Hurley has change of heart after getting Pitino pal briefly tossed

It’s a case of he said, he said.

Connecticut coach Dan Hurley insisted he didn’t try to get St. John’s fan Tom O’Grady ejected for allegedly cursing at him. And O’Grady, a longtime Pitino friend, said he didn’t say anything to Hurley other than to inform the officials he was out of the coaching box.

In the end, it was much ado about nothing, other than a funny side story to the entertaining Big East Tournament semifinal between the two teams at the Garden. Top-seeded UConn won the game, outlasting the No. 5 Johnnies, 95-90. O’Grady returned to his courtside seats after halftime.

“Obviously, the place was in a frenzy when [Pitino] got his technical,” Hurley said. “And then there was a short [man] in a red blazer that was on the court yelling at the refs, and then he started yelling at me and moving in my direction. So

I was just kind of pointing out to [official] James [Breeding] that he was behaving worse than Coach Pitino.”

Hurley wound up getting a technical foul, too, and could be seen motioning for O’Grady to be ejected. O’Grady left his seats but eventually returned. Hurley said he spoke to Garden officials at halftime and wanted O’Grady to be allowed to return.

“Not because I thought he was a good guy,” he joked. “I thought it might be bad luck. Karma.”

O’Grady, a Floral Park native who has known Pitino dating back to his days at Louisville and resides there now, declined to say if Hurley attempted to get him ejected.

“I did not say a word to Dan. Not one word,” O’Grady said. “I said to the referee, ‘He’s out of the box,’ and he gave him a T. That was it. If someone was cursing at him, it wasn’t me.”

Asked about O’Grady, Pitino

said: “I told him, I’m going to give you these seats on one condition: You do not say anything to the officials. He’s a genius gas trader, and he’s got deep psychological problems with officials.”

“Dan Hurley is an amazing basketball coach. I got no problem with Dan Hurley.

“All I know is it was a great game. St. John’s played great. UConn is an amazing basketball team. Dan Hurley is a hell of a basketball coach. He lost his temper. That’s it.”

Hurley has had issues with opposing fans this year in games against Creighton and Providence, and now he has added O’Grady to the list of contentious run-ins.

“I’m probably the boy who cried wolf because of [the other games],” the coach said. “But I promise you, if we play Marquette tomorrow night, there will be no incident because those people are incredibly classy fans, and we have incredible respect for them.”