Andrea Hurley sat down with her husband in a conference room in Los Angeles in June, and Jeanie Buss, owner of the Lakers, sat down across from her to discuss the head coaching position.
“I’m telling you, it was surreal,” Andrea told an audience at the Mark Twain House on Friday night. “There are so many different emotions. She came in, sat down and I’m a crier, everybody knows, and I started crying. Because all I saw was Hass on Jeanie Buss’ head. That is the only person I saw. I mean, the blonde hair and I kept seeing (UConn guard Hassan Diarra). So she kept asking, ‘Why are you so upset,’ and all I could get out was, ‘They’re my kids … they’re my kids.’”
These are the moments, enhanced with her free-wheeling descriptions of them, that have earned Andrea Hurley the “Queen of Connecticut” crown among fans of UConn men’s basketball. About 100 came for what was intended to be a “Real Housewives of New Jersey” watch party, but with the show in limbo for Season 14, it was more just Dan Hurley’s wife dishing salty stories and opinions with a Jersey attitude, describing, to give you an idea, various times she “Snookied,” the Jersey Shore code word for losing one’s sh … temper.
A middle school cheerleading rival, an obnoxious fan from another Big East school (Providence is always in her crosshairs), an older UConn fan who gets a little too negative — hey, you cross the line, you get “Snookied.” There could be a table flip involved, ala Real Housewives. Even one of the stars of the show, who has a son attending UConn, got a little too testy in discussing the possibility of appearing at this program, and there was Snooky-ing back and forth via cell phone in the car as Dan Hurley was telling Andrea “just hang up.”
Diarra, who was a guest at the event along with Andrew Hurley, may have been a little startled to learn that his face, as an apparition juxtaposed on Jeanie Buss’ head, played a role in keeping Dan Hurley at UConn when the Lakers offered $20 million more.
And if the photo-shoppers of UConn Twitter aren’t all over this already, it will be very disappointing.
In other words, this was a fun time with someone who likes people, with at least a dozen moments that would have caused Dan Hurley, had he been there, to shout out to me, “That’s off the record, Dom!”
The event benefitted the Husky Ticket Project and was expected to fund 500 more tickets for state kids to go to UConn games this season. It was the cause Andrea Hurley chose when Mallory Howard, lifelong UConn fan from New Britain and an assistant curator at the Twain House and Museum, met her during the Final Four in Phoenix. “I’ve got a great idea for a fundraiser,” she said, and Andrea Hurley immediately responded, “Let’s do it.”
Most of the familiar names and avatars of UConn’s social media community were there: Brian (Penfield) Jackson, Mary (Marie LeBrun) Brown, who moderated, and Mr. Hot Balls without his mask. There were people from the schools where kids have benefitted from the Husky Ticket Project, and staffers from Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, where Andrea Hurley volunteers, doing puzzles with kids as they await their treatments.
“I’m not a celebrity – stop it,” she said after things wrapped up. “Because it could go away in five seconds, so I’m just taking it in as it comes. This is all new. Nobody wants to talk to you when you lose.”
The Husky Ticket Project partners with local youth organizations to send children to UConn events, and since 2020 has distributed more than 100,000 tickets. Organizers say Andrea Hurley is responsible for about $100,000 in funds raised.
“When those little faces come to our games,” she said. “They don’t even know that this actually happens in real life and it’s like the sweetest little thing. … Watching on TV is not the same. There’s something magical about being there.”
Not a “Real Housewives” viewer here, and I didn’t learn much about the franchise, but we did get a reality show called “The Hurleys.” But we did learn that, in addition to his well-known superstitious, Dan Hurley insists on a salad with salmon on top before games, at least on Fridays during Lent, and that was tough to get in Houston in March.
We learned that Andrea gets up early to bake birthday cupcakes for players, and sings “Happy Birthday” to herself in the kitchen, to the bemusement of her son. Diarra gets strawberry with vanilla icing. “Her cupcakes are amazing,” he said.
Just between us, players’ cupcakes come fresh from her oven, baked the day of. Other staffers, she may bake the night before.
“She is just so supportive, she has a great heart,” Diarra said. “She’s like a Mom to all of us, she’s there for us. We’re just all appreciative.”
