Multi-year Extension for Ollie

[UConnDan97]

Dom Amore (@AmoreCourant)
12/29/12, 3:33 PM
Kevin Ollie deal worth about $7 million, plus bonuses for postseason play, conference titles, awards. Etc.

Dom Amore (@AmoreCourant)
12/29/12, 3:35 PM
Kevin Ollie deal also has series of sanctions if #uconnmen get into APR trouble. Specific details on that later.

So let me throw this out there: if the contract indeed has a disclaimer on APR numbers, then why would it have been necessary for Warde to wait until the first semester grades were in? Exactly...

 

[Dann]

You don't see the grades answer as acceptable? Why not?

players get grades not ko. they have academic advisors and tutors and interns handle that shit at every school and now uconn has all that jazz also. ko is at uconn to win bball games, not do long division and basket weaving. at no place in the country where bball is close to important does the bball coachs contract get held up for months based of a teams grades that he was recently named to. its insane. if thats the way warde plays this, then its a joke and a serious punch to the gut of every fan. what if player x didn't do well in spanish class and has to sit the spring semester. thats ko's fault? that shit happens to every program all the time. just becuase we are finishing up the apr ncaa bs doesn't mean we ruin the beginging of ko's career. it was unfair to him and i want manuels head over it. hes has either ignored or up everything he has done so far. so finally after the schools fanbase has been crying and national media heads have ripped the school apart on tv over and over again to the point of dumpster fire times 20 media wise we finally get the contract. its a joke to play the academics card. if u wanted to play it, then on day 1 u man up at the press conf and say that all its going to take him is for his players to get good grades the 1st semester hes here. that way no matter how dumb that is, ko can say fine. he can put on glasses and tennis shoes and go to every class with his kids and they all get a's. we can cancel every basketball game until jan 1st becuase those dont matter, just grades. i am amazed, just amzed at how this school is right now in its athletics dept. susan is out hustling her ass off aau this and that and w/e else and warde is bruinging the place down. meanwhile casual fans and alums are a bit worried about things but are blind to it all becuase its there alam mater or just casual watch so everything is going over there heads. it sickens me to no end.

sound slike #'s wise a fair contract for both sides and respectable.

so again, if warde had ANY VISION he would have done this. sign ko early for a cheap 5 year deal compared to what he just did. then take the $ saved by doing that and buy out the fball coach and his retared buddy. then we could have really had a whole different last couple months, but warde that all up. its just $, no big deal. especially when all the other schools around us are making 5 times the $ in other conf's. no big deal, you warde. you.

 

[HuskyHawk]

You don't see the grades answer as acceptable? Why not?

It is not just grades. It's competence. KO had never been a head coach before. Not even AAU or HS. Playing basketball does not make one qualified to coach. I think we all thought Kevin did have the skill set, but I think WM would have been an imbecile to sign him long term before he demonstrated it. Handled exactly the right way.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Dove]

Did the option to link to your facebook page disappear?

 

[Dann]

So let me throw this out there: if the contract indeed has a disclaimer on APR numbers, then why would it have been necessary for Warde to wait until the first semester grades were in? Exactly...

and we can go on for hours how stupid this all is.it really is so out there its hard to comprehend. unless warde gets up at the podium and says, becuase of basing the grades on the contract and the arp stuff in his contract uconn can now play in the ncaas, its the bigges tpile of shit.

 

[UConnDan97]

It is not just grades. It's competence. KO had never been a head coach before. Not even AAU or HS. Playing basketball does not make one qualified to coach. I think we all thought Kevin did have the skill set, but I think WM would have been an imbecile to sign him long term before he demonstrated it. Handled exactly the right way.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Then why did he have to wait for the first semester grades??? The question is rhetorical, of course. It's obvious why he handled this entire situation the way he did. Although the one ounce of credit I will give to Warde was that he didn't alienate Calhoun from the program and has made it a point to be seen with him in public numerous times, which was a good move on his part and showed a lot of savvy. Having said that....let's just all be honest about what has happened here. All of the media (not just the CT media) has commented on it as well...

 

[caw]

I think we can all agree we wish this had been done earlier. It wasn't, no use complaining now. It's done, that's a great way to start off a new year.

It will be interesting to see two things: if recruiting really picks up in the 2014 class and to a lesser extent the 2013 class and if financing for the practice facility picks up. I'm sure some were waiting until Ollie was hired to donate.

