Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

UConn big man Tyler Olander charged with DUI, suspended indefinitely (UPDATED)

Tyler Olander, Justin Jackson

Connecticut’s Tyler Olander, right, scores over Cincinnati’s Justin Jackson during the second half of Connecticut’s 73-66 overtime victory in an NCAA college basketball game in Hartford, Conn., Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Fred Beckham)

AP

UConn big man Tyler Olander has been indefinitely suspended from the team, the school announced.

The cause?

The dreaded unspecified violation of team rules. Those’ll get you every time.

(UPDATE: Olander was arrested and charged with DUI, according to Neill Ostrout of the Journal-Inquirer:

Olander was pulled over on Route 195 by state police at 10:49 Saturday night. He was charged with operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol/drugs, operating (or towing) an unregistered motor vehicle and operating a motor vehicle in violation of classification.

Oh, and Olander apparently doesn’t have a driver’s license.

Two arrests in the span of six months is not a good thing.)

Olander, who will be a senior this season, averaged 4.3 points and 3.7 boards last season for the Huskies. He started 26 games last year and has been a part-time starter in the program since the end of the 2010-2011 season, when he helped UConn with a national title.

But Olander’s also been in trouble before. A couple of weeks after breaking his foot and missing the end of the 2012-2013 season, Olander was arrested while on Spring Break in Panama City, FL. It was 2 a.m. and he reportedly was refusing to leave a condominium. Olander also isn’t the only UConn front court player to run into legal troubles, as center Enosch Wolf was suspended from the team at the end of last season after getting arrested in a domestic dispute. He eventually left school and went pro in Germany this summer.

At this point, there’s no reason to assume that Olander’s suspension will result in any missed playing time, as this offseason suspensions tend to remain in the offseason. But if he does, that puts in the Huskies in a major hole up front.

UConn lacks size up front, and the big guys they do have tend to be twigs; Olander is the only player on the roster listed at more than 218 pounds, and he’s the only guy heavier than 205 pounds that’s likely to see major minutes. Deandre Daniels is talented, but he’s more of a wing than he is a presence in the paint. Philip Nolan and Kentan Facey has some upside, but they are both young and need to spend quite a bit of time in the weight room. Leon Tolksdorf is a German kid that played 11 games last year. Amida Brimah is a seven-footer from Miami that picked the Huskies over Old Dominion, Florida International, Mississippi State and Virginia Tech.

The Huskies have guards on guards on guards, but without their veteran in the paint, this team is going to be battered and bruised on the blocks.

Follow @robdauster