UCONN Owes Ollie $11 Million

[TKG]

Arbitrator rules in Ollie’s favor:

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...ch-kevin-ollie

[uh_no]

Arbitrator rules in Ollie’s favor:

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...ch-kevin-ollie

"Hungry Hungry Husky gets his just dessert"

They missed a killer headline opportunity there.

[Hartford Dukie]

This is on top of UCONN's record $47.2 million athletic department budget deficit, one of the largest in the country.

UCONN has 10 days to pay Ollie the $11.15 million he's owed.

[Tooold]

Wow….I never want to defend UCoNN, but one would think a university could fire for cause a coach who had been charged with NCAA violations.

[Hartford Dukie]

The incurring NCAA sanctions standard in Ollie's contract for a just cause firing was superseded by the collective bargaining agreement of the American Association of University Professors with UCONN, which has a higher standard.

Arbitrator Mark Irvings, in his ruling, found that UConn “violated the collective bargaining agreement when it terminated Kevin Ollie without just cause.” At UConn, coaches are members of the American Association of University Professors, which filed a grievance on Ollie’s behalf...

Though Ollie’s personal contract with UConn considered the incurring of NCAA sanctions as just cause for termination, the CBA’s language set a higher bar. Ultimately, the arbitrator used the CBA standard.

https://www.courant.com/sports/uconn...i7i-story.html

[JasonEvans]

The incurring NCAA sanctions standard in Ollie's contract for a just cause firing was superseded by the collective bargaining agreement of the American Association of University Professors with UCONN, which has a higher standard.

In other news, UConn has decided it will no longer adhere to the pretense that its sports coaches are actually "teachers."

[Tooold]

Wow…it is pretty surprising that coaches would be part of a bargaining unit (especially head coaches, who are often paid millions of dollars). Does anyone know if this is unique to UCONN coaches?

This also makes a Jim Calhoun event from years ago (during a major economic downturn) even more egregious (IMO). Connecticut was furloughing and/or reducing the pay of all state employees. Calhoun was asked at a press conference if he, as the highest paid employee in the state, would take a pay cut or give back part of his salary. His answer was a loud and angry “not a penny. I want to retire someday!” But I am sure that the bargaining unit does not negotiate coaches’ salaries…

[uh_no]

Wow…it is pretty surprising that coaches would be part of a bargaining unit (especially head coaches, who are often paid millions of dollars). Does anyone know if this is unique to UCONN coaches?

This also makes a Jim Calhoun event from years ago (during a major economic downturn) even more egregious (IMO). Connecticut was furloughing and/or reducing the pay of all state employees. Calhoun was asked at a press conference if he, as the highest paid employee in the state, would take a pay cut or give back part of his salary. His answer was a loud and angry “not a penny. I want to retire someday!” But I am sure that the bargaining unit does not negotiate coaches’ salaries…

"not a dime back"

and it's a pretty idiotic question to ask to one of the most successful coaches in the country regardless. If you asked K if he would like to donate some money to the NC state legislature, he'd tell you to buzz off, too. I don't pretend Jim handled it with grace, but the reporter was way out of line.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

"not a dime back"

and it's a pretty idiotic question to ask to one of the most successful coaches in the country regardless. If you asked K if he would like to donate some money to the NC state legislature, he'd tell you to buzz off, too. I don't pretend Jim handled it with grace, but the reporter was way out of line.

If K handled it that way, I'd be mortified.

[Tooold]

"not a dime back"

and it's a pretty idiotic question to ask to one of the most successful coaches in the country regardless. If you asked K if he would like to donate some money to the NC state legislature, he'd tell you to buzz off, too. I don't pretend Jim handled it with grace, but the reporter was way out of line.

Agree to disagree ( although you are correct…it was “not a dime” rather than “not a penny”). I lived in Connecticut at that time, and the state employees were all taking pay cuts through mandatory furloughs. People were pretty angry. I felt it was a legitimate question, and he could easily have said he was donating something. He was a successful coach, but also a state employee, and by far the highest paid state employee. To say he wanted “to retire someday” when he was making millions and being paid by the taxpayers was not a good answer. People who were making far less (by a couple zeroes) were giving up some pay…and they wanted to retire someday as well.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

If K handled it that way, I'd be mortified.

I agree. What makes K great is that he tries to act like he's been there before and is no better than anyone else - a friend of mine met him at a meet-and-great and he stuck out his hand and said "Mike Krzyzewski" like my friend didn't know who he was. Calhoun came across as an entitled jerk.

