Overtime. An Upset. Dan Hurley Costing UConn By Telling The Ref 'You're A Fucking Joke' - It Took One Game For The Maui Invitational To Deliver A Classic
I thought this would just be a 'Memphis won, looked good, outplayed UConn' type feel to the game. That was until this happened:
Let's go to another angle:
This is why Maui always delivers. This is game 1 in what everyone thought UConn would roll. Instead they looked dead, until Memphis collapsed. It was the last 4 minutes, maybe even 3 minutes. UConn hits a couple threes, Memphis turned it over, missed a free throw and then that possession. It wasn't even a good possession by UConn! They had 14 seconds and had Diarra driving inside the lane with 5 seconds to go. How do you not foul there? Either way, Maui magic happened.
Oh and then in OT? Just a little brouhaha:
I only say that to bring up this Memphis fan going double birds:
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I'd assume it was at Dan Hurley, who was losing his mind all game. At one point he told a ref 'you don't belong out here', which was right after he told them 'stay away from me, don't talk to me.' Guy is a lunatic and it was 3 minutes and 30 seconds into the game before he lost his mind:
And it backfired considering in OT with 40 seconds to go, he got a technical for calling a ref a fucking joke.
Sure, the foul was atrocious on Liam McNeeley.
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It's not even close to a foul, but you can't get a technical in that situation. Just led to 4 points right then and there. This is the dangerous game Hurley plays. You can lose your mind and basically beg for a technical at some point in the game, but after 2 hours of it a ref is going to snap even after a horrible call.
Back to the original point. Yeah, Memphis looked good and outplayed UConn. Hurley's technical was the final dagger (before the last shot after the missed FT on purpose). But Memphis shot the hell out of the ball and attacked UConn's guards - especially Mahaney. That might be a problem going forward. That was my biggest takeaway. UConn's guards couldn't defend outside of like 3-4 minutes of the entire game. Tyrese Hunter had a Maui legacy game and PJ Haggerty is a potential star for Memphis.
Maui man. Best thing in college basketball and we're just 1 game in.