Dan Hurley had his wife leave the Final Four game against No. 3 Illinois and come back with holy beads before he could settle into the night. The UConn men's basketball head coach said the beads were part of a superstition he needed to satisfy, another piece of the ritual web he has built around games.
Hurley has called those habits his “armor.” He has earned the right to lean on them, too. The Huskies have had success under him, and at this point his routines are not treated as quirks so much as part of the machinery around a program that expects to keep winning.
That machinery has a room in Hurley’s house he calls the Weirdo Room. It is where he meditates and where he meets with assistant coaches and top players. The room holds his bible, a statue of Archangel Michael at the entrance, Marvel and DC superheroes, and motivational athletic posters. Hurley’s wife said, “You can’t put a finger on which age person sits in this room. It could be a priest, it could be anyone.” A referee figure sits in one corner so Hurley can berate it after tough calls.
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The superstitions do not stop at the door. Before games, Hurley eats exactly eight M&Ms. If one falls to the floor, he cuts it to seven. He also removes the opposing team’s M&M color from the pack before he starts. “Eight. Right before the game. Just before the game. A half-hour before the game. Seven if I drop one on the floor,” he said. His son Andrew said, “That’s going back years, the M&M's. He takes the other team's color out of the pack.”
Hurley has another sign he watches for: a bobby pin found in the wild, which he takes as good luck and a sign a win is coming. He also walks the court and burns sage before the season, then does it again after losses. Taken together, the routines add up to something bigger than a pregame habit. They are part belief, part theater and part edge that Hurley seems unwilling to lose.
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That is why the holy beads mattered before Illinois, and why even the smallest details around Hurley can carry weight. For a coach whose methods have helped drive the Huskies’ success, superstition is no longer just personal. It is part of the way he prepares to make sure the next game feels a little more under control than the last one.
