Former UConn men’s basketball coach Kevin Ollie won his arbitration case against the school and is now owed $11.2 million, according to Hearst CT’s Dave Borges. UConn will have 10 business days to provide Ollie with the money.
When the school fired Ollie in 2018, they cited “just cause” to avoid paying his buyout of over $11 million. Even though the move was expected after the program bottomed out with back-to-back sub-.500 seasons under Ollie, UConn named recent NCAA violations as its reasoning for the “just cause” firing.
An NCAA investigation found Ollie and his staff committed recruiting violations — in one case, a video of Ollie shooting baskets with then-recruit James Akinjo surfaced —allowed players to participate in impermissible workouts with a trainer, held unsanctioned team activities during the summer, and allowed a video coordinator to handle the duties of a coach.