Mark Emmert: It ain't our fault, blame Calhoun

Mark Emmert's tenure as the president of the NCAA hasn't exactly gotten off to a smooth start.

From the overload of scandals we had this summer -- Miami's partying and Ohio State's tattoos to Cam Newton's payday and North Carolina's "tutors" -- to the shifting conference alignment that could one day make his job obsolete, there is no doubt that Emmert has had plenty on is mind this year.

But as much as he should be concerned about players getting paid and students skipping out on school work, you have to figure that he would be bothered by what has happened with UConn over the past year. I'm paraphrasing here (I suggest you go and read through this), but essentially, after being disciplined for poor APR numbers and a serious recruiting violation, UConn's punishment has involved winning a national title, having their head coach force out their AD, and landing the No. 1 recruit in the country despite scholarship reductions while forcing a less-talented player (and more legitimate student) that grew up in a group home to go off scholarship and on financial aid.


That does go against everything the NCAA is supposed to stand for, right? I can't be the only one that sees that, am I?

Jeff Jacobs, a columnist for the Hartford Courant that isn't afraid to sharpen the knives when writing about Calhoun, tried to get in touch with Emmert regarding Calhoun's actions. The response he got?

"We do not know the specific details of this situation, so we encourage you to contact the institution for that information."

That was it. No call back from Emmert. No comment on the situation. Just a sentence from the NCAA director of public and media relations.

Deflect, deflect, deflect.

And I had such high hopes for Emmert, the guy that so passionately and at such length about the need for change in college athletics. But like his predecessors, Emmert simply doesn't get it.

Every coach in the country would have done what Jim Calhoun did in order to get Andre Drummond, the best big man in the country, into school for a year. Every. Single. One. And as despicable as it seems from our point of view, remember what we are dealing with. Bradley is a kid that comes from a troubled background, having grown up in a group home in Tennessee. He's going to get a significant amount of financial aid. There's a chance that Bradley ends up going to school for free -- or close to it -- even if he isn't on scholarship.

Regardless of what happens with Bradley, the bottom line is that Calhoun and UConn -- for all intents and purposes -- did not receive a punishment from the NCAA. They didn't even use a loophole. They manipulated the system to their benefit, taking advantage of the NCAA.

And Emmert doesn't see anything wrong with this?

Frankly, the issue here isn't that Calhoun fudged the scholarship numbers, the issue is that he was allowed to do it by the NCAA. The problem is that what happened here isn't against NCAA rules. How do you fix it? Make scholarships be four or five-year contracts, not renewable every year. Or make a requirement that once a player receives a scholarship for a season, he'll always be a scholarship player. Or simply give the NCAA's president the power to veto a move, to say "Nice try, but we ain't dumb."

Because that's how Mark Emmert and his staff look right now.

Dumb.

He's trying to push the blame onto Calhoun. He's trying to deflect responsibility away from himself and his office. In his mind, college basketball coaches should be the beacon of moral responsibility. In reality, allowing them to choose between enrolling talent and keeping marginal players that need a free education on scholarship is about as smart as the detectives on Law & Order: SVU allowing a serial molester to coach their 11 year old's soccer team.
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The only person hurt by the NCAA's sanction against UConn? Michael Bradley

(Ed. Note: While I was finishing up this column, Dan Wolken of The Daily decided to go off on the NCAA Managing Director of Digital Communications, Ronnie Ramos. Poor timing on our part, but I strongly urge you to go back and read through Wolken's tweets. It got ugly.)

For UConn fans, it will be tough to top what has happened in the last six months.

A surprise run to the Big East title. An even more surprising run to the national title. The emergence of Jeremy Lamb as a star-in-the-making. The late-addition of Deandre Daniels. The even-later addition of Andre Drummond. I'm not sure anyone should be happy about a man losing his job, but if Jeff Hathaway getting forced out ensures Jim Calhoun's return, well, then you can throw that one on the list as well.


For the players on the back-end of the UConn roster, the situation is quite a bit different.

You see, the way the NCAA works is that an athletic scholarship is good for a year. They are given out on July 1st, and once a player has received his scholarship, it cannot be taken away until July 1st of the next year. UConn currently has 10 players on scholarship, but since they were docked three scholarships for this season -- one for the violations committed when recruiting Nate Miles and two for their low APR -- the Huskies are currently at their maximum in terms of scholarship players.

In other words, the Huskies cannot add another scholarship player unless one of their players currently on scholarship "voluntarily" decides give up theirs and become a walk-on. Since Drummond was recruited by the Huskies, he cannot count as a walk-on player. Even if he were to pay his own way at the school, he will count against UConn's scholarship total. And given their current APR score, UConn also cannot afford to do what teams in this situation usually do and run off a player, forcing him to transfer. That will drop their APR even further.

