Best hire
UConn replacing Kevin Ollie with Dan Hurley. Ollie could not keep the Huskies relevant the past few years. Hurley turned around programs at Wagner and Rhode Island. Hurley will bring some Jim Calhoun-like tenacity to Storrs, and he displayed the ability to both coach and recruit in his time at URI. He also has hired a quality staff with former UConn assistant Tom Moore, Kimani Young and Kenya Hunter. This may take some time and patience, since there's not much talent in Storrs right now. Hurley, though, should get the Huskies back to where people are talking about them again.
Rolling the dice
Memphis fired Tubby Smith, who has plenty of experience, to hire Penny Hardaway, who has zero college experience. However, it wasn't working with Smith, so the administration decided to make a move and hire the former Memphis star. The good news is Hardaway has been coaching high school and AAU programs in Memphis. This is still a major risk. Will Hardaway put the time into recruiting? Will his staff be strong enough? Mike Miller comes on board with no coaching experience. There's a push for Hardaway to hire Larry Brown -- even with all his baggage. This is a risky hire, but probably worth it considering where the program is currently.
Moving ... at last
Joe Dooley's name has been mentioned for openings as much as anyone's over the past few years. He left FGCU to return to East Carolina (he was the ECU head coach from 1995 to '99). At FGCU, he competed for a spot in the NCAA tournament every year. He heads off to an East Carolina program that hasn't been to the NCAA tournament since 1993. He will get a heftier paycheck, though.
For once ECU didn't make the worst basketball hire. That honor belongs to Cal State Northridge.
The guy was lobbying for the ECU job; but thank goodness ECU didn't do it.
Worst hire
Cal State Northridge president Dianne Harrison hiring Mark Gottfried. Northridge is a mess. Former athletic director Brandon Martin was fired following a verbal altercation with Reggie Theus after he informed Theus his tenure as head coach was over. As for Gottfried, this is a coach who has been subpoenaed as part of the federal investigation into corruption in college basketball from his time at NC State. That should have been enough to pass on Gottfried, but then throw in the fact that he's hiring soon-to-be 80-year-old Jim Harrick (who has his own questionable past) on his staff.
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