Dan Hurley has a great relationship with the referee he headbutted.
to send UConn back to the Final Four last Sunday. Ayers will not be in attendance in Indianapolis this weekend, but it's not because Hurley has a problem with him.podcast this week and he explained what was going through his mind in that odd moment.
Despite the optics, it was just one of college basketball's most intense coaches pressing his forehead against the forehead of a "cool ass ref." "Really, at that point in the game, we had it won," Hurley said on the podcast. "And he's such an easy guy to work with during the game that I thought he was coming over to chest bump me to celebrate the shot. You know, 'cause its not like that for me with him. My experience with him has been, we haven't won every game, I haven't agreed with every call... So that was in no way, was that like me and a ref that I had been at their throat the whole game. There are other parts of the game where I had my arm around him, walking out of the timeout. You know, we were cracking jokes and laughing."Hurley said that Ayers was simply telling him there was still time left on the clock and then the coach went on to call Ayers a "cool ass ref," which might be the very first time those words have been used in that order. Maybe ever., Hurley can certainly be let off the hook in this instance. But just make sure to note that even Hurley understands that he crosses the line from time to time: "Now the one at Marquette," Hurley continued. "You know, when I was on my man's neck, screaming into his neck. Yeah, that was a guy that's like coming right up to the line and losing his mind." Now, if you can agree to that and then go so far as to concede that a coach pressing his forehead against the forehead of a referee in the middle of a basketball game is the kind of thing that is frowned upon and even penalized in any other situation, we might just get this nation to start healing. Hurley and UConn will be back in action on Saturday night as they take on Illinois in the Final Four. Ayers hasthis year, which breaks a four year streak for an official who has been praised openly by coaches and commentators following the friendly run-in with Hurley.between Hurley's Huskies and the Purdue Boilermakers. He also worked UConn's Final Four win over Miami in 2023 and Duke-UNC in the 2022 Final Four. According to ESPN, Ayers has refereed in seven Final Fours overall.Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.
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