The result is that UConn now finds themselves in the difficult position of having to "ask" either Niels Giffey or Enosch Wolf to give up their scholarship and return to Germany to play professionally or "asking" redshirt freshman Michael Bradley, a Tennessee native, to give up his scholarship, apply for loans and financial aid packages, and pay his own way for at least one season. According to NCAA bylaws, Bradley wasn't technically recruited by the Huskies, meaning that he will not count against their scholarship numbers should he pay his own way to school.

As of yesterday, no decision had yet been made.

(As an aside, its fitting that UConn AD Jeff Hathaway was forced to resign earlier this month. Could it be that he stood in the way of Calhoun's efforts to get Drummond into school? Is that why it took so long for Drummond to actually make the decision to attend UConn? He had to wait until Calhoun got the OK from his bosses that they could try and pull this scheme off?)

Personally, I don't have as big of a problem with running players off as others do. I've written about it extensively on two different occasions -- here and here -- so I won't elaborate too much in this space, but essentially what has happened is that whoever gives up their scholarship will have gotten cut. It sucks, I've been there. And I certainly don't envy being the player in that situation. But this is also big-time college basketball. As it is with every level of sport beyond your hometown's CYO leagues, if you aren't good enough to make the team, you get cut.

But the Bradley situation is slightly different. He's not being run-off the team. He's not being "asked" to transfer to a different school where he'll be put back on scholarship. He's being "asked" by the staff at UConn to either accept the fact that he no longer as a scholarship or be the person standing in the way of Andre Drummond joining the Huskies.

And all this is happening days before the start of the fall semester.

That is a terrible position for UConn to put a kid and that kid's family in.


Assuming that Bradley "volunteers" to give up his scholarship, there is one of two ways that this plays out. Either he is forced to pay some or all of the $42,594 it would cost a student from Tennessee to attend UConn, or the financial aid Bradley receives is going to force another student that needs that money to attend UConn to be forced to go to elsewhere. $42,594 is not a small amount of money, especially for a kid that spent the majority of his teenage years in a group home.

Nick Fasulo of Searching For Billy Edelin asks a very good question -- how is this acceptable? How is this allowed to happen?

Frankly, its because the NCAA is utterly toothless.

If Bradley is forced to go off scholarship, most of the anger is probably going to be directed at Calhoun, his staff and the UConn administration that allowed it to happen. And it should. I'm not trying to deflect that anger. If their staff doesn't find some way for Bradley to attend the school for free (and if you click the link above, he should theoretically qualify for complete financial aid), than I fail to see how Calhoun can go into a living room and tell a family that he has their son's best interests in mind and have them believe it.

And I fail to see how anyone in the state of Connecticut can support this move.

But think about this: the entire reason that UConn is in this situation is that they were caught redhanded using a certified agent to recruit a player to their school -- a player that lasted a month before he was kicked out for violating a restraining order in 16 minutes -- and because their program has an embarrassingly low APR score. But instead of actually being punished, UConn won the 2010 national title and landed one of the best recruits in the country.

And (I'm bolding this because the emphasis shouldn't be lost on you) the result of those scholarship reductions for poor academic performance is that a player that grew up in a group home, precisely the kind of kid that an athletic scholarship should be used on, is being taken off scholarship to make room for a one-and-done lottery pick.

That's fucking pathetic. Its pathetic that UConn would pull this stunt, but its even worse that the NCAA -- whose first concern is that these "student"-athletes get an education -- can and will allow it to happen.

The only person that the NCAA's sanctions against UConn actually negatively affected was the kid that truly needed the scholarship in the first place. That literally goes against everything that the NCAA stands for in the first place.

Think about that the next time the NCAA lauds amateurism and promotes their "student"-athletes while cashing eight and nine figure checks.

What makes this even more mind-blowing is that there is a good chance that Bradley will qualify for a very large chunk, if not complete, financial aid from the University. I mean, hell, we're talking about a kid that grew up in a group home! What more does the financial aid office need to see? And if that is the case, than Calhoun can kick his feet up and laugh. He can laugh at the fact that he was able to thumb his nose at the NCAA, keep a poor kid from paying anything while playing basketball at UConn and bringing in Drummond despite having no scholarships available.

One of these days, it will be nice to see the NCAA's enforcement staff actually be able to, you know, enforce stuff.
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Jim Calhoun responds; does he have a right to push for an AD change?

The latest headlines coming out of UConn aren't good for anyone involved.

For starters, there's AD Jeff Hathaway, who is on the verge of losing his job. Whether or not that is the result of a Jim Calhoun wanting Hathaway gone is up for you to decide, but before you do be sure to read this scathing column from Jeff Jacobs of the Hartford Courant. In it, Jacobs more or less says that Calhoun is evil, that he is pushing Hathaway out the door because of a clause in his contract that cost him $175,000 due to poor APR numbers and the lack of a new basketball practice facility.

The biggest issue, however, was one simple statement that Hathaway gave the NCAA. Hathaway told investigators that he had never seen Calhoun as involved with a recruit as he was with Nate Miles, the kid whose recruitment cost two members of Calhoun's staff their jobs and resulted in Calhoun getting hit with a failure to monitor charge. According to Jacobs, Calhoun believes he is innocent of the accusations and still holds a grudge against Hathaway for, well, snitching.

