If scoring 58 ppg is your thing, I say yes! Nice win for UCONN. I've always liked Ollie, and I don't hate UCONN like I hate Duke/UNC/Syracuse/Kentucky. Amazing that UCONN has won 4 out of the last 15 NCAA titles, isn't it? They are never considered in the "elite" class in terms of Dookie V and the rest of the ESPN gang. Well, until now, of course. Hard to deny their titles at this point.
Ollie just started coaching them last season, and they missed the tournament. He's not going to the NBA as a head coach yet. He didn't even coach as an assistant in the NBA, did he?
Before coaching, Kevin Ollie was a great leader in NBA. Kevin Durant credits him for turning OKC into a contender: Kevin Ollie is coaching Connecticut tonight in the national championship game. Before he was a coach, he played 13 seasons in the NBA and he was a tremendous leader. Kevin Durant credits Ollie for turning around the Oklahoma City Thunder and teaching their young team what it takes to be a contender. “Kevin Ollie, he was a game-changer for us," Durant told Grantland. "He changed the whole culture, I think. He might not say it, but he changed the whole culture in Oklahoma City. Just his mind-set, his professionalism, every single day. And we all watched that and we wanted to be like that. It rubbed off on Russell [Westbrook], myself, Jeff Green, James Harden — and everyone that comes through now, that’s the standard you got to live up to, as a Thunder player, and it all started with Kevin Ollie.” http://sulia.com/channel/all-sports...1c/?action=prop&source=tw&form_factor=desktop
I knew years in advance that the Sonics were dying, after they replaced Bob Whitsitt with Wally Walker. So I jumped to the Blazers. Walker kept acquiring defective players to save money. The ESPN Sonic board used to disparage their own slow, unquick substitute guard, Kevin Ollie, a thoughtful tortoise. He shocked them by lasting 7 more seasons. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/o/ollieke01.html
Yeah, maybe he's the best thing since ice-cream but they said the same about Rick P when he left the college game to coach the Celtics, didn't turn out so well.
John Thompson. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_black_coaches_have_won_the_NCAA_basketball_championship
It's a Wiki site. A hamster with an internet connection is more reliable. I didn't even think about his race, though. I guess we leave that stuff to old-timers who have guilt over how unfair things were in the olden days.
College success usually doesn't transfer (see Rick Petino). Plus his offensive scheme looked horrendous.
I used my toes to get this pattern: 10, 20, 30. The next time will be 2044. Maybe it's 10, 20, 10, 20,... So the next time will be 2024.
He kinda is a more likeable Nate McMillan. Needs a dominate ball handler who can score as well as he breathes and a team willing to play D.