UConn coach Dan Hurley warned teams Huskies were coming. Here they are at Final Four

In 2020, after a tough loss to Villanova, Connecticut coach Dan Hurley threw out this boast:

“People better get us now. That’s all. You better get us now because it ... it’s coming.”

Sports history is packed with misfired bluster. Remember the letter to fans from Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, stung by the loss of LeBron James to the Miami Heat?

“I personally guarantee that the Cleveland Cavaliers will win an NBA Championship before the self-titled former ‘king’ wins one. You can take it to the bank,” Gilbert wrote to Cavs.

So much for the guarantee. James won two in Miami before returning to Cleveland to help the franchise win its first title.

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck’s boast came in the heat of battle. At the coin flip before overtime in a 2004 playoff game at Green Bay, Seattle won the toss and Hasselbeck told the official, “We want the ball, and we’re going to score!”

Well, there was a score the first snap, the result of Hasselbeck throwing a pick-six.

Hurley and the Huskies are backing the bravado. In its first Final Four since 2014, UConn takes on Miami in a semifinal game that will start around 7:49 p.m.

“That’s resonated with all of us,” junior guard Andre Jackson, who was a year away from joining the team. “Coach has a lot of confidence in his work and what he puts in. He knew it was eventually going to pay off.”

Things weren’t looking good earlier this season. After a sizzling start — UConn won its first 14 games, 13 by double digits, and climbed to No. 2 in the AP poll — the balloon burst.

Six losses in the next eight games changed the trajectory, and for a stretch it appeared Hurley would have to eat his words.

“Our defense tanked,” Hurley said. “We went from being an elite defensive team to not guarding anybody for two weeks.”

That led to Hurley changing his demeanor. He’s an intense coach from one of the game’s first families. His brother Bobby, Arizona State’s coach, was a feisty two-time NCAA champion at Duke. Their father Bob, the legendary high school coach, is enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame.

The Huskies were getting away from their identity, and so was Hurley.

“I started fighting with refs, and it distracted me from coaching,” Hurley said. “It had a negative effect on the team. I was on the phone more with the head of officials than I was watching film.”

Connecticut also was grinding through a top-heavy Big East. The Big 12 was the nation’s top-ranked conference, but the Big East has been best when it counted the most, in March. The league’s 10 NCAA tournament victories will be the most of any league.

When the Huskies are rolling powerful forward Adama Sanogo, who leads the Huskies with 17.1 points and 7.5 rebounds, is having his way inside. Guard Jordan Hawkins, perhaps the only NBA Draft first-round choice in the Final Four, averages 16.3 points and makes nearly 39% of his threes.

Hawkins didn’t participate in Friday’s activities at the Final Four, remaining in the team hotel after contracting a non-COVID illness. “Hopefully we contained it in time, and it doesn’t spread,” Hurley said.

When the calendar flipped from January to February, so did the Huskies. They stacked enough conference victories to finish tied for fourth in the Big East and fell to Marquette in the league tournament semifinals.

A No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament reflected the body of work, and the Huskies have ripped through the bracket like a buzzsaw. Their closest call came in a second-round victory over Saint Mary’s by 15.

At the West Regional, Connecticut beat Arkansas by 23, and Gonzaga had to rally to lose by 18.

At the Final Four: Miami rallied to win its regional final, Florida Atlantic and San Diego State survived heart-stopping encounters. UConn is on a rampage.

“In November, December, February and March we’ve been as good as anybody,” Hurley said.

And they’re the betting favorite and most prominent brand at the Final Four. Since 1999, when the Huskies won their first national championship, the program owns four trophies, more than any program during that stretch.

If they’re not part of the historically powerful club with Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina or Duke, UConn is in the neighborhood, and Hurley has them back to the game’s biggest stage.

It’s all worth bragging about.