Kevin Ollie is a finalist for a prestigious national award – the Joe B. Hall Award, which is given annually to the nation’s top first-year coach.
The other finalists are Kevin Baggett of Rider, Jamion Christian of Mount St. Mary’s, Mike Martin of Brown, Bashir Mason of Wagner, Dan Muller of Illinois State, Jack Perri of LIU-Brooklyn, Richard Pitino of Florida International, Nick Robinson of Southern Utah and Travis Williams of Tennessee State.
Ollie, 40, taking over for Jim Calhoun on the eve of the season, coached a roster depleted by transfers and NBA entries, and he has squeezed 19 wins out of the Huskies, and nine in the Big East, surpassing their totals of last season. And Ollie held together a team with no postseason prize at stake.
The award is named for Hall, who took over for Adolph Rupp and went 20-8 in his first season at Kentucky.
The award will be presented on April 5 in Atlanta, during the Final Four week.
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7 Responses to Kevin Ollie A Finalist for Joe B. Hall Award For First-Year Coaches
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If KO is being considered then it must have been a horrible year for 1st year coaches.
Obviously, you haven’t been watching.
Only a hate monger would have this opinion of Coach Ollie. Possibly a BC fan?
Hip Hop Fool is probably a 14 year old geek from the suburbs. He probably knows nothing about hip hop and would probably crap his pants if he ever founfd himself in the ‘hood.
Kevin Ollie took over a program left in shambles by Mr. wonderful, Jim Calhoun. If anybody deserves the Hall award it’s coach Ollie!
Jim Calhoun built the program from nothing (from the actual shambles that Dom Perno created) and Calhoun sustained it for 26 years. That is quite an accomplishment. Many of the finest minds in basketball have called it the greatest building job in college basketball. I think I side with them.
What have you accomplished? A cheap shot artist who spills bile on a website? probably as a consequenc of a failed life.
Every web blog has at least one troll assigned the task of making inane comments. Let’s all agree to ignore ours and wallow in the happy discovery that Coach Calhoun’s last great gift to us is a replacement that could easily exceed his Hall of Fame record. How Ollie got an inexperienced, undersized, group of six players one of whom could barely run to beat a decent and well coached team defies understanding. Either great coaching or Voodoo was involved.