{"id":853724,"date":"2026-04-04T18:30:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T18:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/853724\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T18:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T18:30:20","slug":"dan-hurley-on-headbutting-ref-zero-technical-fouls-in-my-ncaa-tournament-coaching-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/853724\/","title":{"rendered":"Dan Hurley on headbutting ref: \u2018Zero technical fouls in my NCAA Tournament coaching career\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of Illinois vs. UConn<\/a> in the 2026 Men\u2019s Final Four.<\/p>\n

INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Connecticut coach Dan Hurley\u2019s light headbutt of official Roger Ayers late in Sunday\u2019s win over Duke remains a hot topic and had Hurley talking social media, the jealousy that accompanies success and his own NCAA Tournament record Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cDealing with the officials, I think I\u2019m an intense coach \u2014 it\u2019s not easy to work my games,\u201d Hurley acknowledged at a Final Four preview news conference at Lucas Oil Stadium. \u201cBut I\u2019ve always gotten zero technical fouls in my NCAA Tournament coaching career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hurley paused for a moment and smiled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just jinxed myself,\u201d he said. \u201cOh my God, now I\u2019m going to get bounced out of this thing. Oh my God. Getting walked out of (this) stadium \u2026 long walk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hurley\u2019s behavior toward officials, venomous at times, has been a serious topic over the past two seasons. He has received two technical fouls this season, but the Ayers interaction appeared playful. Hurley told \u201cThe Triple Option\u201d podcast that he thought Ayers was \u201ccoming over to chest bump me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn no way was that, like, me and a ref that I had been at their throat the whole game,\u201d Hurley said on the podcast.<\/p>\n

That hasn\u2019t stemmed public reaction, of course.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s what, I guess, makes social media so appealing to people, is that you can have the discourse and different opinions about how somebody carries themselves \u2026 for you, it\u2019s a game,\u201d Hurley said Thursday. \u201cFor some people, we\u2019re just out there playing a game. For me, it\u2019s a life-or-death battle. It\u2019s a war. It\u2019s a street fight for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, you look at sports or people on social media that comment on how the combatants carry themselves, that\u2019s not really for me to judge. I approach sports as a competitor \u2026 My responsibility is to win games and obviously do a great job for my players. Those are really the only two things I\u2019m concerned with.\u201d<\/p>\n

UConn (33-5) faces South Region champion Illinois (28-8) in the first national semifinal at 6:09 p.m. ET Saturday in Indianapolis. The winner will play either Michigan (35-3) or Arizona (36-2) for the national title on Monday. The Huskies are going for their third title in four years, which, to Hurley, also plays a role in the discourse over his behavior.<\/p>\n

\u201c(That) comes with the territory, and a lot of it comes with the success,\u201d he said. \u201cThe winning back-to-back championships, you put yourself in a position where you\u2019re going to be picked apart.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of Illinois vs. UConn in the 2026 Men\u2019s Final Four. INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Connecticut…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4706,7,5480,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-853724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-connecticut-huskies","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-mens-college-basketball","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116347864592275768","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}