A Dime Back: Firing Kevin Ollie Will Not Fix UConn’s Biggest Problem

[auggie22]

Let me say, I'm surprised people thought we'd be better this year.

We lost Brimah and Facey and Purvis (I'm not going to mention the transfers, who didn't really add much last year).

The loss of those 3 was going to be a problem this year, and I said as much at the start of the year.

Similarly, we have even less talent coming back ext year (though I hope the 2 point guards will help the team improve).

In other words, buckle up.

You are surprised that people thought we would be better than a team not good enough to consider an NIT invite by January? Really?

 

[Stainmaster]

You have no idea what you are talking about. Kevin Ollie is getting paid $3 million per year! That is in the top 10 of NCAA basketball coaches. So, nobody is going to leave their $1 million a year job for a $3 million per year job at UConn? And, the school has great facilities, tradition, a fertile local recruiting area, and a fan base that is ready to start winning again.

I'll never understand why so many ignore how different the university and athletic department's financial outlook is going forward from when it was when KO's salary is set.

We're spending more than some P5 schools, yet taking in money from a garbage AAC revenue deal that will get worse upon its next renegotiation. Revenue is cascading off of a cliff, attendance hasn't been this low in years, according to those in the know (Whaler) the MBB ticket pricing scheme is horribly constructed...bottom line, we are in deep financial doo-doo, and a KO-style contract is certainly not feasible going forward.

People tell me I'm not a real UConn fan for suggesting that we value our tradition and history more than the average coaching candidate might, so there's that.

We don' have a fan base that's ready to start winning again. We have a shell of a fan base that will only show up when the team is winning.

 

[Tenspro2002]

UCONN's ACC snub was all about football, and Rutgers never would have been invited to join the Big 10 if basketball sports had anything to do with that decision.

FTFY

 

[Stainmaster]

Personally, I don't think Ollie gets fired after this season. Why? First the buyout and second, if Adams stays and Gilbert is healthy, I think UConn will be a lot better next year.

That said, you would only pay $3 million if you were getting a top 10 coach, not a mediocre coach. And, I think UConn knows we have to pay to get the right coach.

I can't believe the negativity people have towards UConn basketball ("accept today's reality"). I remember when UConn had decent teams when they were in a conference with Maine, UNH, and Vermont. In college basketball, you can win at almost any school with the right coach. If Ollie's not the right coach, let's get a new one.

Comparing the Yankee Conference years to the present landscape doesn't work at all.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Another issue re: Ollie is that he's never been the same since his divorce. Maybe connected, maybe not, but demonstrable.

You could cite a correlation with the divorce.
You could also cite a correlation with the time that his job went from coaching JC's recruits to identifying and developing his own recruits.

KO didn't change. The nature of the job did and, not surprisingly, a 2-year assistant had no idea how to run a major program.

 

[upstater]

You are surprised that people thought we would be better than a team not good enough to consider an NIT invite by January? Really?

Yes.

Why would it be better?

The talent here is very low.

You lose all those players and add Larrier coming off an ACL and Alterique Gilbert. NOT ENOUGH.

 

[upstater]

This isn't football. A team can have drastic turnaround even by subtraction if the rising classes can be counted on. Plenty of young teams do a darn sight better than we are doing right now. Can we all finally face the fact that we suck and a change in roster and/or leadership is the only way back?

Who are our rising sophomores?

What do you mean by rising classes?

Lose Brimah, Facey, Purvis, Vance Jackson, gain Larrier and Alterique.

How does that help?

Mind you, I think we've gotten more than what I expected from Carlton and Whaley...

I thought we'd get next to nothing from a freshman class that needed a lot of seasoning.

 

[auror]

I'll never understand why so many ignore how different the university and athletic department's financial outlook is going forward from when it was when KO's salary is set.

We're spending more than some P5 schools, yet taking in money from a garbage AAC revenue deal that will get worse upon its next renegotiation. Revenue is cascading off of a cliff, attendance hasn't been this low in years, according to those in the know (Whaler) the MBB ticket pricing scheme is horribly constructed...bottom line, we are in deep financial doo-doo, and a KO-style contract is certainly not feasible going forward.

His deal was extended in the AAC and no athletic budget numbers have changed in the interim (other than attendance, which you hope to fix with a new coach), and I disagree that the new TV contract will be worse considering our conference's football has been competent. We still won't get a crazy number since the market is trending down, but our original number was soooo below market value due to the newness of the league. Providers need value content, and they can pay our conference more while still being at a value relative to some of the other power conferences and other sport/league options.

