Hurley looks to end road misery at Tulsa
Coach knows good teams can win at home, away
TULSA, Okla. — There’s a certain historic charm to Tulsa. It’s the place, for instance, where the idea of Route 66 was conceived, and it became a prominent stop along that early road, celebrated in song, that wound from Chicago to LA
But since Tulsa University joined the American Athletic Conference, UConn has been on the receiving end of all the kicks on old Route 66. The Huskies are 0-4 at the Reynolds Center, where they will try again against Tulsa on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
“Good teams win on the road,” coach Dan Hurley said, as the Huskies arrived in Tulsa on Tuesday night. “Mature teams win on the road. That’s something that’s always the case. Young teams tend to struggle on the road, and teams that aren’t good don’t win on the road, they only play well at home. So if we’re going to have a chance to take the next stop, we’ve got to be, not only competing, but winning.”
The last two losses here have been particularly excruciating for the Huskies, chances to turn around losing seasons slipping away, both in overtime.
On New Year’s Eve, 2016, Jalen Adams came back from a concussion and played all 45 minutes, just missing a potential winning shot at the end of overtime.
Last season, UConn had one sewn up, but turned it over on an in-bounds play. Tulsa tied it on a 3-pointer by Corey Henderson Jr. and went on to win 90-88 in double OT, Adams getting 29 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists.
“We’ve been very fortunate,” Tulsa coach Frank Haith said. “We’ve had a couple of games like that against UConn where