Good article.

[noeynox]

Ollie’s performance was ok? On what planet? Maybe for a d3 program somewhere but that’s about it.

Guys coach entire careers and don't a national title. He also won a conference tournament. Problem was we were trending really bad. The mass exodus at the end of last year was a HUGE problem. That he couldnt stem that tide or see the problem it would cause the program is 100 percent on Kevin Ollie.

The problem as the article and several of us has said, was the stupid, insane buyout given to him by Benedict and the school.

 

[Rocktheworld]

I literally said it wasn't about race...

I know, I didn’t say you did

 

[Rocktheworld]

I highly doubt Ollie has made this about race.

As do I

 

[dennismenace]

Well now we have that guy's opinion after he looked at UConn's record under Ollie and had his assistant research when the contracts were signed. He concluded Ollie's coaching & contract was bad, really Dr.?!

Also why include the section on race? If he'd looked into it and found nothing it serves no purpose other than inflammatory.

Then the overall conclusion that other schools have tried to get out of bad contracts therefore that's what UConn is doing is unfounded supposition. I honestly can't understand why a handful of people are such staunch defenders of employment contracts when <1% of people have one and when in this case the alleged suffering party has already made more money than 99.95% of humans make in a lifetime. To me a logical conclusion is that we know Ollie did a terrible coaching job in many aspects, so more support for a straight line hypothesis that this bad job extended to compliance and other fire-able acts or omissions?

I thought the story was greatly oversimplified by someone who has less facts than the average Boneyarder. Completely missing from his analyses are the matter of KO's personal life (divorce among others) (as opposed to his coaching acumen) and from the university perspective he fails to mention the influence on KO's hiring that Jim Calhoun had.
The other huge factor is that virtually no one but a handful of people know what cards the Administration has to play regarding "just cause." It just a silly bunch of assumptions by the author thrown out pretty much as fact and then summarized complete with a judgment. Pretty lame.

 

[dennismenace]

At least he did not take from the Boneyard.

He might have found more valuable information here than the bunch of assumptions and second guessing that he did.

 

[Confident Carl]

How do you not RE-up with a guy after they win a National Championship? And you pay him a Market rate? Is Ollie getting paid Izzo-K-Pitino like money ... he wasn’t.

This is a sad arc. The “race” line seems obligatory for a black sportswriter. The guy didn’t perform.

Unlike many, I don’t see “just cause” as anything other than leverage in negotiating. Ollie will get some of that money. (Of course, I know nothing) But, this is the response when you float the idea to KO that he’s been fired and we’d sure love you to back off the contractual payoff. And he says no. This is HIS University ... still. I hope there is a quick resolution.

Divorce is never easy. An amicable negotiated settlement is ideal but people get either greedy or stingy and are unable to end things nice so they end up enriching the attorneys.
I too hope the parties can come up with a resolution.

I have always liked Kevin Ollie BUT he didn't get the job done. I cut him slack last year because of the injuries however losing three core big men, Durham, Enoch and Jackson never sat right with me. My first reaction was, why you primadonnas, don't let the door hit you in the arse but at the same time wondered, "how does that happen"? There must have been something deeper and heavier going on. Benedict held exit interviews with them. It would be interesting knowing what was revealed.

In the end, Gilbert's 2nd injury aside, losing those three bigs killed it. We had a totally guard centric team with absolutely no presence in the paint. Just take a look at the minutes played by Adams, Vital, Anderson and Larrier. KO played musical chairs with the bigs. The leader in the clubhouse was frosh Carlton who played 15 mpg, with a whopping 4.4 ppg and 3.7 rpg. Not sure what Cobb's issues were, probably not KO's fault but maybe that situation could have been avoided too. Then there is the David Onurah question of why a 5th year grad student got to play 10 mpg and averaging 1-ppg and 2.1 rpg while shooting .480 from the floor. The answer that he set good screens to create openings for the guards doesn't suffice. Fans were screaming to give the young bigs more playing time to get better for the future.

The rest of the teams stats are there as well but no team on the planet could win at the highest level with big man stats like these:

UConn Huskies 2017-18 Statistics - Team and Player Stats - Men's College Basketball - ESPN

 

[Travelman6]

I mean, the idea that race colors the way that we see people is just a reality, and that Black people are valued less in our society than White people is also a reality--that's not any kind of opinion, but just based in basically every statistical metric that could measure the well being of groups in our country.