 

[UConnDan97]

and we can go on for hours how stupid this all is.it really is so out there its hard to comprehend. unless warde gets up at the podium and says, becuase of basing the grades on the contract and the arp stuff in his contract uconn can now play in the ncaas, its the bigges tpile of ****.

Oh, this all was very textbook, and it had nothing to do with the textbooks. And to Kevin Ollie's credit, he never gave Warde a reason to force the issue to go to a different guy. Kevin handled the entire thing with class and resolve. It makes me even happier for the man...

 

[Dann]

Oh, this all was very textbook, and it had nothing to do with the textbooks. And to Kevin Ollie's credit, he never gave Warde a reason to force the issue to go to a different guy. Kevin handled the entire thing with class and resolve. It makes me even happier for the man...

ko handled it like a pro, he really did. if i was him i would go in there punch the guy in the face and then send the resume to duke, unc, kansas, uk and a few others. he would get a 1mil contract from some 1 to be coach in waiting if not coach asap. usc would throw multiple million sat him 2moro for example. hes the perfect hood to sucess story, home grown for uconn and a sucessful black male in a profession where they are not exactly the majority. he is everything the other top bball programs have NOT and that byitself is worth so much long term i can't sit here and explain it enough. coach k, the squid, pitino, jb, izzo should i go on? self, donovan, few. the top 20 programs in america no colored glasses on all have what as HC? KO is a such a special person its unfucking real to handle this like it has been. i cry at night going to be over it. the longterm win he will be here will be unreal. i can't stress how bad a up this all was but i am happy now its over. what i'm fustrated about is we have fans who think this played out way was ok for any excuse fgrades, expierence, or w/e. its all a dam joke to me.

just to add in, KO has been on what 15 nba teams in the past 20 years? his connections and expierence are so spoken for its a joke to play the expierence card also fwiw. he was ast coach here for a couple years. his resume tops so many it pains me to have to rant about it. FCUKinA

 

[CTBasketball]

About time.

Still, this doesn't change the horrid job WM is doing...

 

[Inyatkin]

If he'd gotten a long-term deal initially it would've looked like Calhoun ran the program. That's a bad way for an AD to run a department. If he'd gotten a deal earlier and bad grades had leaked out, it would've been awful publicity, considering our recent past.
I'm not thrilled with the way this all played out either, but a lot of that has to do with the way Calhoun handled retirement.

 

[Dann]

just breaking: warde manuel to also give 5 year extension to geno. he just wanted to make sure the girls 1st semester grades were ok first.

wtf are u ppl on here?

could u possibly be ok with this excuse? same school, same pr problem, same ath dept. no u would all think i'm nuts. take off the blinders and realize warde is things up. we should of had 2 bball coaches with contracts months ago and a new fball coach and a new marketing/pr campaign all done already. what do we have? we finally have 1 bball contract and we have some fans making grades excuses for it. if warde says that today, i'm going to have a cow.

 

[Dooley]

I couldn't be more excited for KO! Well deserved and overdue...I'm incredibly excited to keep the head coach in the UConn family.

 

[UConn990411]

The people on here criticizing Warde are duck*ing stupid.

This is great news, though. Particularly since it likely means no more contract extension threads.

 

[UConnDan97]

If he'd gotten a long-term deal initially it would've looked like Calhoun ran the program. That's a bad way for an AD to run a department.

This is the issue. Warde FELT (and I stress "felt") that it would look like he wasn't in control. But you and I disagree on what is a bad way for an AD to run a department. I think it is much worse for someone to run a department based on what he believes the perception of him will be. And if Warde was truly smart about it, he would have realized that he just received a free consultation from one of the best basketball people in the country. Since he's not a basketball guy, he should have taken the free consultation and worked out a contract just based on that information. But instead, as you alluded to, he cared more about how it would look...

...here's another question for Warde or anyone else who thinks Warde handled it properly: Does he really think that Jim Calhoun would jeopardize his legacy at UConn just for a favor to a friend? Anyone that has been around competitive Calhoun for more than five minutes should know that the answer to the question is "No."

 

[Dann]

The people on here criticizing Warde are duck*ing stupid.

