I’d probably cancel the Hurley presser

[JMick]

Susan knows politics. The best example is the UCONN west hartford campus. The board was all set to sell the campus to a Chinese group call Weiming for 10 mill. West hartford objected n she put a stop to the sale because of the supports she needed from WH Dems. The site was sold to WH for like a mil and then it fell through. It is still a good decision for UCONN because we were spare the massive cuts that Republican proposed. She and DB know the optics of this. KO is staying

if Susan knew politics she'd have handled the sexual assault lawsuit differently. she floundered through that one even though she was right.

 

[Husky68]

Remember what happened to Hathaway. Due to some code of conduct issues, he did not get his otherwise contract payout.

I've asked others this, maybe I'm the only one that doesn't know. What are the code of conduct issues by Ollie? If bad why not fire right now?

 

[UConnNick]

Put yourself in Benedict’s shoes:

You have to drum up 10 million dollars to fire someone. You literally have to go out and beg for this money.

Someone that you just extended and while you didn’t negotiate the deal, your name is at the bottom.

When they ask you - who are you going to
replace him with? You say - hopefully Danny Hurley? And if he likes one of his P5 offers better - then what?

Then put yourself in Herbst’s shoes:

The state is going to clamp down on your university’s funding.

While it might be ‘private’ money that funds the buyout - your athletic department is bleeding like a hemophiliac at a razor blade factory.

The optics of the university burning 10 million dollars to make someone they just extended go away is horrendous. Herbst is a politician - she knows damn well that the UConn enemies in Hartford will use it as evidence they shouldn’t be funded as well as they are.


My employer makes billions a year and winning $10 million dollars to fund something is a monumental deal.

UConn’s athletic department looks at 2015 Radio Shack financials and says - what are you guys complaining about?

Yep. It's tough to see how anybody is going to make this work, short of Ollie just flat out quitting. I'm afraid we're destined for a really rough go of it regarding whatever is left of our fanbase if we don't go on some kind of miracle run in the AAC tourney.

"...bleeding like a hemophiliac at a razor blade factory." That's LMAO hysterical, but also the sad truth regarding our athletic dept.

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

Susan knows politics. The best example is the UCONN west hartford campus. The board was all set to sell the campus to a Chinese group call Weiming for 10 mill. West hartford objected n she put a stop to the sale because of the supports she needed from WH Dems. The site was sold to WH for like a mil and then it fell through. It is still a good decision for UCONN because we were spare the massive cuts that Republican proposed. She and DB know the optics of this. KO is staying

Couldnt of played politics well enough when we could have left the conference

 

[BFieldHusky]

Susan knows politics. The best example is the UCONN west hartford campus. The board was all set to sell the campus to a Chinese group call Weiming for 10 mill. West hartford objected n she put a stop to the sale because of the supports she needed from WH Dems. The site was sold to WH for like a mil and then it fell through. It is still a good decision for UCONN because we were spare the massive cuts that Republican proposed. She and DB know the optics of this. KO is staying

The optics of keeping him will be far worse when no one starts to showing up for games and support is at an all time low.

 

[intlzncster]

FWIW, not putting much stock in this, but I heard from a very well connected HS b-ball coach (in terms of knowing college coaches and communicating them regularly) and he said that he had recently heard that Ollie is “serious trouble”

I've no doubt he's hearing it vis a vis negative recruiting. Other coaches are hammering it I'm sure. Not that they need all that much ammo these days.

 

[BlueDogs]

I recommend the unions at UCONN file a grievance if the school swallow the 10 mil for Ollie and spend another 15 mil for a new hire. There is no money at UCONN. The athletics department is a sink hole now. The state legislature and more importantly; Susan knows that. Kevin is coming back

I recommend the state unions stop bilking the state treasury and raping tax payers.

 

[Mots010]

The optics of keeping him will be far worse when no one starts to showing up for games and support is at an all time low.

Just picture March 2019, when we finish our third straight losing season in a row. That’s what we’re headed for with Ollie. Getting 1000 people in the civic center will be a chore.

 

[Lefty2one]

Put yourself in Benedict’s shoes:

You have to drum up 10 million dollars to fire someone. You literally have to go out and beg for this money.

Someone that you just extended and while you didn’t negotiate the deal, your name is at the bottom.

When they ask you - who are you going to
replace him with? You say - hopefully Danny Hurley? And if he likes one of his P5 offers better - then what?

Then put yourself in Herbst’s shoes:

The state is going to clamp down on your university’s funding.

While it might be ‘private’ money that funds the buyout - your athletic department is bleeding like a hemophiliac at a razor blade factory.

The optics of the university burning 10 million dollars to make someone they just extended go away is horrendous. Herbst is a politician - she knows damn well that the UConn enemies in Hartford will use it as evidence they shouldn’t be funded as well as they are.


