Hurley: UConn’s historical run ends with ‘honor’

• David HaleMar 23, 2025, 02:45 PM ET Close College football reporter.Joined ESPN in 2012.

• Graduate of the University of Delaware.RALEIGH, N.C.– Dan Hurley kept back tears after Sunday’s

77-75 loss to Florida as the UConn coach came to terms with the end of a 13-game NCAA competition winning streak and”a historic run.”UConn, winners of the previous 2 championship games however a heavy underdog to top-seeded Florida on Sunday, entirely annoyed the Gators throughout the majority of the game, leading by as much as 4 in the second half, but Walter Clayton Jr.’s 2 late threes proved to be the daggers that lastly dropped the giant. “There’s some honor, I guess, in the way that this decreased,” Hurley stated. “It’s a hard loss.

We played in a manner that offered us a real possibility to win. Credit Clayton. He made some NBA-level threes off the dribble to beat us. It took that for someone to put us down in this tournament after winning undoubtedly a bunch in a row.” Hurley stated he enjoyed as Arkansas toppled second-seeded St. John’s on Saturday and predicted what

could be a manageable course back to the Final Four should the Huskies get away Florida.For the first 30-plus minutes Sunday, that appeared a real possibility, as the Huskies held Clayton in check and tortured Florida’s ball handers.” We dragged them into the kind of game that we wished to drag them into, “Hurley stated.”We kind of dragged them into a Big East, low-possession game.

We dragged them into a game that was the only method for us to provide ourselves an opportunity to win.” Rather, it was Clayton who shifted the game with his set of threes. Clayton hit the very first with 2:54 to play, flipping a 61-59 deficit into a one-point Florida lead. His 3 from the corner with 1:07 left extended the cause 4 and, while UConn scraped until completion, felt like the minute the Huskies ‘dynasty came to an end. Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr. and Will Richard commemorate in the 2nd half as Florida ended UConn’s 13-game NCAA competition win streak with a 77-75 victory. Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images”When it was kind of nut-cutting time, [our players] stepped up and made big plays,” Florida coach Todd Golden said.”I believe it was more about our guys stepping up and winning the game than UConn not pressing through. Our guys made big-time winning plays down the stretch.”After the game, Hurley and Golden embraced on the court, a moment in which the two-time championship coach seemed to pass the torch, telling Golden he ‘d be rooting for Florida the rest of the way.For the Gators, the win had a comparable ambiance– awful, agonizing and naturally physical against a team desperate to keep its run alive.”All of us understand the truth, if you’re going to make a deep run in March, you’ve got to catch some breaks, and

you’ve got to win some games like this to be able to push through and survive,”Golden said.”Theoretically, beating a team like UConn, that’s utilized to winning this time of year, in the style that we did should be really great for us moving on. “As Florida carries on, Hurley said he’s prepared for a psychological reset at UConn, noting that unless the Huskies had actually won everything once again,

the frustration he felt Sunday was inescapable.”There’s a great deal of rewiring and things I’ve got to do in the offseason since you simply get captured up in this tidal bore of success that we’ve had,

“Hurley said.”You lose viewpoint. You battle with the ego sometimes because you’ve been on this incredible run. It will be good to get to a regular offseason and simply return to myself as a coach … and simply concentrate on the upcoming season and make much better decisions with all elements of coaching.”Hurley had actually ended up being a lightning rod for critics over the past year for his infamous debates with authorities, which continued into Sunday’s game, where aggravation over an absence of a foul get in touch with an Alex Karaban drive had Hurley frantic on the sideline, bellowing towards the official during multiple timeouts.In the after-effects of Sunday’s loss, however, Hurley’s frustrations turned into tears rather than outrage.After two straight champions and 13 successive competition wins, he stated there was a sensation that this loss represented more than completion to the 2024-25 season.Hurley said he thought he was on the hot seat 3 years ago before this run began. Now, he wasn’t quite ready to see it end, he stated.”You have no idea the company [we’re in] and what we have actually accomplished,” Hurley said. “So we can take some solace in that. But today was– to be that close to getting to

a Sweet 16 … the bracket might’ve really opened up for us. “