LAHAINA, Hawaii — An opportunity in paradise has turned into a trip to hell for Dan Hurley’s UConn Huskies. The No. 2 team in the country is officially reeling after losing two games in two days by a combined three points to unranked opponents in the Maui Invitational.
“I just think we’re all shocked. We’re all stunned,” Hurley said as he walked to the team bus after UConn lost to Colorado 73-72 in the opening game of Tuesday’s consolation bracket play at the Maui Invitational. “With the run that we’ve been on and how well we’ve played, the games are playing out way differently for us and we’ve got to be incredibly strong mentally right now.”
A day after blowing a 13-point lead against Memphis, Colorado steadily came back from an 11-point deficit to beat the two-time champs. The winning margin was provided by a tough right-handed runner from Andrej Jakimovski with 8.5 remaining, who beat UConn freshman Liam McNeeley. Jakimovski didn’t have to worry about a center fronting in that moment because, for the second straight day, UConn had its top two bigs, Samson Johnson and Tarris Reed Jr., foul out.
If this stuff keeps up, we could have the best Maui Invitational ever.
The Huskies tried for a game-saving 3-pointer, just like vs. Memphis, only this time Hassan Diarra’s attempt fell awry. UConn’s defeat marks the first time Hurley’s team has taken on back-to-back losses since Jan. 18, 2023. The Buffs came into the day ranked No. 82 at KenPom.com. The Huskies hadn’t dropped consecutive games since January 2023. Now they’ll try to avoid going 0-3 in Maui by mandate of playing in the seventh-place game, the last tipoff coming Wednesday night against the loser of Tuesday’s Iowa State-Dayton game.
This was only the third time Colorado’s defeated a top-two team in program history (No. 2 Arizona in 2022, No. 2 Oklahoma State in 1992).
“Coach trusted me to make the last play and I knew I had to go down there and finish,” Jakimovski said. “After a bad game yesterday we showed character and we defensed our ass off. UConn is probably one of the best offensive teams I’ve played in my college career.”
The Buffs will play the winner of Iowa State-Dayton on Wednesday.
The story is obviously UConn. For as much as I’m willing to take responsibility for the patented Writer’s Jinx, the Huskies have bigger issues. And it’s not only officiating, but oh, yeah, Hurley took time to gripe about that again on Tuesday after the game. Whereas McNeeley got called for an over-the-back foul vs. Memphis that was Hurley’s breaking point, on Tuesday it was Colorado’s Trevor Baskin who made clear contact with McNeeley’s arm in an over-the-back scenario. No whistle. UConn led by one at the time.
“It just speaks to how these last two days have gone for us, that yesterday the biggest play of the game was an over-the-back that was called against us, and then today it was more egregious because the kid Baskin pulled Liam’s arm down,” Hurley said. “I saw the replay of it. Obviously it’s ironic, but that’s not why — our defense has been just so dreadful, just so dreadful out here.”
Hurley has made himself a target by going after the officials after two close losses. He’s not putting complete accountability on himself and his players as a result. To his point: UConn has lost two games in two days despite making 26 3-pointers on 61 attempts. That’s a 42.6% rate, which will win you a lot of games.
“Sometimes you’re not getting a great whistle and I don’t think out here we’ve gotten a great whistle, it just hasn’t bounced our way out here that way,” Hurley said. “It killed us to have so many guys in foul trouble during the game.”
UConn’s got so used to rolling opponents that it’s struggling to finish out close games. With a lot of new faces in prominent roles, this isn’t surprising, despite Hurley’s standard. But consider this: Colorado lost its top five scorers from a season ago. That didn’t hold Boyle’s Buffs back here.
“Dealing with the type of foul trouble that we’ve had out here has certainly not helped a team with so many young guys replacing so many critical parts,” Hurley said. “It’s made it even more challenging and has obviously exposed a lot of our vulnerabilities.”
We’re far from sky-is-falling territory here, but after UConn thrived on feasting against any type of nonconference opponent, it looks lost in its identity. Hurley told CBS Sports he thought two losses in Maui was very much a possibility, acknowledging it with a laugh, even.
“In particular I’d say we were most nervous about the guard play coming in, losing what we lost with [Tristen Newton] at that position,” Hurley told me. “I think we’re searching at point right now.”
Hurley didn’t have point guard Aidan Mahaney in the Huskies’ lineup for the first time this season and started Hassan Diarra instead. Diarra had 11 points, six assists and two turnovers. Mahaney didn’t score.
“We really needed to gut out these last two games here as we tried to find ourselves and it’s definitely knocked us on our ass,” Hurley said.
The bigs fouling out was also glaring. Johnson and Reed Jr. have been unavailable in crunch time and it’s handicapped Connecticut the past two days. Hurley’s been humbled, no doubt about that. He said multiple times that his team deserved to be the preseason No. 1 based on what it had done the past two years. Now that’s gone entirely. UConn at this stage isn’t close to a top-10 team. There’s a lot to fix. And with one more game against a good team guaranteed, the Huskies have an opportunity to somewhat salvage this trip.
The alternative would mark the first time UConn lost three straight games away from home since 2020.
