After two dominant runs through the NCAA Tournament, it's hard to criticize Connecticut coach Dan Hurley. Unless he's grabbing his players during a game.
Dan Hurley pushed Cam Spencer mid-play pic.twitter.com/RND3Snqdvc
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 9, 2024
To put it nicely, Hurley can be an emotional coach on the sidelines. He's known for racking up technical fouls, once getting ejected for waving to fire up the crowd in response to getting his first technical.
UCONN coach Dan Hurley got a technical foul then started pumping up the crowd… so he got another technical foul which resulted in an ejection pic.twitter.com/Iud0nFDMs5
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) February 23, 2022
This time, Hurley got so excited that he tried to reposition guard Cam Spencer as he dribbled late in UConn's title game win. Maybe a coach can get away with doing that in practice, but during game action, the officials frown on making contact with the players, even your own.
The turnover ultimately didn't matter, as UConn had a 67-52 lead. On the subsequent Purdue possession, Spencer got a blocked shot, probably because of his coach's encouragement, and the Huskies maintained their 15-point lead.
Hurley wasn't any calmer after the game, declaring that UConn had been "running college basketball for the last 30 years."
"We've been running college basketball for the past 30 years"
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 9, 2024
Dan Hurley is HYPED pic.twitter.com/2hm6YAH82I
When a coach is trying to become the first team to repeat as champions in 17 years, you'll probably see some emotion. But if UConn wants to threepeat, they might need to assign an assistant coach to keep Hurley from wandering onto the court next March Madness.
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