On Saturday evening, the UConn basketball program punched its ticket to the national championship game with a relatively comfortable win over Illinois in the Final Four. The Huskies controlled this game from start to finish, and will now take on the Michigan Wolverines in the national championship game on Monday evening.
Earlier in the weekend, the UConn women's basketball team saw its season come to an end with a listless performance against South Carolina in the Final Four, after which head coach Geno Auriemma made headlines for a heated confrontation with Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley, for which he has since apologized.
Now, Hurley has made a joke at his own expense in reaction to that incident.
“Obviously, I've had a negative influence on Geno,” joked Hurley, per Amanda Christovich of Front Office Sports on X, formerly Twitter.
Hurley has indeed become known for his heated personality throughout his coaching career, which continued last week after the team won their Elite Eight game against Duke in stunning fashion, with Hurley immediately going face to face with a game official and finding himself lucky not to have picked up a technical foul.
While UConn's dream of bringing home both men's and women's championships in the same year is over, Hurley and the men's team will look to hold up their end of the bargain as heavy underdogs against a Michigan team that has been dominant during the NCAA tournament thus far.
Tipoff is set for Monday evening at 8:50 pm ET from Indianapolis.
