Ollie Concerned, but not Overly Worried, About Eligibility Issues with Kentan Facey, Terrence Samuel

Kevin Ollie hosted the Kevin Ollie Charity Golf Classic on Monday at Glastonbury Hills Country Club. The 27th annual event benefits the Tolland Fund, which helps people with disabilities.

Ollie was asked about the eligibility questions currently surrounding incoming freshmen Kentan Facey, who is at UConn taking summer courses, and Terrence Samuel, who just completed two summer courses back home in Brooklyn and is hoping to be in Storrs in a few weeks.

On Facey:

"There are some eligibility issues with his coming over from Jamaica and going to Long Island. We've just got to discuss things with the NCAA. I don't see it being a problem once he's able to tell his side, why he decided to come over when he did, what was the formality of him being placed in a certain grade, and we're going to go forward."

"I think we've got a great case on our side. I think we'll see him with a UConn jersey on in the fall ... But if we don't, we've got to move on like we always do, take the good with the bad and learn from it, and rally around him and rally around our team."

On Samuel:

"I think he'll be on campus. There are still some NCAA issues going on. I think he's providing the NCAA with some great tools to go forward. He's doing a great job. He had to take a couple of summer courses over. I think he's completed those, and we're going to send those to the Eligibility Center next week, and hopefully we get a good outcome from that."

"I don't feel that he's not going to be here in the fall. I really feel he's going to be here and everythying is going to work itself out, because of the dedication he's done. We'll do our part, but he's really done the dedication and putting a situation behind him and going forward, thinking positively. Sometimes you've got to duplicate some things to satisfy the other partners, and that's what he had to do. He accepted that challenge, and I think he's going to move on from it and be a better person."

Ollie talked about the coaching staff's recent recruiting trips during three "live" periods in July:

"It was hectic, but it was good. Saw some great, great prospects. Now we're just trying to get some guys up on campus to finish the deal. It was real good to be out on the road, because we weren't able to go out in April. Everybody else was a little lethargic, and we were all energized because we weren't able to go out in April."