As the UConn basketball team came back to beat Villanova in their last outing, there is no doubt that the season has been disappointing this far coming off of back-to-back national championships. There have been losses like UConn basketball falling to Seton Hall which has been one of many grievances from fans as head coach Dan Hurley spoke about the current season and how it's been different.

Hurley would be on the show “Mad Dog Sports Radio” where he expressed how while past teams “could take hard coaching,” the current one's style is different since they were “rattled” earlier in the season in games in Maui. During the Maui Invitational, the Huskies dropped all three games to Memphis, Colorado, and Dayton.

“And I still think that this team has the potential to get on a roll here late in the year with what we can do offensively, the improvements we've made at the defensive end,” Hurley said. “I do think that this group has a lot of potential to get hot and maybe get some of that UConn swagger going again in March. But I realized that I couldn't coach this team as hard as I've coached some of my other teams.”

“We have guys like Cam Spencer and Andre Jackson, Donovan Clingan, and these guys, you know, could take hard coaching,” Hurley continued. “And I think this year with how our confidence got rattled so early at Maui, you know, I've had to build this team up, and I don't think any of us were prepared for…the level of scrutiny throughout the year that's come with the success we've had the last two years. Think that's been heavy for all of us.”

Dan Hurley on the standard of UConn basketball 

Related UConn Basketball NewsArticle continues below
McNeese State Cowboys head coach Will Wade during the first half of a second round men’s NCAA Tournament game against the Purdue Boilermakers at Amica Mutual Pavilion.
Will Wade adds elite Texas Tech transfer who just withdrew from NBA Draft
Duke Blue Devils head coach Jon Scheyer gives a thumbs up to his offense against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets during the second half at Spectrum Center.
Duke basketball lands 5-star Italian standout to replace Cooper Flagg
Air Jordan 9 PE, North Carolina Tar Heels, Michael Jordan
North Carolina Tar Heels unveil Air Jordan 9 PE
UConn Huskies head coach Dan Hurley watches from the sideline as they take on the Villanova Wildcats at XL Center.
David Butler II-Imagn Images

As Hurley's coaching with UConn basketball has been put under a microscope this season, there is a lot of pressure with the program winning the past two championships. While the Huskies have always had a winning pedigree, Hurley is the keeper of it at the current moment.

He would go on to talk about Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin's known quote where he says that “the standard is the standard” as the university now embodies that. While the team is not on the same trajectory as the past two years, he has the mindset that if the season doesn't end in a championship, it's a “disappointment.”

“You've heard it from, you know, coaches that coach in the organizations with championship brands,” Hurley said. “And you know the standard is the standard, and for us, it's, you know, all-out pursuits of championships, or else you feel like the season was a disappointment. And, you know, I couldn't, obviously, so I started the year breathing fire, and, you know, and talking like a coach that believed his team was going to compete for a three-peat.”

The Huskies are not ranked as they are 18-8, 10-5 in conference as they next take on St. Johns on Sunday.