Hurley says late call ‘a joke’ after UConn falls

LAHAINA, Hawaii — Dan Hurley fell. So did UConn.

Hurley, the often fiery coach of the two-time defending national champions, took particular umbrage with an over-the-back offensive foul call on a rebound against forward Liam McNeeley, which came with the score tied at 92 in the final minute of overtime in what became No. 2 UConn’s 99-97 loss to Memphis on Monday in the opening round of the Maui Invitational.

Hurley dropped to his knees and was then assessed a technical foul for his displeasure over the call. PJ Carter hit four straight free throws — two for the technical and the other pair for the personal foul — to give Memphis a 96-92 lead with 40.3 seconds to play.

“That was a joke. I just watched it,” Hurley said of the call, going on to say that Memphis made “no attempt to block out” on the play. “There was a player on Memphis that made a half-ass effort to rebound that basketball and Liam McNeeley high-pointed that rebound. For that call to be made at that point of the game was a complete joke.”

With that, UConn’s 17-game winning streak dating to last season was over. The fireworks were not.

As part of his postgame news conference, Hurley’s criticism of the officiating included a full explanation for his falling-to-the-floor move.

“I don’t know what happened. I might have lost my balance by the absurdity of the call, or maybe I tripped,” Hurley said. “But if I made that call at that point, I would have ignored the fact that I was on my back. If I made that call, I would have ignored that. I would have ignored that. That was a major, obviously, a major … how you could call that while that game was going on, the way that game was going on is just beyond me.”

Hurley continued sharing his thoughts on the call, made by referee Pat Driscoll.

“How you can call that the way that game was going on is just beyond me,” Hurley continued. “I’ve never seen the one ref before. I didn’t even know he was a college ref and then I’m familiar with the other two, so I’m not surprised.”

Steven Anderson and Scott Brown were the other two referees working the game.

His technical was one of two that sent Memphis to the line for free throws in the game; the other was about 4 minutes into the game when a team trainer apparently said something that referees heard and didn’t like.

“It got off to a bad start when my medical trainer, who must have said something under his breath in a huddle, gets T’d up in the huddle in the first couple minutes or whatever that was in the game,” Hurley said. “A trainer who’s just the nicest guy, very quiet guy. Might have muttered something under his breath in a normal situation.”

And a third technical — Samson Johnson was whistled as part of a double technical, but it was his fifth foul and forced him from the game midway through overtime — was costly as well.

“Samson was getting shoved. His jersey was ripped. He didn’t get a foul called for him the entire game,” Hurley said. “He ended the game with his jersey ripped down the center, but they get him on every call. He’s frustrated. That was crazy, man. Crazy.”

For his part, Memphis coach Penny Hardaway — who did get a handshake and warm embrace from Hurley after the game — called it the biggest win of his coaching career.

“That was back-to-back national champions, undefeated, first round of the Maui tournament,” Hardaway said. “When we first got picked to play them, I was like, ‘OK, starting off with a bang.’ I just got our team prepared. I used it as motivation.”

Add it all up and UConn lost for the first time since a loss to Creighton on Feb. 20. Memphis led most of the game Monday before UConn rallied from 13 points down in the final 4 minutes of regulation. The Tigers got 40 free throws to 24 for the Huskies.

“We knew it was going to be a physical game,” UConn’s Alex Karaban said. “That was the game plan. We knew they wanted to make it physical. It wasn’t surprising [to] us that it was physical, we just had to match their toughness, and for most of the game we didn’t. That’s just on us.”

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.