Dan Hurley tells Alex Karaban how to deal with clutch mistake that heavily cost UConn: "When he feels sad tonight, just do what I did after Maui"

Dan Hurley gave Alex Karaban a piece of advice after the UConn star made a clutch mistake in the Huskies' gut-wrenching 68-66 loss to the Villanova Wildcats at Finneran Pavilion on Wednesday. Karaban had an opportunity to win the game for UConn in the dying seconds of regulation but crumbled under the bright lights.

UConn trailed 67-66 with 3.1 seconds left when Karaban was awarded a pair of free throws after being fouled by Villanova's Jordan Longino. He missed his first attempt, denying the Huskies a chance to claim the lead in that possession. Karaban had another opportunity to tie the game with his second attempt but also missed that free throw, much to the delight of Villanova fans.

Kris Parker secured the rebound for the Wildcats, who snapped the Huskies' eight-game winning streak. Hurley didn't blame Karaban in the postgame press conference, instead giving him an interesting tip to deal with the pain of costing his team the game.

"What I told him to do is when he feels sad tonight, just do what I did after Maui," Hurley said (Timestamp 2:45). "Just pull your box of rings out, maybe just kind of play with your back-to-back national championship rings and get ready for Georgetown."

Dan Hurley has some experience dealing with adversity this season, going winless in the Maui Invitational in November. The Huskies lost all three of their games against unranked teams in Hawaii, causing them to drop to No. 25 in the AP rankings.

---

Eric Dixon hands Dan Hurley his first loss since Maui with a clutch second-half performance vs UConn

Eric Dixon helped the Villanova Wildcats record the come-from-behind win over Dan Hurley's UConn Huskies, scoring 18 of his 23 points after halftime. He shot 6-for-20 from the field, including 2-for-8 from beyond the arc. Dixon was automatic from the free-throw line, knocking down all nine of his attempts at the charity stripe.

Villanova Wildcats forward Eric Dixon (#43) drives to shoot against the UConn Huskies in the second half of their NCAA basketball game at William B. Finneran Pavilion (Credits: Imagn)

The Wildcats made all but one of their 13 free-throw attempts against the Huskies. UConn, on the other hand, shot just 2-for-4 from the line, with both of those misses coming from Alex Karaban in the closing stages of the game. Karaban entered the game against Villanova with an 81.4% shooting clip from the foul line.