The ref in the middle of this social media-fueled March Madness conspiracy is calling foul.
Dan Hurley had a bizarre reaction to Braylon Mullins’ 30-plus foot game-winning shot to put his team up for good, 73-72 against the Duke Blue Devils, when the UConn coach looked at referee Roger Ayers and dug his forehead into the game official.
However, ESPN personality and former Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg claims he spoke to the referee after the strange scene in which Hurley appears to intimidate Ayers.
“First of all, Roger Ayers is the best official in all of college basketball,” Greenberg, who coached the Hokies from 2003-’12, said on “SportsCenter” to ESPN anchor Matt Barrie.
“He’s a tremendous communicator. And he refereed a ton of my games. There were games he put his arm around me, walked me back to my bench. There were times where he said, ‘Seth, that’s enough.’”
Ayers, through Greenberg, claims that his interaction with Hurley was nothing more than a competitor reacting in a moment.
“But that situation right there, that is absolutely nothing,” Greenberg said. “I talked to Roger today. He said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He literally didn’t know what I was talking about. He said, ‘Nothing happened. The ball went in. I was running back. They were celebrating. Danny leaned in and said something to me. I said something to him. It was absolutely nothing.’”
The emotions were certainly running high as UConn battled back against Duke after being down by as much as 19 points in the first half.
The Huskies showed serious resilience and stole a victory from the jaws of defeat to advance to the Final Four.
“I spoke to Dan as well,” Greenberg said. “And Dan said he didn’t understand what was going on. He has so much respect with Roger. He’s never had a problem with him.”
Hurley’s interaction with the referee has been getting loads of steam online, as many believe he should have been assessed a technical foul for his antics, where he made contact with a game official.
A technical foul would have given Duke two free throws with .3 seconds remaining and could have turned the fate of the game, while also sparking a major controversy.
But it instead became an afterthought for the result, as Duke’s full-court Hail Mary heave was knocked away by the Huskies, who move on to face Illinois in the Final Four for the right to play the winner of Arizona vs. Michigan on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Duke coach Jon Scheyer picks up the pieces for the Blue Devils after criticism for imploring freshman Cayden Boozer to push the ball up the floor on the game’s final possession, which led to a turnover and a Mullins 3-pointer to win it.
