Ollie lands a new job

[Huskyforlife]

 

[DaveHuskiesFan]

Wonder if he'll carefully craft development plans for each player?

Player 1: "Get in the gym"
Player 2: "Get in the gym"
Player 3: "Get in the gym"

 

[awfuldan]

Woj bomb! Happy for KO, hope he succeeds. This seems like a good move from Overtime Elite.

 

[Greathusky]

Wonder how many UConn recruits he will convince to skip college and go pro.

 

[SportsFan88]

Interesting gig as well

 

[Ha Who]

Good for him. Hopefully, this will jumpstart the healing process

 

[ktuck911]

Happy for him.. He's gonna be great in this venture... He won us a National Championship, he played for us, he's a UConn Husky for life... Love this dude.... He's winning...

 

[CTBasketball]

I thought this was an April Fool’s Joke until I double-checked it was the 12th.

 

[Huskybass]

A fresh start. I hope he flourishes.

 

[polycom]

So basically coaching AAU with no school seems like a solid gig

 

[tcf15]

He’s going after every single one of UConn’s recruits, isn’t he?

/s

 

[Ajs120102]

Kevin Ollie Op-Ed: I still rise — and I took the stairs

An Op-Ed from Kevin Ollie about the next step in his career: The head coach of Overtime Elite, a new alternative to college basketball.

theathletic.com

 

[Ajs120102]

He’s going after every single one of UConn’s recruits, isn’t he?

/s

Yup we are screwed

 

[Kitaman]

He'll have quite of few Ferraris to work on.

 

[HuskyHawk]

This is a really good fit for him. I think he's better suited to a professional environment than college. Gets to help these kids understand the level of effort required, without the nonsense that college coaches have to go through.

 

[Rico444]

I'm a little confused; he's being called "the" head coach for an entire league? Shouldn't he be one of at least a few different head coaches? Is he going to both teams in every game?

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

This is like CEO of the XFL

 

[huskymedic]

Alternate access link here <-

 

[Hey Adrien!]

Pretty cool gig, it's like a combo of coaching and social work/mentoring of young athletes:

From Ollie's op-ed: In basketball circles, there has been a lot of talk over the years about revamping a broken system. Today, high school prospects bounce from school to school. Parents pay big money so their kids are able to travel and participate in high-level competition. Education is often not a priority. Prospects enter the pros without the necessary professional skills-training needed for successful careers at the next level. And they lack the business literacy to know how to maintain and deal with the things that come with money.

I can see Ollie thriving in this type of environment. Best of luck to him.

 

[JakeTheDog]

Good for KO. 2014 was special and that whole run was just plain fun to experience. The Niels and Phil dunks at MSG will always give me chills.

 

[ktuck911]

Yup we are screwed

Good...Karma's a you know what.... No respect to this dude at all for what's he's done for our program as a player and coach... He really bled blue... Where are the real fans of UConn basketball??? Just the part where he's had down years (and it's still only 7 years since he lead our basketball team to a Nat'l Championship) seems to be the main focus...

It kills me how many fair weather fans we have now... the disrespect for this guy... when we paid Bob Disco $5 million to go away, implications (thru comments) seemed more comfy with this guy's buyout, who pretty much single handedly messed up our Athletic Dept's $$$ using a lousy salesman pitch ( face it, he did look the part... but.... )

Guess what "new" fanbase, unfortunately, recruits, other programs pay attention to this (your subtle comments) too.. And no matter how good/great a coach Hurley is, it will hurt him in his efforts a bit too... they use it as an advantage against us...

There's a level of integrity that still needs to be here that we kinda miss the boat on...

Time to start focusing more on the glass half full mindset..

We're moving upwards again (it seems) in the primary Men's sports... Let's run with it...

 

[methodology]

Glad to see KO get a position that will allow him to do what he is passionate about

 

[Hurleyman216]

Yup we are screwed

Sorry, but the reason KO couldn’t keep his job here is because he started pulling in recruits ranked outside of the top 150. I’ll trust that Hurley can out recruit KO 11 of of 10 times.

 

[Nebraskan18]

Looking back in time, I remember I was so worried that he was going to take that job with the Oklahoma City Thunder, and was so relieved when he announced he was staying.

In hindsight, it actually would have been perfect if he had taken it. Then we are able to find another successful coach, he gets a great job, and we still have a good relationship with him.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Are the kids in Overtime Elite essentially ineligible for college the minute they step on a practice court for OE? That would seem to be the case if they are getting paid.