I don't think it is a factor in this situation. Folks are pointing to Bob Diaco getting his buyout, but Diaco wasn't under an investigation and Diaco's buyout was more manageable. This decision is the result of being broke and nothing else.

With that being said, I don't really understand the argument of loyalty in college athletics to begin with. There is no place for loyalty, or even morality really, in the business of college sports. It's a corporation, and corporations only care about the bottom line and do what they can to secure their own best interest--why should we be any different? The only legitimate question should be whether claiming just cause serves our best future interests or not. I don't think that's the way college sports should be, but it's the way that they are, and our failure to play by those rules (or lack of rules) has held us back for too long.

Fair enough. Racism still exists in the usa. But I do feel like sometimes people, like in the case of Ollie, are too eager to pull that card when it has nothing to do with race. But I do get what you are saying.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I'm lost. When did this become about race?

@uconnphil2016 mentioned above, that "A Dime Back" said that some former players wondered if this was about race.
I find that preposterous, or they wouldn't have hired him in the first place. I don't think Kevin or anyone else has raised it.

That being said, Kevin is a member of a protected class (and I don't mean union faculty members). So in terminating any such person for cause, any large organization will normally exercise more than the usual amount of caution. That is why I suspect that they have built a case to support the decision that is not merely based a single minor violation of an NCAA rule. I would guess that they will throw the kitchen sink at him if he doesn't settle.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Then maybe Glenn Miller should file a complaint that race was a factor in his firing. He’d have more claim to that than KO would here (not that I think KO is gonna go that route)

Without a doubt, Miller sure can't dance. And, his non-matching colored socks ... absolute grounds for a discrimination claim. So-so article.

 

[browndog319]

I mean, the idea that race colors the way that we see people is just a reality, and that Black people are valued less in our society than White people is also a reality--that's not any kind of opinion, but just based in basically every statistical metric that could measure the well being of groups in our country.

I don't think it is a factor in this situation. Folks are pointing to Bob Diaco getting his buyout, but Diaco wasn't under an investigation and Diaco's buyout was more manageable. This decision is the result of being broke and nothing else.

With that being said, I don't really understand the argument of loyalty in college athletics to begin with. There is no place for loyalty, or even morality really, in the business of college sports. It's a corporation, and corporations only care about the bottom line and do what they can to secure their own best interest--why should we be any different? The only legitimate question should be whether claiming just cause serves our best future interests or not. I don't think that's the way college sports should be, but it's the way that they are, and our failure to play by those rules (or lack of rules) has held us back for too long.

I would say that yes, in many situations, race does come into play. However, if race were a factor, KO wouldn’t have commanded the dollars he did as quickly as he did. That was the university showing him his value and I would argue that right there is proof that they valued KO the man. Now they are saying he failed to uphold his end of the contract, basically failing to deliver the value they expected. NCAA inquiries are objective, not subjective. Wins and losses are objective, not subjective.

 

[gtcam]

Divorce is never easy. An amicle negotiated settlement is ideal but people get either greedy or stingy and are unable to end things nice so they end up enriching the attorneys.
I too hope the parties can come up with a resolution.

I have always liked Kevin Ollie BUT he didn't get the job done. I cut him slack last year because of the injuries however losing three core big men, Durham, Enoch and Jackson never sat right with me. My first reaction was, why you primadonnas, don't let the door hit you in the arse but at the same time wondered, "how does that happen"? There must have been something deeper and heavier going on. Benedict held exit interviews with them. It would be interesting knowing what was revealed.

In the end, Gilbert's 2nd injury aside, losing those three bigs killed it. We had a totally guard centric team with absolutely no presence in the paint. Just take a look at the minutes played by Adams, Vital, Anderson and Larrier. KO played musical chairs with the bigs. The leader in the clubhouse was frosh Carlton who played 15 mpg, with a whopping 4.4 ppg and 3.7 rpg. Not sure what Cobbs issues were, probably not KO's fault but maybe that situation could have been avoided too. Then there is the David Onurah question of why a 5th year grad student got to play 10 mpg and averaging 1-ppg and 2.1 rpg while shooting .480 from the floor. The answer that he set good screens to create openings for the guards doesn't suffice. Fans were screaming to give the young bigs more playing time to get better for the future.

