Dan Hurley speaking with reporters after win over Butler Photo Credit: UConn Athletics

Winning back to back National Championships like Dan Hurley has done with the UConn Huskies undoubtedly brings an increased amount of coverage and attention to the program. But after his latest spat with officials during Tuesday’s game against Butler, Hurley is now speaking out against how he is portrayed during games.

During Tuesday’s game, Hurley was captured in a now-viral video where he appears to be chewing out officials. When they turned their back to him, this upset him even further which caused him to boast about his reputation as an elite-level college basketball coach.

“Don’t turn your back on me. I’m the best coach in the f*cking sport,” said Hurley.

Hurley’s comments certainly give off a level of arrogance that shows he doesn’t like, or even respect, officials. And his track record filled with similar instances certainly backs that up.

In his postgame press conference, Hurley didn’t do much damage control by apologizing for his comments or even acknowledging that constantly demeaning officials is wrong.

Instead, he shared the opinion that other coaches are acting the exact same way, but that he is the only one who is constantly shown on camera doing so.

“Did I say that?” said Hurley jokingly when asked about the comment he made. “I mean, I’m gonna sound like an a**hole here but the TV likes me, the camera. I’m gonna have the GA’s. I’ll release it to the media too. What was the game on today? FS1? I just wish they put the camera on the other coach more. Obviously, I had a moment with Coach Thad Motta. Because he was so far out of the box that I just figured I would go over have a pow-wow with him.

“I just wish they would show these other coaches losing their minds at the officials. In other Big East games that I’m coaching and I look at other coaches during a timeout where I’m not talking to officials. I see the other coaches as demonstrative as I am. But you know, the camera obviously. I’ve created this for myself, I’m not the victim. But I just wish they would not have the camera on me 90 percent of the time. Unless they feel like it’s driving ratings. And more a**holes on Twitter that can put clips of me from a game and (they go), ‘Look how big of a monster he is, he’s yelling at refs again. What a monster.'”

Instead of addressing what he was seen doing, Hurley opted to point the finger at other coaches across college basketball.

While he is probably correct in his assessment that he is shown more on camera during sideline outbursts than other coaches, that also goes hand-in-hand with the villain persona that he has embraced.

Hurley is well aware of how he is perceived, even saying that people like him that show “intensity” on the court are “good for sports”. Now that Hurley is receiving criticism again, he no longer wants to be the center of attention from the media.

The unfortunate truth for the UConn coach is that he can’t both be the villain of college basketball and also be disappointed that he is getting more attention than other coaches.

If Hurley was able to control his emotions better during games, UConn would still get plenty of attention due to their success over the past few seasons. But when you add Hurley’s always-passionate personality to the mix, you have one of college basketball’s biggest stories whether Hurley likes it or not.

About Reice Shipley

Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.