HARTFORD, Conn. — Former UConn men’s basketball coach Kevin Ollie has lost his appeal to the NCAA, which upheld its findings that he committed multiple violations. The NCAA’s decision to hit him with a three-year “show-cause” order will also remain in place.
But Ollie’s lawyer, Jacques Parenteau, calling the Infractions Appeals Committee action a “rubber stamp of the original biased decision,” vowed to continue the fight with UConn over the more than $10 million left on Ollie’s contract.
In its original findings, announced last July, the NCAA found several infractions, including improper workouts with an outside trainer, and various recruiting violations, including facilitating phone calls between Ray Allen, considered a booster, and a recruit. Ollie was charged with a level one violation — the most serious level — of providing false and misleading information to NCAA investigators.
Ollie was fired as UConn’s head men’s basketball coach on March 10, 2018, with three years remaining on his contract, calling for more than $10 million. UConn initiated firing for “just cause,” which would free them from having to pay the money, and the dispute has continued for more than two years.
As a result of the NCAA ruling, UConn self-imposed sanctions, including loss of a scholarship for last season, and the NCAA put the program on probation. The show-cause order effectively inhibits Ollie’s ability to coach anywhere for three years.
In rejecting the appeal, the NCAA appeals committee said:
“An individual or school … must show more than an alternate reading or application of the information exists to demonstrate a violation is clearly contrary to the information presented. The appeals committee continued that the former head coach failed to demonstrate that the information he used to challenge the credibility of the individuals, who provided information in this case and to support his narrative, clearly outweighed the information used by the Committee on Infractions to support the violations.”
In response, Parenteau said in an email, “it is disgraceful this committee refused to consider the ample evidence produced by counsel for Kevin Ollie showing that witnesses had lied … Nevertheless, we will continue to fight for Kevin Ollie in the ongoing arbitration and are confident that his rights will ultimately be vindicated.”
———
©2020 The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Conn.)
Visit The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Conn.) at www.courant.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.