BOSTON — A lot, according to Dan Hurley, was said and written about on social media between the Sweet 16 results and Saturday night’s Elite Eight matchup between top-seeded Connecticut and No. 3 Illinois.
He made sure his players noticed.
Hurley certainly did.
After the Huskies’ 77-52 destruction of the Illini, the UConn coach brought them up.
A former Illinois player who now works for ESPN, Sean Sean Harrington, wrote on X that Illini star Terrence Shannon Jr. would be the best player on the floor and UConn didn’t have an answer for him.
Hurley also referenced others saying that the Huskies hadn’t seen a physical team like Illinois.
“Statements like that are just asinine,” Hurley said. “You’re going against beasts and monsters every night in the Big East, and the Big East prepared us for teams like Illinois.”
After getting wind of Hurley’s comments, Harrington wrote on X: “Thanks for the shoutout @dhurley15. Impressive second half from @UConnMBB. But you did give me All-American status which was nice!!”
Connecticut held Shannon to eight points on 2 of 12 shooting.
He had averaged 28.3 points in the first three games of the tournament.
Illinois coach Brad Underwood also said in advance of the contest that his players had seen teams like Connecticut.
It didn’t look like it in the second half, as the Huskies built a 30-point lead and cruised to the easy win that sent them to the Final Four.
“We saw them getting to the Elite Eight and shooting water guns at [each other]. We saw on [X] people at their school were chanting, ‘We want UConn,’ ” point guard Tristen Newton. “We played all kinds of teams. We played Big Ten teams: Northwestern, we beat them bad [in the second round]. We feel like we’re just not going to go home. We’re rolling right now. We’re not worried about what kind of game they think got. Obviously, they weren’t physical enough and we just outplayed them.”
As Connecticut continues to roll through the tournament untested, it could be playing its way into the conversation as one of the best teams ever.
It already set a program record on Saturday with a 35th victory.
But Hurley doesn’t want to hear that. He would prefer someone take a shot at his team.
“I’m not buying that. I’m going to find somebody that says something bad, and I’m going to zero on that individual,” Hurley joked. “I threw the guy who played at Illinois in there. We’re all about the work and we do have tremendous respect for whoever we play. You never see us complacent, and that’s why we have the results we have.”