Dana O'Neil, who is in Orlando for the AAU National Championships, asked Calhoun point-blank about the recent headlines:

But Calhoun insists that anyone who believes he is pulling Herbst’s puppet strings, hoping to get Hathaway ousted, is reading things all wrong.

"I do. I 100 percent do think that's unfair," the coach said before heading into the Milk House to watch recruits in Orlando. "I have nothing against anybody. Jeff and I, our relationship hasn't always been all that it should have been. When he came back [in 2003], he seemed to have changed somewhat and they say when you move over six inches to the head coach's chair, things change. But I don't want to see anybody lose a job."

Bullsh*t.

Jim Calhoun saying that he doesn't hold grudges is like Kim Kardashian saying she doesn't like athletes or Lindsay Lohan saying she doesn't like cocaine.

Calhoun is pissed because last season was marked with NCAA sanctions and controversy and columns like this. He's pissed because he was hit with a failure to monitor charge and will be suspended for three games come Big East play in 2011-2012. He's pissed because his most memorable season -- one where Kemba Walker threw a crop of freshmen on his shoulders and carried them from the bottom half of the Big East to a Big East Tournament and an NCAA Tournament title -- will forever be tarnished by those sanctions and those columns.

For UConn fans, regardless of how you feel about Jeff Hathaway as an AD -- and believe me, there are plenty that wanted him gone prior to Calhoun's push -- if you don't think that Calhoun has influenced this changing of the guard, you're naive.

But here's something to think about: does Calhoun deserve the right to request a change in AD's?

I think its fair to say that the athletic department is where it is today because of Calhoun. He built the men's basketball program from almost nothing into a three-time national champion and one of the most powerful programs in the country. The success of the basketball program facilitated the move of UConn football to the Big East, where it made a BCS bowl last season. I think its fair to say that Calhoun is the reason that UConn is on the same level, athletically, as schools like Pitt and Syracuse as opposed to UMass or Rhode Island.

Should that give him the right to decide who his boss is?
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DeAndre Daniels to UConn; Andre Walker's future effected?

Finally, we know where DeAndre Daniels will be heading to school.

Probably.

Tuesday afternoon, Daniels committed to the Huskies, ending a recruitment that, frankly, had grown tiresome. At different points during Daniels' five years in high school, he was committed to or reportedly close to committing to Texas, Kentucky, Kansas, and Duke -- as well as toying with the idea of enrolling in college back in December -- but it wasn't until recently that it became apparent that the Huskies were involved with the athletic, 6'7" forward from IMG Academy in Florida.



There is no question about Daniels' talent. According to our consensus recruiting rankings, he's the 18th best recruit in the country, cracking the top ten according to Rivals. But that doesn't mean that he is guaranteed to be a superstar. Its already a week into June. The signing period ended on May 18th. If Daniels took this long to decide on where he was going to commit to play his college ball, why is it a guarantee that he is going to commit himself to playing hard and within a team framework for the Huskies?

Oh, and then there is this from Scout.com's Evan Daniels (no relation, obviously): "Per a source, the plan is for Daniels to sign a financial aid agreement at some point in the next week." I'll wait to see Daniels in a UConn jersey before I consider this a certainty.

Without Daniels, UConn was already a top ten caliber team. They return essentially their entire team -- minus Kemba Walker -- while adding a four-star freshmen point guard in Ryan Boatright. While the loss of Kemba obviously hurts, rising sophomores Shabazz Napier and Jeremy Lamb and rising junior Alex Oriakhi should be poised for breakout seasons. Daniels will likely fill the role vacated by Jamaal Coombs-McDaniel's decision to transfer, meaning that UConn will have quite a versatile lineup next season. If they want to go big, Daniels and Roscoe Smith can surround Oriakhi with Lamb playing the two. If they want to go small, Lamb can slide to the three with Napier and Boatright in the back court.

If Daniels does actually join the Huskies, it should put to bed any remaining talk of Jim Calhoun retiring. He's got a team that will compete for the Big East crown, he just landed the most-talented remaining player in the class of 2011, and its after Memorial Day and he's still the head coach.

Calhoun's coming back.

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One thing to keep in mind with Daniels' decision is the future of Vanderbilt's Andre Walker.

Walker, who averaged 3.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg, and 2.6 apg for the Commodores this past season, has graduated with a year's eligibility remaining -- he redshirted in 2008-2009 after tearing his acl. Walker can transfer as a graduate student without having to sit out a season. The schools on his list include Northwestern, Xavier, Wichita State, and Kansas.

That's the same Kansas that was in the mix for DeAndre Daniels up until, well, Tuesday afternoon. Might Bill Self take a risk on a veteran forward for a year before trying to land Kansas native and top 20 recruit in the class of 2012 Perry Ellis?
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Andre LaFleur's departure enforces the notion that Jim Calhoun has picked a successor

The news flew a bit under-the-radar on Sunday night and Monday morning, but Andre LaFleur, who has been on Jim Calhoun's staff at UConn for a decade after failing to fulfill his destiny as an enforcer in the NHL, left the program to take the associate head coaching position at Providence under new hire Ed Cooley.

