UConn men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley has never been one to hide his emotions, and not even the sunshine at the Maui Invitational could calm him down on Monday.
Three minutes into the Huskies’ first game at the Maui Invitational, Hurley picked up his first technical foul of the season. With UConn encountering a flood of early foul trouble, Hurley had already seen enough of the referees.
The Huskies, two-time defending national champions, are facing their first big test of the year in the Memphis Tigers. While it might be expected for a team — even the No. 2 team in the country — to struggle early on in such a game, Hurley wasn’t looking for excuses. Not that he ever does. Here’s what he had to say after UConn beat East Texas A&M by 35 points last week.
“Yeah, so, um, yeah just comically bad,” he said. “Second-half rebounding, so far below our standard. Ball security throughout the game, it’s been a long time since we’ve been that bad. … At times we played hard, but once we got it to 37 with 12 minutes to go, it turned into a debacle out there.”
Hurley also wasn’t thrilled with seeing his starting center, Samson Johnson, pick up his second foul in three minutes. 15 minutes into the game, the Huskies had 10 team fouls with freshman Liam McNeeley and sophomore Solo Ball both picking up an early two.
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UConn is expected to contend for another men’s basketball national championship this year, but its post play needs to be figured out for the team to reach its potential. Johnson was the perfect sub for Donovan Clingan last year, and Clingan was the perfect sub for Adama Sango the year before.
If Johnson can’t stay on the court, it’s possible that Hurley will have to put him back in his old position off the bench in favor of Michigan transfer Tarris Reed Jr.
Russell Steinberg covers Major League Baseball and the New York Liberty for ClutchPoints. A baseball and basketball lifer, he has written for Boardroom, SLAM, SB Nation, The Next, and more. He graduated from NYU in 2012 and still returns to serve as PA announcer and occasional broadcaster for the school’s basketball and volleyball teams.
