Kevin Ollie makes Second Round Interview with Pistons > takes job w/ Brooklyn Nets

[HooperScooper]

Do you think Hurley really turned down an ACC job (Pitt) to coach in the American?

When Hurley was hired a year ago at UConn from Rhode Island, he said there were no promises made to him by President Susan Herbst and the administration that UConn would ultimately re-join the Big East. Yet the rumors have been flying ever since the school left with the other football schools in 2013.

"I wanted to be the coach at UConn regardless," he said. "That had been a dream of mine my whole coaching career, is to be the head coach here. I had hoped it would happen. When I first met with [AD] Dave Benedict and President Herbst, they made it clear to me that it might not, and take this job with the understanding that you could very well be in the American and don't take it based on rumors that we could be relocating."

UConn's Dan Hurley Says Joining Big East Enhances Recruiting, Chance To Contend for NCAA Titles

The UConn men's basketball team has won four NCAA titles since 1999. With the school's return to the Big East in 2020, Dan Hurley believes it will "definitely enhance' recruiting and the program's ability to contend for more NCAA titles.

www.forbes.com

 

[Jbirdp5]

I saw the games too. Ollie struggled at the end.

The debating strategy of using Ollie's own words about his team against him is weak. Should we go digging around in Calhoun's post-game press conferences for times he lit up his own teams and then use it as evidence that he couldn't coach? If it works for Ollie, it must work for Calhoun too, right?

Or should we use a single, off the record source. You want to use some of them against Calhoun? Because there were a lot of coaches that freaking hated him. One of the reasons that UConn was so easy to game plan against by the end of Ollie's tenure was that the talent was not very good.

I agree he struggled at the end, and there is no excuse for a man of integrity and making millions to be putting so little effort into his job at the end. That’s why his X’s and O’s Come into question because of how bad the team was prepared and played at the end of his tenure. And there’s nothing wrong with people pointing out that truth and calling into question his coaching acumen because of it.

 

[Deleted at users request]

Say, why’d he get divorced?

Also, darned shame that millions of dollars a year wasn’t enough to keep him interested in doing his job.

He’s really a victim if you think about it.

The waterboys on this site are embarrassing.

There were a lot of teams willing to pay him millions a year to do that job. He stuck with his alma mater though and all they did was give him grovel for it.

If you had to fight for your job wherever you worked and didn’t get rewarded for it and kept getting put in worse situations, would that motivate you to work harder? Especially when you stayed on despite offers at better companies?

 

[Deleted at users request]

Not putting effort into the teams effort and execution falls on nobody’s shoulders but his own. Can’t blame the admin for that

I think multiple things can be true.

He was terrible down the stretch

Administration did him no favors

He can still be a hell of a coach when he’s actually trying to be

 

[HooperScooper]

Not trying to attack Hurley’s character when I say this, but he already lied for no reason about the whole being on the phone with a recruit when the president called thing. It’s not out the question that he may have said something that just sounded good about being at UConn, even if we were in the American, to rile up a fan base. He has no reason to answer that question honestly.

That was a sort off the cuff remark where he was trying to sound cool that he blew off the president for a recruit. He later admitted it was a lie. The not knowing about joining the Big East was many years ago and he's said it many times since then. I see what you're saying but I don't equate the 2 as similar circumstances.

He could have lied because he didn't want to throw UConn under the bus. I think Benedict and Herbst said joining the Big East came together rather quickly. So if they told Hurley that over a year before it officially happened that would make them liars.

But for now I will have to take him at his word about this. Or else I'll never be able to believe anything he ever says.

 

[Fishy]

There were a lot of teams willing to pay him millions a year to do that job. He stuck with his alma mater though and all they did was give him grovel for it.

If you had to fight for your job wherever you worked and didn’t get rewarded for it and kept getting put in worse situations, would that motivate you to work harder? Especially when you stayed on despite offers at better companies?

This is a) inaccurate and b) very stupid.

 

[UConn990411]

Divorce and being stuck in a non P5 basketball conference probably led to a lack of care by the end of his tenure. Just my theory.

I don’t think Hurley comes here without the assurance of getting us in the Big East. But the AAC was Ollie’s reward for not taking the Lakers job after winning a NC and having to fight for his job in the first place. Tough pills to swallow. He got bent over by the administration at every turn during his time here.

The divorce happened in January 2015. Ollie got fired in March 2018.

I’m not trying to diminish the impact something like a divorce can have on one’s job performance. But it doesn’t excuse the 3+ years he stopped doing a job he was paid millions of dollars to do.

 

[Deleted at users request]

That was a sort off the cuff remark where he was trying to sound cool that he blew off the president for a recruit. He later admitted it was a lie. The not knowing about joining the Big East was many years ago and he's said it many times since then. I see what you're saying but I don't equate the 2 as similar circumstances.

He could have lied because he didn't want to throw UConn under the bus. I think Benedict and Herbst said joining the Big East came together rather quickly. So if they told Hurley that over a year before it officially happened that would make them liars.

I can agree the circumstances aren’t 1:1.

Don’t think admin had to lie to him about the Big East necessarily, but in the article it states the rumors were already out about it when he was being interviewed. He probably had a good idea that it was going to happen, especially if Benedict and Herbst wanted it to happen.

