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
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