As he tries to re-energize Brooklyn, Kevin Ollie’s willing to repair his side of bridge to UConn

[87Xfer]

He’s genuinely a bad guy who did bad things here.

Any chance of you expounding on this, all-knowing one?

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Lol, and you don't ever take a position until a thing is decided. Having a backbone is overrated.

I know your act, I’ve been here long enough. You’ll go back and forth on this for the next eight hours if I engage with this dumb . I’ve been pretty consistent from the jump that this was going to blow up in the school’s face. To be Nelson for a second: I was right. You weren’t. That’s how it goes.

If you want to go back and find my posts you can. I don’t care either way. What I do know is that YEARS later you’re still lecturing people on this and no one has been as consistently wrong as you. You can try to make this about having a “backbone” or whatever goofy thing you want to do. You were wrong. Completely. That’s not gonna change. Just accept it.

And with that I’m done with this.

 

[Scoe]

If you can’t move on from something eventually and continue to dwell on the negativity you are also genuinely a bad person yourself,and aren’t any better of a person, that’s just my personal opinion. There’s some people who love to be miserable and that’s fine you have the right to be miserable.

Let’s just say this leave UConn out of this for a second, your a fan of a team any sport what if you were told you have a coach who wins a championship as an assistant then a HC, then there’s a downfall and it leads to hiring a better coach who wins a championship and potentially another what fan doesn’t take that.

 

[UCTitleTown]

Don’t care about the money - if I did, I would be more irritated about the money he took while not doing his job instead of being worried about the money he got afterwards.

He’s genuinely a bad guy who did bad things here.

He can come back when he fixes that. (He ain’t gonna fix that.)

Agreed. I think people forget how disgraceful his last few years were. We were expected to dominate the AAC and we were pathetic instead. Then his recruiting went in the toilet and he brought in kids that were projects at best and undeserving of wearing the UConn jersey.

 

[UCHuskies08]

I am all for bringing KO back into the fold

(I have a cat I named Ollie in October 2014 and things have gotten awkward)

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Agreed. I think people forget how disgraceful his last few years were. We were expected to dominate the AAC and we were pathetic instead. Then his recruiting went in the toilet and he brought in kids that were projects at best and undeserving of wearing the UConn jersey.

Stuff like this makes it hard for me to completely buy these behind the scenes rumors this board constantly talks about.

We had two bad years. One because of injuries, the other because of a mass exodus.

We had one bad recruiting class. A class that produced an All-Conference player, a Conference DPOY, and a Conference 6th Man of the year. Then yeah, one guy that had no business playing here.

Hell we even brought in elite transfers in Shonn Miller, Terry Larrier, and Rodney Purvis.

Some of yall make it seem like he had this long stretch of terrible play and recruiting though instead of one realistically bad year. Even in his last year he still didn’t have his All American PG that he brought in.

It was more unlucky than disgraceful.

 

[CL82]

Laughing I know your act, I’ve been here long enough. You’ll go back and forth on this for the next eight hours if I engage with this dumb . I’ve been pretty consistent from the jump that this was going to blow up in the school’s face. To be Nelson for a second: I was right. You weren’t. That’s how it goes.

If you want to go back and find my posts you can. I don’t care either way. What I do know is that YEARS later you’re still lecturing people on this and no one has been as consistently wrong as you. You can try to make this about having a “backbone” or whatever goofy thing you want to do. You were wrong. Completely. That’s not gonna change. Just accept it.

And with that I’m done with this.

Lol and I know yours. You don't take positions until it's decided and then afterwards you'll claim you knew it all along. It's sad, but I have to admit kind of funny too! You see those guys out in the real world from time to time. You know the type who chirp up with a "you know what they should've done"...

I'll tell you what chief, you go back and look through your post and see if you can find one that actually takes that position before the fact. I'd say "I'll wait" but we both know there's nothing for you to find.

 

[GotNets?]

Think it was much higher up on the food chain than AD to decided to go the "with cause" route. If Ollie was just fired for doing lousy job it would have been over quick.

