UConn Coach Promises to Wear His Lucky Dragon Underwear to White House After Team Wins 6th NCAA Championship

Dan Hurley led the Huskies to their second consecutive NCAA championship on April 8, defeating No. 1 Purdue, 75-60

The University of Connecticut men’s basketball coach is bringing his lucky underwear all the way to the White House.

Hours after leading the Huskies to their second consecutive national championship in the NCAA tournament on April 8, defeating Purdue 75-60, Dan Hurley appeared on the Today show and addressed the interest in his choice of underwear as he compared it to “armor” that he dons before every game.

Last year, Hurley’s wife Andrea told the New York Post that he wore the same pair of red boxers with cartoon dragons for every game of the NCAA tournament — and UConn won, defeating San Diego State 76-59. This year, Hurley, 51, kept up the tradition, which he said “settles me down a little bit” before big games.

“It gives me some things to do because the entire team — they warm up, out on the court with my entire staff, except me. And I’m back in the locker room just by myself, totally alone, while everyone is out there about an hour before the game, so I just have a lot of time by myself,” he said on Today.

Related: Dawn Staley Thanks Caitlin Clark in Her NCAA Championship Speech for ‘Lifting Up Our Sport’

Incorporating the dragon underwear as part of his pre-game routine help make him “feel kind of comfortable and relaxed,” he admitted, before joking about how much “attention” they’ve gotten.

“Most people think I only use the dragon underwear on game night, in these high-stress situations, but I also — I’m very good to the dragon underwear, because I’m going to wear them to the White House,” he said, referring to the traditional visit the national champions make to Washington, D.C. to celebrate their win.

Hurley also revealed he will be wearing the dragon underwear “at the parade next week in Hartford,” to celebrate.

“I’m obviously going to wash them in between, I'm going to wash them in between, but I also reward them for a job well done," he said.

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This year's win marks the sixth national championship victory for UConn's men's team and was an impressive follow-up to their 2023 victory. As Hurley told Today, it's an achievement alone to have a "historic season" at the school, which has long been at the top of its game. "It's a dream come true for us," he said.

"[We] followed up last year’s national championship, to have an even better season, to set all-time records at the school in so many different categories, to win 37 games and to run through the NCAA Tournament again, it’s something that we worked towards for years, putting this organization together around talented and great team players," Hurley added.

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The day before UConn secured their second consecutive victory, South Carolina took home the win in the women's NCAA basketball championship, defeating the Iowa Hawkeyes 87-75.

The game marked the conclusion of Caitlin Clark's historic college athlete career, but she went out with a bang, as the final was the most-watched basketball game since 2019.

Citing data from Nielsen, ESPN announced on April 8 that the women's final averaged 18.7 million viewers on ABC and ESPN. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Clark, 22, celebrated the stat, writing, "18.7 MILLION 🔥."

Per ESPN, "The only sporting events in the United States to draw a bigger TV audience since 2019 have been football, the World Cup, and the Olympics."

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