UConn head coach Dan Hurley knows the challenge in front of his time: Alabama’s talented offense.
In fact, it’s the best offense the Huskies will see all year, according to Hurley himself. UConn steamrolled the competition to this point, but that might not be the case in the Final Four.
Hurley isn’t even making up stuff at this point to try and motivate his team.
“I don’t think you — at this point, with what Alabama has shown, in terms of what they’re capable of to beat a No. 1 seed in North Carolina, just with how good their offense is, I mean, it will be the best offense that we’ve guarded this year,” Hurley said. “It’s as good as Illinois was. This is better just ’cause they’re deeper, just more athletic, more guards that can break you down.”
Hurley knows his team isn’t invincible. UConn is going to need its ‘A’ game to beat Alabama Saturday.
“Look, we’ve lost three games. We got crushed at Creighton,” Hurley said. “At Seton Hall we got our butt kicked, too. If we’re not on our identity, we’re vulnerable like everybody else. Again, if we play elite offense, elite defense and beat you on the backboard, we’re tough to beat.”
There is a slight notion UConn is getting disrespected since the Huskies rolled through the tournament. All the attention is on who else could win or possibly beat UConn.
But Hurley doesn’t necessarily think that’s the case.
“I don’t think so,” Hurley said. “I think a lot of really smart basketball people that watch us play have an appreciation for how well we’ve played,” Hurley said. I think coming into the year, I don’t think people on the outside expected us to play this well. I don’t know if you stuck a lie detector on me if I thought we’d play this well, especially in a tournament that’s so hard. It’s so hard to advance in this tournament and get to a Final Four.”
And once again, Hurley threw out any past accomplishments by UConn. It could all end short of the national title game.
I mean, look at the biggest brands, the best programs historically have a hard time getting to a Final Four in recent history,” Hurley said. “I get it. We’ve been brilliant. We’ve played great. The thing about this tournament, though, none of that matters on Saturday. We are going to have this two-hour game versus Alabama. If we’re not on point, we won’t play on Monday.”
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