The move is interesting for a couple of reasons.

On the one hand, UConn is losing a key recruiter. LaFluer played a major role in bringing in Kemba Walker, Hasheem Thabeet, Stanley Robinson, and Jerome Dyson, among others.


What's more interesting, however, is that the Hartford Courant reported LaFleur is leaving because he felt like he would not be able to land a head coaching position if he remained with the Huskies. Calhoun doesn't having the most impressive coaching tree, but he still has had a number of former assistants -- Howie Dickenmann, Tom Moore, Karl Hobbs, Dave Leitao -- land head coaching positions.

That same paper also reported that LaFleur was afraid he would be left in the cold should Calhoun opt to retire.

That reinforces the notion that Kevin Ollie is being groomed as Calhoun's replacement. Ollie is in his first-year as an assistant coach in the UConn program and there has already been plenty of speculation that he's currently the leading candidate as a successor. He was an unheralded high school recruit and collegiate player -- he played for UConn from 1991-1995 -- that managed to carve out an 11 year NBA career.

There is no indication if Calhoun actually intends to retire before the 2011-2012 season -- his contract spans the next three years -- but regardless of when he finally pulls the trigger and hangs up the loosened neck ties, it will be a risk to hire someone with as little experience as Ollie has on this level. For it to work, UConn would have to retain George Blaney as associate head coach, promote Glen Miller (the current director of basketball operations and a former Ivy League head coach) to fill Blaney's role, or make a similar move that would put some experience on Ollie's staff.

Maybe LaFleur saw the writing on the wall.

As valuable as his contributions were to the Huskies -- he was a part of two national titles and three Final Fours -- LaFleur was no longer the most important member of the UConn staff.

Ollie is.

And LaFleur's decision to leave makes it seems all the more likely that Calhoun knows who the next head coach at UConn will be.
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Hopefully Jim Calhoun's dirt doesn't tarnish what UConn's kids accomplished

On Friday, Joe Nocera of the New York Times wrote this column showcasing the NCAA's double standard when it comes to players and coaches.

The central characters?

Jim Calhoun -- the head coach of UConn that earned an $87,500 bonus for winning the national title despite the recruiting violations he was sanctioned by the NCAA for this yeay -- and Perry Jones -- a star freshman at Baylor that was suspended for the Big 12 Tournament because his sick and single mother got a loan from a family friend that happened to be Jones' AAU coach to help cover rent.

Honestly, there is nothing in this column that I disagree with.


I love college basketball. I love the passion that it is played with. I love learning about these kids before they are stars at the college and the professional level. I love the NCAA Tournament. But that doesn't mean that I agree with the way college basketball, and football, players at the top programs are exploited for profit. And it also doesn't mean that I enjoy reading and knowing about the cheating and illegal recruiting that happens at the top of the sport.

Like I said, there isn't much in that column that I disagree with.

What bothers me, however, is the focus that has landed on Jim Calhoun after his third NCAA title. And the overwhelming majority of what was written sounded an awful lot like this column from Gary Parrish. Don't get me wrong, that column from Parrish is terrific, but in worrying and focusing on the wrongs of Calhoun, the national media trivializes just how special UConn's run was.

Kemba Walker didn't cheat anyone. He didn't commit any recruiting violations. In fact, he's every journalist's dream. Kemba was a first-team all-american and the story of the college basketball season, carrying a team full of freshman from 10th in the Big East in the preseason to the top ten nationally, a Big East Tournament title, and an NCAA championship. But he was also a legitimate student-athlete. He'll walk in May and will complete his degree requirements with a couple of online courses this summer.

What about the growth of Jeremy Lamb and Shabazz Napier throughout the season? Did those two look like they were good enough influential members of a national title team as late as January?

Did you hear any mention of the fact that Jamal Coombs-McDaniel and Alex Oriakhi have now won national titles as teammates at the prep, AAU, and college levels?

Winning 11 straight games in the postseason doesn't just happen. In fact, prior to this year, it had never happened. And while it was Calhoun that was manning the sidelines, it was the kids that were on the court that won those 11 straight games.

Calhoun will forever be thought of as a dirty coach.

But his players did nothing wrong.

And one can only hope that their accomplishment won't be tarnished by the legacy of Nate Miles.

UPDATE: For those that don't believe Kemba was a true student-athlete, take a look at this excerpt from Tim Layden's piece in the latest SI on UConn's title run:

Even before that Walker had begun trying to complete himself in ways that underscore the danger of painting any college basketball program—even one that will go on probation immediately after winning the national title—in broad, cynical strokes. Last spring Walker approached UConn academic counselor Felicia Crump and asked her to help him figure out how to earn his degree in sociology so that he could enter the draft this year and still graduate. Together they built a schedule that required Walker to take courses last summer in Storrs and then a full load in both the fall and the spring. "We're talking about a young man who was just an average high school student, at best, and who had always been more concerned with basketball," says Crump. "I told him, 'If you can do this, you'll leave behind a legacy that's more important than anything you do on the basketball court.'"

