by Bill DiFilippo / @bflip33
After the UConn men’s basketball team was forced to sit out the Big East and NCAA Tournaments last year due to being on academic probation, coach Kevin Ollie expects the squad to have perfect academic scores for the 2012-13 year.
Academic reports are released every May and look at how athletes did in the classroom during the previous year. Since the group failed to make the grade during the 2011-12 academic year, Ollie implemented several new rules to stress academic success, like a minimum GPA and a maximum number of classes a student is allowed to miss.
From Yahoo:
”The reason why we didn’t play in the tournament wasn’t because of the guys here, it was the guys before us,” senior guard Shabazz Napier said. ”We cherish our academics. That is one thing Coach Ollie always tells guys, the one thing people can’t take away from you is your education.
”We don’t take it for granted.”
The Huskies went 20-10 last season in their first season under Ollie, who took over for longtime coach Jim Calhoun.