My employer makes billions a year and winning $10 million dollars to fund something is a monumental deal.

UConn’s athletic department looks at 2015 Radio Shack financials and says - what are you guys complaining about?

So cut football, move basketball to the A-10 and let's all go find other things to do with our spare time.

 

[whaler11]

So cut football, move basketball to the A-10 and let's all go find other things to do with our spare time.

That’s a more likely outcome than most people want to admit.

 

[Lefty2one]

The optics of keeping him will be far worse when no one starts to showing up for games and support is at an all time low.

Football attendance is at an all-time low. Basketball is going to shatter record-low attendances for Gampel this year. It's not going to change either. We're on the fast track to being UMass, though UMass actually has a more enticing conference schedule than we do.

 

[Lefty2one]

That’s a more likely outcome than most people want to admit.

Good. Get us back to a conference with a sliver of geographic sanity. We have got to let go of the football pipe dream. It's never going to happen.

 

[lange10]

If Ollie stays one more year how much does me make next year and how much does the buyout go down?

 

[jdb50]

Putting myself in DB and SH shoes. This year finishes and we are around .500 plus or minus one. Ollie returns but do Jalen and Larrier? No Larrier and we can make up the difference most likely. No Jalen and we are where we are right now at this point next year with multiple 25 point plus blowouts and it will be a very bad situation fan wise and on a news scale nationally. The decision will be obvious and unavoidable at that point and how much money will that buyout cost us? The fanbase will be insanely angry and possibly invisible in protest. It is a no win situation.

 

[KemBaller]

Conference realignment is dead. Dead iddillly dead.

Not sure about that. At some point ND will have to fully join the ACC in order to be eligible for a conference title game and improve their chances at ever getting into the CFB playoff. Once that happens the ACC will likely grab another school to balance out their divisions.

 

[KembaStepback]

What makes people think some random HC is going to boost attendance and bring in better talent?

Also - if you are going to boo our head coach on a nationally televised game when he is announced before the game...don't bother coming. That was awful. UConn fans are so incredibly spoiled it makes me sick.

 

[Huskybass]

What makes people think some random HC is going to boost attendance and bring in better talent?

Also - if you are going to boo our head coach on a nationally televised game when he is announced before the game...don't bother coming. That was awful. UConn fans are so incredibly spoiled it makes me sick.

You don't hire "some random head coach", you hire a very good, competent head coach. This isn't as hard as some of the pessimists are making it seem.

 

[ZenConn]

If DB got the money, fired KO and Hurley said no, the BY would literally melt down.

 

[UConnNick]

I don't have a good feeling about this present school administration making any sound decisions regarding athletics. They waited too long to can Pasqualoni, hired Crazy Cranberry pants, extended his contract, costing them 3.4 million to get rid of the clown, and have orchestrated several head scratching assistant coach hires.

What are the chances they'll do anything right this time? They get it on the academic side, but they act like athletics should be run as an extra-curricular student activity. They'll end up learning the hard way that the two things are intertwined, and academics will begin to suffer if the national rep of the AD continues to free fall toward oblivion.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

No, we r the premier university in NE.

I'm as big a UConn person as anyone but you cannot possibly think that UConn is the overall premier university in New England.

 

[UCDaveD]

What makes people think some random HC is going to boost attendance and bring in better talent?

Yup, you're right. This is our new high-water mark. Might as well get AD David Benedict working on that lifetime extension for Ollie because there is clearly no coach in America willing to come here who could possibly do a better job. Kevin Ollie is the be all and end all for UConn basketball.

 

[UCDaveD]

I'm as big a UConn person as anyone but you cannot possibly think that UConn is the overall premier university in New England.

We're not even the premier university in our own state.

 

[Stainmaster]

Yup, you're right. This is our new high-water mark. Might as well get AD David Benedict working on that lifetime extension for Ollie because there is clearly no coach in America willing to come here who could possibly do a better job. Kevin Ollie is the be all and end all for UConn basketball.

We could be first in the conference and we still wouldn’t get anyone to show up against these teams.

 

[Danzz]

Anybody who believes KO is not in serious trouble is being oblivious to the what is going on with the program. Not saying it will be easy to fire him at the end of the year, but I'm sure DB is going to try all avenues on making sure he is gone if the current trajectory continues for the rest of the season.

"current trajectory continues..."
If the team shows major improvement, performs well in the conference tourney and /or makes the NIT then KO gets another year. If not DB will find way to eat the money and fire him at the end of the season. There is nothing to be gained from firing KO during the season.
I really think that DB wants to keep KO if he can but he also realizes that UConn can't afford another losing season. KO has the rest of this season to turn things around.

 

[Danzz]

We're not even the premier university in our own state.

Did you read the word "public"?