Dan Hurley's Wife Andrea Hurley Calls Out St. John's Fans Over Duke Support

March Madness can be fun as different college basketball fan bases merge to support and cheer their teams on to the ultimate prize: a trip to the Final Four, resulting in an NCAA championship.

With all the various fans showing up at the host sites, it can also get brutal and nasty, as rival fans are watching a team play in a game that they’d thought their team would appear in.

The East Region included that sort of situation, which immediately showed itself upon a reveal of the NCAA Tournament bracket, as Big East behemoths St. John’s and UConn were seemingly on a collision course for a rematch after previous battles.

However, that East Region featured other top-tier teams, including the No. 1 overall seed Duke Blue Devils, who were able to advance past the Red Storm to a matchup against Dan Hurley’s Huskies in the Elite Eight. And there were St. John’s fans who attended that game, quickly showing where their support was as a fellow Big East team also struggled against Duke.

More news:UConn's Sarah Strong Explains Ripped Jersey in Loss to South Carolina

UConn had plenty of family, friends, and former players in the stands to watch UConn take on Duke in the Elite Eight, including Dan Hurley’s wife, Andrea Hurley, who sat directly behind UConn’s bench at the game to cheer on her husband’s team.

While recently appearing on “The Field of 68,” she spoke about what transpired with that UConn vs. Duke game involving St. John’s fans in attendance.

“Okay, I’m going to say it. Okay. Okay. St. John’s fans…I was rooting for St. John’s [in the tournament]. Do I want to play them? Probably not, but I didn’t want to play Duke either, so we were rooting for St. John’s, and then when we went to the [Elite Eight] game, all those St. John’s fans were rooting against us, and that broke my heart,” Andrea recalled.

She explained that in a previous interaction, she pulled Rick Pitino’s wife aside at the Big East Tournament final to ask her how she deals with all the emotion and stress of the games and tournaments. She referred to Pitino’s wife as “the sweetest person.”

Andrea agreed that she thought the St. John’s fans would be more supportive of other Big East teams in March Madness, but realized it doesn’t quite work that way, especially with passionate fanbases.

“That’s crappy…Come on, like they’re there. They’re right there. That was crappy,” she said of the situation.

It’s unclear how many fans Andrea was referring to from that moment, but they’d decided they wanted to see the college team that sent them home, Duke, prevent UConn from getting any closer to another championship. However, that didn’t happen.

The Huskies ended up defeating the Blue Devils in a hard-fought comeback with a heroic last-second shot by Braylon Mullins, leaving just 0.4 seconds on the clock with UConn ahead 73-72. That helped UConn advance to the Final Four in Indianapolis.

Now, Dan Hurley’s team will battle Illinois at Lucas Oil Stadium with Andrea among those in the crowd cheering on her husband and UConn as they attempt to get one step closer to a third championship in the past four seasons.

More news:Azzi Fudd Admits Feeling ‘Guilty' After Losing Final UConn Game

For more about UConn and college basketball, visit Newsweek Sports.

2026 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.

This story was originally published April 4, 2026 at 2:39 PM.