RALEIGH, N.C. – In the moments after his team survived a 67-59 rock fight of a first-round NCAA men’s basketball tournament game against Oklahoma, UConn coach Dan Hurley boiled the emotions down to the simplest possible terms.
“It feels normal,” Hurley told CBS’ Tracy Wolfson.
Well, yeah. In a way.
UConn, the back-to-back national champions, won a 13th straight NCAA Tournament game. That’s normal.
But the ugly, grinding way the Huskies needed to get it done?
Not normal – maybe in a good way.
“As much as our defense has plagued us throughout the year, it advanced us today,” Hurley said.
Also not normal? On Sunday, 8th-seeded UConn will be an underdog against No. 1 Florida. A big one. And if you read between the lines, it’s perhaps why Hurley was so proud to get out of the first round the way they did Friday.
Most likely, it’s coming to an end. And nobody knows that better than him.
“I think there’s honor in getting to the round of 32 and making someone put you down to end this run we’ve been on,” Hurley said. “If it wasn’t for all my antics and viral moments there would be more focus on what we’ve accomplished. It’s been an amazing run.”
The reason Hurley sounded like he was talking in the past tense is because he understands what he’s up against in Florida. When he watches the Gators, he sees a lot of what UConn had the last two years.
The multiple big men who crush you on the glass. The perimeter depth and waves of shooting. The relentlessness and precision in the way they execute. The aura and swagger of a team that knows it’s peaking at exactly the right time, almost on the exact same timeline as the Huskies two years ago when they were the trendy pick to win the title even though they hadn’t done it yet under Hurley.
Florida and 39-year-old coach Todd Golden still haven’t proven it. Maybe that gives the Huskies a chance. Maybe.
“The championship pedigree is still there for us,” Hurley said. “There’s a belief in the UConn jersey this time of year. Someone is going to have to put us down for us to go away.”
You saw a little of that against Oklahoma. UConn tried and tried to build a comfortable lead, couldn’t quite get it to double-figures, then watched it disappear completely as Sooners freshman guard Jeremiah Fears started to get rolling.
But with 3:39 remaining, one of the last remaining pieces of that championship pedigree made the shot that mattered. A bit earlier, Alex Karaban had passed up a 3-pointer in the corner only to get an earful from Hurley coming back to the bench for a timeout.
“I told him to shoot the (expletive) ball,” Hurley said.
“I wasn’t going to make that mistake again,” Karaban said.
And so with 3:39 left, even though he was a couple of steps behind the 3-point line, Karaban saw an opening and Fears coming a little too late to contest. So he let it fly. It hit the bottom of the net for a 60-56 lead, and that was all UConn needed on a night it went 6-of-25 from deep.
“When you play teams at this level, which is the best of the best in the tournament, the windows are tighter,” Hurley said. “You’re not going to get the perfect shot. The only way we’re going to win the game, especially with the way Liam (McNeeley) was shooting (1-for-8 from three), they were both struggling. We were on life-support and we needed one of them to step up and make some shots, and it was Alex.”
So UConn moves on. Probably just for two more days.
But after a season of angst and “suffering,” as Hurley put it, just to get to this point and win a first-round game was meaningful. Even for a coach whose mind is wired for perfection, it certainly sounded like it was enough.