UConn's Dan Hurley On Future MTEs: 'Zero Chance I Ever Do That Again'
A surprising prediction made by FOX Sports’ John Fanta about the UConn Huskies men’s basketball program was confirmed to be true by Huskies head coach Dan Hurley on Saturday.
After UConn’s 99-45 victory over Maryland Eastern Shore, Hurley told reporters that his program won’t be participating in multi-team events like the Maui Invitational in the future, something that Fanta foreshadowed last week.
"I'm not doing another 3-game MTE again,” Hurley said.
“Moving forward, we will only play home-and-homes or single-game events... I don't think I'll ever do a 3-game MTE again. There's zero chance I ever do that again.”
Hurley's decision is sure to ruffle the feathers of many a non-UConn college basketball fan. On the surface, it appears that Hurley is dodging competition, as UConn went 0-3 at the Maui Invitational, and now Hurley won’t be back.
Hurley’s decision is far more nuanced than the casual fan’s take, however.
The officiating on Maui wasn’t up to standard, which did nothing to prepare Hurley’s team for the kind of whistle it will face in BIG EAST play.
Furthermore, while UConn learned a lot about itself from the three losses, there was no practice time during the 72 hours for Hurley and his staff to correct any of his team’s flaws being uncovered, which only resulted in the Huskies repeating the same mistakes for three games in a row.
To be clear, all teams on Maui were operating under the same conditions.
But if early-season non-conference games are either to discover — and then iron out — your team’s flaws, or to otherwise play a measuring-stick marquee game against a high-ranked opponent, Maui isn’t a hugely beneficial experience for Hurley.
He can achieve the latter through a single-game event, and as aforementioned, the former isn’t possible during a three-day MTE with no practice time.
By opting out of three-game MTEs moving forward, Hurley isn’t running from the grind. He’s simply tailoring UConn’s schedule to better fit his style of team-building.
Nothing suggests that Hurley won’t want to schedule single-game events versus highly-ranked opponents early in the season moving forward.
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Colin Keane is a contributing journalist for "UConn Huskies On SI." Born in Illinois, Colin grew up in Massachusetts as the third of four brothers. For his high school education, Colin attended St. Mark's School (Southborough, MA), where he played basketball and soccer and served as student body president. He went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Villanova University. Colin currently resides in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "UConn Huskies On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org