Decision reached in arbitration case between Kevin Ollie, UConn

Former UConn head basketball coach Kevin Ollie, who was fired by the Huskies in 2018 amid NCAA investigations into various program violations, won his arbitration case against UConn on Thursday, per Dana O’Neil of The Athletic.

As a result of the arbitrator’s decision, Ollie is now owed more than $11 million by the university, according to the report.

Ollie played at UConn from 1991 until 1995, before going undrafted in the 1995 NBA Draft. Despite his undrafted status, he turned in a long, 14-year NBA carer, making his debut in 1997 with the Dallas Mavericks after a three-year stint in the Continental Basketball Association. After his NBA retirement in 2010, he quickly went into coaching, accepting an assistant coaching role at UConn, his alma mater, in 2010.

Three years after he was first brought onto staff as an assistant, Ollie was named head coach in 2012. UConn was ranked in the AP Top 25 in every season except his last at the helm, and the Huskies won the NCAA Tournament national title in the 2013-14 season, just two years after he was promoted to head coach.

“UConn vigorously disagrees with the decision of the arbitrator and maintains without reservation that the decision to terminate Kevin Ollie when it did was the correct and appropriate decision,” UConn said in a statement provided to The Athletic.

Ollie amassed a 127-79 record at the helm of UConn. He was fired with cause — at least, that’s what the university argued — in 2018 after an NCAA investigation led to a three-year show-cause order for violations that took place over a four-year period, ending in 2017.

Among the violations, Ollie was charged with not promoting an atmosphere of compliance due to three Level I violations stemming from a video coordinator engaging in on-court instruction, exceeding the maximum number of on-court assistants, a booster providing monetary benefits to student-athletes and summer pick-up games that should have counted towards team activities but were not reported. UConn also lost a scholarship for the 2019-20 class, was put on two years of probation and was fined $5,000, among other minor penalties.

When the NCAA first handed down its decision, resulting in Ollie’s firing with cause, he appealed. The NCAA Division I Infractions Appeals Committee in May 2020 upheld its decision. However, nearly a year later, he won his lawsuit with UConn and is in order for a heaping sum of money.

Ollie is currently the head coach and head of player development for Overtime Elite, with whom he signed for its inaugural season.