Kevin Ollie’s lawyers serve subpoena to current UConn head coach Dan Hurley

Former UConn men’s basketball head coach Kevin Ollie’s quest for the remaining money on his contract took an interesting turn this past weekend. Ollie’s lawyers served current UConn head coach Dan Hurley with a subpoena at his house on Saturday to testify in Ollie’s case against UConn, where Ollie hopes to recoup the $11 million remaining on his contract that was set to be paid to him before UConn fired him for cause on March 10, 2018.

Ollie’s lawyers told Hearst Media that they want to know whether UConn reached out to Hurley about coaching the Huskies or decided to hire him while Ollie was still under contract.

“We have subpoenaed Dan Hurley to be able to explain the circumstances of his hiring,” Ollie’s attorney Jacques Parenteau, told Hearst Media. “The timeline of Dan Hurley’s hiring obviously relates to when the decision was made to fire Kevin Ollie.”

Hurley was officially hired as the Huskies’ head coach 12 days after Ollie’s firing on March 22, 2018. In between that time, athletic director David Benedict and UConn hired search firm Parker Executive Search to assist with the process. Hurley eventually chose the Huskies over an over from Pittsburgh and a new contract from Rhode Island, where he coached for six seasons before coming to Storrs.

In the final minutes of the Huskies’ 78-71 win over USF, UConn released a statement in response to Hurley being served a subpoena on Saturday. The school said that they were aware Ollie’s lawyers would serve Hurley a subpoena, but had an agreement that UConn’s attorneys would accept all subpoenas on behalf of the university, which is obviously different than having the subpoena served at Hurley’s house.

UConn called serving the subpoena to Hurley “Unnecessary and surprising to Coach Hurley, who has nothing to do with this case.”

Without getting too much into the legalese, this entire case has been absolute chaos ever since it began in April of 2018 and has dragged out for nearly two years now. Arbitration hearings are set to begin Tuesday in Connecticut and should last roughly two weeks, but the resolution to this case is nowhere close to arriving. Until then, both sides will likely continue to anything they can to win, which means this case could get even uglier sooner rather than later.

While the team itself is not in the national picture at the moment, the news still resonates, as some national college basketball media members weighed in with their thoughts on the case.