Walker took schoolwork with him throughout the Big East and NCAA tournaments, completing short required papers while postponing tests until after the season. He met with his campus tutor on Skype. And in his travel pack is a copy of New York Times columnist William C. Rhoden's Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete, a book that Crump encouraged Walker to read as part of an independent study class on racism in sports. Before the Final Four, Crump suggested that Rhoden's book would be the first that Walker had ever made it through cover-to-cover. After the win over Kentucky, Walker confirmed this. "That's true," he said. "You can write that. It is the first book I've ever read."

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Mick Cronin and Jim Calhoun exchange verbal jabs over Kemba Walker

After beating Georgetown yesterday, UConn head coach Jim Calhoun was asked in the press conference how he felt about Kemba Walker not being a unanimous first team all Big East selection.

As you might imagine, Calhoun didn't hold back.

"I think someone took a vacation and didn't tell us and has been gone for five months," Calhoun told reporters after the game. "If anybody did it because they lost out in him recruiting wise, which we went to one city this year that that was the story in the paper, something from three years ago."

The article he was referring to came from the Cincinnati Enquirer. Cincy head coach Mick Cronin responded after being asked on two different occasions about what Calhoun said.

"If he's got something to say, he needs to say it to me," Cronin said, "and you print that. How would he know who I voted for?"

Later, Cronin was asked again.

"I root for kids when I'm close to them and I like them," Cronin said. "That's unbelievable. I'd do anything for Kemba Walker. He's a class act. It's not me, I can tell you that. If he wants to know who I voted for, he needs to ask me."
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Reactions to the Jim Calhoun ruling from around the web

Jim Calhoun and the UConn finally received their punishment from the NCAA stemming from this Yahoo! Sports report back in March of 2009. Calhoun was suspended for three Big East games next season, while the UConn program has been placed on probation and been given a handful of recruiting restrictions. You can read our reaction to the punishment here. This is what the rest of the internet thinks.

If you find a link that we are missing, hit us up on twitter at @ballinisahabit or @biahthetrizzle.


Pat Forde, ESPN.com: "It’s not enough to hire a coach because he wins. An athletic director must make a great production in an introductory press conference about the integrity and character and superior moral fiber of the man in charge of drawing up a pick-and-roll. Combine that puffery with the salary and celebrity attached to many program leaders, and the Cult of the Head Coach gains clout. Their importance morphs into something almost presidential. And if you’ve ever seen a presidential security detail, you know that every effort is made to protect the boss. Even if it means sacrificing an underling in the face of danger. The protocol in college sports is comparable. Or at least it has been. Slowly, it’s changing. The penalties assessed to Bruce Pearl and Jim Calhoun are incremental proof that the Cult of the Head Coach isn’t the ivory tower it used to be."


Gary Parrish, CBSSports.com: "A postseason ban? That hurts. A television ban? That stings. But all Calhoun really got for cheating was a three-game suspension -- plus the contract extension he signed last May."


Jay Bilas: "What is an "Atmosphere Of Compliance?" Re-use the rule book like towels at a hotel? Is it possible to violate rules AND promote an AOC?"


Jeff Jacobs, Hartford Courant: "Calhoun has treated this entire sordid affair like it was another basketball game. In the face a Yahoo! report that nailed UConn, he has fought it, one fact at a time, fought it down to the last second. And you know what? The game ended. He lost. And now he’s considering overtime? Beyond a few game tickets and phone calls, the man has refused to take any blame. Athletic director Jeff Hathaway, already up to his knees with his own set of problems, fell on the sword for Calhoun. And now Hathaway’s detractors are killing him because he said in the NCAA report that trying to land Miles was the “most intense” he has ever seen Calhoun about the recruitment of a player. Calhoun, meanwhile, pulled the Sgt. Schultz. He didn’t know anything."


Dana O'Neil, ESPN.com: "On the surface it may not seem like much. Calhoun will only miss 1/6 of the 18-game marathon that is the Big East slate. He has missed games before, more than three in fact with various healthy concerns. That was, if not of his choosing, at least of his own making. But this is a benching, a benching of a man whose reputation means a great deal to him. Plenty of coaches have been smacked with NCAA violations and kept on keeping on, simply smearing Teflon on their hand-tailored suits. Calhoun isn’t any coach. He is on the Mount Rushmore of hoops, a man whose face is synonymous with his program. Only four currently active coaches already are members of the Naismith Hall of Fame: Jim Boeheim, Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams and Calhoun. That is the rarefied air in which Calhoun travels. And now he is the only one of the four to be held personally accountable for an NCAA infraction."


