Dan Hurley prepared his team for a moment like it faced in the Elite 8 against Duke and the UConn players were ready for the challenge.
It’s what has gotten him to his point in his career, and it led to the Huskies comeback victory over Duke on Sunday night. The Blue Devils were in control, leading by 19 points in the first half and holding a 15-point advantage at halftime, but Hurley wouldn’t let his team quit.
.“At halftime Coach said, ‘We've got to swing for the fences. We've got to give it all we've got,’” Tarris Reed Jr. said after the 73-72 win. “We were coming out of halftime down 15 or whatever it was, going down and giving it our all.” Reed allowed UConn to remain in the game with his first half dominance, and it continued finishing with 26 points and nine rebounds. “We fought, we clawed, put ourselves in position to take advantage of a mistake that they made,” Hurley explained. And the rest was history as Braylon Mullins drilled a 35-foot game winning shot with 0.4 seconds left to send the Huskies to its third Final Four in the last four seasons. “Strong men. It takes strong men. It takes a strong team. It takes a tough team. It takes strong men,” Hurley said on what it took to rally to defeat the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. “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. We're on these guys. 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.”Against Michigan State in the Sweet 16 it saw a big first half lead evaporate and turn into a battle late, needing senior standout Alex Karaban deliver a knockout 3-pointer late. Against Duke, it was never going to be pretty. It was always going to be a grind and but the manner in which its victory was sealed felt poetic for his program. “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,” Hurley added. Now, Dan Hurley has UConn back in the promise land of college basketball. A chance to win a third title in four seasons and it’s all because of how he prepares and challenges the players on his team to fight and never let go of the rope.Kevin is a graduate of St. John's University with a degree in journalism. He started his career as a writer for FanSided in which he covered the Duke and St. John's men's basketball programs. He is excited to expand his coverage to covering college basketball at a national level. Kevin is also a freelance sports broadcaster around the New York City region and versatile in many sports such as football, basketball, baseball, soccer, lacrosse, volleyball, and more. Kevin can be reached at connellykevin24@gmail.com or on X @KevinConnelly24
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