Iowa State’s Fred Hoiberg and UConn’s Kevin Ollie have emerged as two of the bright, young stars in college coaching and they will be reunited Friday (7:27 p.m.) when their teams meet in an NCAA East Regional semifinal at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Hoiberg and Ollie have ties that run deep in their basketball careers as players and coaches. They were teammates on the Chicago Bulls in 2001-02 and Ollie played for Minnesota when Hoiberg was working in the Timberwolves’ front office.
They’ve spent the past two days expressing their respect for one another through media interviews.
“Fred is one of my best friends in the world,” Ollie said Wednesday during an appearance on the Mike Franscesca radio program. “He’s done a lot for me in my career. He was one of the best teammates I ever had in the NBA. Unfortunately one of us is going to have to lose. Hopefully, he’ll take this one for me. ”
That’s not likely, but during a conference call on Tuesday, Hoiberg didn’t hold back with his praise of Ollie.
“I consider Kevin a very good friend,” Hoiberg said. “When he and I are at the same event, we’ll sit with each other. He was one of the best teammates I ever had. There was no doubt in my mind he would be a successful head coach when he got the opportunity, just because of how smart a person he is, not only off the court but on the court when he was playing point guard.
“Neither of us were guys you go to, or great players, per se. But both of us ‘thought the game.’ You’re not going to find anybody better [than Ollie]. I’ve been very happy. It’s fun to watch and follow.”
Both are now coaching at their alma mater. Both were highly popular wearing their school’s uniforms. Hoiberg is known as the “Mayor” of Ames,Iowa and his revitalized a program that knew great success under Johnny Orr. But last year Ollie had to step into the shoes vacated by Hall of Famer Jim Calhoun, the man who put the Huskies on the map and won three national championships.
“You can just see the confidence his teams play with and it’s been one of the most impressive things I’ve seen,” Hoiberg said. “Even last year when the team knew it wasn’t going to play in the postseason just to see what he was starting with with that group and [then winning 20 games is] hard to do. A lot of people don’t fully understand how difficult that is to do when you replace a legend like Jim Calhoun who you played for and worked under for a few years. But it was great. When I saw him rewarded with a long-term contract, and it was very well deserved, I couldn’t be happier for him.”
There won’t be a lot of secrets when the two coaches face off Friday night. They learned many of the same sets and schemes during their time in the NBA.
While Hoiberg has to worry about UConn’s Shabazz Napier and Ryan Boatright, the Huskies and Ollie will be facing a stronger, bigger point guard in Iowa State’s DeAndre Kane, who is 6-4 and 195 pounds. He’s also 24 years old, a transfer from Marshall and has had a breakout season.
“The main thing is that they get [the ball] out, they’re a good rebounding team and they score in the first 10 seconds,” Ollie said. “We have to get back in transition. We’ve got to force them to play after their first 15 seconds because they are a high-possession team. In those first 15 seconds they find the weakness in your team and exploit it. We want to get back with all five, understand the problem, find the paint first and then find our man and then have them play against our set defense.
‘It’s kind of like a mirror. They have a lot of guys that can pick-and-pop. We do the same. We employ a lot of NBA sets also, so it’s going to be a great matchup and I’m looking forward to it.”
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