First off congrats on turning the season around. I sincerely mean that.
I will say that while Hurley has had some stumbles from a coaching standpoint, this game wasn’t one of them. They held a team that has the 11th best offense who averages 79 points to 59. The issue I saw was primarily with Sanogo’s freshman growing pains (foul trouble), Bouknight clanging mid range jumpers he never misses (and the front end of a 1 and 1) and uncharacteristically bad games by the rest of the supporting cast.
The main weakness of this UConn team is that they don’t have adequate depth at guard. If Cole or Bouknight are unable to play or do so at 100% then it will be a rock fight. Cole getting a concussion with 4 minutes to go effectively stalled the offense. Even with that they held Creighton to 3 points down the stretch and had an open 3 by a 40% player to tie it.
So while I’m pissed that they lost they did so to the #10 Kenpom team who was favored and had beaten them twice. They also had Bouknight who wasn’t at 100%, Sanogo in foul trouble most of the game, shooters (like Polley) miss open shots they usually make and without their lead guard in crunch time.
So you hate Hurley for his antics. I would if I were you. But I have no complaints with his coaching here. I am curious what you would have have wanted him to do differently?