Dan Hurley’s ‘head-butt’ showed Black coaches aren’t given the same grace as white coaches | NCAA Tournament 2026

TSunday night’s UConn-Duke game was one for the ages. A last-second winner from freshman Braylon Mullins beat the top-seeded Blue Devils, who at one point led by 19 points. It’s a moment that will be replayed over and over again for years to come.

However, something strange happened after Mullins’ shot. UConn head coach Dan Hurley approached referee Roger Ayers and touched the official’s forehead while looking into his eyes. It wasn’t quite the “headshot” that some on social media called it, but it was an eye-catching scene. For his part, Ayers told ESPN that the incident was “absolutely nothing” but that it would not have been unusual for Hurley to receive a technical foul, which would have given Duke free throws and a chance to win the game with 0.4 seconds left.

This wasn’t the first time Hurley faced controversy. Earlier this month, he was fined for “unsportsmanlike conduct” after confronting an official during a game against Marquette. In 2025, he taunted Creighton fans after a win at UConn. Later that season, after UConn was defeated by Florida in the NCAA tournament, he approached the Baylor players as they prepared for their game and said, “I hope [the referees] don’t do it [expletive] you like that they killed us.”

Hurley is largely forgiven for all this. He is described as “passionate”, “eccentric” or “spirited”.

Which leads some coaches to wonder if things would have been different if they had behaved the same way as Hurley. I posted a video of the Hurley-Ayers incident on my Instagram account and Tennessee State head coach Nolan Smith, who is black, responded in the comments: “I would never try that. I will coach at Pelican Bay.”

Smith was joking, but he’s 100% right. Make no mistake, a black coach couldn’t get away with any of this. They would be accused of being unable to control their emotions or of having a corrupting influence on their players. Maybe they would just be handcuffed and taken off the field. That’s exactly what happened to Tuskegee coach Benjy Taylor — and he was trying to calm the situation.

There are other examples. Rick Pitino is a brilliant coach, but his career would have been ruined long ago if he had been black. The most significant of his missteps came during his time at Louisville, where his former assistant coach, Andre McGee, was accused of paying escorts to strip and have sex with players and recruits. McGee was placed on probation by the NCAA and his appeal was unsuccessful. Pitino was never accused of being involved in the scheme, but the NCAA reprimanded him for “failing in his responsibility to monitor the activities of [McGee]”Louisville then fired him, but rather than end his career, he now coaches another major program, St. John’s. A black coach in that situation? He would never have coached a major league team again.

The reason is that the rules are different for black people in all aspects of society. And it goes all the way to the top.

Barack Obama had to be perfect to become president of the United States: an Ivy League education at Columbia and Harvard, where he became the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. One wife, two daughters with the same woman and zero scandals.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, was convicted on all 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of a criminal scheme to influence the outcome of the 2016 election. But wait, there’s more. In 2023, a jury found Trump responsible for sexually assaulting E Jean Carroll in the dressing room of a New York department store in the 1990s. In fact, more than 20 women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct, all of which he has denied.

It’s a list that would have prevented a black person from being considered for president of McDonald’s, much less president of the United States. The consequences for Trump? He was elected president twice.

Black people know this because we learn how America works from a young age. The rules are just different for us.

Dylann Roof killed nine people in his 2015 shooting at a black church, and police bought him a Burger King. Meanwhile, they choked to death Eric Garner, suspected of selling loose cigarettes, and knelt on George Floyd’s neck until he died for allegedly using a counterfeit bill.

Of course it’s not fair, and of course it’s not how it should be, but it is what it is. White privilege exists in every aspect of American society, including college basketball.

• Etan Thomas played in the NBA from 2000 to 2011. He is a published author, podcaster, poet, activist, and motivational speaker.