UConn’s first response from loss at Marquette last week was a 93-68 win over Xavier in Big East tournament quarterfinals. (Photo by UConn Men’s Basketball)
For starters, the 68-62 loss cost the Huskies a Big East regular season championship, as St. John’s won that title outright following UConn’s setback. Secondly, Dan Hurley’s ejection in the final seconds added to the story, with the coach’s sideline comportment again placed under the microscope. To compound the frustration of defeat, there was a thick layer of dismay among the principles in the locker room.
“There was the feeling of disappointment,” Braylon Mullins reflected Thursday. “We let Coach down. I thought that’s what everybody was going through, especially that Sunday and going into practice on Monday. It was just like, a bunch of tension, and I thought we just needed to get it out of our system coming into this week because it’s such a big week for us.”
And flush it, UConn did.
The Huskies opened the second season with a third authoritative takedown of Xavier Thursday night in their Big East tournament opener, pummeling the Musketeers from tip to buzzer in a 93-68 runaway. UConn (28-4) scored 90 or more points in each of its meetings with Richard Pitino’s squad, something Mullins’ teammates mentioned as an adequate and effective response from the letdown against Marquette five days prior.
“You’ve gotta erase what you did before,” Solo Ball said after pouring in a team-leading 19 points Thursday. “Whether it was good or bad, just capitalize and just trust your work. We’ve just been working constantly for the past ten months, so just continue to trust the work that you put in and trust the process, and then everything will fall into place.”
“We had to learn from (Marquette), but hold that pain inside of us,” Alex Karaban explained. “I thought for the most part, we did a good job of flushing it. Our first half was great, second half, we’ve got a lot of things to fix, but I thought it was a good response.”
Hurley placed the letdown in perspective, building Mullins back up despite his feeling of failure and reminding him it was not entirely his, nor his teammates’ fault that the circumstances that befell UConn happened as they did.
“I just wanted to let him know that I was as big a reason why we lost the game,” Hurley shared. “I was the main reason why we lost the game. I did a bad job leading, I did a bad job coaching. I was overly emotional and that showed in the end of the game. But I just think there’s so much love and connection with our team, culture, program. That’s the beautiful thing about our organization. Everyone cares so much and everyone feels bad that they let each other down. There’s not a lot of that everywhere.”
Say what you want about Hurley, and many people do, but the one constant is his love and respect for everyone in his program and sport. Ball shed additional light on the side of his coach that is often obscured, sometimes ignored, but as unrelenting as the trademark ultra-competitive persona.
“Coach just cares so much about this sport,” Ball said. “That’s one thing you have to appreciate the most playing for a coach like that. He wants to win so bad, and the rest of the coaching staff is like that as well. There’s no difference between Sad Dan or Angry Dan. When you have a coaching staff. That just cares so much about this sport, you want to just do anything you can to win.”
“They actually offered to pay parts of the fine,” Hurley quipped, citing the mutual love and respect he and his players have for one another in the fallout from the Marquette saga. “How nice a moment was that?”
UConn’s on-court travails Thursday were equally as pleasing for Husky fans, who now have a rejuvenated confidence mirroring that of the team they support. Hurley left nothing back in a Sunday film session, baring his soul in some aspects but not in his usual demonstrative fashion. This time, the coach wanted to subtly, but impactfully, tell his young charges exactly who and what they were, and still are. That message was reinforced Thursday.
“We just wanted to leave it in the room,” he said of the Marquette anguish. “I just wanted to remind the players we’ve been a Top 5 basketball team the whole year. We’ve played Top 5 basketball, we’ve been ranked in the Top 5 pretty much the whole year. Whether it’s strength of record, wins above bubble, we’ve been a Top 5 team the whole year. That’s who we are.”
“We don’t have anything to show for it yet. We don’t have a championship yet, we don’t have a Final Four yet, but don’t forget who we are.”
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