Spicy Nuggets: Dan Hurley's calling out other schools

Spicy Nuggets is back for the first time this season!

The purpose of this column is to revisit some on- and off-court stuff that we don’t have time to completely address in our game coverage.

The UConn Huskies are 7-1 after a loss at Kansas Friday night and will be looking to avoid a losing streak on Tuesday when they face North Carolina at Madison Square Garden.

Let’s visit some of the extra storylines around the game.

Phun at the Phog

It looked like UConn fans who made the trip to Lawrence for Friday’s game had a great time. Though the Huskies fell behind big early it was a contest worthy of its billing and one of the pinnacle moments nationally for this young college basketball season.

With three games against major opponents in Madison Square Garden, along with a game at Kansas, plus Gonzaga in Seattle, UConn is not hiding from big stages or big challenges.

“When you’re a top-tier program, a big brand, and a blue blood and a national champion, you owe it to college basketball, you owe it to your fans, you owe it to the sport to go play these types of games in the non-conference,” he said after Friday night’s game.

Hurley calls out Bryant, Duke, and “everybody”

Last Monday, seemingly out of nowhere, Bryant’s head coach Phil Martelli Jr. decided to sling some mud in the direction of Storrs, suggesting that UConn balked at adding Bryant to the schedule because the Bulldogs are too good.

Dan Hurley addressed that and more after the Kansas game.

“We would play Duke if they wanted to start doing home and homes,” Hurley said.

“We talk to everybody,” he added, suggesting that most major schools aren’t interested in scheduling home-and-homes and bringing big non-conference games to campus.

“I’m talking to everybody, because the Bryant coach called me out for not scheduling him,” Hurley said. “Did he win today? Did they beat Brown? They were down seven…

“I got called out by the Bryant coach for not scheduling him so I guess I’ll just start doing that sh*t.”

Hurley and UConn athletic director David Benedict have been vocal that they would like to schedule home-and-homes with good programs, but they seem to be lacking in suitors.

That last shot

UConn fans may not have wanted Cam Spencer to be taking that final shot of the game. With five seconds left, he could’ve passed for an easier, higher-percentage two-pointer to try to tie the game, or sent it back to Newton, who had been coming up huge for the Huskies all night.

At the end of the day, Spencer is a great shooter who got a great look. He was dealing with foot injuries and wasn’t having his best night, hitting just 1-of-6 from behind the arc before that attempt, but he was playing through it and gave UConn some crucial minutes and effort.

It was a good shot. He might’ve had some better options but that was a good attempt at winning the game with time winding down.