Mike DeCourcy, Sporting News: "Whatever Calhoun’s punishment might have been — short of being forced to dine nightly at Taco Bell with Pete Rose and Tom DeLay — members of the media would have carped about leniency. But Calhoun will remember this day the rest of his life, as surely as he’ll remember the nights he claimed the NCAA championship trophy."


David Steele, Fanhouse: "You'd like to think that no matter how prominent and prestigious a program and coach, violations of this kind -- exactly the type the NCAA claims it guards against the most vigilantly -- would receive appropriately harsh punishment. Apparently nobody in the Indianapolis offices shares your thoughts. Around there, Calhoun is a made man, and his program is untouchable. Or so it would seem, and the NCAA should be really bothered that, to so many, that's how it seems."


Jeff Eisenberg, The Dagger: "Since it's so difficult for the short-staffed NCAA to prove that a program is associating with agents or enticing recruits with extra benefits, the only recourse it has is to send a harsh message whenever they do catch a coach breaking the rules. That's why it's disappointing that the NCAA failed to hand out a stiff enough penalty to UConn on Tuesday to serve as an effective deterrent."


Dave Telep, ESPN.com: "Unlike Bruce Pearl and the Tennessee Volunteers, the Huskies were not hit with sanctions that would prevent them from leaving campus to recruit. Instead, the sanctions levied on the Jim Calhoun and the Huskies deal with scholarships, official visits and phone calls. Overall, the sanctions can be overcome with an efficient plan and diligent attention to detail mixed in with good judgment and crisp evaluations. "


Gregg Doyel, CBSSports.com: "Don't be fooled. Think of those penalties as a handful of nickels and dimes. I could throw coins at you for 30 seconds and it wouldn't add up to anything significant. That's what the NCAA did with UConn. It threw a bunch of nickels and dimes at the Huskies. Total cost? Nothing significant. Unless my math is wrong, but I doubt it. I was always pretty damn good with numbers."


Ken Davis, NBCSports.com: "Asked by Seth Davis to address the disparity in penalties, committee chairman Dennis Thomas said, “I guess that’s your perception in terms of disparity in the penalties. Obviously, the head coach is responsible for what goes on in his program. When you have an individual who has a show-cause for a certain reason, obviously that is a serious violation in terms of being forthcoming with the enforcement staff and institution. We do not feel there is a disparity based on the information presented.” When I asked Mr. Thomas how the committee arrived at a three-game suspension for Jim Calhoun, he answered, “I can’t go into how you decide about five games, 10 games, three games or whatever. But the committee felt after reviewing the information that the three-game conference suspension was appropriate.” When I asked about options available, Mr. Thomas said, “As I indicated earlier, the committee has at its disposal an array of penalties. I call it a quiver. And we decided upon the penalties we imposed.” So who knows? Maybe they shoot an arrow from the quiver and there are targets with numbers on them. Calhoun’s arrow fell on a 3."


Andrew Porter, The UConn Blog: "The penalties themselves may not appear to carry too much weight, and you will certainly hear a lot of screaming from opposing fans about UConn being "slapped on the wrist," but they are incredibly embarrassing for the program and especially for Calhoun, who, with the university's backing, denied the charges against him."
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Calhoun got off easy, but the NCAA spared the current players

The verdict is finally in for Jim Calhoun and the UConn Huskies.

And what the NCAA found in its report essentially corroborates everything that Yahoo! Sports reported back in March of 2009, when this infractions first came to light -- essentially, that the UConn coaching staff was recruiting Nate Miles through Josh Nochimson, and that UConn was aware that Nochimson, a former manager for the Huskies, was a certified agent and "overlooked" the fact that he was providing Miles with illegal benefits. There are a laundry list of infractions in the report, but these are the goods:

The head coach allowed a booster, who was a certified agent by the National Basketball Association, to be involved in the recruitment process. Further, the committee found that the head coach “overlooked indications” that this booster might be breaking NCAA rules. Specifically, the booster provided the prospect with impermissible inducements, including the payment of at least a portion of the expenses for the young man’s foot surgery; the cost of his enrollment at a basketball academy; the registration fee for the SAT; as well as strength, conditioning and basketball training.

The men’s basketball staff was aware of the booster’s status as an agent and his relationship with the prospect. In fact, the coaches had frequent contact with the booster through approximately 2,000 phone calls or text messages with the agent throughout the recruitment process. Despite this regular contact, the men’s basketball coaching staff did not question the booster about his relationship with the prospect. In fact, the staff was sharing information about the prospect’s recruitment with the booster, knew of the booster’s frequent contact with the prospect, and was aware that the booster hoped to someday serve as an agent for the prospect.

Calhoun was given a three game suspension at the start of Big East play next season, the team was placed on probation for three years effective immediately, and a number of recruiting sanctions -- a reduction in scholarships for three years, reduced recruiting days, fewer allowed phone calls, the usual.

In other words, Calhoun got off easy.

