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Dan Hurley shares high praise for ‘monster’ SEC ahead of UConn’s clash with Oklahoma
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Dan Hurley is buying the SEC hype.
Hurley’s UConn squad, the back-to-back defending national champions, is the 8-seed in the West Region. The Huskies drew Oklahoma in the First Round. Naturally, Hurley has watched a lot of SEC basketball. He came away impressed by the conference the broke the record for NCAA Tournament bids.
“Just seeing hard-ass games, I mean, just seeing hard games,” Hurley said when asked what he saw watching SEC games. “That league this year, it’s just a total monster. It was like the whole league was NCAA caliber, like literally 18 NCAA Tournament games.”
The Sooners were just 6-12 in SEC play, but Hurley noted some impressive marks on their overall record of 20-13.
“You go back, you watch their nonconference, how well they played in the Bahamas, how well they played to beat Michigan. Obviously the Arizona game in the Bahamas, you see what they’re capable of,” Hurley said of OU.
“When Fears is dynamic and able to get wherever he wants to go on the court, he triggers a lot of things offensively for them with Moore and Miles. They’ve just got a lot of depth and a lot of weapons, especially at the guard spots with Elvis. They’ve got a lot of fire power. They’re a really, really good offensive team.
“That league, it’s everything that people have said it was when you get a chance to watch it.”
If UConn gets past Oklahoma, the Huskies would likely play another SEC squad on Sunday. Florida is the West Region’s No. 1 seed. The winners of the 1-vs-16 and 8-vs-9 games will play in the second round from Raleigh, North Carolina. The West also includes 6-seed Missouri and 10-seed Arkansas.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
