Everything UConn coach Dan Hurley said about Alabama after Final Four

GLENDALE, Ariz. – UConn head coach Dan Hurley and select players spoke to reporters on Saturday night after the Huskies’ 86-72 win over 4-seed Alabama in the Final Four. Below is everything Hurley said, including praise for the Crimson Tide, at State Farm Stadium.

*** Editor’s Note: Quotes are courtesy of ASAP Sport.

DAN HURLEY: I mean, much respect obviously to Nate and Alabama and their season, just where they have been since he’s gotten there. They’re top of sport in terms of quality of their program. We were able finally just to defend well enough in the second half, get to the three-point line, defense under control there. Obviously executed late. Were able to kind of get that separation.

They were really, really hard to guard. I was thrilled with the way we defended, the way we closed the game out.

Q. There’s coaches who come up after they lose, and they’re like, They were just better, nothing we could do about it. Have you had a moment tonight, during the tournament, the last two years, where you ever looked at another team that was out there, I don’t have an answer?

DAN HURLEY: Well, I mean, at different points, different points of the game, they were 8-11 for three in the first half, which we wanted to keep their three-point attempts to under 22 for the game. The problem was we were on target for the attempts, but they made eight.

I think the feeling just with the group is it’s body blows, it’s body blows, it’s continue to guard, continue to rebound, execute our offense. Eventually there will be a breaking point opportunity that will present itself, especially in this tournament. For us, we have just played so well.

Q. What did you tell your team at the end of the half? What was the message? Were you feeling good and confident after the end of the first half?

DAN HURLEY: Yeah, I mean, they’re a great offensive team. I mean, they’re like the hardest team to guard. Illinois had a great offense. These guys were harder for us to guard just ’cause of their one-on-one abilities. They just had so many players that could beat you off the dribble, make a three. Nelson, you see his talent level. He’s an NBA player. Modern, mismatch, position-less guy. Pringle. That’s a very talented team.

We felt like if we just kind of stayed into ’em, just kept doing what we do, it sounds like coach talk. Our identity is to be pretty relentless. We might not break you for 18 minutes, 25 minutes, but at some point if what we’re doing at both ends and on the backboard is at a high level, it just becomes hard for the other team to sustain it.

Q. All week ‘Bama fans said we have to shoot so many threes. Were you surprised by the game plan with Nate?

DAN HURLEY: To shoot a lot of threes?

Q. (No microphone.)

DAN HURLEY: Yeah, they wanted to shoot ’em. I thought we went over everything and chased them off the line, tried to funnel them into the midrange, even though it’s hard to do because they’re such great coaches, Nate is such a great coach, their system of offense, it’s the hardest to guard that we faced this year ’cause it’s got elements of Xavier’s transition game, which is incredible, Marquette’s ball screen game, which is something else, and then Creighton’s three-point shooting all converged into one game here for us.

We knew it was going to be tough.

Q. I think when Tristen hit the three to make it a 13-point game, you turned and looked into the crowd and did…

DAN HURLEY: I used to do this, but Carmelo retired (smiling).

Q. Is that when you finally exhaled and felt safe?

DAN HURLEY: Yeah, ’cause you don’t feel safe with that offense out there. Plus you’ve seen enough games as a coach to see people find a way to lose a double-figure lead with a minute or so to go.

When you turn the ball over as infrequently as way do. I know sometimes we get some crap for the batting gloves, the dribbling warm-up that we do, that’s kind of high school-ish in a way, very fundamental.

If you look at the way we take care of the ball, it’s rare. It’s rare.

Q. Donovan earlier said Stephon Castle is not like any other freshman, he’s the most unselfish player on the team. Can you speak to that and also when you knew you were getting that?

DAN HURLEY: Yeah, so you knew right away in the recruiting process because of how quickly and decisively he made a decision based on, like, the things that really matter: the culture, the connection with the staff, all the things that we do at UConn. Obviously he’s seen some guards have great success with us over the years, so…

You just knew when you recruited him. When you got to the first practice, whether you ripped him or encouraged him, everything was, Yes, Coach. He’s such a pleaser. His value at the next level, obviously you see it on game night. A lot of NBA teams, they come through and watch us practice, where he even has the ball in his hands more, where he gets to show all the things he can do that you don’t always see on game night.

Q. You averaged almost one 10-0 scoring run per game this season, and tonight you have four separate 7-0 runs. What is it about your team that allows you to take control of games so quickly like that?

DAN HURLEY: Yeah, we flirted the whole year with 50% from the field. I think from an efficiency standpoint, we’ve been the number one offense in the country. We’ve kind of passed that back and forth with Purdue and Illinois and Alabama throughout the year.

The offense is super efficient. We’re top four in defense. We rebound the heck out of the ball. We can bunch up stops and then we score a lot. You get stops, you score…

I think we got a lot of confidence. There’s a factor with teams now that they’ve seen us play, where we get on a run, I think it’s disheartening for the other team because they’ve seen it, they’ve seen us do it a lot.

Q. As your second straight national championship, I’m wondering what similarities and differences you see between this year’s team and last year’s team?

DAN HURLEY: Just the same relentless, relentless effort. Just a meticulous approach to performance and winning, game planning with Luke and Kimani, two of the best in the country at what they do in every facet.

Like Jordan is a different player than Cam, Steph is a different player than Andre Jackson. The bench is a little bit different. The culture, the preparation, the commitment to every aspect of the game so that we keep ourselves as bulletproof as possible in this tournament, which we make a hard tournament look easy. It’s crazy.

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