Consider that the direction of the athletic department is even more plain to those inside it.

Do they 1) try to make the best hire at a significant lower salary and essentially concede defeat and hope for a miracle. $1.5 mil range.
2) Find the money (boosters, whatever it takes) to bring in a name or promising candidate that will sell season tickets and generate excitement in an effort to turn the program around. $2-2.5 mil per year.

Maybe the money just isn't there. But I've been following college sports long enough to know that usually they find a way.

 

[auggie22]

Let me say, I'm surprised people thought we'd be better this year.

We lost Brimah and Facey and Purvis (I'm not going to mention the transfers, who didn't really add much last year).

The loss of those 3 was going to be a problem this year, and I said as much at the start of the year.

Similarly, we have even less talent coming back ext year (though I hope the 2 point guards will help the team improve).

In other words, buckle up.

Yes this is college so most teams deal with graduating players each year. Yet somehow most teams don't expect to be worse each year. Because they have a coaching staff that is recruiting and developing players in anticipation of an annual graduation event.

Though most teams don't pay there head coach $3m. Despite this they assume a professional staff can backfill for the star players leaving a team not good enough to qualify for the CBI.

 

[junglehusky]

As long as UConn is in the AAC, our next coach is not going to be in the $3 mil / year category. If you want that caliber of MBB head coach, you want to be in the Big East. The next AAC contract is going to disappoint a lot of people, even if we get our Tier 3 back.

 

[junglehusky]

It's the market that is attractive. Connecticut residents will pack the house for ACC bball and watch it on TV. But I'm not even really looking at the ACC. My question is, will the remainders of the B12 decide that the market $$ is worth inviting a geographic outlier?

In other words, what do the presidents of Kansas, West Virginia, Oklahoma St., Iowa State, Texas Tech, Baylor think about all this?

Pretty clear what they think after last year.

 

[The Funster]

I respect ADB but our conference affiliation has little to do with our current status. Sorry, it all falls on Ollie. He up, big time.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

There was also a Sporting News article published today that's a good companion piece to the one from A Dime Back: The gradual extinction of terrible teams in major conferences has 'evolutionized' 2017-18 season

Both articles are good and worth reading. I wonder how many have or will.

No matter how much the writer said the initial article wasn't taking up the issue of KO, many who have commented here cannot resist. I think, therefore, that it would have been equally futile, but I'd have nonetheless preferred it if the title of the article and all mentions throughout had read as,"UConn Basketball," rather than referring to football as the elephant in the room at the end of the article.

The Sporting News article gives persuasive data about 6 basketball conferences, and has no need to consider if there could be 6 football conferences, such that there could be 7 basketball conferences. UConn has the best fit if there can only be 6 basketball conferences, but football TV money has determined every major decision thus far.

 

[BlueMAB]

An up and comer? Name one "up and comer" that we will pay 1.5million a year for that this fan base will feel great about from day 1. Danny Hurley isn't an "up and comer" nor is he coming here for a few 100k more a year so please keep him off that list.

1) you don't know what he'd do.
2) it doesn't matter how we "feel" about the hire, we need a new coach.

I agree that we won't be paying the next coach $3 million initially, but (HUGE) IF he comes in and gets us back into the top 25 on a regular basis, with a final four mixed in, he's extension (once Ollie is paid) could be in the neighborhood of $3 mill.

Put simply, with the right hire, we could get a decent contract, load it with incentives, and then negotiate an extension/raise.

 

[bmo22]

The writer does a pretty good job of debating his points in a persuasive way, but there’s one extremely large omission that outweighs the conference argument, and I’m honestly surprised it wasn’t talked about in the recruiting portion of the article.

Playing a northeast schedule with a few games at MSG certainly didn’t hurt recruiting when we were in the Big East, but let’s not ignore the elephant in the room. The reason recruits came to Storrs, CT was to play basketball for JIM CALHOUN.

No matter what conference we’re in or who the AD hires as the next head coach (when that day inevitably comes) replicating that success will probably never happen, even if we someday get that magical invite to join a P5 conference. The women’s program will likely face a similar challenge when Geno retires. These are the greatest program builders and coaches in college basketball history.

I think we can compete for a tournament bid every year in the AAC with the right coach, just like I think we could in the Big East, ACC or wherever we end up (with the right coach), but our fan base has such unrealistic expectations. What we as fans experienced during the Calhoun years was once in a lifetime. If you expect us to get back there you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.

Hiring a solid coach (or KO getting back to his old ways) will get us back to being competitive and in the mix at the top of the AAC and for at large bids. I don’t think a move to the Big East is the only way to get there.

