Is Jim Calhoun the next John Calipari?

Last month, UConn filed a response to the notice of allegations from the NCAA accusing the Huskies of eight major violations. On Friday, that report was made public.

The Huskies admitted to making inadmissible phone calls, illegally providing game tickets to AAU and high school coaches, and, obviously, everything surrounding Josh Nochimson and Nate Miles. This Yahoo! Sports report by Dan Wetzel and Adrian Wojnarowski detailed the relationship between Nochimson, a former NBA agent that allegedly stole money from Rip Hamilton, and Miles, a UConn recruit that was provided with money for lodging, transportation, meals, and representation by Nochimson. Making matters worse, Nochimson was also a former UConn student manager.

Those are pretty serious violations, to say the least.

But UConn's self-imposed sanctions were not much more than a slap on the wrist.

Jim Calhoun is claiming ignorance and innocence.
(photo credit: NJ.com)

In the response published on Friday, UConn reduced their number of scholarships for this season and next season from 13 to 12, they reduced the number of coaches allowed to contact recruits, and they put themselves on probation. Keep in mind, these violations also cost Pat Sellars and Beau Archibald their spot on the UConn coaching staff. (Ed. Note: Back in May, we questioned whether this would be the death of the UConn program.)

Perhaps the most interesting part of the report is that the Huskies essentially cleared head coach Jim Calhoun of wrongdoing, disputing the determination that he failed to monitor the program and failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance. According to the report, Calhoun made an effort to warn Miles about the dangers of his association with Nochimson, although simply knowing of a relationship between the two is itself an NCAA violation. It also said that he turned over information to the UConn Athletics Department, trusting that they would do their due diligence in determining Miles' eligibility. In essence, Calhoun threw the Husky's AD Jeff Hathaway under the bus. From his response:

From that point forward. Calhoun believed that the review of [Miles'] relationship with Nochimson was in the hands of experienced compliance professionals. For being the one who did the most to try to find out if there was an impermissible relationship, the enforcement staff has singled out Calhoun and charged him individually with a major violation. No one else, including Hathaway and the UConn compliance staff, are even referenced in the Notice of Allegations, much less charged with a major violation and put at risk for an individual penalty. Calhoun finds it ironic that the staff has singled out him when he did the most to inquire about the [redacted] to warn [redacted] not to accept impermissible benefits.

Its a risky move by Calhoun. Head coaches know every detail of the program that they run. Its difficult to believe that Calhoun was unaware of the violations going on under his watch. Making it all the less believable that Calhoun was unaware as to the goings-on of his UConn program is that he has already had a season wiped from the record books. Back in 1996, UConn players Ricky Moore and Kirk King received money for plane tickets home, an obvious NCAA violation. A Sweet 16 run was vacated. Both players received suspensions for the 1996-197 season.

Calhoun, however, claimed ignorance and deflected the blame, just like he is doing now. And in the irony of all ironies, if Nate Miles wasn't such a head case -- remember, Miles never played for UConn because he was kicked out of school for violation a restraining order stemming from an assault on a female student just 16 minutes after receiving it -- UConn would be giving back the money and the banners from their 2009 Final Four.

In the world of college basketball coaches, John Calipari is probably the most hated. Not just because he is successful, but because the general consensus is that he is successful because he cheats and he lies. Both of Coach Cal's Final Fours have been erased, but he escaped blame by playing the ignorance card in both cases.

The most interesting aspect of this case is not going to play out in the meeting UConn officials have with the Committee on Infractions next Friday. It is going to be in the court of public opinion. Calhoun is a hall of fame head coach. He has won two national titles and built UConn into a national power. He is an icon, a god in the state of Connecticut, wielding enough power to earn a new, 5-year, $13-million contract despite being 68 years old and lacking the health to spend an entire season on the sidelines.

UConn fans -- and I still count myself among them -- if you hate John Calipari for being a cheater and a liar, take a good, long look at Jim Calhoun.

If he really all that different?