When Dan Hurley entered this season, he was clear that his boys would be going for the three-peat. However, as the season progressed, Hurley and his team became a laughing stock for analysts and critics alike. While all seemed to be going well for Hurley, the Maui Invitational came with three defeats, making them nearly avoid a crash out of the AP men’s top 25 rankings this week.

On Monday, the new list of rankings had the Kansas Jayhawks maintaining their top position with the Auburn Tigers taking the place of the Huskies. While fans at first felt that the Huskies would have fallen by 2 or 3 places, it was a shock that they had fallen by 23 places and are now in the 25th/last place in the men’s basketball rankings.

With the difficult Maui Invitational, Hurley’s UConn became the first top-two team since Louisville in 1986-87 to lose three games consecutively within just three days. And it was then expected that the Huskies’ rankings would suffer. The Huskies Maui campaign started in an OT loss to Memphis.

An over-the-back offensive foul was called on forward Liam McNeeley during overtime, and Hurley to make things worse for his team dropped his knees in protest and was awarded a technical foul. The Memphis got the chance to shoot from the charity line and make the best use of it, ending the game with a 99-97 tally. It was then that the consecutive NCAA Champions became a laughing stock for their haters.

After that, the Huskies lost 2 more games despite being the top-ranked team in the tourney, ending their game as the last-placed team. Colorado edged past the Huskies by a narrow margin of 73-72, whereas Dayton gave Hurley and his mentees their worst loss since 2018 as the former usurped them by an 85-67 margin. And now that they are placed at the 25th spot in the rankings, netizens weren’t too kind to them.

Fans feel UConn doesn’t deserve to be ranked

“UConn being still ranked is a joke,” one netizen criticized. Notably, the Huskies were the first team since Lousiville 1986-87’s to be a top two-ranked team and lose three games in three consecutive days. Hence, according to the users, the Huskies shouldn’t have been in the top 25.

“How TF is Uconn still ranked…. lol,” another follower reacted. Hurley and his men began the Maui Invitational as the highest-ranked team. They were the favorites to lift the title. However, their own mistakes cost them the trophy, and in the first two games instead of acknowledging their problems, he blamed the refs.

“yall really kept Uconn ranked, thats fu-kin crazy,” a social media user declared. The Huskies are the first team in the top two in the poll since Arizona to lose three games consecutively. According to balling fans, this doesn’t look like the material top teams are made of.

“There is no way UConn is still ranked. What a joke. Any other team could lose 3 times and be out of the top 30.,” one critic stated. The Huskies have lost three out of the 8 games they have played. Their winning percentage therefore isn’t too good and therefore according to the balling fan, some other team should have been in their place.

Hopefully, the Huskies will recover from the loss as they have shown in their next game, winning against the Hawks by a 99-45 tally. It remains to be seen whether they will be able to justify their rank going forward from here.