Referee Roger Ayers reveals to Seth Greenberg what happened in viral interaction with Dan Hurley

ESPN’s Seth Greenberg revealed he spoke to referee Roger Ayres regarding the alleged head-butting incident with Dan Hurley in the Elite Eight. In a viral video, Hurley leaned in and touched heads with Ayers following Braylon Mullins’ game-winning shot vs. Duke.

The video has gone viral, with mostly Duke fans retroactively calling for a technical foul. But Ayers revealed it was a big nothing burger, per Greenberg.

“First of all, when you talk about social media, if you’re not going to take advice from someone, why would you listen to what they said on social media?” Greenberg said on SportsCenter. “First of all, Roger Ayres is the best official in college basketball, tremendous communicator … He reffed a ton of my games. There were games where he’s put his arm around me, walked me back to my bench. There were times where he said, ‘Seth, that’s enough.’ 

“But that situation right there, that is absolutely nothing. I talked to Roger today. He said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He literally didn’t know what I was talking about. He said, ‘Nothing happened. The ball went in. I was running back. They were celebrating. (Dan Hurley) leaned in, said something to me. I said something to him. It was absolutely nothing.’”

If Ayers had called a technical foul on Hurley, Duke would’ve received two free throws and possession. Naturally, this would’ve led to UConn fans claiming Ayers unjustly inserted himself into the game’s outcome.

Additionally, Ayers would’ve been forced to eject Hurley. According to the NCAA’s men’s basketball rulebook, any individual who “disrespectfully contacts an official or makes a threat of physical intimidation or harm to include pushing, shoving, spitting, or attempting to make physical contact with an official” must be assessed a Class A Technical Foul, ejected and serve a one-game suspension.

“And then I spoke to Dan (Hurley) as well, yeah, and Dan said he didn’t understand what was going on. He has so much respect for Roger,” Greenberg said. “He’s never had a problem with him. Now he’s been walked backwards like we all have during the course of a game, but that literally, that was social media trying to create something out of nothing because of Dan Hurley’s (alleged) reputation.”

In the end, UConn beat Duke 73-72 to advance to the Final Four for the third time in four years. Hurley and the Huskies have a chance to win a third national title this coming weekend.