This is great news, though. Particularly since it likely means no more contract extension threads.

really? whats so bright about what warde is doing? please enlighten me? the media? the marketing? the student stuff? the contracts drawn out? the puck upgrade then silence? the fball staff? and 100 other fuckin things? tell me sweet jessu what this guy is doing right? he went to the media to talk CR and made it painfully obvious that susan handles that. its fine with me she does, but since thats the case he should have kept his mouth shut or had a prepared line to say, he can't even go on the radio without somehting happeneing. caller 1-hey warde, do u like jeyy or sprinkles? oh and your only fball coach that matters just left for bsoton college and hes taking the exact same job, not a upgrade position wise. by(hangup).

u guys who dont see the fire are out of your minds.

This is the issue. Warde FELT (and I stress "felt") that it would look like he wasn't in control. But you and I disagree on what is a bad way for an AD to run a department. I think it is much worse for someone to run a department based on what he believes the perception of him will be. And if Warde was truly smart about it, he would have realized that he just received a free consultation from one of the best basketball people in the country. Since he's not a basketball guy, he should have taken the free consultation and worked out a contract just based on that information. But instead, as you alluded to, he cared more about how it would look...

...here's another question for Warde or anyone else who thinks Warde handled it properly: Does he really think that Jim Calhoun would jeopardize his legacy at UConn just for a favor to a friend? Anyone that has been around competitive Calhoun for more than five minutes should know that the answer to the question is "No."

thank you, i will never write correctly or kindly on here but u do and ppl who have a brain can read your stuff and make sense of it. u get it, it amazes me others dont. anyone who keeps trying excuse after excuse and finally gets to the warde vs jc thing needs to suck another cock. its unreal to think jc wants this program to die. so it was all the rockstar ego and hes gling to hide it with every excuse possible. i just can't want this man out of this state enough. ppl when he was hired here loved it. i remember ppl jumping all over me in the thread on the fball board about notjumping thru hoops about him. he has turned uconn into a huge dumpster fire in a few short months.

 

[Tenspro2002]

I'm not thrilled with the way this all played out either, but a lot of that has to do with the way Calhoun handled retirement.

JC ultimately got exactly what he wanted, and he knew exactly how to play it. Let's hope it plays out better for us than it did for UNC in the immediate post-Dean Smith era.

 

[Inyatkin]

This is the issue. Warde FELT (and I stress "felt") that it would look like he wasn't in control. But you and I disagree on what is a bad way for an AD to run a department. I think it is much worse for someone to run a department based on what he believes the perception of him will be. And if Warde was truly smart about it, he would have realized that he just received a free consultation from one of the best basketball people in the country. Since he's not a basketball guy, he should have taken the free consultation and worked out a contract just based on that information. But instead, as you alluded to, he cared more about how it would look...

...here's another question for Warde or anyone else who thinks Warde handled it properly: Does he really think that Jim Calhoun would jeopardize his legacy at UConn just for a favor to a friend? Anyone that has been around competitive Calhoun for more than five minutes should know that the answer to the question is "No."

That's a fair point. But you are talking about a guy who was just hired who did need to prove he was in charge. Giving the impression of rolling over for anyone, even a legend like Calhoun, is not a way anyone would want to start a job.

 

[UConnDan97]

thank you, i will never write correctly or kindly on here but u do and ppl who have a brain can read your stuff and make sense of it. u get it, it amazes me others dont. anyone who keeps trying excuse after excuse and finally gets to the warde vs jc thing needs to suck another rooster. its unreal to think jc wants this program to die. so it was all the rockstar ego and hes gling to hide it with every excuse possible.

I appreciate the compliment, HFD!

 

[gampelcrazies]

http://www.uconnhuskies.com/allaccess/?media=359979 is where you can watch the press conference. Dont know if anybody has posted it yet.

 

[huskymedic]

David Borges (@DaveBorges)
12/29/12, 4:22 PM
Jim Calhoun not here today. FIrst #UConn game he's missed this season, I believe. He's in Florida on a family vacation.

Sure some would speculate " point advantage Manuel".

 

[UConnDan97]

That's a fair point. But you are talking about a guy who was just hired who did need to prove he was in charge. Giving the impression of rolling over for anyone, even a legend like Calhoun, is not a way anyone would want to start a job.

But that's my point. He DIDN'T need to prove he was in charge. He was in charge. And since he was in charge, there were two ways to handle it; give Ollie a multi-year deal immediately (even if it was as few as 3 years), or find someone else. He chose to do what he did, and it's clear to me and many others in the media that it wasn't the right path to take.