Maybe, maybe not on the food chain

 

[Mike Honcho]

Lol and I know yours. You don't take positions until it's decided and then afterwards you'll claim you knew it all along. It's sad, but I have to admit kind of funny too! You see those guys out in the real world from time to time. You know the type who chirp up with a "you know what they should've done"...

I'll tell you what chief, you go back and look through your post and see if you can find one that actually takes that position before the fact. I'd say "I'll wait" but we both know there's nothing for you to find.

It took me about 2 minutes and voila: KO - Victim of discrimination and denied due process? from July 2018. The ruling came down January 2022.

Disagree. I think Ollie is still the head coach next year if there wasn't grounds for just cause dismissal.

I hope you mean because they couldn't pay him the $10M, and not because you think the powers that be at UConn actually give two ___ about NCAA violations if they're not a potential lever by which to avoid paying a guy on his way out the door.

 

[Devland]

I know Kevin casually mostly through the person who used to train him at a Glastonbury gym. I ran in to him at Whole Foods around Christmas or Thanksgiving (can't remember). He approached me and asked about my family and gave condolences for my wife's passing a couple years ago. I was surprised he even knew or remembered. He is not as evil as some on here make him out to be. I think he's a good guy. Sports fans a lot of times confuse not doing a good job and being a bad person.

 

[formerlurker]

 

[willie99]

Just apologizing to Jim Calhoun would go along way for me. If he did that and then dated his racial discrimination accusations against the university that would pave the way for a reconciliation.

The racial allegations are what happens when you lawyer up. Attorneys are trying to win at any cost.

I concur, mending fences with Jim Calhoun would go a long way. And when I said maybe he could make a donation too, it wasn't entirely a joke.

Time heals all wounds

 

[willie99]

You all can save me with the soap box “he cheated” stuff. Calhoun did worse and was caught doing worse.

Ppl who don’t want him to come back, feel that way because he ran the program into the ground from a win-loss perspective. The holier than thou, “he’s a bad person”, “he’s a cheater” is ridiculous and the same ppl singing that song would be lionizing him if he had been going to final fours and getting one seeds.

Jim Calhoun did not do worse, and Jim Calhoun did not get caught doing worse. UConn was punished two times for accurately reporting their APR scores. That's not cheating, that's the opposite of cheating. Other schools not reporting their APR scores accurately was cheating.

The Yahoo article was a work of fiction an innuendos, nothing came of it. The sanctions were the result of APR scores and double jeopardy was applied

And I'm with you, Ollie should be welcomed home and both sides should do what they can to make it happen.

 

[nomar]

I am all for bringing KO back into the fold

(I have a cat I named Ollie in October 2014 and things have gotten awkward)

My 8.5-year-old goldendoodle Ollie says hi

 

[FreeKlaiber]

he's not Yogi Berra

that being said, if Calhoun publicly welcomes him, I'm open. Don't think it happens

 

[willie99]

My 8.5-year-old goldendoodle Ollie says hi

My 11 year old dog is named Kemba

 

[QuickDraw]

We all fall from grace one time or another. Be merciful.

 

[nomar]

Stuff like this makes it hard for me to completely buy these behind the scenes rumors this board constantly talks about.

We had two bad years. One because of injuries, the other because of a mass exodus.

We had one bad recruiting class. A class that produced an All-Conference player, a Conference DPOY, and a Conference 6th Man of the year. Then yeah, one guy that had no business playing here.

Hell we even brought in elite transfers in Shonn Miller, Terry Larrier, and Rodney Purvis.

Some of yall make it seem like he had this long stretch of terrible play and recruiting though instead of one realistically bad year. Even in his last year he still didn’t have his All American PG that he brought in.

It was more unlucky than disgraceful.

It wasn’t just recruiting. It was Xs and Os in terms of game planning and in-game adjustments (how many horrific losses did we have?). And worst of all, it was player development. Hamilton, Adams and Brimah made no progress under KO. The staff just completely took its foot of the pedal, and that’s on KO. You’re sugarcoating things.

