Dan Hurley Got Away With Giving a Referee a Menacing Forehead Tap After UConn’s Game-Winner

UConn beat Duke in an instant classic on Sunday to earn the school's third Final Four trip in four years. Braylon Mullins’s deep three with less than a second remaining off a Cayden Boozer turnover will go down in Huskies history and it's worth another look.

The NCAA’s official March Madness social media team agrees and they put together a compilation of 10 different angles of that play that they have posted on YouTube. While UConn fans can watch and enjoy, fans of Duke and other assembled haters might find something upsetting in the second clip.

Just 30 seconds into the video you will see Dan Hurley celebrate the shot and then walk into the path of a referee who appears to tell him to get back. Hurley quickly gets serious, glares at the official and meets him forehead-to-forehead before walking back to the celebration.

That ... seemed kind of menacing, no? And more than a little unneccessary? And the kind of thing that might be worthy of a technical foul in just about any other situation?

Hurley's immediate reaction to the official telling him to head back to the bench was to get in his face and make contact with his head. And he walked away scot-free.

The Hurley pseudo-headbutt falls into familiar categorization for his antics. Impartial fans either celebrate or condemn him as a madman. UConn fans smile and wipe their brow as their coach got away with another one and opposing fans wonder how far he’s allowed to step over the line.

Earlier this season during a loss to Marquette Hurley got ejected for getting in the face of an official. The Big East fined Hurley for the act of “unsportsmanlike conduct,” but could “not confirm physical contact.” This was less animated, but seemed even more intense because of the steely calmness.

There was clearly contact. And Hurley was definitely sending a message when he went and forcefully placed his forehead on another person’s forehead in what should have been one of the most euphoric moments of his life. It was certainly a choice!

Many people, including former Wisconsin guard Sam Dekker, wondered why Hurley didn't get a technical in this situation. Dekker says he has no bias, which really says something considering he's advocating for something that would have helped Duke, the team that beat his Badgers in the ’15 National Championship Game with Scheyer on the staff as an assistant coach.

Dekker also said that officials need to grow a spine when something like this happens, but calling a technical foul on Hurley here probably would have turned into an argument about how an official inserted himself in a high-profile game. Even if this was clearly a case of Hurley making it all about himself. Can you imagine the debates it would have fueled if Dan Hurley had been punished for doing what can only be described as Dan Hurley things?

Do you think Hurley would have spent some time self-reflecting? Or would he have gone scorched earth in his postgame press conference? We will never know because he avoided consequences this time. The only thing we know for sure is that there will eventually be another outburst. Whether it comes in the Final Four or next season just depends on the next whistle.

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