It would not have made him look like he was rolling over. It would have made him look like he was letting a Hall of Famer go out on his own terms. A short multi-year deal would have allowed him to make the change if needed, and nobody would have thought less of him. What makes him look silly, in my opinion, is to make it appear as though academics were the concern here. That's truly a farce, especially if the rumor is true that he has included APR numbers in the contract anyways...

 

[suzyq]

Finally!!! We're finally getting back to business as an athletic program. Hopefully we go 2-0 today with the men and women!

Dan, what's with the old vs new Chemistry buildings?

 

[Dann]

^ all warde needed to do was have a small buyout in the contract after 2 years if things didn't work out to save himself and no one could argue that day if it came. we all knew it wouldn't but as a just in case. instead warde puffed his chest with powder and we have the fire we have 2day.

 

[huskymedic]

David Borges (@DaveBorges)
12/29/12, 4:25 PM
Ollie contract: base salary $400,000 for '13, $800,000 for speaking/media engagements, total of $1.2 million

Note - Same base salary as PP.

David Borges (@DaveBorges)
12/29/12, 4:26 PM
Kevin Ollie total compensation: $`1.2 mill for 2013, $1.25 mill for 2014, $1.3 mill for 2015, $1.35 mill for 2016, 1.4 mill. for 2017 ...

David Borges (@DaveBorges)
12/29/12, 4:26 PM
... $502,000 for 2018 (annualized from Jan. 1-April 15) #uconn

 

[UConnDan97]

Dan, what's with the old vs new Chemistry buildings?

The one to the left is how I earned my BS in chemistry. The one to the right is where I did post-graduate work. I was using it as a way to show people who were down on the current state of UConn that things are continuing to get better....much better....and that the dark cloud will soon be on its way somewhere else.

 

[junglehusky]

I guess I fundamentally disagree Dan. Won't go line by line but given the public perception of UConn outside of our state's borders - fair or unfair, APR or Calhoun looming over the program or whatever - I think this was the right way to go. Especially if we want to be considered for B1G admission in the future. I have to think that WM knew what he was asking KO to do, KO knew what WM was asking him to do, so what's the need to tell the world in a press conference??? That's not how people handle their biz, at least in well-run institutions. The athletic director can't think exclusively short term (in the long run losing 1 or 2 recruits does not hurt UConn because we are bigger and better than that) and also shouldn't be worried exclusively about what the fans think / say. I do think the athletic department can do better PR-wise as has been discussed ad nauseum. But the grades / APR thing is a HUGE part of UConn's perception, even if it's been years since it was really a problem... so it's absolutely essential that KO had to prove himself as a leader in this department. And I disagree that that's unfair to KO... he's a man (he's 40!) and he knew exactly what he was getting into when he signed up for the job.

But the thing that gets me is that people reacting to the KO situation are behaving as if the MBB program can't handle a few months of public uncertainty (and we now know there wasn't as much uncertainty in the athletic department about KO - looking back at some of Jacob's pieces). I mean... uncertainty about the conference situation hurts us for sure, and I admit I had days where I wondered how UConn was going to get through it. But 99% of the angst in regards to the contract situation is, IMHO, fan-generated. I think we should look to how KO reacted and carried himself through this semester as a model for how UConn is going to persevere and stay positive.

PS - you can still have a bone to pick with Warde on other issues. I just feel some folks are trying to use the contract as a wedge issue, and now that it's been sorted out I don't think it's too productive. If you want to ding Warde on the other stuff then by all means make the case on the other stuff...

 

[ctchamps]

CONGRATS KO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Rico444]

Is the presser going to be broadcast on SNY?

 

[Inyatkin]

But that's my point. He DIDN'T need to prove he was in charge. He was in charge. And since he was in charge, there were two ways to handle it; give Ollie a multi-year deal immediately (even if it was as few as 3 years), or find someone else. He chose to do what he did, and it's clear to me and many others in the media that it wasn't the right path to take.

It would not have made him look like he was rolling over. It would have made him look like he was letting a Hall of Famer go out on his own terms. A short multi-year deal would have allowed him to make the change if needed, and nobody would have thought less of him. What makes him look silly, in my opinion, is to make it appear as though academics were the concern here. That's truly a farce, especially if the rumor is true that he has included APR numbers in the contract anyways...

I'm with you until the part about academics. We may all think it's a farce, it may be a farce, but PR does matter. UConn's image on this issue is terrible right now (unfairly, I know), and letting people think that grades played a part in this decision isn't the worst thing.