Dan Hurley didn’t think the box score captured what happened. So he ripped it up.
“We just f—ing blew a chance to beat one of the best teams, down two studs,” Hurley said following UConn’s 71-67 loss to Arizona on Wednesday night.
Yes, the Huskies lost the rebounding margin, 43–23. Yes, they committed 21 fouls to Arizona’s 16. But the Wildcats had their full rotation for the top-five showdown at Gampel Pavilion, and UConn didn’t.
Before tipoff, it was announced that UConn senior center Tarris Reed Jr., who leads the Huskies in scoring (20 points per game) and rebounding (9.3 per game), would be sidelined with an ankle injury. Hurley’s team was already without five-star freshman Braylon Mullins, who has yet to play this season.
And yet, UConn went punch for punch with Arizona. After trailing by 13 with 13:34 left, the Huskies clawed back, finding a rhythm with guard Solo Ball curling into mid-range jumpers. They unearthed a new contributor in freshman center Eric Reibe, whose pick-and-pop 3-pointer tied the game at 60 with 3:56 remaining.
But in the final minutes, Arizona simply executed better, and that will haunt Hurley.
“Sometime around 2 am, 3, 4:30 am, I’m going to wake up and think, it was just a nightmare,” Hurley said.
Down two of their top players, the Huskies still hung with an Arizona team that had already beaten Florida and UCLA, and they learned something about the toughness of their supporting cast.
“Our people got to get our guys healthy and on the court so that we can be the team that we’re all really high on,” Hurley said. “It’s just, tonight, it sucked to lose like that.”
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