King of the hill
UConn’s Hurley seeking respect ahead of showdown at Kansas
STORRS — Through the long slog of the second half of Monday night’s bout with New Hampshire, UConn men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley kept shouting a certain phrase from the sidelines.
“Play like national champions!”
He was certainly talking to his own team, which didn’t exactly set the world ablaze and only outscored the low-major Wildcats by five in the latter half of an eventual 20point win. But there was another intended target to Hurley’s shouts.
“There’s probably a lot of messaging involved in saying that,” he said. “When you take the court, our team deserves the respect from everyone on the court that a national championship team deserves. And we need to play up to the standard, too.”
“All of the participants — and I’m not talking about the opponent, they don’t need to respect us — but, we’re the national champs. I’ve been on the other side playing the national championship-level teams. There’s a respect you earn when you win that that you kind of should get. That I see other people get and have gotten, and continue to get.”
Hurley didn’t have to spell it out any clearer. While never actually saying the word “officials” or “referees,” that’s exactly who he was referring to. After not stepping to the foul line a single time in the first half, UNH traipsed to the stripe an astonishing 29 times in the latter. The Wildcats missed 16 of them, but if they had shot a little better, UConn’s double-digit, nonconference win streak may have at least been in jeopardy.
Both Hurley and assistant coach Tom Moore were hit with technical fouls. Hassan Diarra managed to foul out, despite playing just 13 minutes. It all left Hurley seething afterwards.
“For a team to shoot 29 free throws in the second half is just absolutely in