Thunder zeroing in on UConn’s Kevin Ollie, per reports

The Oklahoma City Thunder’s head coaching position has only been vacant for a few hours, but there are already two candidates that appear to be separating themselves from the field. Thunder GM Sam Presti is reportedly focusing on two college coaches, Florida’s Billy Donovan and UConn’s Kevin Ollie.

According to the latest reports, Ollie would be interested in the job and the Thunder have already approached him about the position.

Here’s what we know: on Wednesday morning, before Brooks was officially fired, Ollie released a statement saying he’s happy at UConn and plans on staying. Later in the day, Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that might not be completely true:

Adam Zagoria of SNY.TV later reported that the Thunder and Ollie are “already talking”.

Ollie is a 13-year NBA veteran whose last gig was in 2009-10 with Oklahoma City. The Thunder won 50 games that season and reached the playoffs for the first time behind 21-year-olds Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. While many of the pieces in Oklahoma City have changed since that season, the core of the team remains the same.

Durant has spoken highly about Ollie in the past. Durant once credited Ollie with “changing the whole culture in Oklahoma City”. The Thunder were 23-59 in the season prior to Ollie’s arrival, though Ollie -- then 37 years old -- played only 25 games with the franchise.

Ollie certainly has an impressive resume in three seasons in the college game. He has compiled a 72-33 career record at UConn and led the Huskies on an unlikely run to the national championship as the No. 7 seed in 2014. UConn missed the NCAA Tournament last season after losing Shabazz Napier and others from the title team, finishing only 20-15 overall.