Caron Butler on how former players view UConn

[CL82]

And the facts were the teams record, tournament performance, attendance, and thousands of irate emails from the fan base to the athletic department. Oh, and then there were those violations.

Again, there is a writing showing the reason for discharge and the facts of which were independently verified. On the other hand we have your imaginings. One is more credible than the other, sorry, not sorry.

 

[CL82]

If Kevin Ollie had not been so connected to the team as a former student and player things may, I repeat, may have been different. As it is there was an emotional attachment between Ollie and fans from the teams he played on including those students who attended the school during his student years. There is no doubt in my mind that if all parties involved could have a do over that things would have been resolved differently. If you are looking for the "bad guy" in this situation it had to be the athletic director's poor mismanagement.

How so? Do you know that Kevin Ally’s representation initially alleged that the ED did not provide him with proper notice, but later recanted that allegation? What do you think that is?

 

[XLCenterFan]

Again, there is a writing showing the reason for discharge and the facts of which were independently verified. On the other hand we have your imaginings. One is more credible than the other, sorry, not sorry.

What can I say? I have a tremendous imagination.

 

[CL82]

Oh I’m assuming UConn made offers and never meant to suggest that I thought they were being unreasonable or unrealistic because I don’t know any details to make such a judgment.

I do get the sense that their financial constraints and public disclosure requirements are driving the strategy and that they may have underestimated the ripple effect with other former players and how much collateral damage that could do to the program and the brand. I don’t know how to value that but I know it has value, and if I was running this like a business, which I would hope someone is, I would try to gauge that and factor it into my analysis.

What financial constraints are those 88? You realize that you can’t annual budget is 4 billion a year right? I think they might be able to find a 10 million in the seat cushions somewhere.

 

[gampelcrazies]

At the end of the day what Ray Allen and other alumni are doing is childish.

I get his anger towards the AD and his staff but him not showing up and promoting UConn is only hurting the players and the program. Hurley and the players had nothing to do with the Ollie firing.

 

[HuskyHawk]

You're allowed to have whatever opinion you want. Personally, I'm embarrassed that some of our most famous alums don't want anything to do with us right now. That's not going to change any time soon, and it bothers me.

Me too. It’s embarrassing that we have alumni stupid (or perhaps selfish) enough to side with Ollie on this. But it is what it is. Their opinion will change as soon as it is over, even if KO gets nothing.

 

[UConnJim]

I can't believe the responses I've gotten concerning the drop off in conferences affecting our ability to win. People seem to think that it's easy to tell a recruit: "we play UCF, Tulane, and Tulsa, we don't get any major TV games, and we play our conference tourney in Orlando," when other schools have much more to offer. It will undoubtedly affect the ability to recruit, and thus win.

Look at my previous post. UConn recruited at a high level the first 3 years in the AAC. Then Ollie lost his focus and the team started losing. Winning and a dynamic coach is more important for recruiting than conference affiliation in college basketball. Look at Syracuse. Old coach, mediocre seasons, has lead to subpar recruiting even though they are in the ACC.

I’m sick of UConn fans saying the AAC is why UConn basketball has sucked the last few years. How has Cincinnati done so well in basketball and football in the AAC? They have hired better coaches and their athletic department has done a better job than UConn’s athletic department.

If Hurley isn’t the coach we hope he is, UConn will suck in the Big East as well.

 

[CL82]

Do you work for the University in some capacity? I feel like I'm dealing with UCONN's public relations department. Maybe you're on the AAUP legal team?

Lol, nah i’m just not a big fan of people uh stating opinion as if it were a fact. Everything I stated is public record. If you’re even vaguely paying attention to this matter you should be aware of all of it.

 

[BlueDogs]

To me, it matters somewhat. UCONN fired KO for losing. UCONN said they fired KO for breach of contract. If they said they fired him for losing, they would owe him his money. If they said they fired him for breach of contract, they don't owe him his money. I don't like that UCONN is putting up this charade of firing him for breach of contract when we all know he was losing his job for losing. I also don't like that Ollie is often blamed for the losing, when we all knew the realty of playing in the American - less talent, less TV time, less fanbase interest - which eventually led to less winning. This whole situation is just a mess. With us going back into the BE, it's like a fresh start. We need to get rid of this storm cloud, and I feel the best way to do so is to just pay him off and we go our separate ways. They are squabbling over amounts that are relatively small compared to the budgets of the state/school/athletic dept., and while this stays in court, it is costing everyone resources (including our time/energy here on the BY!). Let's move on.

