Aresco calls Hurley ejection ‘regrettable’

American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco called Wednesday’s double-ejection of Dan Hurley and Frank Haith a “regrettable situation” that could have been handled differently by the officiating crew.

“We don’t want to see this happen,” Aresco said after being reached by phone Thursday evening. “The rulebook does prescribe certain conduct, and yet, in this particular case, the ejections were the biggest part of this and the situation could have been handled differently and perhaps could have been worked through better. And I would leave it at that. It’s one of those things where, sometimes, you can defuse a situation, even though there are rulebook situations that are on your side.”

He added that the officials involved won’t be punished for their actions during UConn’s 89-83 loss at Tulsa. He said Hurley’s postgame comments, which lambasted the league’s officiating, will be handled internally.

“We don’t want our coaches commenting on officiating,” Aresco said.

The commissioner noted that coaches’ decorum has been an emphasis this season in college basketball and “to some extent, that was part of this,” but the crew of Pat Adams, Bill Ek and Marques Pettigrew should have defused the situation before ejecting Hurley and Haith.

“You’d like to see situations like that handled without the coaches being ejected,” he said. “We’ve never had a double coach

ejection in this conference, as far as I know.”

With 11:19 left to play on Wednesday and Tulsa up by double digits, Hurley was voicing his displeasure to the refs. Haith started barking at Hurley from the other coaches’ box, and the two began jawing at each other from afar. They were each hit with technical fouls, but when Hurley went over to try to shake Haith’s hand, the officials seemed to think Hurley was escalating the situation and slapped both coaches with a second ‘T,’ leading to automatic ejections.

After the game, Hurley called the situation “embarrassing for the conference, for both me and Frank ... it’s not a good look for our league. It’s a very disappointing thing the way that was handled.”

He also indirectly referenced the fact that Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin had been ejected from a game for the first time in his career the night before.

“Coaches that don’t do their job well, we know what happens to them,” Hurley continued. “Players that don’t play well and underperform and don’t do their job well, we know what happens to them. They find the bench, coaches get fired, careers end for players and coaches. Officials ... we need accountability across the board. Because all three of us have an impact on the game.”

For the past three years, the AAC has used a consortium of referees with the SEC, Atlantic Sun and Sun Belt conferences. He disagreed with Hurley’s criticism of the officials the league uses.

“We think we have great officiating,” said Aresco. “Our officials are big-time officials, they’ve done big games, they’re well-respected. I respect them tremendously. Sometimes, there are situations where you look objectively and say, ‘OK, that could have been handled differently, could have been defused or de-escalated.’ But that’s not to suggest these aren’t terrific officials.”

Aresco has no issues with Hurley, either.

“He’s doing a terrific job,” he said. “He’s an outstanding coach and an outstanding person.”

Jessica Hill / Associated Press UConn coach Dan Hurley took issue with AAC officiating after being ejected along with Tulsa coach Frank Haith on Wednesday night.

John Minchillo / Associated Press UConn coach Dan Hurley took issue with AAC officiating after being ejected along with Tulsa coach Frank Haith on Wednesday night.