All that said, that’s just a lack of performance. And I don’t blame him for suing; UConn clearly fired him because of performance, not violations. Fishy is making rather nasty allegations about things KO supposedly did, but unless someone’s going to tell me what those things are, then I’m going to remain in favor of mending fences.

TL;DR As someone said above, multiple things can be true at once.

 

[CL82]

It took me about 2 minutes and voila: KO - Victim of discrimination and denied due process? from July 2018. The ruling came down January 2022

FYI, that's not a prediction of the outcome of the arbitration. Just saying.

 

[BGesus4]

He served a suspension for the nochimson / miles stuff. Maybe putting a recruit on the phone with Ray Allen is worse. Your world

 

[willie99]

^^^

The good ole institutional control violations

A former team manager goes rogue, even embezzels from RIP, Calhoun should have warned the world about him.

The wannabe agent paid for Miles to have a simple medical procedure done before arriving on campus. UConn would have paid for such once he was on campus

Miles was officially a Husky for < two months. He was a problem child, maybe not his fault because he had a bad life, and Calhoun thought he could mold him into a man. Never really had a chance to do so

 

[CL82]

UConn clearly fired him because of performance, not violations.

Do you think that UConn would have fired him that season if he did not commit the violations, lied to the A.D. and lied to the NCAA about it, etc.? I honestly do not.

 

[ucp990411]

Maybe he should donate 11 million to our NIL fund

 

[huskyfan224]

Stuff like this makes it hard for me to completely buy these behind the scenes rumors this board constantly talks about.

We had two bad years. One because of injuries, the other because of a mass exodus.

We had one bad recruiting class. A class that produced an All-Conference player, a Conference DPOY, and a Conference 6th Man of the year. Then yeah, one guy that had no business playing here.

Hell we even brought in elite transfers in Shonn Miller, Terry Larrier, and Rodney Purvis.

Some of yall make it seem like he had this long stretch of terrible play and recruiting though instead of one realistically bad year. Even in his last year he still didn’t have his All American PG that he brought in.

It was more unlucky than disgraceful.

Lol, I’ve watched basketball for decades and those last 2 years under him almost made me stop watching it for good.

 

[tzznandrew]

It wasn’t just recruiting. It was Xs and Os in terms of game planning and in-game adjustments (how many horrific losses did we have?). And worst of all, it was player development. Hamilton, Adams and Brimah made no progress under KO. The staff just completely took its foot of the pedal, and that’s on KO. You’re sugarcoating things.

All that said, that’s just a lack of performance. And I don’t blame him for suing; UConn clearly fired him because of performance, not violations. Fishy is making rather nasty allegations about things KO supposedly did, but unless someone’s going to tell me what those things are, then I’m going to remain in favor of mending fences.

TL;DR As someone said above, multiple things can be true at once.

I think everything in this is 100% correct. It wasn't just two years—it was under-performing every single year except for the title year. It was not developing players, which is what led to them transferring. It was having no offensive scheme and consistently getting out-coached even when we were healthy. The year after they won the title they scored 44 points in a loss to Yale. A team that played Boatright, Hamilton, Brimah, Purvis, and Facey. The recruiting wasn't just a one year thing, either. The group of kids coming in before KO got fired were not UConn level. If you think we reached rock bottom, you can't imagine how bad it would have gotten with players like Kisunas. And this is after they took more 20 point beatings than any UConn team ever. They got smacked by 40 some nights like we were a MAC team.

Whatever happened, the team tanked. KO should have been let go. I hear rumors thrown around about this all the time, and unless people are willing to say what happened, I have to dismiss them.

KO was an integral player on some of our best teams and our first ever #1 ranked team. He was a great assistant on the 2011 team, and he was the coach that won us title #4. Without that title, the program may not have had the juice to get someone like Hurley, since might look like we were a one-coach wonder.

The messiness is what it is. The university took a bad path, and paid dearly for it. But I want the program to be able to comfortably honor 2014, and that incudes KO. I want the early 1990s greats to feel fully welcome. Time heals, if you let it. People grow and change. Bitterness and held grudges are diseases of the soul.