For a majority of Friday night’s first round game, UConn seemed poised to advance in the NCAA Tournament. Dan Hurley and the No. 8-seeded Huskies got the job done in the end, holding off a pesky comeback attempt from No. 9 seed Oklahoma to get a hard-fought 67-59 win.
While this UConn team hasn’t quite been what the last two were — most teams wouldn’t be able to live up to the back-to-back national champions — it still kept its insane NCAA Tournament run going. UConn has now won 13 games in a row in the Big Dance after winning the title in dominant fashion in both 2023 and 2024.
Hurley still doesn’t think that the Huskies are getting enough respect for that run. After the first-round win, he blamed himself for the lack of acknowledgement that UConn basketball gets for this insane streak, via SNY.
“If it wasn’t for all of my antics and viral moments, obviously there’d be more focus on just what we’ve accomplished as a program the last three years. It’s been an amazing run, one of the best runs anyone’s had.”
– Dan Hurley pic.twitter.com/M2cfPmjRAo
— UConn on SNY (@SNYUConn) March 22, 2025
“The last two years are not, you know, there’s only three teams that have done what we’ve done,” Hurley said after the UConn win. “The only three teams that have been able to do that since the tournament expanded are us Duke and Florida. … There’s a lot of honor in us being able to face the last team that went back-to-back. There’s honor in fighting and getting to the Round of 32 and making somebody put you down in this tournament to end this run we’ve been on.
“If it wasn’t for all of my antics and viral moments, obviously there’d be more focus on just what we’ve accomplished as a program [at UConn ] the last three years. It’s been an amazing run, one of the best runs anyone’s had.”
While this UConn team may not have the same juice and talent that the last two editions had, it still showed what makes it so dangerous with this win on Friday night. Hurley and company played great defense on the Sooners and got just enough big plays on the offensive end — especially from veteran wing Alex Karaban — to come out on top.
It will take a much better effort to pull a monster upset of top-seeded Florida on Sunday, but this UConn basketball team will be no easy out as it looks to keep the streak alive.
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