UConn survive suspect squid, a hotel switch and theft to claim NCAA title

N othing – not dirty hotel rooms, dodgy calamari, a bus burglary or one of college basketball’s most vaunted defenses – was going to deny Connecticut. And so a March Madness tournament that started with talk about parity ended with discussions of dynasty as UConn claimed their fifth national men’s title since 1999.

Not that the joy was unconfined. “I’m still thinking about some things,” said the Huskies’ insatiable coach, Dan Hurley, ruminating in an interview room while wearing a “Champions” baseball cap back-to-front.

“The amount of missed layups … We should have been up 18 [or] 20 at half-time. That’s just really the way my mind works.” He did, though, allow that the result was a “dream come true for all of us” – including his son, Andrew, a walk-on, who was in possession as the game ended.

In his fifth year with the team, Hurley was, as usual, animated on the sideline, cajoling, gesturing, urging and berating in his glasses and blue suit jacket, like a stockbroker pointing and yelling at screens as numbers spasm green and red, the Husky of Wall Street.

Though volcanic, the 50-year-old wearer of fire-breathing dragon boxer shorts can give the impression that he should be running a wellness spa rather than a college basketball team. He wears brown bead bracelets to keep him grounded, practices yoga and meditation, drinks mushroom coffee and lights perfumed candles in his office, such as a fragrance called “confidence + freedom” which could easily have been named in honour of his players.

“Being such an intense, fiery coach, people have always focused more on the sideline antics than my total body of work over the course of my career,” growled Hurley, who led Rhode Island to two March Madness appearances. Now he is a