 

[uconnfan68]

This is wrong. He lays it out with numbers and everything if you want to check out the article.

The American is a mid-major league, and the Big East has been one of the top leagues in the country each of the last few years. There's really no comparing the two,

And we can’t win in this league... thats the point.

 

[Storrs South]

As long as UConn is in the AAC, our next coach is not going to be in the $3 mil / year category. If you want that caliber of MBB head coach, you want to be in the Big East. The next AAC contract is going to disappoint a lot of people, even if we get our Tier 3 back.

We already got our Tier 3 rights back last year

 

[whaler11]

Can’t win. Don’t try.

 

[gtcam]

Taking his entire schtick into account, it's actually pretty obvious.

Only because you want it to be taken the way you desire
I thought it was down the middle of the road
I was/am still in the KO camp while he is here - he was handed a whole bunch of issues that he is struggling to get out of. There are a lot of folks across this country that know the sport, coaching and environment better than any poster here who feel the exact same way that the author writes it to be.
Is he a JC caliber coach? No but who is?
This conference will not allow UConn to attract any upper echelon coach and the up and coming coaches out there know it. It has become the rest home for those who got sacked in other places and are near retirement.
I have said before, if AD David Benedict deems it time for KO to leave the program, I am all for it. If he feels KO deserves another year or whatever, I am behind that too.
It just leaves me shaking my head when info like this article comes out and the KO bashers come out of the woodwork to bash it and stutter - it's the coaching
Replacing KO for the sake of replacing him will not make things ok - the new guy inherits all the crap thrown at KO- who the heck wants to deal with it?

 

[whaler11]

we used to argue about whether to drive 4 hours to New Orleans or 5 to Houston FOR DINNER.

That’s an extremely stupid thing to do nevermind argue about.

 

[whaler11]

I call bull. No way you’re driving 5 hrs for dinner lmfaoooo. That’s like from CT to Maryland

You guys wanna go to Buffalo Wild Wings?


NO! We are going to BUFFALO!

 

[Marty Jackson]

What take? Did you actually read the article? He doesn't make an argument in either direction on keeping/firing Ollie. The argument is even if Ollie WAS winning, being in the AAC limits the amount of winning on a national scale that can be done.

Hardly... The entire premise of the article is that uconn can't win because of the conference. If uconn was winning, it wouldn't be an issue.

A league that has Uconn, Memphis, Cincy, Temple, SMU, and Houston playing good basketball isn't bad. Problem is, Uconn has stunk up the joint along with Memphis for the past 3 seasons.

If you blame the conference, you have to give Ollie a pass.

Here is what these people don't understand. Uconn doesn't have a choice if it wants to remain relevant on the national scene for athletics. Villanova, Georgetown, PC, Seton Hall, Xavier vs Uconn, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, West Virginia, and Boston College. Perception is critical and Uconn, even though they are in the lesser league still wants to be perceived as the latter group. Joining the Big East, a league where Uconn's athletic budget is probably 2-3 times larger than the next biggest school is not a fit.

People don't go to games because uconn isn't even competitive. Remember way back when a ranked team would come in to town and you couldn't wait for them the get a dose of uconn toughness. when is the last time that happened? When was the last time uconn beat a ranked team mid-season?

Ollie hasn't forgotten how to coach. He is simply coasting. And when he won the NC he did so without having to build the team. So yes, he coached his but off for that run. But since then, he hasn't been able to build a team let alone a program.

Bottom line, there are two camps. those that want to blame the conference and those that believe ollie should take much of the blame here.

 

[whaler11]

We already got our Tier 3 rights back last year

You have a source on that?

 

[Jaker]

As long as UConn is in the AAC, our next coach is not going to be in the $3 mil / year category. If you want that caliber of MBB head coach, you want to be in the Big East. The next AAC contract is going to disappoint a lot of people, even if we get our Tier 3 back.

yup, couldn't agree more. The program won't be spending Ollie kind of money on the next coach, so our next coach will more then likely be unproven.

 

[Storrs South]

You have a source on that?

June 29, 2017: The Huskies have a lucrative TV deal with SNY (about $1 million a year) and a media rights deal with IMG (bringing in about $9 million a year, and set to expire after 2017-18) that is one of the best in the nation. The SNY money had gone directly to the AAC and then split among all member schools, but UConn argued during recent conference meetings that it should keep that money. Athletic directors voted in favor of that proposal, and UConn will retain about $3.1 million over the next three years because of it.

Source: As Big East Money Dries Up, UConn Must Create Fresh Revenue Streams