Hurley ejected as Huskies lose at Tulsa again

TULSA, Okla. — Dan Hurley got booted out of his own birthday party Wednesday night. Wasn’t much of a party, really, as the UConn coach’s first trip to the state of Oklahoma went about how each of UConn’s previous four trips had gone.

Spoiled by a loss to Tulsa. On Hurley’s 46th birthday, no less.

Neither Hurley nor Tulsa coach Frank Haith were there to stick around for the end of Tulsa’s 89-83 victory over the Huskies at Reynolds Center. The two head coaches were ejected from the game with 11:19 to play after jawing with each other for a few moments, and eventually getting hit with double technicals.

Hurley had plenty to say about it afterwards, calling into question the officiating for not only this game, but for the American Athletic Conference overall.

“Listen, I’ve never seen anything like that. That was surreal,” Hurley said. “We got fouled, obviously the free throw discrepency in our games against really physical teams has been an issue for us — at least the last couple. I was interacting with an official about, ‘Yeah, that was a foul,’ because they had been getting that foul called all night. You can watch what happened on TV, it was very clear. I was talking to the official, then I was engaged by somebody (Haith) on the other sideline, he said my name in my direction, so I turned and looked. It was kind of a look of surprise.”

After the first “T” was called by Bill Ek, Hurley seemed to try to go over to shake hands with Haith, but the crowd and players seemed to think he was going after his counterpart. A ref separated Hurley from Haith, more words were exchanged and, at some point, both coaches got a second T (this one from Pat Adams) and were tossed.

“That was embarrassing,” Hurley continued. “It was embarrassing for the conference, for both me and Frank. Obviously, on the heels of last night (Cincinnati’s Mick Cronin was ejected from a game for the first time in his career), it’s not a good look for our league. It’s a very disappointing way that thing was handled. We were looking to come together, shake hands, and show some sportsmanship there. But then, the mishandling of it led to an embarrassment, and it looks worse on television.”

Haith seemed to agree.

“It was competitive banter,” the Tulsa coach said. “Both coaches are competitors and both coaches were trying to help their team. I think it

started out like that. I don’t think it escalated to both of us being ejected, and that’s disappointing.”

It’s the second time in his first 18 games as UConn head coach that Hurley has been ejected. He was tossed from UConn’s loss to Iowa at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 16.

“Some things need to be done from the league office on this one,” the coach continued. “When I’m wrong, I’ll take it. I’ll take my technicals, I’ll take my ejection at the Garden. I’ll take that and eat it. I was wrong then. But that was a complete overreaction, and then an escalation.”

As for the game, it was a somewhat familiar script when UConn plays at Tulsa: the Golden Hurricane shot the lights out (54 percent), paced by an individual career-high scoring effort.

Jeriah Horne, a 6-foot-7 sophomore who began his career at Nebraska, finished with 27 points. His prior career-best was 18.

“To allow a guy who’s kind of a one-dimensional, catch-and-shoot player to get that many good looks, it spoke to how we weren’t locked in to what we needed to do to win a conference road game,” Hurley said.

The Golden Hurricane have won all five meetings with UConn at home since joining the AAC in 2014-15.

UConn (10-8, 1-4 AAC) had no answer for Horne. He scored in a variety of ways, against a variety of different Husky defenders, en route to 17 first-half points. Tulsa (12-6, 2-3) hit seven of its first 10 shots for the game, then closed out the half hitting six of its last eight, including its final four, to own a 42-37 lead.

The Huskies hit just one of their first eight shots to open the latter half, including all five 3-point attempts — some of them wide-open looks. Tulsa took advantage and used a 9-0 run to open up a 17-point (61-44) lead with 12:09 to play.

About a minute later, both head coaches had been bounced from the game. UConn made a last-ditch comeback attempt and closed to within six with 28 seconds left, but came up short. Jalen Adams finished with 27 for UConn, though too many were in what wound up a somewhat empty comeback bid.

Make no mistake: Hurley wasn’t blaming the ejection — or even the refs — for the loss.

“They kicked our butt, they were better prepared, better coached, their players playe better, they were tougher,” he said. “But that, right there, was an overreaction, an escalation, which turned into an embarrassment. You just hope everyone in this situation gets what’s warranted, based on what just occurred.”

Hurley, who has known Haith for some 20 years, said the coaches met in the hallway afterwards and had a good conversation. He apologized to the university and the fans, “even though I believe that’s on the officials and the way they handled it.”

But Hurley clearly believes the officials should be held accountable for what happened Wednesday night.

”Coaches that don’t do their job well, we know what happens to them. 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.”

RIM RATTLINGS

Josh Carlton was called for three three-second calls on the night, leading Hurley to question the officiating even more.

“I’ve never seen that before. It’s funny, too. I should go back and see Igbanu, who was camped out, and Tacko Fall, and all the different people we’ve played against — Paschall — they seem to be camping out in the paint. To see three of those called in a game, it just makes you wonder, overall in the whole scope of the last two games in the league, just what’s going on.”