NEW YORK – UConn coach Dan Hurley got angry with a fan again Friday night.
Moments after St. John's counterpart Rick Pitino received a technical foul for yelling at officials in the Big East semifinals, Hurley received a technical foul during the same stoppage of play.
With his father, Hall of Fame high school coach Bob Hurley Sr., sitting in the front row right behind him, Dan Hurley called security to eject a fan from a nearby select seat at the Madison Sold out Square Garden.
“Obviously the place was in a frenzy when the coach got his,” Hurley said. “And then there was a guy… there was a short guy in a red jacket who was on the court yelling at the referees, and then he started yelling at me and moving in my direction. So he was just pointing at [referee James Breeding] that he was behaving worse than Coach Pitino.
“I was really just trying to help the referees. They might not have seen it. And then I got a technical foul for pointing out the increasingly aggressive fans. On the court, you shouldn't end up on the court.”
Hurley said the fan was cursing a lot, but the UConn coach said he later told ushers he didn't want the man ejected.
“I kept him in. They were going to throw him out of the game. I went there to tell the ushers I wanted him to stay, not because I thought he was a good guy. I thought he might bring bad luck.” Hurley said, drawing laughter. “Karma.”
St. John's fan Tom O'Grady said he didn't say anything to Hurley and all he did was tell the official that Hurley was outside the coach's box, the New York Post reported.
When a reporter told Hurley after his postgame press conference that the fan had said he hadn't told him anything, the coach laughed out loud.
“Yeah, okay. That guy. He looks like a sniper,” Hurley said, full of sarcasm.
The exchange came six days after Hurley spent much of the final minute of his team's 74-60 victory at Providence talking to a Friars fan in the second row. The coach of the defending NCAA champions also waved his arms to encourage the sizable contingent of fans supporting the visiting team and then left the court with both index fingers raised in the air.
“I just told him, 'I have a national championship ring, we won the regular season in the Big East and we're champions,'” Hurley said after that game. “'And you should shut up, and you shouldn't talk too much at that point in the game. You know, just get out of here. You know, just leave.'”
Always a demonstrative screamer, unlike many college basketball coaches, Hurley was enthusiastic on the sideline during second-ranked UConn's 95-90 victory over St. John's. But star guards Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer thought it was nothing out of the ordinary.
“Honestly, today I thought he was a little calmer,” Newton said.
Hurley said he reset at halftime by doing a 3-minute meditation on his Calm app.
“I'm probably now the kid who cried about the last game. But I promise you that if we play Marquette tomorrow night, there won't be any incidents because those people are incredibly classy fans and we have incredible respect for them,” Hurley said. .
Marquette defeated Providence 79-68 in the second Big East semifinal to earn a spot in the title game against UConn.
As for Pitino, 71, he downplayed the technical foul he received at 8:16 of the first half for arguing a foul on St. John's center Joel Soriano.
“I haven't had a technique in a long, long time. I really wanted to get to that moment,” Pitino said, deadpan, adding that his display was contrived because he thought things weren't going like the Red Storm.