For getting caught making hundreds of impermissible phone calls and essentially using an NBA agent and booster of the program to land himself a recruit, Calhoun will miss three Big East games next season, less than the number of games he missed last year due to exhaustion. Don't let the big words fool you when looking at the recruiting restrictions -- those matter far less than you think.

But hey, at least he didn't lie to NCAA investigators about it. That's what cost Bruce Pearl more than $1 million dollars and eight games this season, and that's before the NCAA gets to hand down their decision.

There isn't really much else to say about it. Yes, Calhoun was given a light punishment. Yes, the NCAA made zero sense when explaining how Calhoun gets three games whiles Beau Archibald, the Director of Basketball Operations for the Huskies at the time, gets a two-year show-cause penalty. No, you shouldn't be surprised.

Its the NCAA.

What I haven't seen mentioned anywhere is that this ruling may actually be fair for the kids on the UConn team.

Only two players currently on the UConn roster could conceivably have been enrolled at UConn while Miles was being recruited -- senior Donnell Beverly and Charles Okwandu. Kemba Walker was in the same recruiting class as Miles. The rest of the team? They are all freshmen and sophomore, pieces that were added well after Miles had gotten the boot from the university.

I know that they came to UConn with the knowledge and understanding that a punishment was, eventually, going to be handed down.

But with the surprising success that the Huskies have had this season, would it be fair to those kids to have their postseason taken away because of violations that were committed as far back as 2006, when some of them were just high school freshmen?

A postseason ban for this season probably would have better fit the crime.

But the people bearing the brunt of that punishment would have been the current players, the kids that wouldn't be able to enjoy the fruits of what has been an excellent season.
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Bruce Pearl, Rick Pitino, and Jim Calhoun teaching clinics on dealing with adversity

The new AP and Coaches polls were released this afternoon.

The Big Ten has five teams in each poll. The Big XII has six in the AP poll and five in the Coaches poll, with Texas A&M checking in 26th. The Big East has seven in both. Based on those numbers alone, its pretty easy to see why those three conferences are universally regarded as the three best in the country.

It wasn't supposed to be that way.

Before the season began, all the pundits -- ourselves included -- said that the Big Ten and the Big XII were far and away the two best conferences in the country. Both appeared to be far stronger at the top than the other six power conferences, and neither of them had the amount of extra baggage at the bottom of the league that the Big East does.

What changed?

There are a number of answers to that question. Purdue lost Robbie Hummel for the season with a torn acl. Neither Michigan State or Kansas State has played up to their potential. Teams like Texas, Missouri, and Minnesota have alternated looking great with looking thoroughly mediocre.

But perhaps the single biggest reason that the Big East is in the conversation as the best conference in the country has been the play of two teams no one expected much out of this season -- Louisville and UConn.

It wouldn't be easy to find a team with a more turbulent 12 months than UConn or Louisville.

The Huskies are facing NCAA sanctions after a scandal came to light involving a recruit (presumably Nate Miles), an agent with ties to the UConn program, and UConn's knowledge of this relationship. Jim Calhoun steered clear (or attempted to) of the allegations by throwing his staff and his athletic department under the bus, but he couldn't avoid the speculation that his diminishing health and a program on a downward trend would force his ouster as head Husky.


With Kemba Walker surrounded by, well, Alex Oriakhi and a bunch of freshmen, no one was surprised that the Huskies were picked to finish 10th in the Big East. Not with that kind of cloud looming over their head.

Its also why no one could have predicted the Huskies incredible run in the Maui Invitational. As you are all well aware, UConn knocked off Wichita State, Kentucky, and Michigan State on the shoulders on Kemba Walker, climbing to No. 4 in the polls released today.

Louisville's start has not made as many national headlines, but they have been just as surprising.

Everything that could have gone wrong this offseason did. To start, Louisville lost two star recruits -- Michael Chandler and Marquis Teague. One of those recruits, Teague, ended up committing to rival Kentucky. All this happened while Rick Pitino's name was dragged through the mud during Karen Sypher's trial for attempting to extort Pitino. Then freshman Justin Coleman was declared ineligible, Roburt Sallie did not graduate in time from Memphis to gain eligibility at Louisville, and Russ Smith and Jared Swopshire (who was expected to start) were injured before the season even began. Do I need to mention Preston Knowles' suspension for getting into a fight with his girlfriend's father?


None of it, however, has slowed down the Cardinals. Louisville is now 8-0 on the season with impressive wins over Butler and UNLV. Perhaps more important than those victories was a win Pitino had on the recruiting trail. Over the weekend, he landed a commitment from Rodney Purvis, a top ten player in the class of 2012.

So much for the embarrassment of the Sypher trial affecting Pitino's ability to recruit.

But when it comes to overcoming adversity, no one has done it better than Bruce Pearl and the Tennessee Volunteers.

The past year has been incredibly difficult for Pearl's program. On New Years Day of this year, four of his players were caught in a car with guns, drugs, and an open bottle of liquor. Tyler Smith ended up being kicked off the team, while Brian Williams, Melvin Goins, and Cam Tatum were all suspended for multiple games. Then there was Bruce Pearl's recruiting violations, his lies to the NCAA and to his program trying to cover it up, his upcoming eight game suspension, and the looming NCAA sanctions.


