Everything UConn Basketball HC Dan Hurley said Duke Postgame
UConn Basketball Head Coach Dan Hurley met with the media following his program’s 73-72 win over Duke on Sunday night in the 2026 NCAA Tournament Elite Eight.
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UConn Basketball HC Dan Hurley Transcript
Yeah, you know, listen, I, you know, obviously that’s, you know, just an epic, just another chapter in the, in the UConn Duke NCAA tournament, you know, dramatics, you know, obviously a really tough way for their season, you know, to end, you know, I thought they played great. I thought they, they punched us in the mouth with incredible force. You know, the, the boozer boys.
I mean, I, I’ve been admirers of, you know, of, of their approach to basketball. I mean, all I’ve ever watched these guys do, you know, it’s just win everything that they play in over the course of their career and grassroots, and then what the impact they’ve had on Duke and, you know, obviously across the board, you know, just their program. You couldn’t have more respect for, you know, John Shire and, and, and what they’ve done since he’s been here.
But you know, I think for us, you know, the story was just that that game was a reflection on the season. It’s been a season where we’ve been dealt with injuries to key players at critical points of the year that we’ve had to overcome. And we’ve had to show a lot of fortitude and resilience and just kind of claw our way through the season.
And just the game was a microcosm of that. Just we fought, we clawed, put ourselves in position to take advantage of a mistake that they made. And, you know, one of the most brilliant shooters that you’ll ever see shoot a basketball, you know, made an incredible legendary March shot.
Coach up front to the left. We’ll start on campus. Sam Calhoun, Daily Campus.
I know you. I know your grandfather. Great.
Obviously, you just mentioned one of the great March shots, and you’ve seen, I mean, you were in the stands for the Laitner shots. Have you seen anything like what Braylon just did to seal the game? No. I mean, I’ve had it done to me.
I’ve been on the bad side. Maybe not a shot like that, but just in a game of that magnitude, you know, especially when we were, I mean, they make it tough on you because they’re obviously an excellent defensive team. But, you know, we probably were going to look at film and see shot quality on a number of the threes that we missed and say, man, like we, it felt like a little bit of, you know, some type of justice where, you know, we missed a lot of really good shots throughout the game.
And then, you know, we had to make a really hard shot. You know, so, you know, the things just evened out at that point, let’s say. Staying up front to the left, Hartford.
Joe Hartford, Current. Dan, what does it take, you go down 19 in the first half against a team like that, you know, they’ve only lost twice this year, you know, the players that they have, but what does it take for your team to stick in that and for you to stick in it as a coach? Yeah, I mean, strong men, you know, it takes strong men. It takes a strong team.
It takes a tough team. It takes tough men. It takes strong men.
It takes a bunch of players that let us coach them, let us coach them hard. That starts in June. We run a very intense program.
You know, we’re on these guys. We put them, we stress them in practice. We put a lot of pressure on them on a daily basis to do the right things, to do everything at game speed, to do everything hard, to do everything tough, to be prepared, because that’s what it takes to win games like this or to stay in a game like that where you’re getting outplayed, you’re having a really bad shooting night at the absolute worst time.
But what kicks in at that point is just a bunch of strong men, a strong team, players that let their coaches coach them hard and prepare them for tough moments. We have two on the left side all the way back. We’ll start on the left side.
How you doing, Coach? DeAndre, the Way Network. I’m doing great, bro. Hey, you too, Coach.
I’m doing great. What’s something that happened tonight that you saw that didn’t show up in the stat sheet but radically changed the momentum of the game? Well, I just thought that to start the game, we’re a little bit, I just thought we were a little bit on our heels. I thought we were too defensive defensively.
I think that we didn’t get after them and try to pressure them or make them uncomfortable. I just think that we probably maybe gave a little bit too much respect to their individual players and I just thought that Malachi Smith with some ball pressure, I thought Silas with some ball pressure, I thought Jaden Ross, I just thought that we got after them a little bit more and turned them over. Turnovers have been an issue for them like they have been for us.
So just upping a little bit of defensive energy I thought helped us a lot. One row forward. Hey, Coach.
Jake Cotter of the Way Network. Three Final Fours in the last four seasons. Just curious, what do you think are some of the similarities from those teams to this team and some of the differences? Oh, I mean, the 23 and 24 teams, I mean, they just smashed everybody.
I mean, we just ran through this tournament like it was nothing. So I mean, more of a team that had to be clutch, that’s had to be clutch the whole year. We’ve had to win a lot of close games throughout the year and I think that that, you know, honestly just gave us a level of comfortability in a game that we were, you know, it’s a one possession game, it’s a two possession game.
We’ve been in this spot before. I think that that’s what’s really helped. This team’s got NBA players, NBA level talent, just like those teams from a talent standpoint.
But, you know, I think, you know, I think, you know, maybe just, you know, a guy like Tyrus Reid, you know, just elevating his game for this tournament and changing his legacy, changing his trajectory. You know, put himself, I think, in position now when you walk away from this tournament, you know, he looks like he’s playing himself into the first round. And, you know, I would just say, you know, just not as dominant, just a resilient team that’s got a lot of confidence in close late games.
On the right side, in the back. Dan, you guys started 1-of-18 from three-point range, finished 4-for-5 and hit the game winner from three. How ironic is that? What do you feel was the, what turned for you guys down the stretch there? What the hell did you just say, 1-for-18? I knew it was bad.
I kept asking the assistant coaches and no one would tell me what it was. I knew it was bad. Yeah, I mean, listen, I thought a lot of them were pretty good looks.
You’re not going to get great looks versus Duke or a great defense. So, like, you know, when you play great defenses, the windows are tighter, you know, and like we obviously, we were kind of wearing Tyrus out in terms of catches and stuff. We couldn’t have made him more of a focal point, but if we were going to win the game, like we were going to have to make a couple of threes down the stretch because, you know, I thought we were getting decent looks.
Obviously Braylon’s look at the end was, you know, was a bomb, but, you know, Silas’s looks, they were clean. I thought we got a lot of good looks. We just, you know, for whatever reason, this team has not shot to solo ball, Braylon Mullins, AK.
I mean, those are three of the best shooters in the country. We just haven’t had that shooting magic, but then we did. Up front.
Hey, coach. What’s the thought process after that steal of not calling timeout and seeing Braylon and Alex make a play? You know, it’s scary, man. It’s like, yo, what the, you know, because Duke is so good defensively, it just felt like you’re almost, you know, you’re watching Alex and seeing, you know, kind of like as Braylon’s catching the ball, does he look like he’s in some type of a rhythm? You know, does he look like he’s going to kind of rip drive it? I mean, you’re torn right there and you’re almost like, and you’re just, it’s instincts.
It’s gut instinct. But I think with their size, their length, their ability to switch everything, you know, it just, it felt like the window where you just got to let March Madness take over. March Magic.
We want to thank Coach Hurley. Congratulations. Thank you.
I got the socks. I didn’t wear them today because I got my lucky socks, but I’m going to wear them in Indy. You got to stay with the lucky socks, but you can wear them Thursday in Indy and I’ll see you there.
Yes, sir.
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