Hands down this was going to be a difficult season for The Connecticut Huskies men’s basketball program. Longtime Huskies head coach Jim Calhoun decided to retire after 26 glorious years with UCONN which included winning three national championships. Due to poor academics over the past few seasons by former players. Connecticut was ruled ineligible for The NCAA Tournament this year which resulted in the program being gutted. Forward Roscoe Smith transferred to UNLV while forward Alex Oriakhi departed for Missouri. Center Andre Drummond and forward Jeremy Lamb gave up their remaining eligibility to enter The National Basketball Association Draft. Ollie’s team is also ineligible for this week’s Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden which disallowed fans of seeing The Huskies battle The Syracuse Orange one more time before Syracuse departs for The Atlantic Coast Conference.
Ollie knew with NCAA sanctions levied against his team that he would be unable to get highly touted prospects the likes of former UCONN players Richard Hamilton, Rudy Gay, and Caron Butler to come to Storrs this season which led to an “us against the world” mentality for his team.
The Huskies got off to a blazing start this season in Germany by defeating The Michigan State Spartans who were ranked 14th in college basketball. On the court Ollie relied on his leaders in junior point guard Shabazz Napier and sophomore guard Ryan Boatright. Napier has seen the best and worst of times with The Huskies. Napier was a freshman when UCONN won the national championship in 2011. Napier led the team in scoring this season (17.1) and assists (4.6) while Boatright was second on the team in scoring at 15.4 points per game.
The defining moment this season for Ollie and his Huskies came on February 13 when they upset sixth-ranked Syracuse 66-58 at The XL Center in Hartford. The Big East Conference schedule didn’t allow for these two longtime rivals to play each other twice this season which made Connecticut’s victory that much sweeter for Ollie. Being that Ollie played under Calhoun in the 90’s at UCONN, he knows the importance of beating Syracuse as they are the only two current Big East schools to win a men’s national championship over the last two decades.
Going forward Ollie will have an extremely tough task ahead of him as far as recruiting as Connecticut is in limbo. The Huskies have been lobbying to go to The ACC and join their former Big East brethren, but they still haven’t received the invite. With “The Catholic 7” set to depart in July while maintaining The Big East name, The Huskies for now will be a part of The America 12 Conference which will consist of the holdovers from The Big East along with Temple and new arriving schools from Conference USA.
There will be no more trips to Madison Square Garden in New York City to either face The St. John’s Red Storm or participate in The Big East Tournament for Connecticut as The Big Apple has been a fertile recruiting ground for UCONN. Under Calhoun, The New York City area provided The Huskies with current NBA players such as Kemba Walker, A.J. Price, and Ben Gordon. If one man get the job done in the face of a tough task like this it is definitely OlIie. After finishing his collegiate career, Ollie went undrafted by The NBA. Ollie played two seasons in The Continental Basketball Association with The Connecticut Pride before embarking on a 12-year playing career in The NBA. You don’t get as far as Ollie has without rolling the sleeves up and getting dirty with a little elbow grease. When critics doubted his team this season, Ollie led his team to a 20-10 mark including 10-8 in The Big East. Connecticut athletic director Warde Manuel believes in Ollie which is why Ollie received a five-year extension back in December. In his first season Ollie has begun the process of stepping out of Calhoun’s shadow with one giant step, but he still a few more on his journey of making Connecticut a national power once again.
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