “But there were guys raising their hand: ‘I’ll give $1,000. I’ll give $500.’”
With that, Hurley ended his postgame news conference and left the podium.
Hurley said he and his players endured a “brutal film session” on Sunday in the aftermath of the loss in Milwaukee, which cost UConn a share of the regular-season conference title that instead went solely to St. John’s.
“It was tough,” Hurley said. “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 points in the 93-68 rout of Xavier, said: “There is no difference between sad Dan or angry Dan.”
Tarris Reed Jr., who had 17 points and 14 rebounds in an effort Hurley described as playing like “a grizzly bear for 22 minutes,” said the film session felt uncomfortable for him and his teammates.
“You’re not used to it,” Reed said. “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 said he wanted to remind his players that UConn has been a top-five team all season, explaining the body of work means more than one disappointing letdown.
“We don’t have anything to show for it yet,” Hurley said. “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 got some great, great wins. So that’s who we are — not that game that we choked away. … We know that we blew it.”
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