It was a pretty funny exchange, to be honest. At least I thought it was. This was late last month, inside the press conference room at PeoplesBank Arena, the building forever known to generations of Eastern basketball fans as the Hartford Civic Center. UConn had just blasted St. John’s by (checks notes) 7 million points (actually just 32, 72-40). 

Danny Hurley was holding court, and he was in a chatty mood — which is always a bonanza because chatty Danny is irresistible Danny. His Huskies had limited the Johnnies to two baskets in the second half, and I’d asked him if he’d ever seen a good team (and the Johnnies had come in having won 13 straight, and are now 16-1 in their past 17) shoot that poorly. 

What followed was quintessential Hurley: Here and there, in and out, and in the course of a two-minute answer, he happily handed me about a half-dozen future column topics. This was one of them, because at the end he said this: 

“We expect, hopefully, to get a third game [in the Big East Tournament]. I think it would be great for the Big East and great for college basketball.”