UConn Huskies men’s basketball head coach Dan Hurley got honest after he and his team suffered a loss against the Florida Gators, which also ended their run at March Madness.
Following a loss to Florida that kicked them off the NCAA Tournament, Dan Hurley opened up about his feelings over the defeat.
“They showed their quality,” Hurley said. “I thought we played with tremendous honor. I thought we played with the heart of a championship program and a program that’s gone back-to-back.”
“For a team to end what we really wanted to do, they were going to have to put us down and obviously a worthy opponent like that, there’s honor in the way we went out.”
“There’s honor in the way we went out.”
An emotional Dan Hurley spoke with @tracywolfson after UConn’s second round loss pic.twitter.com/cnjqUW0VO3
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) March 23, 2025
Despite the loss, the head coach still expressed love for his team and the battle they have fought with him.
“This year has been a real battle,” Hurley said. “We’ve been battled and we’ve had to battle, battle and battle. At times I don’t think we liked each other a whole lot for some of the things we had to go through together. But I don’t think I will ever love a team more.”
Dan Hurley, immediately after the loss to Florida, was seen cussing loudly, dropping multiple F-bombs while alleging the game officiating as “unfair.”
Dan Hurley Gets Real About Family Expectations
While one might describe Dan Hurley as an aggressive, confident, and competitive coach, he too used to struggle with the anxiety of failing expectations.
In an interview with “60 Minutes,” Hurley talked about wanting to meet the expectations of people, with him coming from a family of great athletes.
“Just how I failed to play up to, to live up to, to succeed up to the Hurley standard in basketball, it caused a lot of pain,” he said. “It gets to the point where you’re a shell of yourself.”
“I got to make up for what I didn’t achieve as a player, and I got to make up for that right now as a coach ’cause my career eats away at me still,” Hurley added. “It bothers me. If I see a picture of myself with a Seton Hall uniform or a clip, there’s an embarrassment about how that went.”
Basketball is in Dan Hurley’s blood. His father, Bob Hurley Sr., was inducted into the Hall of Fame after coaching St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, New Jersey, for 39 years and leading the team to 26 state championships.
For more sports content:
Follow us @HardwoodHeroics for your NBA and college basketball reading fix. You can reach out to Dan Agulto through email at [email protected]. To read more of our articles and keep up to date on the latest sports news, click here!
Dan has been active in sports since 2016 and has worked behind the scenes as a scriptwriter for basketball, volleyball, and other sports. At a time, Dan has also been working as a sports commentator for CBA Pilipinas. During the pandemic, he has also been actively writing betting articles for CashBet and BetNow.