Maybe they fired him for breaching his contract and the school didn’t feel like waiving the breaches precisely because he was losing and not worth fighting with NCAA to keep. Performance matters in jobs, and employers tend to fight to keep what they value and not so much when they don’t.

 

[8893]

What financial constraints are those 88? You realize that you can’t annual budget is 4 billion a year right? I think they might be able to find a 10 million in the seat cushions somewhere.

LOL. You’re not from around here, are you? But New Jersey may be in even worse shape financially so I’m surprised you don’t appreciate the financial constraints that our state is under, which extends to our state university.

The university runs on a budget, broken down by department and line item. This ain’t in the budget and someone’s gotta eat it. I don’t think anyone at the university has the appetite to make the case for that. New president? How could he have the necessary perspective? Suzie and AD David Benedict owned the decision and they can’t be the ones to press for UConn to pay now. Calhoun could make the case in a heartbeat, but he’s not here anymore in any capacity, and he’s ensnared in this thing and estranged from KO, too, so not much hope there, either.

There is no one who has even glanced at this board in the past few years who is not aware of your passion for defending the university to the hilt in this thing or your zeal to see KO crushed over it. We all understand your arguments and your position. I am not trying to disabuse you of any of them. I am only hoping for a resolution that avoids more situations like the one that started this thread because I feel like there may be a funk hanging over us until that happens.

 

[Rico444]

If you're going to quote me, maybe use my actual words instead of putting some in my mouth?

I said that $10 million isn't that much in the grand scheme of things to the university. They have an annual budget of over one billion dollars. I'm not saying it would have been easy, but taking the $10 million hit for one year wasn't going to cripple the university.

 

[Northbound]

Let's be clear this has nothing to do with KO losing his job.

It's 100% about money.

I suspect all former players know KO wasn't doing a good job as a coach - good god Ray Charles could see he was doing a horrible job as a coach and program leader.

I'm guessing they're pissed he didn't get his coin, not that he was told to pack up his office.

Of course he got fired for poor performance, but he was careless enough to break the rules in the contract that allowed the University to say "we're not cutting you a $10mm check, sorry".

 

[CL82]

your zeal to see KO crushed over it.

Uh Help me out here when have I ever shown any “zeal” to see KO crushed about anything?

You are right though, I do like to knock down the bull crap mythology that has grown up around here on this issue, including that somehow Connecticut was unfair to Kevin because they “couldn’t afford to pay him.” That’s just wrong. Sorry if that offends you.

 

[uconnever]

The whole issue was a clusterduck but all the ex players see is that the school weaseled out of paying KO, which they did, justifiable or not. Yeah there was a perfect storm but let's face it: the school and its AD made some horrendous decisions. KO fell down, no doubt, but going about it the way they did was really bad form...certainly lacked integrity.

couldn’t have said it better. Should have paid and moved on, KO was done but still UConn’s stance really turned me off.

 

[uconnever]

Could not disagree more. The school adhered to contract, Kevin did not. UConn is neither morally nor legally at fault here.

Think about it this way Funster. I'm not sure what you do for a living but if you 1) broke the law (or violated regulatory rules if you prefer) in your job, repeatedly; 2) lied to your bosses about it, repeatedly; 3) got caught and then lied to an outside regulatory agency, repeatedly and 4) all of that resulted in your employer getting sanctioned, you would get fired for cause 10 times out of 10. Why should that be any different with Kevin Ollie?

you really think that’s why he was fired? Cmon.

 

[Huskybass]

And the facts were the teams record, tournament performance, attendance, and thousands of irate emails from the fan base to the athletic department. Oh, and then there were those violations.

So what you are saying is that under KO things were an absolute mess in every way possible. They fired him for cause, because there was beyond ample grounds to do so. Why is this so hard for you to grasp?

 

[8893]

Uh Help me out here when have I ever shown any “zeal” to see KO crushed about anything?

You are right though, I do like to knock down the bull crap mythology that has grown up around here on this issue, including that somehow Connecticut was unfair to Kevin because they “couldn’t afford to pay him.” That’s just wrong. Sorry if that offends you.

I'm not offended by your curious crusade; I'm moreso bemused by it. I am simply hoping for a resolution that leaves as few of our ambassadors as possible estranged from the school. I welcome you to tell Caron that he is full of crap. He and others have aired their opinion that UConn was not fair to KO and I would like to see that perception repaired because I don't think it's good for the school. I don't know what it would cost, but I do believe that the financial constraints have been a factor.

If you say money has never been an issue that's welcome news to me.