Huskies’ fall
The wave of Huskies’ 2014 championship rapidly shifts to sub-.500
The UConn men’s basketball program entered the second half of this decade still riding the wave of the 2014 national championship. Coach Kevin Ollie’s signature sayings were always fueling optimism, and he would now have more of his players in place. But the fall from that peak, for coach and program, proved to be quick and painful.
Editor’s note: The following is part of the Courant’s look at 10 stories that mattered most in the world of Connecticut sports.
The UConn men entered the second half of this decade still riding the wave of their 2014 championship. Kevin Ollie’s signature sayings were always fueling optimism and he would now have more of his players in place.
But the fall from that peak, for coach and program, proved to be quick and painful.
After the hangover year of 2014-15 ended with a loss in the NIT, Ollie found two grad transfers, Sterling Gibbs and Shonn Miller, added to a top-echelon recruit in Jalen Adams and returning Daniel Hamilton and Rodney Purvis — the firepower was there. The Huskies won 21 regular season games and when Adams’ miracle shot from three-quarter court extended the AAC quarterfinal game against Cincinnati, they took their second wind and ran to the conference title. UConn beat Colorado in the first round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament, Ollie’s seventh straight NCAA win, but the Huskies were eliminated by Kansas in Round Two. Ollie’s contract was extended by the new athletic director, David
Benedict, although the public didn’t learn about that for months.
Hamilton, surprisingly, chose to leave for the NBA after the season, but Ollie had five top-100 recruits coming in to join his veterans. UConn, ranked 18th going into the 2016-17 season, was beaten at home by Wagner and Northeastern, blows from which the program is still trying to regain prestige.
Terry Larrier, and two of the recruits, Alterique Gilbert and Mamadou Diarra, missed all or most of the season with injuries and the Huskies had their first sub-.500
season in 30 years. Afterward, two of the heralded recruiting class, Vance Jackson and Juwan Durham, transferred out, as did sophomore big man Steven Enoch.
Ollie and his staff, which no longer included Glen Miller, fired as associate head coach, patched it together with late, desperate signings. The 2017-18 season represented rock bottom, 14-18.
In January 2018, it was learned Ollie and UConn were subjects of an NCAA investigation. Ultimately, a number of infractions were found, the most serious being workouts for several players with an outside trainer.
Benedict initiated “disciplinary action” to fire Ollie “for cause,” which would allow UConn to avoid paying him the more than $10 million on his contract. The two parties have been fighting it out in court ever since. The ugliness included Ollie, who was given a three-year show-cause order and accused of giving false and misleading information to the NCAA, suing Miller over charges made in his interviews with investigators.
UConn, meanwhile, hired Dan Hurley, who had built Wagner and Rhode Island into winners. Hurley brought fire, passion and discipline reminiscent of a young Jim Calhoun, but UConn had the same players and finished 16-17 in his first season. Year Two has been better. As the 2010s draw to a close, UConn is knocking on the door to relevance again, especially with its move out of the American and into the new Big East in 2020.
Dom Amore can be reached at damore@ courant.com