UConn officially fired Kevin Ollie on Saturday morning, ending the constant speculation that accompanies consecutive under-.500 seasons. The university’s explanation for the decision was not the on-court performance however, but “just cause,” saying in a statement:
“The University of Connecticut has initiated disciplinary procedures to terminate the employment of Head Men’s Basketball Coach Kevin Ollie for just cause. The University will have no further comment on the matter until the completion of both the University’s disciplinary process and the ongoing NCAA investigation.”
Ollie went 127-79 over six season as UConn’s head coach. He famously led the team to the 2014 National Championship though has won only a single NCAA Tournament game since. This year’s Huskies limped to a 14-18 record, the fewest wins in a season since Jim Calhoun’s first year in 1987. The team was consistently uncompetitive, losing eight games by at least 20 points.
While his players never publicly abandoned Ollie, the lack of improvement and adjustment throughout the season spoke to a broken relationship (or at least an unproductive one). A rash of transfers last offseason amplified the narrative that Ollie was losing (or had lost) the ability to get his players to perform at the level expected of a UConn basketball team.
It certainly seems like a change was necessary.
But UConn’s strategy for shedding Ollie’s contract is concerning. There are three possibilities:
- The infractions committed by Ollie and/or his staff are egregious and warrant his dismissal. That would certainly put UConn on sound legal footing but it would be bad news overall. It’s not easy to recruit a great coach into a program that’s about to get smacked by the NCAA — let alone one that plays in the seventh-best conference and is very publicly running out of money.
- UConn doesn’t know the depths or the outcome of the NCAA investigation but is willing to roll the dice because it knows a change had to be made and the university can’t find the $10-15 million needed to buy out Ollie and his staff. The hope here is likely that Ollie will agree to a lower buyout and we all go back to hating the NCAA for being an immoral, corrupt cartel. The danger, of course, is that the investigation turns up mild, or no, violations and UConn looks foolish — possibly scaring away potential coaches who won’t look kindly on an employer who went to such lengths to get rid of their predecessor. Adding to the optics problem, UConn’s rationale that the cause is legitimate looks suspect coming at the end of a 14-18 season, not at the time of the fireable infraction or the conclusion of a resulting investigation.
- Or, UConn reached out through backchannels to potential coaching candidates and was turned down by all of them. At which point, the university decided to essentially push the reset button, take the risk of trying to fire Ollie without paying the buyout and try to slowly rebuild over the course of several seasons. Call this the Randy Edsall Method.
It’s certainly a fine needle to thread. One thing seems certain, that UConn can’t get the cash together to pay Ollie’s buyout. That’s not surprising if you’ve been following the program since it joined the American. The question is how much cause UConn actually has to fire Ollie, what impact the impending fight will have on other coaching candidates and if Athletic Director David Benedict is being savvy or reckless. We’ll probably have a better idea soon when the charges against Ollie start leaking out in the press.
Some more thoughts…
Who’s Next?
Obviously this is the million dollar question — err, $10 million question? Rhode Island coach Dan Hurley seems to be the early favorite. He has the Rams ranked in the top-25 and headed to the NCAA Tournament so it might be a while before any official news breaks on that front.
Russ put together a list of other possible candidates a while back (you can cross #1 off the list).
Dave Borges spoke to Jim Calhoun on Saturday and reported “[Calhoun] says he’s available to help the program move forward in any way possible.” A reunion seems unlikely. But if the Huskies are entering a full-scale rebuild and are looking to bridge the gap for a few seasons, they could do worse.
What Does This Mean for the Players?
Jalen Adams and Christian Vital were complimentary of Ollie following the team’s season-ending loss this week. They are the two indispensable pieces on next year’s roster. It appears four-star point guard James Akinjo will reopen his recruitment. It’s difficult to imagine he would move across the country to play at UConn for a coach other than Ollie. UConn will also need to release Akinjo from his signed letter of intent (they should).
Of the remaining players on the roster, Josh Carlton would probably have the most suitors. Mamadou Diarra and Alterique Gilbert are both talented but would have to sit out another year (a tough ask for young guys that have already missed full seasons due to injuries). Same with Sid Wilson who sat this year following a transfer from St. John’s.
[Note: there is a pending NCAA rule change that would allow transferring players to become immediately eligible if their coach leaves but it seems unlikely to be implemented this offseason.]
A returning roster featuring Adams, Vital, Wilson, Diarra, Carlton and Gilbert could be decent. If a few of them jump ship, I’m not sure any coach that comes in could have immediate success next year.
What Happens To The Assistants?
In most cases when a head coach is fired, you’d expect the assistants to depart as well. It’s a safe bet that this applies to UConn’s staff. At minimum, expect Raphael Chillious and Dwayne Killings to be gone. They came to UConn to work with Ollie and should each be able to land on the bench at Power Five programs despite their lack of success in Storrs. More curious are the futures of former UConn players Ricky Moore and Kevin Freeman. Both, obviously, have deep ties to the program and may want to stay. In the end, the next coach will — and should — pick their own assistants. It’s safe to assume that everyone on the current staff will be replaced.
The Other Problems
You may remember one of the approximately four posts on this website during the season entitled “Firing Kevin Ollie Will Not Fix UConn’s Biggest Problem.” That piece laid out the reasoning for UConn to join the Big East and is illustrative of the larger problems that hang over the program.
UConn has major short- and long-term financial issues. Bringing in a coach that can bring the men’s basketball team back to a perennial tournament contender will go a long way towards helping the situation, but it likely won’t be enough on its own. Benedict and the university need to enact a big picture strategy for getting the athletic department on better fiscal footing regardless of who is coaching the basketball team. The future of football, the American and the media contracts are all bigger issues and need to be solved if UConn is going to be able to regain its place in the national college sports landscape.
How Ollie Will Be Remembered
This feels somewhat counterintuitive, but the best thing for Ollie’s legacy will be if his replacement succeeds. Ollie is leaving the program is a really bad place and if UConn never recovers, he’ll get a lot of the blame for that for a long time (probably not Jeff Hathaway level blame, but close). But if the Huskies’ next coach can get them back to a consistent top-20 team, Ollie’s failures will fade and his accomplishments will remain.
The great thing about having Ollie on the sidelines was the constant reminder of the program’s success, because Ollie embodied it. He was one of the building block players — playing alongside Chris Smith, then Donyell Marshall, then Ray Allen — that helped transform UConn from a fledgling school in the Big East into a national powerhouse.
His NBA career was a masterclass in how far you can get by working hard and building relationships. By the time his playing days were over, Ollie had played for 12 seasons and earned the praise of modern day legends like Kevin Durant and LeBron James.
He returned home to be an assistant coach for his mentor, Jim Calhoun, and was on the bench when Kemba Walker and company shocked the world, securing UConn’s third national championship.
Two years later he took the reigns of a program on the verge of collapse and, in his second season as head coach, shocked the world again when his team — led by Shabazz Napier — won the 2014 national championship as well.
While the on-court performance was essentially all downhill from there, Ollie held together the familial bonds of UConn history, even as everything else faded away — the passionate rivalries, the storied conference, and eventually the fans in the seats. On the day he lost his job, that was still evident, as former Huskies like Ray Allen, Caron Butler, Shabazz Napier, Swin Cash and Sterling Gibbs all expressed their appreciation for Ollie’s time at their university.
