UConn basketball coach Dan Hurley had a nervous breakdown in the final minute of his team’s overtime loss to Memphis.

Connecticut, the NCAA’s second-seeded team, lost 99-97 in the first round of the Maui Invitational tournament, ending a 17-game winning streak that began last season. Hurley blamed the referees, including Syracuse native Pat Driscoll, who has been a college hoop referee for three decades.

Hurley was furious after Driscoll called an over-the-back offensive rebounding call on the Huskies’ Liam McNeeley with the game tied with 40.3 seconds left. Hurley fell to the ground and was whistled for a technical foul.

“You’re a fucking joke!” Hurley yelled at the officiating crew. “You’re a joke!”

Memphis’ PJ Carter made four free throws – two for the personal foul, two for the technical foul – to give the Tigers the lead for good. Memphis coach Penny Hardaway called the win over the back-to-back defending champions the biggest win of his coaching career.

Hurley told CBS Sports that he didn’t think his technical foul was the reason for his team’s loss: “I think it was the damn calls.”

Hurley, who had to be restrained by an assistant coach during the heated moment, continued to protest Driscoll after the game.

“The fact that that call was made at that point in the game was a complete joke,” Hurley told the media afterward.

“Perhaps the absurdity of the call caused me to lose my balance, or perhaps I stumbled… But if I had made that call at that time, I would have ignored the fact that I was on my back. If I had made that call, I would have ignored it. I would have ignored that. That was obviously a major,” he continued. “What you could call that while this game was going on, the way the game was going, is just beyond me.”

ESPN reports that Driscoll officiated the game along with two other referees, Steven Anderson and Scott Brown. Hurley said he didn’t know any of them.

“I’ve never seen that one referee before. “I didn’t even know he was a college referee, and besides, I know the other two, so I’m not surprised,” Hurley said.

According to the Associated Press, UConn was called for a technical about four minutes into the game when the team’s medical trainer said something the referees didn’t like. The Huskies’ Samson Johnson was also killed midway through overtime on a double technical.

“Samson was pushed. His jersey was torn. “He didn’t get a foul the entire game,” Hurley said. “He finished the game with his jersey torn down the middle, but they get him every time they call. He is frustrated. That was crazy, man. Crazy.”

It was Connecticut’s first loss since Feb. 20, before winning the Big East Tournament and NCAA championship last season.

A 2021 inductee into the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame, Driscoll has been a longtime figure in Central New York, including positions with the City of Syracuse, Say Yes to Education and the Boys and Girls Club of Syracuse.