Nelson Chenault- US Presswire
In two seasons at Colorado, Buffaloes head coach Tad Boyle, has already produced back-to-back 20 win seasons, set the record for program wins in a season (24), won a Pac 12 conference championship and earned an NCAA Tournament appearance, winning his first game.
Production like that in two seasons will get you noticed, Colorado is just hoping that nobody else is watching. However, they know eventually bigger schools will try to lure Boyle from Boulder.
With the retirement of Jim Calhoun, UConn may be the first big program to go after Boyle. I know what you’re thinking, they already named their next head coach in Kevin Ollie but it’s only for a one year deal. If he has success then they will extend that contract but if not they might look for someone else and Boyle could be that guy.
Boyle has continuously stated that Colorado is his “dream job” and that he wants to stay in Boulder and build the program.
He’s done a good job of that so far but he is one of the lowest paid coaches in the Pac 12 and will likely want to be compensated a little more down the road; meaning bigger schools willing to pay more have a chance.
Texas A&M came calling a year ago but he turned them down, Nebraska tried to steal him this offseason but Boyle instantly turned them away. The only school that really seems to have a good shot of getting Boyle eventually is Kansas since he played there but Bill Self isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
That brings us to UConn. They have the type of program that Boyle wants to build in Colorado but if he’s not given a raise he might start to look elsewhere.
His base salary right now is $429,000, plus $200,000 in obtainable incentives from a contract extension approved in March in the hope he will coach in Boulder at least through 2016. That’s not the type of contract that a coach of Boyle’s caliber deserves.
Ollie is a former Huskies standout that returned to his alma matter to coach and has quickly risen to where he is now. He’s especially affective on the recruiting trail where his able to relate to the players he’s pitching to having gone through the process himself as well as playing in the NBA.
Ollie deserves a chance to succeed at UConn but if things don’t go the way the school wants they could honor just the one year deal.
Boyle is big time and will get paid eventually, whether it’s at Colorado or somewhere else.
