WEST HARTFORD, Connecticut – At 1:17 a.m. last Wednesday, as Hartford coach John Gallagher watched film at home, he felt an earthquake rumble beneath him. Who knew that a seismic event could double as a cosmic sign of a program’s first-ever NCAA tournament bid?
Gallagher spent the past year riddled with regret over the lost opportunity of 2020. Hartford reached the America East title game for the first time in his 10-year tenure, only to have the opportunity taken away 35 minutes before the team bus left for Vermont. So earlier that day, he’d asked God for a sign while praying the rosary at Holy Family Catholic Retreat Center in Farmington.