Kevin Ollie has forgiven UConn, focused on coaching at Overtime Elite: 'I'm doing great over here' (Borges)

[Northbound]

I feel like a college hoop historian around this place

There is no story like Kevin Ollie's. He might be kinda like Steve Fisher with the Fab 5; but Michigan didn't win. WINNING. Do not discount the ability to coach your way to the Final game ... and hear that CBS song and see confetti coming down. It is absolutely outrageous to think Ollie was lucky or didn't coach the Team (ie. YOUR Shabazz theory); it was a brilliant job for an entire month. He knew how to Play 8 guys; role play and coach/motivate. Make the right moves in clutch time.

Having said that. The subsequent years and even the PR from the go ... tells the story of a guy who did not have all the components to lead a top (shall we say Blue Blood) Program. Just no. He did not have any notion of the things Calhoun obsessed about; even in this IE program, he can identify and recruit talent ... but there's simply a screw loose; his pronouncements + connectivity with a Campus stakeholders (and State fan ticket base) was poor. And, in the end, he is a kid who scrambled + worked hard to get all this together; but, he is a buyer of poor advice. I think. And of course, I hate that he divorced during all this.

If you thumb through every NC since Wooden (my lifetime of fanboy), nothing is comparable to Ollie. It wasn't luck. Larry Brown winning wasn't luck. Norm Sloan winning wasn't luck. Richardson-Tarkanian-TubbySmith. He simply should not have been expected to be a CEO of a BigTime Program. He wasn't groomed for all the things involved.

Yeah i think i was hammered for saying thst exact same thing when he was hired. You don’t bring a great field sales guy into run a Fortune 500 company - that’s what the program is a Fortune 500 company - he’s never even led an Inc 1000 company its was not a good match from the jump.

Doesn’t matter now it’s done we move on and KO can’t do whatever the hell it is he does - he drove the program into the ground, broke rules however insignificant they were and them had the gall to try and sully the college’s reputation in the court of public opinion and extract additional money from the college while doing it.

Reconcile yeah maybe not.

 

[CL82]

Yes I am familiar, and yes they were minor violations

Well, the NCAA didn't feel that way and it resulted in players being suspended, the program losing scholarships and being put on suspension, and Kevin being given a three year show cause penalty. The most serious individual penalty in their arsenal. But I'm sure you are right and they are wrong.

The whole everyone was doing thing you said, the difference is 3rd graders aren’t competing in a billion dollar industry, and are all doing the same thing wrong.

Exactly third graders aren't competing in that world, so using a third grade justification seems misplaced, don't you think.

And as for all the lying or whatever, reasonable to say most of that likely played out after UConn decided they were going to get out of his contract

Again, that is factually incorrect. Ollie lied to the DB, repeatedly. That was a specific basis for removal. Again, are you following this at all?

 

[mussels]

You don't get blue blood status unless you win national championships or have multiple final fours under more than one coach.

That's why 2014 was so incredibly important for the program, and without Kevin Ollie it doesn't happen. Agree he had to go, but can't understand the venom directed toward him given what he did for the program. Without 2014, outside UConn nation we would be UNLV - some great years under a single coach and that's it.

 

[CL82]

Hypocritical damning. We were willing to have a HOF coach who - let's be frank - took kids that were risky (Caron Butler, Doug Wrenn, Toraino Walker, laptops).

Frankly, Jim Calhoun's ability to reach out to young guys and turn their lives around may be the single most admirable quality he possessed. I doubt he would ever apologize for it. Neither will I.

I have resolved this in my mind: Kevin Ollie is in a crap position because he took bad advice and didn't accept the University's outreach on his exit.

Might want to keep working on that. Kevin is "in a crap position" because he violated an express contractual obligation, lied to his employer, lied to a regulating agency causing both him and his employer to sanctioned by the regulating agency. That get's you fired 10 times out of 10 in the real world.
Kevin isn't being victimized, he just receiving the consequences of his profoundly bad decisions. Life's like that sometimes.

He lacked the institutional makeup to run our program. It is not like we weren't often in the scope of the NCAA sheriff. I can't remember the guy's name ... but HE was always out to get UCONN and JC.

Exactly and he was specifically instructed of that circumstance and directed not to cross that line. He did anyway... and then lied about it. [Shrugs] Bad things happen when you do that.

 

[methodology]

Looks like the Port?

Yes it was

 

[Chief00]

I agree with many of the critical comments about KO’s case. Like a lot of people who get fired KO was in denial about accepting personal responsibility and his lawyer who should have brought some sanity into the process, at least privately, seems to have just made things worse and didn’t reel KO back to reality in terms of his case. Then you have Glen Miller extracting revenge for his own termination and you have a mess on your hands.
Having said all that and what I posted previously, I know the two main parties (Coach and KO) want to make up - and that’s good enough for Chief. I hope it happens despite the various contradictions with KO, since life is short especially at Jim’s age and it’s much better to heal the wounds. I can tell you Chief is doing what he can to make that happen.
The above is my reasoning but even if you disagree with me, you don’t want OTE to target one of our targets with lots of cash just to rub more salt in the wounds. So it’s in everyone’s interest to make up.

 

[Tenspro2002]

View attachment 69960
When I was working in harwich port this summer we got $1 oysters (from Chatham) at least 4 days a week. Most we put down between the 2 of us was 80 was told the most they saw 2 people put down was 200

Jesus, you couldn't pay me $200 to put down 1 of them. Pass.

 

[FlippinCrazy!]

Well, the NCAA didn't feel that way and it resulted in players being suspended, the program losing scholarships and being put on suspension, and Kevin being given a three year show cause penalty. The most serious individual penalty in their arsenal. But I'm sure you are right and they are wrong.

Exactly third graders aren't competing in that world, so using a third grade justification seems misplaced, don't you think.

Again, that is factually incorrect. Ollie lied to the DB, repeatedly. That was a specific basis for removal. Again, are you following this at all?

Alright buddy, don’t get so worked up over it…