Dan Hurley is clearly a basketball junkie; he was obviously raised with it and knows the game, inside and out, and understands the life lessons the game can teach. He is at once a fiery competitor and a man who wears his heart on his sleeve; one who genuinely cares for those around him. For me the most striking difference between Hurley and Ollie, is that Coach Hurley is a better motivator, and appears better able to build a collective camaraderie. Coach Hurley also has more coaching experience, whereas Kevin Ollie, though respected as player and assistant coach, was untested as a head coach. To be honest, hiring KO was a bigger risk than I think many people realized at the time. Personally, even though he was handpicked by Jim Calhoun, I was only cautiously optimistic, and my deeper concerns proved to be true in relatively short time. At the time, the popular notion was that Ollie's strength would be in his ability to recruit, but even with that he would still need to be able to assemble a team and inspire them to reach their highest potential which he never seemed to be able to do.
It is a messy and sad state of affairs as far as the falling out between KO and the University. I do hope there can be healing and reconciliation but it doesn't appear that will begin to happen anytime soon. My take on the legal aspect is that I want to see justice rendered; if that means KO is entitled to compensation, so be it. If not, then he needs to be able to move forward with his life. Hopefully, either way, there can be a good outcome. One thing that is troubling is KO's allegation of racial discrimination against the University, that he was treated differently than Calhoun would have been, because of race. That's an allegation that cuts deep. I don't know if that's just a ploy from his attorneys to throw as much stuff as they can against the wall, hoping something will stick or if it's actually the case, but such an allegation is tough to walk back. We'll see how it goes.