Via The Dagger:
Calhoun reportedly will announce his retirement on Thursday, his 70-year-old body too achy and sore to coach another season after suffering a fractured left hip in an offseason bike accident and missing a month of last season due to an ailing back. He leaves behind a complicated legacy rife with historic victories and occasional controversies.....Interim coach Kevin Ollie will have to audition for the permanent job during a year in which the Huskies are ineligible for the postseason due to substandard APR scores and undermanned by their lofty standards. Jeremy Lamb and Andre Drummond bolted for the NBA Draft last spring and veterans Alex Oriakhi, Roscoe Smith and Michael Bradley all transferred.
Though Kevin Ollie only spent one season on the Thunder, it's cool to know that he's taking over a top program in College Basketball. Sure, it's a down program, but a program with the money and tradition of UConn won't be down for long.
It's a pretty remarkable turnaround, considering he's only one year removed from his NBA career. It's kind of similar to the situation of Avery Johnson, who only took five months to become head coach of the Mavericks. Kevin Ollie was always known to be a leader on the bench, and played some extremely smart basketball. In fact, according to Donyell Marshall in an interview with ESPN Radio, he could have taken a job with the Thunder front office right after his retirement, but he went to coach Connecticut instead, because it was home.
In any case, it's better news than getting hit in the eye with a elastic band, as happened to him while stretching out last year. Reportedly, he almost lost vision in that eye.
Anyway, good luck to the Huskies next year. They're going to need it if Ollie is to keep his job in the tough Big East.
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