Connecticut has announced that new head basketball coach Kevin Ollie has signed a one-year deal that will pay him $625,000 to coach the Huskies during the 2012-13 season.

Ollie, who was a star player for UConn from 1991-95, will succeed Jim Calhoun, who is announcing his retirement at a press conference Thursday afternoon. Ollie had been an assistant under Calhoun since 2010.

This will be the first time since 1985 that someone other than Calhoun has entered a college basketball season as the Huskies’ head coach. Calhoun, 70, turned the once-middling Connecticut program into a national powerhouse, winning seven Big East tournament titles, making a school-record four Final Four appearances and winning national championships in 1999, 2004 and 2011.

Because of low APR scores, Connecticut is ineligible to participate in any postseason tournament in 2012-13, including the Big East tournament.

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