Former NCAA champion coach in talks with Nets for interim coach job

The Brooklyn Nets looked poised to give their interim coaching job to a guy with a ring (albeit at the college level).

Shams Charania of The Athletic reported Monday that the Kevin Ollie has emerged as the leader for the Nets interim coaching job. Charania notes that the two sides have already begun discussions.

Ollie, 51, is a former NBA guard who already briefly played for the Nets during the 2000-01 season. But he is best known for his time as head coach at UConn, where he was in charge from 2012-18 and led the Huskies to the NCAA title in 2014. Ollie was fired by UConn in 2018 after being charged with multiple NCAA violations and later filed a wrongful termination suit against the school. An arbitrator ruled in Ollie’s favor in 2022, awarding him $11.1 million. He later received another $3.9 million for “reputational harm and attorney’s fees” in a separate settlement with UConn.

In more recent years, Ollie had spent time in the Overtime Elite league as head of coaching and basketball development. He then joined the Nets last summer as an assistant coach.

With Brooklyn moving on Monday to fire head coach Jacque Vaughn, it appears Ollie that will be their guy for the rest of the season. Ollie received strong head coaching interest from a different East team not that long ago and now will be able to audition for the permanent job with the Nets.