UConn Releases The Alleged NCAA Violations As A Reason To Not Pay Kevin Ollie $10 Million

Well, the Kevin Ollie/UConn fight just took another twist. When UConn fired Kevin Ollie for ‘just cause’ most UConn fans started getting excited because it meant Danny Hurley was on the way. But, now it’s turned into a fight for about $10 million that UConn isn’t paying Kevin Ollie.

Now it can lead to some violations. Granted, this isn’t a huge thing like paying players, etc., but UConn will face some NCAA allegations. All of these are from the Hartford Courant:

• Ollie facilitated a call between a potential recruit and former UConn All-America Ray Allen, who is now considered a booster by the NCAA. When confronted with the call, Benedict alleged that Ollie denied the call was prearranged. In addition the call was not made on Ollie’s phone but on the cellphone of his executive assistant from Ollie’s house. Benedict said using another employee’s phone “further suggests that the call deliberately occurred in a covert manner.”
• Ollie got a close personal friend named Derek Hamilton to train some of the players off campus in 2015-16. Several players participated in after-hours, on-campus workouts with Hamilton as well as off-campus workouts. Three players traveled to Atlanta to train with Hamilton and the players were fed, transported and housed for free — all considered NCAA violations. The letter said one of the parents of a player who went to Atlanta even called Ollie to ask if the trip was permissible. Hamilton, reached by The Courant Wednesday, said, “I have nothing to say about that. I have not talked to the NCAA and I don’t really know what’s going on.”
• Benedict also said that Ollie failed to report any possible NCAA violations as was his responsibility. “Every violation I am raising was discovered from sources other than you or your staff,” Benedict wrote, adding that in one instance Benedict found out about the impermissible tryout through the media.

The major one there is the allegation involving Derek Hamilton. That’s a somewhat serious NCAA violation as you can’t set up free training sessions and travel for players. If that’s the case, UConn could face something somewhat small like loss of practices or vacated games – which outside of 2014, I think all of UConn fans would be cool with.

This isn’t going to get resolved any time soon, so expect a lot of back and forth here between the two sides. The NCAA has yet to put out any sort of announcement regarding this and they will have to go over 900+ pages to look at everything. I’d be surprised if we hear much before the end of summer.

Ollie was one of the more liked players in UConn history before taking over for his former coach Jim Calhoun. He immediately led UConn to a national title on the back of Shabazz Napier, but ultimately his time at UConn felt underwhelming. He went just 127-79 while missing the NCAA Tournament 4 times- 1 of which UConn was ineligible for. This past year was ultimately what led to the firing – and UConn was able to use the NCAA investigation as just cause. Ollie went 14-18 this past season and there started to become a louder voice from the UConn fans about replacing him with someone and that he only won with Calhoun’s guys. Ultimately, UConn did just that and got their top guy in Danny Hurley.