Kevin Ollie Pleased With His Recruiting Results
STORRS, Conn. – Kevin Ollie has reason to smile when it comes to his UConn Huskies recent success on the recruiting front.
With the late addition of forward Sidney Wilson this summer, plus two verbal commitments for next season in point guard James Akinjo and shooting guard Emmitt Matthews Jr., the future looks bright for a UConn squad coming off its first losing season under the sixth-year head coach.
“We are doing a good job recruiting and that’s how I like it,” Ollie said. “They (my assistant coaches) are doing a pretty good job, I don’t have any complaints about them.”
However, not everything is smelling like roses when it comes to recruiting in college basketball.
On Tuesday, the FBI arrested four Division I assistant coaches and a top executive at a major shoe company for their involvement in a corruption scheme that could be just the beginning when it comes to illegal recruiting practices in college basketball being exposed.
“I really don’t have any comment about that, I said a comment earlier,” said Ollie on Wednesday after completing the Husky Run, which kicks off the start of the 2017-18 basketball season at UConn. “It’s an ongoing investigation and I’m sorry college basketball has to go through this.”
Ollie’s earlier comment was “I'll take the 2014 championship over any recruit I lost.”
UConn athletics director David Benedict is confident his school has nothing to worry about in the investigation.
“I am as confident as I can possibly be,” he said.
Benedict said the school had a recent meeting with the entire athletic department to address matters, including recruiting.
“We had a meeting a few weeks ago and there’s six documents that we require every single member of our athletic department staff to sign,” he added. “Certainly, one of them is compliance related and it states you are signing this with the idea that you know or you are not aware of any compliance issues.”
Benedict instituted the six-page document policy last year after taking his position.
UConn’s name has not been linked to the scandal, but several other high-major schools – Arizona, Auburn, Oklahoma State, and USC - are part of the ongoing investigation. Louisville has also been linked to it, and head coach Rick Pitino and AD Tom Jurich have been placed on leave, likely to be ultimately fired, for that school’s alleged involvement in paying a recruit $100,000 to enroll there.
“We will weather the storm, and hopefully everyone gets through it, and we can get back to playing basketball,” Ollie added. “That’s what I really want.”
Ollie added the Huskies, and not the recruiting scandal, are his most pressing concern now.
“I’m really concerned about my team right now,” he said. “Playing, and getting us ready for the first day of practice. I hear about it, but it’s nothing I can control. I want just our guys to be prepaid for it. That’s all I want to do – to educate them and educate my coaches, and that’s the responsibility I have.
“I can’t be around people 24/7, but I have the ability every day to educate them.”
At the present time, the Huskies have a full roster of 13 scholarship players for next season with Akinjo and Matthews, but that doesn’t mean Ollie is done recruiting.
With junior point guard Jalen Adams and forward Terry Larrier possible early entrants to the NBA draft next June and the constant turnover of rosters with transfers, the Huskies might need more bodies.
Immaculate Conception combo guard Jalen Carey (49th) and Vermont Academy forward Simi Shittu (8th) are 2018 recruits still being targeted by the Huskies.
“We are just going to continue to see what we need and talk about that each and every day,” said Ollie, who is not permitted by NCAA rules to comment on recruits until they sign a Letter of Intent with the school. “We are going to try to make moves that foresee any problems that come down with the fluctuation of players. The climate of what we do as head coaches you always have to be on the lookout of people transferring from your program and we have some guys who have the possibility of going to the NBA, so you always have to cover the program’s back, and that’s one of my jobs.”