UConn head coach Dan Hurley was particularly direct in his assessment of the team’s 71-67 loss to No. 4 Arizona on Wednesday night at Gampel Pavilion. His squad, missing two of its top players – senior center Tarris Reed Jr. and five-star freshman Braylon Mullins – faced a tough challenge. The two-time champion head coach wasn’t happy with the performance, especially after the Huskies were outrebounded 43-23 despite the absence of key players. Hurley’s frustration was palpable as he ripped up the stat sheet in anger, showing his displeasure with the team’s lack of effort.
Hurley’s postgame comments were unfiltered, expressing disappointment with the team’s failure to take a chance against one of the best teams in the nation when they were down two key players. “We just f—ing blew a chance to beat one of the best teams, down two studs,” he said during his press conference. The No. 3 Huskies were dominated on the boards, but still managed to stay in the game, which left Hurley in disbelief and angry at the team’s overall effort. “We should have been minus-10 on the glass today. I mean, we got punked. We punked out. It’s going to be a bad film session coming out of here where there are people; there’s a street fight going on in the paint and men can’t watch fights,” Hurley said.
Despite being outrebounded and committing more fouls (the Huskies had 21 fouls to the Wildcats’ 16), the Huskies went stride for stride with Arizona, clawing back to tie the game at 60-60 after trailing by 13 with 13:44 left in the game. However, Arizona executed better down the stretch and pulled out the win in the tightly contested battle of two of the top five teams in the nation. The loss was UConn’s first of the year, dropping them to 4-1. They will look to bounce back against Bryant (1-4) on Sunday at 6 p.m. ET.
Azuriza improved to 5-0 with the win and will look to continue their hot start to the season against Denver (1-3) at 10:30 p.m. ET. The game was a tough one for UConn, but Hurley was clear about the team’s need to improve in rebounding and intensity in their next games.