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Dan Hurley might owe a bit of his recent success with UConn to a surprising source: his wife, Andrea.
In a Sunday interview with CBS Sports, Andrea shared that she nearly left behind a crucial good-luck charm ahead of Saturday’s Final Four clash against Illinois.
Fortunately, she remembered just in time.
Andrea explained that Hurley consistently wears a bracelet made of holy beads, which he acquired at a church “years ago.” This bracelet is prone to breaking, and Andrea often finds herself repairing it during games.
“He wears them for every single game, but they break all the time,” Andrea said. “They’ve been falling apart for years, scattering beads everywhere. So I always re-thread them, and I even made a trip to Hobby Lobby to get more wooden beads for it.”
Andrea forgot the beads in her hotel. She arrived at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for Saturday’s game and had to quickly rush back to retrieve them.
Once she did, Andrea said she received a police escort back to the arena — just to get the beads to her husband.
The charm worked again as the Huskies were in the lead nearly the whole way through. UConn downed Illinois 71-62, advancing to the national championship game for the third time in four years.
“I grabbed the beads, then I got a police escort back with the holy beads. So I saved it — the win is all mine,” Andrea joked.
In the win, UConn had three players with double-digit points, including Tarris Reed Jr.’s double-double. Freshman Braylon Mullins — the hero of the Huskies’ Elite 8 win over Duke — also buried another 3 with less than a minute left to pad their late lead against Illinois.
The Fighting Illini nearly stormed back from down 14, but poor 3-point shooting and the Huskies’ discipline at the free-throw line closed the game out.
“We’re a tough program, we’re a group of fighters,” Hurley said postgame. “We’ve got incredible will. We go into these games, we’re ready for battle…It’s a life-and-death struggle for us to get to Monday night for the opportunity to win a championship.”
Hurley will get that chance when UConn faces No. 1 seed Michigan in the national title game Monday. If the Huskies win, it’ll be their third championship in four years after winning back-to-back rings in 2023 and 2024.
It would also cement Hurley as one of the best current coaches in the game. He already sits second all-time with an .800 winning percentage in the NCAA Tournament among those who’ve coached at least 25 games.
Maybe his lucky bracelet is why he’s having so much success.