Dan Hurley just wanted to get the home UConn crowd more into the game. Instead, he was sent out of it.
The Huskies’ coach was assessed a technical foul — his second on the single play — after waving his arms to try and fire up the XL Center fans in No. 21 UConn’s game against No. 8 Villanova on Tuesday.
Dan Hurley just got tossed for pumping up the UConn home crowd pic.twitter.com/SNCD6HNvmc
— Matt Spendley (@mattspendley) February 23, 2022
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Hurley had been unhappy on the previous play when there was no foul called after Villanova’s Collin Gillespie recovered a rebound off a block from Justin Moore. Hurley argued with the officials and slapped the scorer’s table over the no-call and was assessed a technical.
As Gillespie started to go to the line to shoot two free throws, Hurley, with his back to the court and the officials, waved his arms up and down to energize the UConn crowd ahead of the shots. Evidently, that was enough to warrant a technical and an ejection with 4:53 left in the first half and UConn leading 24-23.
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By the time Gillespie finished at the line, Villanova had a 26-24 lead. Associate head coach Kimani Young took over coaching duties in Hurley’s absence. UConn went on to win the game 71-69.
Prior to Tuesday, Gillespie had not been ejected in a game since Jan. 16, 2019, against Tulsa.
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As would be expected, the bizarre decision by the officials to toss Hurley from the game riled up viewers — and not just those in the XL Center.
James Breeding just threw Dan Hurley out of the game and gave Villanova a 6-0 run because Hurley slapped the side board and fired up the crowd.
THAT’S what is worthy of an ejection these days? That is an absolute joke.
— Rob Dauster (@RobDauster) February 23, 2022
did Dan Hurley just get ejected for getting the crowd hype? 😂
— Mike Golic Jr (@mikegolicjr) February 23, 2022
Dan Hurley got ejected for doing… THIS?!
Ridiculous. @stoolbenchmob
— Jake Marsh (@PMTsportsbiz) February 23, 2022
Just saw the Dan Hurley ejection. What an embarrassment by those officials. Are you kidding me? Imagine feeling that threatened/shown up that you have to call a technical because Hurley tried to pump up the crowd. Unreal.
— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) February 23, 2022
Dan Hurley gets two T’s and is ejected with 5 left in the first half against Nova. The second one was for pumping up the crowd? Big East needs to do something about its officiating.
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) February 23, 2022
Absolutley horrendous by this crew to toss Hurley out of the game. HORRENDOUS.
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) February 23, 2022