UConn's Aidan Mahaney On Viral Moment With Dan Hurley: 'We Were Both Juiced'
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Aidan Mahaney’s performance versus Baylor on Wednesday was one of the most promising elements of the 76-72 victory for the UConn Huskies.
Mahaney finished with nine points on 3-for-4 from downtown, but it was the clutch nature of his first two threes that signaled a confidence heretofore unseen from the junior transfer since he’s donned a UConn uniform.
Mahaney has struggled out of the gate to start the season, and he saw his minutes diminished during UConn’s three-day Maui nightmare.
But the season is a marathon, and Mahaney has already shown that he’s back in the race.
No one wants to see Mahaney succeed more than Huskies head coach Dan Hurley, who went wild on the sidelines after Mahaney’s pair of triples in the first half versus Baylor.
During a viral moment, Hurley bearhugged Mahaney on the sidelines and headbutted him while screaming with joy. It was an iconic few seconds of Hurley being Hurley, and it meant the world to Mahaney, who has been waiting to break through.
“We were just fired up,” Mahaney said about the exchange with Hurley during the postgame press conference.
“This is one of the things I couldn't wait to get into over here — having a coach like that who gets fired up like the players do. So I just felt like we were in that moment. There was nothing planned, it was all just natural energy and aggression. We were both juiced.”
Mahaney had the look of a guy playing within himself on Wednesday, which is great news for Hurley and UConn. They’ll need Mahaney to be the best version of himself moving forward, and Mahaney is focused on fulfilling that obligation.
“This is what I signed up for,” Mahaney said.
“My biggest thing right now is just to carry this momentum forward, but I have been waiting to have a feeling like this. I feel this is just a taste, but it does feel good to feel like some of my work is paying off. I felt like I made the right decision to come here. I feel I have grown tremendously on and off the court, and I am just really excited moving forward.”
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-6cddf44b9a81eadb9d1a4c19c1b3db49.jpeg "Colin Keane")
Colin Keane is a contributing journalist for "UConn Huskies On SI." Born in Illinois, Colin grew up in Massachusetts as the third of four brothers. For his high school education, Colin attended St. Mark's School (Southborough, MA), where he played basketball and soccer and served as student body president. He went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Villanova University. Colin currently resides in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "UConn Huskies On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org