Sounds like the whole set low expectations and be excited when we pass them thing on their side. On Hurley’s side it’s reasonable to expect they would be able to get it done. Public facing wise he gains nothing out of saying he would not have came if the Big East wasn’t on the table but gains a lot more saying otherwise. It’s a smart way to go about it.

Our problem during Ollie’s tenure I think was that we were shooting for the AAC and Big Ten trying to hold onto our football teams relevancy. Once they gave up on those the Big East was a no brainer. That’s my rough memory of it at least.

 

[Deleted at users request]

This is a) inaccurate and b) very stupid.

Inaccurate eh?

Lakers Can Cross Out Kevin Ollie As He Agrees To 5-Year/$15 Million Deal With UCONN

Connecticut basketball coach Kevin Ollie has agreed to a $15 million, five-year contract with the national champion Huskies.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[Deleted at users request]

This article was from 2016. It’s crazy how much things changed in 2 years (it was really just two really bad years).

Kevin Ollie’s Name Surfacing Again Now That Lakers Job Is Open

Here we go again. The NBA coaching carousel is turning and that means Kevin Ollie’s name is coming up. The Lakers, Ollie’s hometown team, parted ways with coach Byron Scott on Sunday ni…

www.courant.com

 

[kemba]

This article was from 2016. It’s crazy how much things changed in 2 years (it was really just two really bad years).

Kevin Ollie’s Name Surfacing Again Now That Lakers Job Is Open

Here we go again. The NBA coaching carousel is turning and that means Kevin Ollie’s name is coming up. The Lakers, Ollie’s hometown team, parted ways with coach Byron Scott on Sunday ni…

www.courant.com

Neither of those articles said he was offered a job. The 2nd lakers situation was literally just a reporter throwing some names out, most of those names listed were never considered for the lakers job

 

[Deleted at users request]

Neither of those articles said he was offered a job. The 2nd lakers situation was literally just a reporter throwing some names out, most of those names listed were never considered for the lakers job

“He was contacted by the Cavaliers, but told them of his desire to stay at UConn, where he signed a five-year extension.”

 

[kemba]

“He was contacted by the Cavaliers, but told them of his desire to stay at UConn, where he signed a five-year extension.”

Where does it say he would have been offered the job?

 

[Deleted at users request]

Where does it say he would have been offered the job?

Kind of hard to be offered a job if you turn it down in the first place.

We’re doing some real revisionist history here if we’re going to say Ollie wasn’t a super hot commodity in NBA circles after the most impressive NCAA tournament coaching performance of all time.

 

[Waquoit]

Right on. That was why he was only able to out-coach losers like Martelli, Wright, Hoiberg, Izzo, Donovan and Calipari to win the title.

If he was the coach you say he was, we would have seen evidence of it after Napier graduated. Instead, we got 3 years of coaching-free basketball.

 

[kemba]

Kind of hard to be offered a job if you turn it down in the first place.

We’re doing some real revisionist history here if we’re going to say Ollie wasn’t a super hot commodity in NBA circles after the most impressive NCAA tournament coaching performance of all time.

His name was written in articles. There probably even was some real interest in him. That’s completely different from “there were many teams willing to pay him millions to do the job.”

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

There were a lot of teams willing to pay him millions a year to do that job. He stuck with his alma mater though and all they did was give him grovel for it.

If you had to fight for your job wherever you worked and didn’t get rewarded for it and kept getting put in worse situations, would that motivate you to work harder? Especially when you stayed on despite offers at better companies?

What were the "a lot of teams?" Because I thought it was only the Lakers job which he wasn't guaranteed to get. Also his reward was his paycheck .

 

[nelsonmuntz]

If he was the coach you say he was, we would have seen evidence of it after Napier graduated. Instead, we got 3 years of coaching-free basketball.

So you don’t count the 2014 Championship as legitimate? You should write the NCAA to have it vacated because you didn’t like the coach.

 

[gtcam]

Inaccurate eh?

Lakers Can Cross Out Kevin Ollie As He Agrees To 5-Year/$15 Million Deal With UCONN

Connecticut basketball coach Kevin Ollie has agreed to a $15 million, five-year contract with the national champion Huskies.

www.cbsnews.com

Don’t fret what he says
A pure narcissist at work

 

[WhereistheDove?]

So you don’t count the 2014 Championship as legitimate? You should write the NCAA to have it vacated because you didn’t like the coach.

Bolded below for reading comprehension assistance.

If he was the coach you say he was, we would have seen evidence of it after Napier graduated. Instead, we got 3 years of coaching-free basketball.

 

[navery12]

 

[tuvent08]

That’s a lot of money and years. But 4.5 will probably be spent on the beach, so god bless.

 

[Psolo12]

Wow, what a surprise that a guy who hasn’t coached a meaningful game in half a decade and was banished by his beloved university for his horrendous coaching job didn’t get a head coaching job in the best basketball organization in the world.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Wow, what a surprise that a guy who hasn’t coached a meaningful game in half a decade and was banished by his beloved university for his horrendous coaching job didn’t get a head coaching job in the best basketball organization in the world.

Sick burn dude! You killed it! Let’s keep this going as long as it takes to forget the fact that UConn had to write him a gigantic check!

 

[Deleted at users request]

WOTS is that Weaver wanted Ollie but the owner Gores fought against it.

Then backed up a brinks truck for Monty to seal it.