For the first time since 1989, the Michigan Wolverines have won the NCAA Tournament National Championship. Michigan outlasted UConn, 69-63, to take home the crown in Dusty May’s second season at the helm.
Following the game, UConn head coach Dan Hurley had a lot of really nice things to say about May and the Wolverines. He called Michigan “clearly the best team in the country this year,” as well as “incredibly imposing team physically. Here are his full thoughts, along with some commentary from former
Wolverines Tarris Reed Jr., courtesy of ASAP Sports.
DAN HURLEY: Yeah, number one, congratulations to Michigan. Just an incredibly talented, incredibly imposing team physically, obviously well-coached, great staff. Just overall, just a tremendous university with what they’re able to accomplish in sports.
Obviously for us it’s tough. Again, we did not come here for watches, we came here for rings. It’s hard to be — I’m not real emotional. Players are crying a lot more than I am. It’s hard to be upset with your team. We lost the game because we missed. We missed — we didn’t make enough shots.
But it’s hard to be upset with your team when they get 22 offensive rebounds versus that team. That’s just how hard we just played to hold that team to 38 percent from the field.
But obviously I just thought the guys picking up two fouls in the first half, losing those three guys when we, I thought, had a great chance of going to the locker room with the lead, really put us in a bad spot.
You know, it’s hard to be disappointed in your team when they fight so hard.
Q. Tarris, can you share with us a little bit about that moment you shared with Dusty May and some of the other guys on the Michigan sideline?
TARRIS REED JR: Yeah, after the game, it was just a whole bunch of emotions flowing through, just playing the school that I literally came in with. I remember Coach May recruited me out of the portal. I saw some of my old guys, old teammates, just talking to my guy Will Tschetter, Harrison, Nimari, just chopping it up. We came a long way.
I know it sucks to be in this position, but through wins and losses just thank the Lord for it all, big man of faith, big believer in Jesus, and everything happens for a reason.
Q. Dan, you said you weren’t emotional. It looks like you’re starting to get there. How do you balance the pride that you have in those guys and this team this year with the sadness that comes with the end of it?
DAN HURLEY: Yeah, I’m not — like I said before, it’s like it’s hard to have a level of disappointment where literally it just came down to we just didn’t make enough shots in the basket. To be able to keep that team under 40 percent from the field, 38 percent, this team has destroyed everyone they’ve faced in this tournament. Again, your team gives you 22 offensive rebounds; that’s how hard we played.
Just what the group has able to overcome just throughout the year, the growth, the way they played in March, just the whole experience that this team has given the coaches, the fan base, to play to the last — to be one of the last two teams standing — a lot of people talk about you’re better off losing in the first game in the Final Four than losing in the championship, that is the biggest bunch of crap of all — it is such a bull —
THE MODERATOR: Stuff.
DAN HURLEY: It is. It’s like, this is where you wanted to be. It hasn’t set in yet. On the flight tomorrow it’ll set in, on the bus ride back. Eventually it’ll hit you that you were close to pulling off what would have been a historic third championship. But this team just gave us so much this year. Just didn’t make enough shots.
Q. Dan, how do you sum up what Alex has meant to your program the last few years and his contributions?
DAN HURLEY: Okay, so now the crying. No, no, come on. This guy changed my life, the staff’s lives, the joy he’s brought to the university, the fan base. His decision to come to UConn has made us — Florida won the National Championship last year. I’ll probably get in trouble for this. Michigan won the National Championship this year. But he’s helped to make UConn, I think, right now — we’re probably the premier program in college basketball right now, having been to three out of four National Championship games, haven’t won two of them.
He’s put UConn in that rarefied place in college basketball. Everyone owes everything to that guy, and I figure, let me just play — let me play him into the ground one more time, just one more 40-minute game for Alex. Let me just play that guy into the ground one more night like I have throughout his career. He deserved to play 40 minutes.
Q. Obviously you mentioned Michigan has rolled through this tournament. I know you have a lot of respect for Dusty May. Where does this Michigan team rank for you in terms of the most difficult opponents that you’ve played in your career?
DAN HURLEY: Well, it’s one of the better teams that I’ve played, certainly since I’ve been a college basketball coach. When I was back at Rhode Island, I coached against an Arizona team with Aaron Gordon and Hollis-Jefferson and Nick Johnson and T.J. McConnell. I’ve coached against some teams with a lot of good players.
They’re legit. They definitely deserved to win the National Championship. They’re clearly the best team in the country this year. They’re just so hard to score against at the rim. I could talk about the threes that we missed, and I thought we had a lot of good threes that we missed. But they just made it so tough on us around the rim.
That was probably what even got us more than the missed threes was some of those rim shots, all those transition baskets. I think they cut it to four. Could have put some serious game pressure on them. They changed so many shots around the rim. They’re just so tall.
Q. Dan, how much did the officiating change the game —
DAN HURLEY: This guy! I know about fines. Is there a fine — I think so.
Q. It seemed very inconsistent from first half to second half, touch fouls….
DAN HURLEY: Hey, listen, that’s an all-star group there, Kip and Jeff, obviously, and James who we’re familiar with, as well. Yeah, it’s such a physical game. Michigan is so physical. I just thought — again, it’s not the reason why we lost the game. Obviously plus 13 at the free-throw line, plus 12 in attempts. I just thought that the first half foul trouble really — I thought we were positioned if we didn’t have that foul trouble to potentially go into halftime with a lead.
You go in with a lead and they make a run, you’re down five instead of 11. But we also, too, a problem for our team has been undisciplined fouling at times. But it’s hard to ref that game. We both played so hard. That’s not an easy game to officiate. If I could have those three guys ref every game the rest of my career, I would sleep well at night.
