INDIANAPOLIS — Dan Hurley was more laughs than usual on Thursday as UConn kicks off another residency in the Final Four.
The Huskies are riding into Indy on a rolling high courtesy of a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by freshman Braylon Mullins that took down Duke and sent UConn into a Saturday national semifinal with Illinois at Lucas Oil Stadium.
“I’m not trying to keep focused on that,” said Mullins, back in his hometown after seeing his game-winner countless times since the UConn team bus pulled away from the Washington, D.C., site on Sunday.
Hurley has a few warm and fuzzy memories of Indianapolis, too.
He was there when brother Bobby Hurley and Duke played UNLV and won the national title in 1991. He was there for the COVID-era NCAA Tournament, when teams and coaches were served (ahem) meals on trays left outside their hotel room doors. And an hour later they got a little fresh air.
“We got loose in the yard,” Hurley recalled of his COVID-year NCAA Tournament experience, referring to teams being steered from the hotel to the adjacent minor-league baseball field, home to the Pittsburgh Pirates Class AAA affiliate.
“All the teams were circling each other. It was bizarre. Listen, everyone from that — if you did great in that tournament, you deserve all the credit. If it went bad for you, and I’m not just saying that because it went bad for us, but you should get a pass. That was a mess. They were literally knocking on your door and dropping the food at your door. It wasn’t slop, but it was — maybe it was.”
UConn isn’t looking back. That’s true of Hurley’s current crew, which had a full day to bask in the victory over Duke before Hurley returned to his sparring gear in practice. He started by lighting up Mullins — “no, not me,” Hurley says of the incident — to send a message to his entire roster about what matters this week.
“I couldn’t come in on Monday like a cold damp blanket and just start destroying people on Monday. That just would have been a cruel thing to do to people’s spirit after such an incredible victory,” Hurley said. “But Tuesday you’ve just got to bring everybody back to reality. The reality is that moment is over. It’s an incredible moment. You’ll have that moment the rest of your life. But we came here for rings, not watches. Everyone that comes to the Final Four gets a beautiful watch, but only one group is going to get a ring.
“So get off social media, stop injecting the dopamine into your arm and get serious about the preparation and the practice because we don’t hang banners for Final Fours at UConn. We hang National Championship banners.”
