MAUI – It only took four minutes for the first technical foul to be called against the UConn bench during Monday’s 99-97 overtime loss to Memphis in the Maui Invitational.
While coach Dan Hurley – livid with a blocking foul called against Liam McNeeley – made his typical sideline scene and let the referee hear it, the technical was assessed elsewhere. He revealed after the game that it was on team trainer James Doran – perhaps the last person one would expect, especially with the way Hurley and his assistants reacted. Doran may have said something under his breath, according to Hurley.
For the next two and a half hours, Hurley was consistent in his ripping of the referees.
Finally, at the worst possible time, he earned a technical of his own.
Ironically, it stemmed from another foul on McNeeley. The freshman went after and secured an offensive rebound with 40 seconds left in the overtime period, the score tied at 92. He was whistled for an over-the-back foul, but Hurley disagreed and fell to the ground in disbelief.
“That over-the-back call at that point of the game, there was no attempt to block out. There was a player on Memphis that made a half-assed effort to rebound that basketball, and Liam McNeeley high-pointed that rebound,” he said after the game.
“For that call to be made at that point of the game was a complete joke, all right? And then for me, I don’t know what happened. I might have lost my balance by the absurdity of the call or maybe I tripped. But if I made that call at that moment, I would have ignored the fact that I was on my back. If I made that call, I would have ignored that.”
Memphis’ PJ Carter made four straight free throws, two of which ended up being the difference in the 99-97 loss, UConn’s first in 279 days (Feb. 20, 2024 at Creighton).
“That was a major – obviously a major – how you could call that while that game was going on, the way that game was going on, is just beyond me. But I know – I’ve never seen the one ref before. I didn’t even know he was a college ref. I’m familiar with the other two, so I’m not surprised,” Hurley said.
Following the press conference, Hurley told CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander that he didn’t think his technical cost UConn the game.
“I think it was the s— calls,” he said, according to Norlander. “I would expect to come to play in an event, and I don’t know too many back-to-back national championship teams that get that type of a whistle.”
Biggest win of Hardaway’s coaching career
The first question asked to Memphis coach Penny Hardaway following Monday’s game was whether the win over the No. 2, reigning back-to-back champions was the biggest of his career.
“Yeah, with the magnitude of what’s going on here at The Invitational, I can say yes,” he said. “That was back-to-back national champions, undefeated, first round of the Maui tournament. When we first got picked to play them, I was like, ‘Okay, starting off with a bang.’ I just got our team prepared. I used it as motivation.”
Hardaway continued: “They’re a well-oiled machine just watching them, man. They’re just like clockwork because the times we did allow them to get into their stuff, they made those shots. They’re really efficient and they’re really sharp. What we had to do was take the ball out of the point guard’s hands, not let them get that rhythm as much as we could, and then they’re so smart, we knew they were going to adjust again, and they did. Then they got a rhythm where they got in there and got comfortable and then we switched up defenses like three or four more times to try to get them uncomfortable again, and it worked.”
Offense disrupted by Memphis’ physicality
Memphis switched everything on defense, which has been disruptive for UConn’s complex offense in the past. But Monday wasn’t like the East Texas A&M game that Hurley called “comically bad” last week, when the Huskies turned the ball over 19 times.
Aside from Tarris Reed Jr. and Jaylin Stewart – who combined for 29 points on 13-for-17 shooting off the bench in the first half – UConn was just 4-for-19 from the field through the first 20 minutes.
“Their style of defense is probably the toughest for us to play against, the switching, and really physical. They make your catches hard. They get into the dribbler with their hands. They’re just super, super disruptive, and I thought we – it disrupted our offense,” Hurley said. “But if you said to me I’d play an overtime game with these guys today and have 10 turnovers for the game, I would have taken that, especially with the extra four minutes. Most of our problems were in just one-on-one defense, and then the amount of times we put them or that they were put on the foul line.”
Added Karaban: “We knew it was going to be a physical game. That was the game plan. We knew they wanted to make it physical. It wasn’t surprising us that it was physical, we just had to match their toughness, and for most of the game we didn’t. That’s just on us.”
