The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Kevin Ollie firing heading to arbitration
UConn president Susan Herbst has upheld the dismissal of Kevin Ollie as men’s basketball coach, and the situation is going to arbitration.
Herbst sent a letter to UConn AAUP executive director Michael Bailey on Tuesday terminating Ollie in what Bailey said was the “last step in a calculated process to replace Coach Ollie without paying him the amount due to him under his employment agreement with the University of Connecticut.”
Ollie was fired on March 10 for “just cause” after six seasons at the helm, with more than $10 million left on his contract. Less than two weeks later, UConn hired Dan Hurley as its new head coach.
Documents obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media via the Freedom of Information Act reveal UConn’s case includes allegations that Ollie arranged for phone call between a recruit and Ray Allen. Ollie also shot baskets in Storrs with a visiting recruit in September, set up training sessions for his players with a friend in Atlanta and failed to disclose NCAA potential violations to the school.
According to 1,355 pages of records, UConn’s case against Ollie hinges on a series of violations. Among the most damning is a phone call between an unnamed recruit and Allen, who will be inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in the fall.
Allen is described as a booster in the the eyes of the NCAA, and the call was initiated on the phone of an executive assistant, which athletic director David Benedict said “suggests that the call deliberately occurred in a covert manner.”
Ollie denied the call was prearranged, but witnesses — including former UConn assistant coach Glen Miller — recall it being discussed ahead of time.
The March 10 letter from Benedict to Ollie says the termination was the result of “failure to promote compliance, failure to timely report instances of noncompliance, intentional participation in impermissible on-campus activity with a prospective studentathlete and a representative of the University’s athletic interests for recruiting purposes.”