UConn's Dan Hurley details his unique sideline interaction after a buzzer-beater, explaining why he felt a technical foul was never a warranted call that would have helped Duke in the Elite Eight.
UConn head coach Dan Hurley shared a bizarre moment with an NCAA official following Braylon Mullins three-point shot to give the Huskies a 73-72 advantage with 0.3 seconds remaining in the Elite Eight on Sunday.
The game-winning shot followed a devestating turnover via a bad pass by Cayden Boozer while the Duke Blue Devils were leading by two points with under ten seconds to play.
After the made basket by Mullins, Hurley made a stoic facial gesture and nodded his forehead against referee Roger Ayers. From an outsiders perspective, it appeared like Ayers might have been the right to call a technical on Hurley.
A technical free throw would have changed the game, allowing Duke one more opportunity to take the game into overtime instead of setting with an improbable chance of getting a shot off with 0.03 seconds.
“At that point in the game, we had it won," Hurley said on The Triple Option. "And, (Ayers') such an easy guy to work with during the game that I thought he was coming over to chest bump me to celebrate the shot because it’s not like that for me with him."
“That, in no way, was like me and a ref that I had been at their throat the whole game. Other points of the game, I had my arm around him walking out of the timeout--we were cracking jokes and laughing."
Ayers didn't take offense at Hurley's gesture, telling UConn's head coach that there how much time Duke had for its final possession.
“That was more like the emotion of the shot and this is a cool (expletive) ref... He was just coming up to tell me there was point 0.3 (seconds). ‘I think there’s gonna be point 0.3 or 0.4 on the clock,’ is what he was saying to me.
"And, I was still so hyped from the shot going in.”
Hurley's interaction with Ayers wasn't the only opportunity for UConn to receive a technical foul.
Duke's broadcast announcer, David Shumate, wanted a technical foul called on UConn's Malachi Smith, claiming he ran onto the court with time still on the clock.
Duke received no such luck and was unable to convert on its final two possessions.