The rest of the teams stats are there as well but no team on the planet could win at the highest level with big man stats like these:

UConn Huskies 2017-18 Statistics - Team and Player Stats - Men's College Basketball - ESPN

Its been said constantly that VJ was not staying on the east coast, his father wanted him nearer to the family and it is suspected that he was told that he would have to fight for the same playing time he received as a gift as a freshman. The kid, under normal circumstances, would have seen about 25% of what he did had TL been healthy. Plus the kid was a bad egg in practice and whenever he was sitting on the bench.
Enoch was not going to be guaranteed starting and/or minutes and he also was a problem child - if you watched his antics on the bench during games you saw it.
Durham was a kid who had plenty of D1 attention before his 1st ACL tear and then 65% of the teams left him, KO stood tall and stayed on his trail, when the kid tore it again, everyone but UConn fled - KO was true to his words. The kid saw some playing time but left KO in the lurch - he also hung around with Enoch too much and became a problem -to a lesser degree
I agree KO didn't get the job done - his recruiting tactics - well in plain English - sucked
But these 3 kids were a headache and wanted the world handed to them. KO should have seen it in VJ from day 1
The bigs he had this past season were the bane of all bigs that UConn has had recently - young, no meat on the bones and little skills - it was always men vs boys
The new coach better get some junk yard dogs signed up real soon

 

[Hoophound]

Way too many problems with KO’s performance and lots of here-say about his relationships with players, private life etc. to just assume firing him with cause is bogus. We have to wait for details to come out or accept that we’ll hear of a settlement soon and that will be that.

I tend to think cause is reasonable and that’s why they used it. Plenty of things they could threaten to leak to the press based on the rumor mill. Some of those rumors have a very high level of credibility based on what I’ve heard. He lost control of the program and apparently got way too sloppy off the court.

 

[Thirty Three]

Those of you here who claim UConn is wrong for firing Ollie "for cause" obviously must know exactly what the alleged ncaa violations are (as well as Ollie's guilt or innocence). I didn't realize that information was available, so please, one of you fill me in. I'll be waiting.

 

[Hoophound]

People are trying to solve a mystery that they can’t solve. We just don’t have the info needed to assess whether or not firing for cause is reasonable——but I’m guessing it is. This has been a messy couple of years.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

I'll be waiting.

Possible consideration, a really comfortable chair ... it could be a very long wait!

 

[UConnSwag11]

Highly highly doubt it. That card is played too often.

Agreed. He game in and won a nation championship. Got a massive contract and massively underperformed.

 

[Confident Carl]

It’s 2018, everything boils down to race and gender.

If it was a girls coach they would be shouting Misogyny!

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

I'm lost. When did this become about race?

Not long after the linked article was referenced as having peripherally/factually/accurately mentioned speculation about race and some people got 'inflamed' while dismissing the suggestion out of hand.

If only nobody had brought it up, it could have been ignored.

 

[UConnRock]

[QUOTE="uconnphil2016, post: 2625358, member: were wondering if race had anything to do with it[/QUOTE]

and Kevin Stallings firing for cause was based on balding prejudice.

 

[intlzncster]

In the end, Gilbert's 2nd injury aside, losing those three bigs killed it. We had a totally guard centric team with absolutely no presence in the paint. Just take a look at the minutes played by Adams, Vital, Anderson and Larrier. KO played musical chairs with the bigs. The leader in the clubhouse was frosh Carlton who played 15 mpg, with a whopping 4.4 ppg and 3.7 rpg. Not sure what Cobb's issues were, probably not KO's fault but maybe that situation could have been avoided too. Then there is the David Onurah question of why a 5th year grad student got to play 10 mpg and averaging 1-ppg and 2.1 rpg while shooting .480 from the floor. The answer that he set good screens to create openings for the guards doesn't suffice. Fans were screaming to give the young bigs more playing time to get better for the future.

We had a totally guard-centric team with barely any guards. Only two worth mentioning. It was brutal roster construction.