[uh_no]

Agree to disagree ( although you are correct…it was “not a dime” rather than “not a penny”). I lived in Connecticut at that time, and the state employees were all taking pay cuts through mandatory furloughs. People were pretty angry. I felt it was a legitimate question, and he could easily have said he was donating something. He was a successful coach, but also a state employee, and by far the highest paid state employee. To say he wanted “to retire someday” when he was making millions and being paid by the taxpayers was not a good answer. People who were making far less (by a couple zeroes) were giving up some pay…and they wanted to retire someday as well.

The problem wasn't the initial question, but that after jim said he wasn't interested in discussing it, the reporter kept going after it. He had other reporters telling him to shut up by the point Jim snapped. The reporter was way out of line, and Jim handled himself with the same Boston grace Jim always did.

[jv001]

I agree. What makes K great is that he tries to act like he's been there before and is no better than anyone else - a friend of mine met him at a meet-and-great and he stuck out his hand and said "Mike Krzyzewski" like my friend didn't know who he was. Calhoun came across as an entitled jerk.

Ain't that the truth? Maryland-UConn, don't know which I dislike more.

GoDuke!

[Steven43]

If K handled it that way, I'd be mortified.

How about if Coach K were to respond like this?:

Following Memphis' third straight loss, a 70-62 home defeat to SMU on Thursday night, coach Penny Hardaway sounded off during his postgame news conference, telling the assembled media to "stop asking me stupid f---ing questions."

Hardaway was asked by one reporter if he had lost faith he could get the job done at Memphis and whether he was embarrassed by the team's performance.

"I think the one thing I can say to this media because this media gets kinda f---ed up sometimes when it comes to me. We don't have our full roster. Y'all know we don't have our full roster. Stop asking me stupid f---ing questions about if I feel like I can do something," Hardaway said in response.

[uh_no]

How about if Coach K were to respond like this?:

Following Memphis' third straight loss, a 70-62 home defeat to SMU on Thursday night, coach Penny Hardaway sounded off during his postgame news conference, telling the assembled media to "stop asking me stupid f---ing questions."

Hardaway was asked by one reporter if he had lost faith he could get the job done at Memphis and whether he was embarrassed by the team's performance.

"I think the one thing I can say to this media because this media gets kinda f---ed up sometimes when it comes to me. We don't have our full roster. Y'all know we don't have our full roster. Stop asking me stupid f---ing questions about if I feel like I can do something," Hardaway said in response.

K has plenty of run ins with the media to varying degrees. It's usually a snarky remark to shut down a line of questioning, but there was also the instance in the past couple years (last year?) where he tried to tear into a student reporter. I would not expect him to ever go to the rant levels that Jim or penny did, but I guarantee you K would have no interest fielding a question of justifying his salary in a post game press conference.


For those who haven't seen it, here's the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xokthY5zuPU

Jim made perhaps a poor attempt at humor with the retirement quip, then the guy starts asking about TV deals and other sort of money. With K it probably would have ended there and K would have just said next question. But here it got nasty with the guy doubling down on TV deals, and jim and everyone in the room telling the guy to shut up. Suggesting they take it outside was exceptionally not necessary.

[duke79]

K has plenty of run ins with the media to varying degrees. It's usually a snarky remark to shut down a line of questioning, but there was also the instance in the past couple years (last year?) where he tried to tear into a student reporter. I would not expect him to ever go to the rant levels that Jim or penny did, but I guarantee you K would have no interest fielding a question of justifying his salary in a post game press conference.


For those who haven't seen it, here's the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xokthY5zuPU

Jim made perhaps a poor attempt at humor with the retirement quip, then the guy starts asking about TV deals and other sort of money. With K it probably would have ended there and K would have just said next question. But here it got nasty with the guy doubling down on TV deals, and jim and everyone in the room telling the guy to shut up. Suggesting they take it outside was exceptionally not necessary.

I don't know how many people on this board remember this but, back in 1994, the TV show "60 Minutes" did an episode on the amount of money that the shoe companies, Nike, Addidas, etc., were paying to the top basketball coaches (for their team to wear the shoes and uniforms) while the players were getting $0. The episode focused heavily on Coach K and a few other top coaches at that time (John Thompson and others) and Leslie Stahl, the 60 Minutes correspondent showed up at the Coach K press conference after the Duke-Carolina basketball game (with her own camera crew and sound guys) and began asking all sorts of probing questions of Mike about his contract with Nike, how much he was getting paid, if he thought it was fair that he was making all this money while his players got paid essentially nothing. Coach K handled it probably as well as could be expected but it did not look like he was expecting this sort of grilling from a 60 Minutes correspondent and he was doing everything he could to try to deflect the questions (his stock answer at the time, if I remember correctly, was that "the university had fully investigated and vetted his contract with Nike and that he was in compliance with all applicable NCAA and university rules". Again, if I remember correctly, he looked VERY uncomfortable but he did not lose his temper and was respectful to Leslie Stahl but never really got into the substance of her questions. I tried to find a clip of that episode online but was unsuccessful. I did find that following links, including one from Jay Williams in 2008.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...caa/111141406/

https://greensboro.com/cbs-attempts-...71214f447.html

[Stray Gator]

K has plenty of run ins with the media to varying degrees. It's usually a snarky remark to shut down a line of questioning, but there was also the instance in the past couple years (last year?) where he tried to tear into a student reporter. I would not expect him to ever go to the rant levels that Jim or penny did, but I guarantee you K would have no interest fielding a question of justifying his salary in a post game press conference.


