What will Dan Hurley do?

We’re on Dan Hurley watch this weekend.

Let's get to it.

1. Will he stay or will he go?

By now, every basketball fan has seen the headline.

The Lakers have decided that the man that they want to lead their franchise during the end of the LeBron era is UConn coach Dan Hurley. He’ll reportedly meet with LA today.

The fit makes sense from a basketball perspective. Hurley runs innovative and creative offensive sets. His teams are as well-scouted and well-prepared as any in the college basketball ranks. He is basketball royalty in the Northeast. Back-to-back national championships do that.

But there are valid, legitimate concerns about his fit at the next level.

There is a certain standard that Hurley expects during practice. He is an intense as any coach in the collegiate ranks. The only thing larger than his ego is the salary he’ll be able to demand from UConn if he says no to the Lakers. The wars that he will have will officials should he make the leap to the league will be must-see TV.

These are all valid concerns. Dan Hurley and John Beilein are very different people that coach in very different ways, but the one thing that they do have in common is that their coaching personas are not exactly what you would prefer out of a coach in a player’s league.

But those concerns, as valid as they may be, are precisely what could be the driving force pushing Hurley to the NBA.

Let’s unpack that a bit.

Much of the Hurley’s reputation as an unhinged mad man on the sideline has been calculated. At this point in his career, it’s a persona. It’s intentional and the histrionics on the sideline are for effect. He knows how to work people, and he’s smart enough to know that there is a limit to how much he’d be able to get away with that in the NBA; in a locker room that also includes LeBron f-ing James.

Hurley is wired to have to prove people wrong. The way that he self-motivates is by using the doubts of people on the outside to drive himself into a frenzy. He thrives when it’s Dan Hurley against a world of human beings that believe he can’t something.

He’s won back-to-back nattys. He has people calling him the best coach in the college game. He’s lost seven all-league guys to the pros in the last two seasons and next season’s squad will be in the preseason Top 5 largely because he would be the guy on the sidelines.

What’s he got left to prove in college?

Where are the doubters now?

They are in the NBA. They are people like me, saying that he isn’t wired to be an NBA coach, that he can’t handle what the next level will throw at him.

The fact that there are so many people that think this move will be a bust is what makes it all the more likely that he’ll fly to LA for the official pitch and never come back east.
-Rob Dauster

2. What does UConn do if Hurley leaves?

Let’s say the Lakers offer is too tempting to pass up. Where does that leave UConn?

Subscribe to Premium to read the rest.