UConn’s Ollie to abide by Malloy’s Indiana boycott for Final Four

UConn head coach Kevin Ollie speaks to guards Rodney Purvis (44) and Ryan Boatright (11) on Thursday, March 12, 2015, at XL Center in Hartford, Conn. (Brad Horrigan/Hartford Courant/TNS)

UConn head coach Kevin Ollie speaks to guards Rodney Purvis (44) and Ryan Boatright (11) on Thursday, March 12, 2015, at XL Center in Hartford, Conn. (Brad Horrigan/Hartford Courant/TNS)

Kevin Ollie won’t get whistled for traveling.

The head coach of the defending champion University of Connecticut men’s basketball program will not attend the Final Four this weekend in Indianapolis, abiding by an executive order from Gov. Dannel P. Malloy for state employees to boycott the Hoosier State because of its recently adopted religious freedom law.

“UConn is a community that values all of our members and treats each person with the same degree of respect, regardless of their background and beliefs and we will not tolerate any other behavior,” UConn President Susan Herbst said in a statement Tuesday night.

The Democrat’s executive order makes exceptions for state employees who must travel as part of contractual obligations, which Ollie’s five-year, $16 million pact requires for NCAA events.

Having the face of UConn basketball and highest-compensated state employee appear at college basketball’s showcase event loomed as a potential embarrassment for Malloy, who grabbed national headlines Monday when he condemned Indiana’s policy as being discriminatory towards gays.

“They’re big people. If they feel that they have to honor contractual obligations,” Malloy said of UConn’s athletic brass earlier Tuesday at the Capitol. “But I would hope that if they don’t need to go, they wouldn’t.”

Neil Vigdor