For those who haven't seen it, here's the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xokthY5zuPU

Jim made perhaps a poor attempt at humor with the retirement quip, then the guy starts asking about TV deals and other sort of money. With K it probably would have ended there and K would have just said next question. But here it got nasty with the guy doubling down on TV deals, and jim and everyone in the room telling the guy to shut up. Suggesting they take it outside was exceptionally not necessary.

My enduring memory of Jim Calhoun was his haughty proclamation, after winning the 1999 National Championship game against Duke by a score of 77-74, that "we kicked their I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this." Can you find any instance of Mike Krzyzewski ever saying something like that about a defeated opponent? Coach K is far from perfect, but he's nowhere near the arrogant jerk that Calhoun was.

[brevity]

What the hell is UCONN?

I know "UConn" is an abbreviation for the University of Connecticut, just like "UMass" means the University of Massachusetts. It's not an acronym. The O-N-N do not stand for anything. The all-caps designation is unnecessary.

Years ago I broke down and asked some Duke fan why they wrote it like that. The answer was something like "That's how they [UConn people, I assume] write it." You mean, like on merchandise?

sweatshirt.jpg

It would not be hard to find a sweatshirt that said DUKE in all caps either.

There are two solutions here. First, get everyone to use the proper abbreviation of UConn. Second, make UCONN a real acronym that stands for something, the way UNLV stands for University of Nevada Las Vegas.

UCONN: University of Connecticut: Ollie's Nice Number (economics)
UCONN: University of Connecticut Over Natchaug/Nipmuck (geography)
UCONN: University of Connecticut, Ousting Narragansett Natives (history)
UCONN: University of Connecticut Offers Nabbed Notebooks (recent history)

UCONN: University of California, Only Nowhere Near

[camion]

What the hell is UCONN?

I know "UConn" is an abbreviation for the University of Connecticut, just like "UMass" means the University of Massachusetts. It's not an acronym. The O-N-N do not stand for anything. The all-caps designation is unnecessary.

Years ago I broke down and asked some Duke fan why they wrote it like that. The answer was something like "That's how they [UConn people, I assume] write it." You mean, like on merchandise?

sweatshirt.jpg

It would not be hard to find a sweatshirt that said DUKE in all caps either.

There are two solutions here. First, get everyone to use the proper abbreviation of UConn. Second, make UCONN a real acronym that stands for something, the way UNLV stands for University of Nevada Las Vegas.

UCONN: University of Connecticut: Ollie's Nice Number (economics)
UCONN: University of Connecticut Over Natchaug/Nipmuck (geography)
UCONN: University of Connecticut, Ousting Narragansett Natives (history)
UCONN: University of Connecticut Offers Nabbed Notebooks (recent history)

UCONN: University of California, Only Nowhere Near

Well, UCONN is most definitely a logo and is seen on numerous of the university's merchandise items.

My take on this issue is to just chill. It's not worth much angst.

[uh_no]

My enduring memory of Jim Calhoun was his haughty proclamation, after winning the 1999 National Championship game against Duke by a score of 77-74, that "we kicked their I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this." Can you find any instance of Mike Krzyzewski ever saying something like that about a defeated opponent? Coach K is far from perfect, but he's nowhere near the arrogant jerk that Calhoun was.

We can say that certainly K is a bit more subtle when he wants to be arrogant (not that he doesn't have a right to be in this case):

“We were very successful against them and, to be quite frank with you, we recruited Chris Webber. I didn’t recruit Jalen Rose because we had Grant Hill and I’m happy with that. We didn’t look at the other, Juwan Howard [because] we knew he wasn’t going to come to Duke. The other two kids we didn’t think were the caliber that could play as well as Thomas Hill and Brian Davis and Billy McCaffery. They had a heck of a run, but they didn’t leave anything, they didn’t establish anything there. The guys that I had established something that Jay Williams continued to do 10 years later — the standards of what it meant to be a Duke basketball player.”

This is of course, more recent, but K was also far spicier 20-30 years ago.