It’s about time for Ollie and his program to step up to the plate

Recently, this is what has befallen the men's basketball program at UConn:

Associate head coach Glen Miller: dismissed.

Promising freshman Vance Jackson: transferred.

Steve Enoch, another underdeveloped UConn post player: transferred.

Strength and conditioning coach Travis Illian: “left school to pursue other career opportunities.” Hmmm. Doesn't sound like the head coach has cultivated much of a healthy culture lately at State U.

And so it's entirely fair, is it not, to humbly alert Kevin Ollie that he's on notice?

As in: This is your program, coach. Your responsibility. All of it. And it's not good enough right now. Not the talent, culture or recent success rate.

UConn basketball in 2017 is like the Yankees of the 80s: a glorious past supporting a tepid present. And I don't like the feeling of more blame assessment emanating from the head coach's office than accountability.

I admit to falling for Ollie's act a few years ago. It was easy. A national championship creates more good will than Mother Theresa. I liked “we take the stairs” and “first you bring the sugar, then you bring the hot sauce.” But now, after another season in which UConn was largely irrelevant nationally, you wonder:

Can Ollie honestly sustain the monolith Jim Calhoun built?

Certainly, there is reason for doubt.

Miller's dismissal is particularly vexing. Full disclosure: Miller is an old friend. I find his treatment to be odious. Fire the associate head coach as soon as the season ends to hire one of your old pals? How long had Ollie planned that one? And why?

Ollie, however, is the head coach. Dismissing a staff member is his prerogative. So is hiring Raphael Chillious, formerly an assistant at the University of Washington and 20year friend of Ollie's, to replace him.

Maybe they'll work better together. Maybe Ollie will listen to Chillious more than he does his other coaches. This much we know: They all better recruit better. There's not enough talent here right now. And while UConn can point to alums in the NBA and four championship banners, there's also the matter of empty seats at the XL Center and the purgatory known as the American Athletic Conference.

Come to Hartford before 10,000 and play East Carolina … or go to Carolina and play Duke before 20,000 at the Dean Dome. Doesn't seem a fair fight. I'm sure apologists will point to the transfers as a pox on all of college basketball, certainly not an issue unique to UConn. True. Kids are leaving schools across the country. It's just that they don't seem to leave the successful programs nearly as often.

Can we call UConn a successful program?

Historically? Sure.

Currently? Nope. And that's why I'd like to see a few more mea culpas from Ollie, who might want to ditch what I perceive as an NBA mentality and figure out college kids need to be nurtured and taught first.

I admit to have seen very little UConn basketball live this year. If you want this dismiss this as drivel … free country. But in the immortal words of Jim Leyland, “I didn't go to school just to eat lunch.” This all seems pretty obvious.

We all appreciate what Geno Auriemma and the UConn women have done for the university, state and the women's game. We can look forward to football again now that Randy Edsall has brought an element of professionalism back to the head coach's office. But men's basketball is the flagship sport at UConn. It needs to win.

The dismissal of a respected coach, a losing record and players transferring paints a dreary picture. It should be a concern to the administration and the fans.

The honeymoon is over for Kevin Ollie. It's time. He purged who he wanted purged. Now he's got his people in place. The responsibility is all yours now, coach. It always has been.