Dan Hurley Won’t Like Andy Katz’s March Madness Picks as Cooper Flagg Sees Happy Ending

Dan Hurley isn’t the type to settle for cold takes. The ref who turned his back while the Huskies coach was still talking would know all about it. “I’m the best coach in f—— sport,” he’d lash out. But come the end of the regular season, Hurley is admittedly still trying to figure things out. And if he needed more of a reality check on the matter, analyst Andy Katz has got him covered. Nope. He’s not gonna like it. 

In a recent Bleacher Report segment breaking down his March Madness predictions, Katz doubled down on his top contenders: Auburn, Duke, and Houston. “That’s my prediction… Probably the three teams I would put in order to win the national championship,” he says. 

Hurley’s Huskies? Nowhere near Katz’s radar.

UConn, despite sitting at 26-3 and steamrolling the Big East, didn’t crack Katz’s Top team. Hurley would somewhere agree. “The fact that we’re still kind of as a staff grinding rotation questions and should we make an adjustment, you know, I think that kind of speaks to the position that we’re in,” he said after the win to Georgetown. Moreover, he’s already set his sights on the upcoming season. “We’ve got to do a better job in the offseason of getting guys like Jaylin Stewart (and) Jayden Ross … physically … further along,” he’d add. 

And well, that has indeed been a problem for the Huskies. ‘Soft’ has hardly been a word left out of the head coach’s mouth throughout their run and off late, you’d see Alex Karaban admit to it too. Crumbling to full-court press, struggling with turnovers, and recording a poor defensive rating (104) worthy of a 109th ranking in the nation doesn’t exactly scream top team. What does, is the dominance Cooper Flagg has managed to bring to Duke.

“My eye test is, Auburn and Duke are the two best teams in the country,” Katz added. The nation’s top recruit is already being handed a fairy-tale ending. And deservedly so. 

Flagg’s putting up 19.3 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 4.1 assists a game while anchoring Duke’s top-five defense. He’s also racked up records—ACC Rookie of the Week 11 times and a 42-point game against Notre Dame. He’s lived up to the hype, and with Duke sitting near the top of the rankings (27-3), it has all worked out. 

At the end of the day, Katz’s picks are more perception than final result. He even agrees the official bracket would tell a different story. But for now, UConn isn’t making the case it was expected to. 

Dan Hurley pushes for a strong finish

UConn is heading into a crucial week with everything on the line. A month ago, the Huskies walked into Milwaukee and dominated Marquette, 77-69. Solo Ball went off, draining seven threes on his way to a career-high 25 points and 11 rebounds. Now, Marquette is coming to Gampel Pavilion for the rematch, and while it won’t be “National UConn Day,” it will be a White Out game. And you better believe the crowd will be rocking.

For Dan Hurley’s squad, this game—and the one after—could make all the difference in Big East tournament seeding. Right now, UConn (20-9, 12-6 Big East) is sitting in fourth place, just behind Marquette and Creighton. If they win out—beating Marquette on Wednesday and last-place Seton Hall on Saturday—they’ll finish no lower than third. And if Creighton stumbles in its last two games, the Huskies could even slide into the No. 2 seed.

That’s a big deal because finishing fourth would likely mean an early matchup against top-seeded St. John’s, a team that’s already swept UConn this season. Moving up to No. 2 or 3 would keep them away from St. John’s until the championship game. Hurley knows what’s at stake.

“We obviously can’t get the No. 1 seed, so we want to try to get the No. 2 or No. 3 seed,” said Alex Karaban. “That obviously means we have to win out.”

Easier said than done, especially with Marquette coming in hungry for revenge. The last time these two teams met, UConn turned the ball over 25 times. Hurley knows they can’t afford that again. “We got away with some things in that game,” he admitted. “We are just focusing on the respect we have for the opponent and trying to play better in (Gampel).”

A loss would place them at an obvious disadvantage, likely slipping them down to 6th in the conference. Not an ideal scenario for the defending champions.