NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� By the time Dan Hurley got called for a technical foul a little over seven minutes in, UConn had already given the ball away three times and committed another turnover by failing to get it inbounds.
The situation only devolved from there, on the way to getting in the . The sixth-ranked Huskies go into the having lost two of their past four games and displayed cracks throughout the season that threaten to prevent another long March Madness run for a program that expects it.
“This team has definitely showed a level of fragility that some of our best teams haven鈥檛,” Hurley said, unsure if he felt it was a soft performance or just a bad one. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been a team that has been very charitable to a lot of teams we play with live ball turnovers that lead to runouts. So, if we can鈥檛 take care of the ball and we can鈥檛 make shots, then obviously we鈥檝e got problems. But I think they鈥檙e fixable things.鈥�
One potential problem is an apparent left ankle injury to starting point guard Silas Demary Jr., who was carried off the floor after going down when he stopped on one of Zuby Ejiofor’s feet in the final minutes. Demary was initially injured midway through the second half and returned, but before the clock ran out, his parents were called down from the stands to check on him and he did not come back again.
Hurley said the first thing he had heard was Demary had a 鈥渧ery mild sprain with no swelling鈥� and expects a precautionary X-ray to be taken.
鈥淲e鈥檒l keep our fingers crossed,鈥� Hurley said. 鈥淗opefully it鈥檚 not something that lingers.鈥�
UConn will play Thursday or Friday in the opening round of the tournament. Had Hurley’s team not on March 7 in the regular season finale in and then been on the receiving end of a 20-point drubbing against St. John’s, a No. 1 seed certainly seemed possible.
Very unlikely now, even after of the Southeastern Conference Tournament in the semifinals. Hurley, who coached UConn to back-to-back national championships in 2023 and ’24, is not worried about this early March swoon.
鈥淲e flush it, and we鈥檙e going to be a 2 seed,鈥� Hurley said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e had a season this year at UConn that鈥檚 earned us a 2 seed in the NCAA tournament, so we鈥檙e going to get excited about that.鈥�
There were moments to get excited about in the Big East Tournament final, including a 13-2 run in the second half that cut the deficit to seven. But the Huskies never got closer, shooting 3 of 19 from 3-point range and hurting themselves with 17 turnovers.
They had 16 against Marquette.
鈥淲e had a lot of turnovers,鈥� said forward Alex Karaban, one of four players with three apiece. 鈥�(If) we show up defensively, we show up taking care of the ball, then we鈥檙e one of the best teams in the country. We just got to do it on a nightly basis.鈥�
Freshman Braylon Mullins, who scored a 21 points in a on Friday night, struggled early with giveaways and missed shots in the final versus St. John’s. He acknowledged he and his teammates won’t forget what happened but doesn’t want to dwell on it with the NCAA Tournament ahead.
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 really think about all these losses,鈥� Mullins said. 鈥淚t just will drag the team down. Just remaining as confident as possible and just fixing what we can coming up in the next week.鈥�
Hurley’s biggest takeaway was that he wants his players to 鈥渟tay off social media.鈥�
鈥淭he fickle nature of fans and people with opinions, the reality of this team is this has been a great season for these guys,鈥� Hurley said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have anything to show for it relative to a championship, but it鈥檚 a 29-win team that鈥檚 earned a 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. And that should be good enough, now as we enter this month.鈥�
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