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UConn Huskies’ Dan Hurley Shares Honest Thoughts on Zach Edey’s Treatment During 2024 Championship Game

Originally posted on Hardwood Heroics
By Christian Alamodin | Last updated 4/11/24

It’s been a couple of days since the UConn Huskies took down the Purdue Boilermakers in what was an entertaining but convincing championship defense. Purdue wasn’t able to put up a huge resistance as Zach Edey was the only one creating offense for his team.

However, the comfortable win wasn’t enough for head coach Dan Hurley. The outspoken head coach hasn’t been shy about letting everyone know how hopeless the Boilermakers were against his Huskies.

The win doesn’t erase the fact that Hurley still finds specific aspects of the game problematic. One of the issues he especially found frustrating was how Zach Edey seemingly got the favor of the referees during the championship game.

Dan Hurley calls out the preferential treatment for Zach Edey during the UConn Huskies-Purdue Boilermakers championship game

Hurley thinks that the big man the star man of the 2023-24 Purdue roster got too many favorable calls from officials. He even went so far as plant the thought that the refs let the 7’4″ behemoth get away with it too many times.

Per Sports Illustrated’s Kristen Wong:

“I was on [the referees’] ass,” Hurley told Pat McAfee on Tuesday. “The dude [Edey], I mean, he’s a giant, man. He’s a ‘Game of Thrones’ giant out there and it’s like, there’s this three-second rule that they seem to ignore a lot with him. He’s very physical, and then, you know, they call a touch foul.”

It’s understandable to see things from Hurley’s point of view if you look at the box score. Edey had the most free-throw attempts out of all players in the championship game with 10, sinking seven. Moreover, he didn’t get into foul trouble compared to Donovan Clingan and Samson Johnson, who got four and five fouls respectively.

However, it’s also important to consider how good Edey was this year. He wasn’t only effective against the UConn Huskies as his final NCAA season saw him average 25.2 points, 12.2 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 2.2 blocks on 62.3% shooting and 71.1% from the charity stripe.

Nobody wants to see unfair treatment for the sake of one star, so Dan Hurley calling out the refs for such a perceived slight is understandable. Regardless of that problem, it doesn’t seem like being tougher on Edey would have changed the course of the game.

This article first appeared on Hardwood Heroics and was syndicated with permission.

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