Dom Amore: Lakers got in Dan Hurley’s head, but couldn’t wrest his heart from UConn
Dan Hurley felt much the same way about leaving the players he convinced to come, or stay at UConn to chase a three-peat, and the story of the weekend in June when he wrestled with the decision to stay or go to the Lakers has been well told. But the perception that his wife wanted no part of leaving the East Coast only elevated her status as an idol and icon of UConn pop culture.
“It was like, ‘I couldn’t get my kids, my UConn kids, out of my mind the entire time I was out there,” she said. “It was the guilt, it was a guilt thing. It was like, ‘You wouldn’t get this opportunity if it wasn’t for the kids.’ I don’t think the timing was right, you don’t get blessed for doing something at the wrong time.”
More for your Sunday Read:
Connecticut Fashion Week #BringTheHeat pic.twitter.com/edujsCovDN
— Connecticut Sun (@ConnecticutSun) September 6, 2024
Former Huskies on the WNBA runway
Behind the court at Mohegan Sun Arena, WNBA players walk past clicking cameras in a pregame ritual. Who’s wearing what is a social media thing.
“From walking into Gampel in UConn travel gear, it’s definitely different,” said former Husky Nika Muhl, who is known as a scrappy, hard-nosed defender but shows off her sense of style as a member of the Seattle Storm.
“I like it. I feel like it’s a good way to express myself,” Muhl said. “I’ve always been into it. It’s just another thing I maybe want to do after basketball, get into it more. But so far it’s just been experimenting, it’s been fun, it’s been something that can take my mind off a lot of things and just focus on it.”
Another former Husky, Olivia Nelson-Ododa of the Sun, has gotten a lot of social media attention for her outfits. “It’s just a really big self-expression kind of thing,” Nelson-Ododa explained on a recent video. “I really got into it last summer.”
Sunday short takes
*Former UConn soccer coach Ray Reid has rejoined the athletic department at Southern Connecticut where he played and coached, as athletic fundraiser, working for institutional advancement. It’s a wonderful fit for his considerable abilities.
*So now we know why President Biden dropped out of the race: To free up Sept. 10, debate day, to meet with the UConn men at the White House. (It’s a joke, folks, save your email.)
*The Giants released a Top 100 players to celebrate the franchise’s 100th season, with Lawrence Taylor the obvious No.1. Connecticut legends Andy Robustelli (Stamford), at No. 10, and Ken Strong (West Haven), No. 19, got their props. A good list, but I’ll quibble that Bob Tucker should’ve been higher than No. 43.
*UConn’s Ben Casparius got his first MLB win, throwing a perfect inning for the Dodgers, then he was sent back to Triple A. He has electric stuff, though, and could be back for October.
*Getting my haircut in Branford recently, I ran into an old-timer who said he was a Philadelphia A’s fan and hated the Yankees because they facilitated the sale and removal of the team to Kansas City in 1955, which is kind of, sort of true. Tip of the cap. If you’re going to hold a grudge for 70 years, that’s a good enough reason for me.
*Am I the only one who is not crazy about players being referred to as “pieces?” Just doesn’t seem right.
*The red-hot Mets, who finished off the Red Sox with a sweep this past week, are 9-1 against the Yankees, Orioles and Sox this season. If they can sneak into the tournament, with little expected, they could be a tough out.
*Tom Zocco of Wethersfield, the senior member of the Hartford World Series Club, having joined in 1974, told me this week he has twice gotten a coveted zero in Immaculate Grid. Impressive stuff, I tell you. By the way, the club is expecting 1998 Yankee Shane Spencer at its October meeting.
*Former Yale women’s basketball standout Alexandra Maund, now a CT Sun communications manager, pinch-hits as national anthem singer one in while, as she did at the Sun game on Tuesday. She brought down the house with a great rendition.
Last word
I don’t get the new MLB rule, where teams are awarded an extra draft pick between the first and second rounds, if a rookie who makes an Opening Day roster wins the rookie of the year, or other major award. But since this is the case, the Yankees, with a playoff spot pretty secure, are right to hold off on calling up Jasson Dominguez to keep him under 130 at-bats and preserve his rookie status for 2025. That’s a significant reward for doing so, and they can still call him up in time to help in the postseason. Cut Brian Cashman some slack on this one. Now, about the inability to get a closer at the trade deadline.
