Dan Hurley barely made it off the court at PeoplesBank Arena on Saturday before getting a classic dose of tough love-from none other than UConn legend Jim Calhoun.
“I think Coach rattled off about four or five things that we suck at,” Hurley said after UConn’s 75-67 overtime win over Villanova. “I just wanted to check in on him, tell him I love him and appreciate everything he’s done. But then I went straight into the locker room and typed everything he said into my phone.”
That’s Hurley in a nutshell-never satisfied, always grinding. And honestly, it’s hard to blame him.
Because this UConn team, despite a 19-1 record and 15 straight wins, keeps finding itself under the microscope. They’re winning, yes, but not always with the dominance fans have come to expect after national titles in 2023 and 2024.
“We’ve found a way to win so many times, and that’s just another one,” said forward Alex Karaban, who scored all 17 of his points in the final 9:03 of regulation and overtime. “We’ve just got to learn not to put ourselves in those positions.”
That’s the paradox of being UConn right now. The standard is sky-high.
A second-ranked team in the country, undefeated in Big East play, and yet every close win seems to come with a side of skepticism. But take a step back: this program has won all six of its national titles after a winning streak of at least 15 games.
That’s not a coincidence. That’s a pattern.
Karaban gets it. “We’re not at UConn to just be satisfied because we’re 19-1,” he said.
“We nitpick, we look at what we can do better. But we also have to recognize the work we’ve put in.
These games have been close, but we’re grateful and blessed to be 19-1. We’re just going to keep stacking wins.”
Saturday’s win over Villanova was another example of UConn’s resilience. The Huskies trailed early, down 8-0 before the sellout crowd of 15,495 had even settled in.
Villanova, under first-year head coach Kevin Willard, looked every bit like a tournament-caliber team. But UConn, as they’ve done all season, found a way to close.
They outscored the Wildcats 14-3 to finish the game, finally delivering the knockout punch that had eluded them for most of the afternoon.
Solo Ball led the way with 24 points, hitting five threes and going perfect from the line. It was a big performance on a meaningful day-Coaches vs. Cancer-and Ball’s mother, a cancer survivor, was in the stands to witness it.
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Braylon Mullins exited after taking an elbow to the face and entering concussion protocol.
Tarris Reed Jr. fouled out in overtime. Hurley picked up a technical foul that helped Villanova regain a six-point lead early in the second half.
Jayden Ross missed a couple of crucial free throws late, and UConn couldn’t even get off a final shot in regulation with 11 seconds left on the clock.
Still, they won. Again.
That’s been the theme of this season-messy, gritty, imperfect wins. And Hurley, for all his fire, isn’t pretending this team is the same as last year’s juggernaut.
“I think we’ve got a will to win,” Hurley said. “We don’t have the ability to sustain the level of basketball we need to play at both ends like we did in ’24.
Sometimes, as a coach, you measure your current team against your last great one. This team reminds me more of the ’23 group-still figuring it out.”
That 2022-23 squad started 14-0, hit a rough patch in conference play, then caught fire and won it all. But here’s the kicker: this team hasn’t hit that rough patch.
They’re 9-0 in the Big East. They’ve survived tough road games at Providence and Seton Hall.
They’ve escaped Georgetown. They’ve looked vulnerable-and still haven’t lost.
No, they haven’t shown the same level of dominance as the ’24 team. But what they have shown is something just as valuable: a championship-caliber survival instinct. They bend, they wobble, but they don’t break.
Eventually, sure, they’ll lose again. That’s basketball.
But until then, it’s worth appreciating what this team is doing. Nineteen wins, one loss, and a whole lot of grit.
“You can’t take the joy out of it,” Hurley said. “It was a joyful locker room.
A lot of tears. We had kids from Connecticut Children’s Hospital in there.
We visited them this week, we’ve got a relationship with those kids and their families. I thought a lot of the strength in those kids and the battles they fight showed up in our team today.
We willed ourselves to win.”
Hurley knows there’s plenty to clean up-missed box-outs, defensive lapses, empty possessions. But he’s not losing sight of the big picture.
“We’re 19-1. We’ve won 15 in a row.
We played a heck of a nonconference schedule. I’m not going to take the joy out of being in a great spot.”
And neither should anyone else. This UConn team might not be perfect-but they’re proving, game after game, that they’re built to last.