Dan Hurley led UConn to its third men’s NCAA Tournament championship game appearance in the past four seasons after the Huskies’ 71-62 Final Four victory against Illinois on Saturday, April 4.
But before he got off the court Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, the two-time national champion coach was booed by fans in the stands.
Are you booing? Hurley said this while answering a question from CBS Sports sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson. “I don’t know what they’re booing.”
The boos, likely from Illinois fans in the stadium, were not the first to be directed at the Huskies coach. Due to his animated and passionate behavior on the sideline, he is often greeted with similar gestures and jeers from opposing fan bases.
In fact, boos were caught on camera on the broadcast en route to a second-half U12 media timeout after Hurley expressed displeasure with an offensive foul on varsity forward Eric Leibe.
“I think I get a lot more bad reactions from people on social media than I do when I meet people in person,” Hurley said at the Final Four on Friday, April 3. “Because every time I meet a normal person, they look at me and start laughing or smiling. Or[say]’You’re the guy in the video. You look a little crazy, but I think you’re a good egg.'”
Hurley said of the boos he received:
“That’s not really me as a person. There are people who write articles about me. Some of you may be standing here. I know there were people there who just wrote articles about me. They rarely come to my games. They don’t spend time with our program,” Hurley said. “They have no idea. They make viral clips of things they saw in games and attack me personally and despite my coaching style. And I think it’s a joke. I think it’s lazy media. They don’t know who I am.”
With Saturday’s win, Hurley improves to 5-0 in the Final Four against the Huskies and 18-3 overall in the men’s NCAA Tournament.
Hurley will now look to add his name to the March Madness record books with another title on Monday, April 6th.
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