2024 Maui Invitational diary, Day 3: Covering the Flyers in Hawaii

Dan Hurley, the coach of the two-defending champion, earned much of the attention after getting hit with a technical foul when the game was tied late in overtime. He was upset the officials called one of his UConn players for a foul for running into a Memphis player while chasing a rebound. Hurley fell to the ground in shock.

In the postgame press conference, Hurley did not hold back when discussing the situation.

“Yeah, that was a joke,” Hurley said. “I mean, I just watched it.”

In the opening minutes of the game, the UConn bench earned a technical foul. Hurley blamed that one on the team trainer “who must have said something under his breath in a huddle.” Hurley said the trainer is “just the nicest guy, very quiet guy. Might have muttered something under his breath in a normal situation. An official comes over to you and says, ‘Hey, Coach, tell that guy to shut up because I know they don’t want to hear it from me.’ But that’s commonly how that should have been handled, but I had a lot of issues with what went on out there in the game.

“That over-the-back call at that point of the game, there was no attempt to block out. There was a player on Memphis that made (half an) effort to rebound that basketball, and Liam McNeeley high-pointed that rebound.

“For that call to be made at that point of the game was a complete joke, all right? And then for me, I don’t know what happened. I might have lost my balance by the absurdity of the call or maybe I tripped. But if I made that call at that moment I would have ignored the fact that I was on my back.

“How you could call that while that game was going on, the way that game was going on is just beyond me. I’ve never seen the one ref before. I didn’t even know he was a college ref. I’m familiar with the other two, so I’m not surprised.”

I photographed Hurley a number of times when he was at Rhode Island. He’s certainly photogenic. He’s going to get a lot of criticism for his behavior on the bench today, and it’s warranted, but ultimately characters like him are good for the game. He’s a big Cincinnati Bengals fan, which I remember talking to him about at an A-10 Media Day one year. Maybe he’s just taking out of his frustration for how that team has played this season.

I also don’t blame the officials for calling the technicals. They don’t deserve that abuse.

9:05 a.m. (Maui time) — Spam Musubi is on the menu in the media room at the Lahaina Civic Center. It’s a thin slice of Spam on top of a block of rice. I’m all about experiencing the local flavors, so I just devoured one.

We’re about 25 minutes away from the start of the Maui Invitational. I’ve been at the arena since 7:30 a.m. I continue to be on Ohio time and was asleep by 8 last night and up at 4. I can’t blame my dog Fergus for waking me up, as he usually does before sunrise back home.

Memphis and Connecticut tip off at 9:30 a.m. One of UConn’s assistant coaches is Luke Murray, son of Bill Murray. I shot a photo of Bill at the Advocare Invitational in 2015 when Luke was an assistant coach on Chris Mack’s staff at Xavier. That photo is now on our Staircase of Fame, along with dozens of other photos of politicians, athletes, entertainers, etc., at home. Half the photos were taken by me, half by my wife Barbara.

Dayton lost 90-61 to Xavier in that tournament in Orlando. It took Archie Miller nine years to get his revenge against Mack. On Sunday, Miller and Rhode Island beat Mack, who’s in his first season at Charleston, 91-53. It was a good result for the Atlantic 10 Conference, which has been hit and miss in its big games.

No A-10 team has a bigger opportunity than Dayton, which will play two top-10 teams (No. 10 North Carolina and then No. 4 Auburn or No. 5 Iowa State) on the first day of the tournament. It hasn’t done that in back-to-back games since the 2000 Maui Invitational (No. 1 Arizona and No. 6 Maryland).

5:21 a.m. (Maui time) — My brother Adam, who lives in Seymour, Ind., sent me a photo Sunday of Obi Toppin checking into a game for the Indiana Pacers. I texted him back, “I was just on Obi’s Cliff.”

Yes, I’ve changed the name of the Black Rock Beach cliffs in Maui to Obi’s Cliff. He jumped off the cliff five years ago, along with Ibi Watson and Ryan Mikesell. before playing three games in the Maui Invitational. I did the same then, but no one was there to film my jump. This time, I brought a waterproof case for my iPhone and documented the journey to the top of the cliff and then off it.

The only real danger is in the climb up the sharp, slippery volcanic rocks. It would be easier in shoes, but who wants to swim out to the cliffs in shoes? Just before I made the leap, which is somewhere between 20 and 30 feet, a large sea turtle swam past. I didn’t want to make front-page news for landing on a turtle, so I paused before jumping. A strap allowed me to hang on to the phone. The recording stopped when I hit the water.

I did not see any players up there. The Dayton Flyers, who play North Carolina at 6:30 p.m. Monday (11:30 p.m. in Ohio), stuck to safer activities. Malachi Smith won a Maui Invitational dance competition, according to UD’s official social media account. The whole team was up on stage dancing at one point.

I visited more dangerous spots later in the day: the Nakalele Blowhole and Olivine Pools, two spots on the remote northwest side of Maui. People have died at both spots. Signs warn tourists of the dangers. I didn’t get close enough to the blowhole to get swept inside, as has happened to others. I limited my chances of being swept out to sea with a quick dip on the pools, which are swimmable tidepools on the lava coastline.

I drove until the spot where the road maintenance ceases and then a bit farther, braving some hairpin turns with no guardrails to protect me from driving off the side of the cliffs. At the end of my drive, I was surprised to find a food truck that served up a tasty if odd-looking chili dog.

I had all that fun after covering the Maui Invitational press conferences in the morning. There will be more fun had today but all inside the Lahaina Civic Center. This morning, I’ll head over to watch UConn vs. Memphis, the first of four games.