Andrea Hurley Saved UConn Players From Folding Chairs, and the Story Is Better Than You Think

Here's something you don't see every day: a coach's wife becoming the unsung MVP of the Final Four. When UConn beat Duke in the Elite Eight, cameras caught Andrea Hurley telling players to get off the bench chairs. Everyone assumed she was preventing a technical foul. Nope. She was actually saving them from injury, and the reason why is hilarious.

The Chair Incident That Started It All

After freshman Braylon Mullins hit the game-winning shot against the Blue Devils, the UConn bench exploded. Tarris Reed Jr. jumped on one of those folding chairs to celebrate, and Andrea Hurley immediately told him to get down. "Get off the damn chair. They fold," she said.

When she explained her reasoning to CBS Sports Network ahead of Monday's national championship game, the story got real. Andrea had tried to stand on one of those Final Four chairs two weeks earlier to change a lightbulb in their sports room. Bad idea. The chair folded underneath her, and she spent two weeks dealing with the pain.

"They're heavy," Hurley said. "I thought I passed away. I laid there for a while, and I was hurting for like two weeks. When I saw Tarris jump on, it was like PTSD. That freaked me out."

And Then There Were the Holy Beads

If saving players from chair disasters wasn't enough, Andrea also had to keep Dan's lucky beads intact for the Final Four. He wears holy beads on his wrist during games, and they're fragile. They snapped before UConn left for Indianapolis, and Dan made her promise to fix them before the next game.

She forgot. When she got to her seat on Saturday night, assistant coach Luke Murray called asking where the beads were. So Andrea did what any dedicated wife would do: she left the arena, ran through the rain back to the hotel, and then got a police escort back to the game with the beads in hand.

"I had to leave the arena last night, run in the rain, get the beads... and then I got a police escort back with the holy beads," Hurley said. At least the forecast for Monday in Indianapolis is calling for sunny skies, so if she needs to make another sprint, she won't be soaked.

This article was created with AI assistance and reviewed by Seattle On Tap editorial staff. Always verify information with official team sources.