If UConn men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley knew when to rein it in, knew how to control his passion, knew when to sit down and put a sock in it, the Huskies wouldn’t be where they are today.
The Huskies wouldn’t be basking in glow of the biggest victory for men’s basketball since 2014, a 71-69 thriller over Villanova. They wouldn’t be rising in the Big East and the national rankings, and they wouldn’t have brought the madness back to Connecticut with March still a week away.
UConn brought Hurley here four years ago to re-ignite a fire. What we witnessed at the XL Center on Tuesday night was a roaring inferno, not the final step by any means, but the crowd, the atmosphere and the level at which the Huskies played is all that Hurley has been building these last four years.
And with just a little more self-containment, he could have been there to experience all of it first hand. But you can’t make Dan Hurley into something he’s not, and who would want that?
“Incredible win,” Hurley said. “The crowd, incredible, like incredible, incredible atmosphere in here, so uplifting. For me, a huge win for the program, and what a team. What an emerging team, formidable team that is as good as anyone in this league.”
The XL Center was nearly filled by the 8 p.m. tip, and the crowd was very much into the nip-tuck game that was unfolding, Hurley smacked the scorer’s table with 4:53 left in the first half, drawing a technical. When the arguing died down and Villanova’s Collin Gillespie was getting ready to shoot the free throws, Hurley turned and motioned to the crowd to make noise. It triggered referee James Breeding to call another technical, ejecting Hurley.
This call may be debated for a week. Hurley was admonished by the Big East for criticizing officials after the game at Xavier on Feb. 11, and UConn issued a statement supporting the conference’s sportsmanship guidelines. So maybe officials are watching Hurley more closely, and he’s experienced enough to know that. However, this looked more like a case of an official trying to be the attraction, forgetting that no one paid their way in to watch them blow their whistles. Hurley lost his cool but so did the official — and that’s not cool either.
“Obviously, it was surreal,” Hurley said. “I was stunned. I’m very eager to find out from the head of officials what the explanation was.”
It could have cost UConn the game. Villanova got four free throws, made three, and got the possession, scoring a total of five points to take a 29-24 lead. But Hurley left the team in good hands with Kimani Young, and UConn quickly tied the game and led 33-32 at the half.
“Listen, we just stuck to our game plan,” Young said. “I told them to keep believing in themselves, keep battling. There were in-game decisions that had to be made, but everybody in our program knew what was at stake and we were ready for it.”
Both Hurley and Young spoke to the team at halftime. As Hurley was in detention, watching in the locker room with UConn director of athletics David Benedict, the Huskies were standing up to the very program that has crushed them for five years. The Huskies played with all the traits Hurley has tried to instill, the toughness, the grit, the will to make the big play. On a night its coach was ejected, the team looked more poised down the stretch in a big game than a UConn team has in a long time.
“I was happy we were able to pick him up,” said R.J. Cole, who made the winning shot and clinching defensive play. “He was down, he needed uplift, and we were able to deliver that for him.”
The Huskies looked sunk when Villanova, ranked No. 8 and leading the Big East, edged ahead by four. After a missed free throw, Young called a timeout and drew up a play for Tyler Polley, who sank a 3-pointer with 21 seconds left.
As the crowd grew louder, the Huskies trapped and swarmed Gillespie and got the ball back. Cole had to take, and make, a tough shot at the rim, hitting it with 5.9 seconds left. At the other end, the officials called a change when Gillespie was stonewalled, and the ball and the game belonged to UConn.
Hurley was begging Benedict to allow him to get back on the floor, but the AD was firm, not wanting more trouble with the league. Hurley walked into the tunnel, and his team met him there.
On Jan. 20, 2018, the last time Villanova was in Hartford, the Wildcats silenced a capacity crowd and humiliated UConn, building a 70-31 lead before winning by 20. That was the first film Hurley dissected when he took over the program two months later.
They booed at the XL Center that day. This night, they stormed the court.
“My freshman year, the way they beat us here in front of a sold-out crowd to now, it’s just a great feeling,” Polley said. “It shows how far we’ve come as a program. We’ve still got a ways to go, we still have games to play, the tournaments, but this is a big-time win. I’m not going to lie.”
Despite losses in five straight seasons, including the game at Villanova on Feb. 5, Hurley had urged his team not to take an underdog mentality coming in, to play like the favorites.
“We knew what Villanova’s been, but we also know the steps we’ve taken in Year 4 here,” he said, “It’s kind of weird to see UConn storming the court, but it’s been [a long time]. Our fans deserve that.”
