Dan Hurley was in typical Dan Hurley form following his team’s loss to Arizona on Wednesday night.
The No. 3 Huskies led the No. 4 Wildcats by 2 points with about two minutes remaining before Arizona closed the game on a 9-3 run to win the game 71-67 on UConn’s home court before a sold-out whiteout crowd.
UConn played without starting center Tarris Reed Jr. (ankle) and freshman guard Braylon Mullins (ankle) due to injuries.
Hurley called out the UConn medical staff and the overall toughness of his players following the game.
“I believe we are the basketball capital of the world, but we are also becoming the ankle sprain capital of the world and the muscle pull capital of the world,” Hurley told reporters.
“So we’ve gotta get this team on the court, we’ve gotta get all of our weapons on the court. Obviously, we’ve gotta [Reed] and Braylon on the court.”
Without Reed, who averages 20.0 points and 9.3 rebounds per game, UConn was dominated on the boards, 43-23, and 13-6 on the offensive glass.
Hurley, the Jersey City native and former Seton Hall guard, wasn’t happy with the overall toughness of his team after several skirmishes broke out in the paint.
“We got punked,” he said. “It’s going to be a bad film session coming out of here. There was a street fight going on in the paint. Men can’t watch fights. You can’t stand on the outside when your buddies are in the fight. You get in the fight, you don’t stand on the periphery of the fight.”
While coach Tommy Lloyd and Arizona now have three Top-15 wins before December – over No. 3 Florida, No. 15 UCLA and No. 3 UConn – the Huskies fell to 4-1 amid a brutal stretch of games against ranked opponents.
They held off AJ Dybantsa and No. 7 BYU, 86-84, on Nov. 15, and now must face No. 8 Illinois on Nov. 28 at Madison Square Garden after a date with Bryant on Sunday.
After the Illinois game, they head to take on No. 24 Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse on Dec. 2 and also meet No. 10 Florida, the reigning national champions, on Dec. 9 in the Jimmy V Classic at the Garden.
After the Arizona loss, Hurley said he would have travel sleeping.
“Sometime around….4:30 a.m., I’m gonna wake up and I’m gonna think that it was just a nightmare,” Hurley said.
“And then finally around… 7:30, 8 o’clock, I’m gonna realize that we just f—ing blew chance to beat one of the best teams down two studs in a game that we were down 13 and wobbling,” he said.
“You know, our [medical] people gotta get our guys healthy and on the court so that we can be the team that we’re all really high on. It’s just that tonight sucked to lose like that.”
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