5 potential replacements for Kevin Ollie at UConn
Kevin Ollie has been let go after six seasons as UConn men’s basketball coach. Here are five candidates to replace him.
After four seasons of diminishing results, and the looming specter of an NCAA investigation for alleged recruiting violations, Kevin Ollie was fired as UConn men’s basketball coach on Saturday morning. The school is looking to fire him for cause, which would allow it avoid paying a substantial buyout.
Ollie took over for Jim Calhoun in 2012 and led the Huskies to an improbable national title in his second season. But things have gone downhill since, with one NCAA Tournament bid in the last four seasons and a combined 30-35 record over the last two.
UConn has surely lost some luster as a marquee job on the men’s basketball side. But it has won two of the last seven national titles and has won four national titles in the last 20 years, making it the only school to do both of those things.
Ollie’s contract calls for him to be paid around $3.5 million over the next three years, but Steve Berkowitz of USA Today suggests Ollie could lose a little bit more if he’s ultimately let go for cause:
UConn says it has started procedures to fire Kevin Ollie for cause. If that occurs w/o settlement, depending on end date, Ollie -- per contract -- could lose over $12.3M in potential pay: $11.3M in skedded basic comp + $1M in deferred https://t.co/3GvBUlcpE6 via @usatoday
— Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) March 10, 2018
As the search gets going at UConn, here are five candidates to replace Ollie.
5. Jim Calhoun
Before you dismiss him offhand, know that Calhoun is set to get back into coaching at Division III St. Joseph in Connecticut. He is still employed as an adviser at UConn, pending the expiration of his contract this month; then he can officially take over as coach of the startup Division III program.
Calhoun will turn 76 in May, and it’s quite possible he doesn’t want to return to big-time college coaching. But the opportunity to pull a program he coached to three national championships out of the doldrums may be enough for him to return to UConn, if only as a short-term solution with a coach in-waiting he’d hand-pick as a lead assistant.