Dan Hurley reminds he has zero March Madness technicals: 'I just jinxed myself'

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Dan Hurley is no stranger to controversy.

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The Connecticut men's basketball coach is often animated on the sidelines. However, in the Elite Eight, he went viral for appearing to headbutt official Roger Ayers in celebration of Braylon Mullins' game-winning shot.

Hurley has since downplayed the incident. When asked about it again Thursday, April 2, at a news conference ahead of the Final Four in Indianapolis, Hurley admitted to being tough to officiate, but his record is clean.

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"Then, dealing with the officials, I think I'm an intense coach," Hurley said. "It's not easy to work my games. But I've always gotten zero technical fouls in my NCAA Tournament coaching career."

Hurley looked up with a smile and paused for a moment.

"I just jinxed myself. Oh, my God, now I'm going to get bounced out of this thing. Oh, my God," he added with a laugh.

Hurley expounded on the controversy that followed the game.

"Yeah, surprised now? Obviously, the reaction, the outrage, I don't — I guess I just look at it a lot differently. I think we all do, and I think that's what, I guess, makes social media so appealing to people, is that you can have the discourse and different opinions about how somebody carries themselves in — for you, it's a game. For some people, we're just out there playing a game. For me, it's a life-or-death battle. It's a war. It's a street fight for me.

"However, you look at sports or people on social media that comment on how the combatants carry themselves, that's not really for me to judge.  I approach sports as a competitor, the way that I do.  My responsibility is to win games and obviously do a great job for my players. Those are really the only two things I'm concerned with.

"All that other stuff, it comes with the territory, and a lot of it comes with the success.  The winning back-to-back championships, you put yourself in a position where you're going to be picked apart."

CBS Sports rules analyst and former NCAA basketball and NFL referee Gene Steratore agreed with the assessment Hurley was not being confrontational in the moment.

Hurley acknowledged Steratore as the "goat of referees," using goat and zebra emojis.

While fans are still upset about the interaction — perhaps in reaction to UConn's potential budding dynasty — it's obvious the coach and other officials do not view this as an issue moving forward.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dan Hurley points out 'zero technical fouls' in NCAA Tournament

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