OMAHA, Neb. – The UConn men’s basketball program has been able to retool its roster to replace the roles that made up its 2023 and ’24 national championship teams. But since Andrew Hurley graduated, his role as “The Closer” has been hard to fill.
Dan Hurley’s younger son averaged 1.5 minutes over his four-year career as a walk-on. Whenever he entered the game, it was victory formation for the Huskies.
Andrew played 10 games over his first two seasons in Storrs, never more than three minutes, and totaled just three points. Over the final two years of his career, serving as a connector from his father to the locker room, his record improved to 43-0. He was the go-to-guy to dribble out the waning seconds of both national championship games.
UConn hasn’t had a consistent closer this season as it still looks to develop a “killer instinct” to run the score up and put games out of reach down the stretch.
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But, with Andrew now on his father’s staff as a graduate manager, wins are still going on his resumé.
Among other responsibilities, Andrew has been a lead force behind when his dad decides to utilize the new coach’s challenge rule. Beginning this year, every coach can challenge out-of-bounds calls, goaltending, basket interference and restricted area plays as long as they have a timeout available. If they are successful, the challenge stays in their back pocket. If not, the team sacrifices a timeout.
UConn went 2-for-2 on challenges in its last two home games against Villanova and Providence.
“Well, here’s the thing. Andrew Hurley is now 2-for-2, The Closer. So now he’s 45-0 because he’s got the two challenges,” Dan Hurley said. “The last time Andrew did a challenge (against Villanova) I saw him on the side (making the sign of the cross in prayer), so that scared the (bleep) out of me. But he was pretty confident (against Providence).”
Both scenarios led to some entertaining moments on the Huskies’ sideline.
Against Villanova, Alex Karaban threw the ball off of Tyler Perkins before it went out of bounds. As soon as the referee called Wildcats ball, Karaban started twirling his finger, begging his bench for a review. Associate head coach Kimani Young put his hand out to calm his captain down, then went over to Andrew Hurley, who had the replay up on the tablet. It wasn’t long before Dan Hurley, who’d already received a technical in the game, gave his own emphatic finger twirl and the crowd erupted.
It was a similar out-of-bounds call on the baseline against Providence, the ball clearly going out off the hands of Oswin Erhunmwunse. Karaban again went running over to the bench, this time with Silas Demary Jr. even more emphatically begging for a challenge. Hurley had to tell both of them to relax as Andrew presented the tablet. That review was much quicker.
“All these idiots in college are running around (twirling their finger) on shooting fouls and stuff, like modeling the NBA (bleep) is a good idea. But I’m looking for the tablet,” Dan Hurley said. “I’m trying to get the tablet, not Alex, because Alex is always saying he’s getting fouled or whatever.”
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