UConn coach says officials mishandled his shouting match with Haith, who also got tossed from the game

TULSA, Okla. — The confidence and good feel of their game at Cincinnati didn’t make it out to Tulsa with the Huskies. The UConn men, instead, were knocked back down, the brakes slammed on any progress.

By the midway point of the second half, UConn was hope- lessly behind and coach Dan Hurley was in a shouting match with his Tulsa counterpart, Frank Haith, at the scorer’s table. Both were eventually ejected, the sparse crowd and both teams were fired up and the Golden Hurricane hit enough free throws to close out another victory over UConn, 89-83 at the Reynolds Center on Wednesday night.

Hurley, after reviewing the se- quence on TV, said referees Pat Adams, who called the first technical, Marques Pettigrew, who called the second, and Bill Ek mishandled it.

“I was interacting with the official,” he said. “‘Yeah, that was a foul because they were getting that call all night.’ I was talking to the official, then I was engaged by somebody on the other sideline that said my name so I turned and looked, kind of a look of surprise. I’ve known Frank a very long time, 15 to 20 years. I feel as though that situation escalated because of the officials’ handling of it.”

As things calmed down, Hurley extended his hand.

“We were looking to come together and shake hands,” Hurley said, “and show some sportsmanship there, but the mishandling of it led to just embarrass- ment, and it looks worse on television. ... Even though I feel that’s on the officials and the way they handled it, I’d like to apologize to the university and the fans for that, it was just bad.”

Hurley and Haith spoke in the hallway after the game, and all seemed fine between them.

“It was competitive banter,”