UConn head coach Dan Hurley minimized a peculiar encounter he had with an arbiter at the conclusion of Sunday’s monumental NCAA tournament triumph against Duke, suggesting he believed the seasoned referee intended to “chest bump me in celebration.”
UConn pulled off one of the most significant rallies in NCAA tournament annals when freshman Braylon Mullins sank a lengthy 35-foot three-pointer, putting the Huskies ahead 73-72 with merely 0.4 seconds remaining in their Elite Eight contest against the Blue Devils.
Right after Mullins’ basket, cameras captured a jubilant Hurley moving away from the UConn bench area and seemingly making head contact for a few moments with official Roger Ayers, before both individuals continued in opposing directions.
Hurley, commenting on the now-viral occurrence during a recent discussion on the “Triple Option” podcast, asserted that Ayers is a “pleasant individual to collaborate with” and refuted any suggestion of ill-will between them during the match.
“Truly, at that stage of the game, we had secured the victory,” Hurley stated. “And (Ayers is) such a cooperative person during the match, that I presumed he was approaching me for a celebratory chest bump for the shot.”
Hurley was not assessed a technical infraction, and UConn ultimately prevailed after Duke’s last-ditch inbound pass was thwarted, guaranteeing the Huskies’ eighth appearance in the Final Four and their third in a quartet of seasons led by Hurley.
The NCAA revealed its eleven arbiters for the Final Four on Monday, a day following UConn’s comeback from a 19-point disadvantage to defeat Duke in the championship’s East Regional conclusion.
Precise match allocations were not featured in the NCAA’s announcement, but the roster of officials notably excluded Ayers, who has served as a referee for seven Final Fours, including the previous year’s event.
Hurley characterized Ayers as a “super cool referee,” further stating that they shared agreeable exchanges for the duration of the game.
“My relationship with him isn’t like that,” Hurley remarked. “My encounters with him have been — we haven’t triumphed in every game, I haven’t consented to every ruling. But by no means was that an interaction between me and an arbiter with whom I’d been fiercely arguing throughout the entire match.
“There were different moments during the contest where I had my arm around him, exiting a brief stoppage, we were sharing jests and chuckling.”
ESPN’s Seth Greenberg reported on “SportsCenter” that he conversed with Ayers on Monday, who informed Greenberg that “no incident occurred” with Hurley. Greenberg, a past veteran university hoops mentor, added that Ayers “genuinely had no idea what I referred to” and said that the exchange with Hurley amounted to “precisely nothing.”
Hurley told the “Triple Option” that Ayers was coming towards him to apprise him of the precise duration left on the timer after Mullins’ extraordinary basket.
“He was merely nearing me to communicate there was 0.3 (seconds) — ‘I believe there will be 0.3 or 0.4 seconds remaining,’ is what he was saying to me,” Hurley explained. “And I was still extremely exhilarated by the successful shot.”
Hurley, who possesses a contentious past with arbiters, was expelled from a standard season match earlier this month versus Marquette after coming into physical touch with referee John Gaffney in the final moments.
UConn will face Illinois in the inaugural Final Four contest Saturday in Indianapolis, subsequently followed by the other national championship semi-final between Michigan and Arizona.