Dan Hurley emotional message to team after UCONN’s Round of 32 loss to Florida
The UCONN Huskies were knocked out of the NCAA Tournament by the No. 1 seed Florida Gators, ending their bid at a historic third straight championship.
The chase for the three-peat is over. The UCONN Huskies had their NCAA Tournament cut short on Sunday afternoon, losing to the top seed in the region, the Florida Gators.
No three-peat for Huskies
The Huskies came into the tourney as the two-time defending champions, but ran into a Florida Gators team that had depth, size and at the end of the game it was Todd Golden’s team that made the key plays down the stretch.
Hurley’s team came out ice cold in the first half, shooting just 24% in the early part of the game, but they bounced back and went to the halftime break all square at 31-31. The battled with one of the best teams in the country, showing their championship spirit, but a 14-3 Florida run late in the second half put an end to the Huskies chance to go back-to-back-to-back.
UCONN’s coach consoled his guys on the court, but when walking down the tunnel to the locker room after the game he was overheard sending a message to the Baylor Bears who were about to tip off shortly after the Gator’s win. “I hope they don’t f**k you like they f**ked us, Baylor. I hope they don’t,” exclaimed the two time title winning coach.
Hurley is known for letting the refs have it, and while he seemed relatively calm during the forty minutes, he went after the officiating crew. UCONN took on a No. 1 seed in Florida much like Baylor took on a one seeded Duke.
Hurley fights back tears after game
A few minutes after the outburst in the tunnel, CBS sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson had a chance to talk to Hurley, who was more calm during the on air interview and talked about how much he loved his team and how proud he was of his guys for competing like champions.
“[Florida] showed their quality, I thought we played with tremendous honor, I thought we played with the heart of a championship program and a program that’s gone back-to-back,”Hurley said.
“And for a team to end what we really wanted to do, they were going to have to put us down. And obviously, a worthy opponent like that, there’s honor in the way we went out.”
Hurley looked like he was on his way to the Los Angeles Lakers in the summer. The Lakers made him a big money offer to take over on the sidelines, but he rejected it and returned to UCONN to chase the three-peat.
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