Friday, March 29

UConn coach Dan Hurley ejected vs. Villanova for merely hyping up the crowd


Dan Hurley just wanted to get the home UConn crowd more into the game. Instead, he was sent out of it.

The Huskies’ coach was assessed a technical foul — his second on the single play — after waving his arms to try and fire up the XL Center fans in No. 21 UConn’s game against No. 8 Villanova on Tuesday.

After the game, Hurley told reporters that ejections have happened to him before, but that he was still interested to hear from the Big East why he was ejected.

“I’m very eager to find out from the [Big East] head of officials what the explanation [for] that was,” Hurley said, according to CBS’ Matt Norlander.

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Hurley had been unhappy on the previous play when there was no foul called after Villanova’s Collin Gillespie recovered a rebound off a block from Justin Moore. Hurley argued with the officials and slapped the scorer’s table over the no-call and was assessed a technical.

As Gillespie started to go to the line to shoot two free throws, Hurley, with his back to the court and the officials, waved his arms up and down to energize the UConn crowd ahead of the shots. Evidently, that was enough to warrant a technical and an ejection with 4:53 left in the first half and UConn leading 24-23.

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By the time Gillespie finished at the line, Villanova had a 26-24 lead. Associate head coach Kimani Young took over coaching duties in Hurley’s absence. UConn went on to win the game 71-69.

Prior to Tuesday, Gillespie had not been ejected in a game since Jan. 16, 2019, against Tulsa.

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As would be expected, the bizarre decision by the officials to toss Hurley from the game riled up viewers — and not just those in the XL Center.



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