There is not shortage of distraction there, yet Pearl's club has gone 25-7 in 2010 calender year. That includes wins over Kansas and Kentucky last year, a run that took them within one possession of making the 2010 Final Four, and this season's 7-0 start with wins over Villanova and Pitt, which came on Saturday. The win over Pitt was so impressive that it vaulted the Volunteers to No. 7 in the country. Keep in mind, this team was picked to finish 4th in the SEC East.

That's not supposed to happen.

None of it is.

Team's facing this kind of adversity are not supposed to be winning games, but they are.

And while the guys doing the bulk of the work are wearing the uniforms -- Kemba Walker and Scotty Hopson are playing their way up NBA draft boards, while Louisville has had different heroes every night, most recently Knowles and his 20 point second half against UNLV -- the credit has to be given to the coaches.

In this day and age, its near impossible to keep your players insulated from media and fan scrutiny. Not when a simple google search will bring any number of words written on your team. Not when message boards give every moron with a keyboard a voice. And especially not when its possible to mention a player in a tweet and have the message go straight to that player's phone.

For Jim Calhoun, Rick Pitino, and Bruce Pearl, their task at hand has been to keep their players focus on the court, not off of it.

I think its safe to say they have done an impressive job in that department.

Love 'em, hate 'em, completely indifferent towards 'em, the job that these three coaches have done this season in the face of this kind of adversity is impressive, to say the absolute least.
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Keep your expectations in check with UConn

Just six short months ago, I said that I thought that the violations that UConn faced from the NCAA could be a de facto death penalty to the program.

I meant it. I wasn't the only one that thought it. And if I could go back in time knowing what I know now, I would probably have written the exact same thing.

Which is why the UConn's win in the Maui Invitational must feel so good for Jim Calhoun.

The Huskies completed one of the most memorable in-season tournament runs in memory, winning the Maui Invitational on the slender shoulders of Kemba Walker. On Monday, they intrigued us with a comeback win against Wichita State. On Tuesday, they impressed us, knocking off No. 2 Michigan State.

And on Wednesday, the Huskies awed us. They not only beat Kentucky, they embarrassed them. If the unexpected resurgence of the UConn program felt good, beating former nemesis John Calipari iced the cake.

"That was a shellacking," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "We were outplayed, out-coached, out-everythinged."


The Wildcats were in it for all of twelve minutes. Terrence Jones picked up his second foul with the score 28-22 and 9:13 left on the clock. He sat the rest of the half. From that point on, UConn would outscore UK 22-7, including a 21-2 run in the last seven minutes that was spurred by 10 points from Walker. Kentucky never made it interesting.

So what has happened with UConn?

Why is this team so much better than people predicted?

The biggest issue is addition by subtraction. Last season's version of the Huskies belonged to Jerome Dyson and Stanley Robinson. It was there team, but neither of them were leaders. In fact, their performance down the stretch of the season was downright embarrassing. They quit, and the team followed suit.

This year, it is Kemba Walker's team. He has not only developed as a basketball player since the end of last season, he has developed as a leader. He has turned into the kind of player that not only wants to put the team on his back, he is capable of doing it.

Its not just the points that he provides, either. Walker's ability to penetrate forces defenses to pay attention to him. It makes perimeter defenders slough off of wing players and it forces big men to try to be shot blockers. Walker may be scoring 30.0 ppg, but that is more out of necessity than an unwillingness to be a passer. The perfect example came with about a minute left in the first half. Walker had buried threes on back-to-back possessions. The next time UConn has the ball, Walker finds himself with another open three, but he dumped the ball off to Jamal Coombs-McDaniel for a layup.

That's the kind of player he is.

That's why he is the early favorite for national player of the year.

But what does it do for UConn?

Odds are good that they will be in the top ten Monday morning. That's what happens when you knock off two top ten teams this early in the season.

That doesn't necessarily mean that this is a top ten team, however.

I said it last week, and I stand by it today -- UConn cannot rely on Walker scoring 30 every night for them to win. They simply can't do it. Coaches in the Big East will have too much time to prepare for Walker. They will have too much time to game plan for him. All it takes is one coach shutting him down and that game tape circulating for the secret to get out.

This is still the same team that struggles to find a secondary scorer. This is still the same team that is loaded with young -- talented, but young nonetheless -- players. And if there is anything we should know about freshmen by now, its that they are inconsistent.

Shabazz Napier's turnover are going to come. Roscoe Smith is going to start missing threes. Coombs-McDaniel, Jeremy Lamb, and Niels Giffey will have their ups and downs as well.

I'm not saying UConn isn't any good.

Quite the opposite. This is a team that has a good of a shot as Syracuse, Georgetown, West Virginia, or Marquette to finish in the top four of the Big East.

But if UConn does get that top ten ranking, don't expect a Final Four team just yet.

They may get there. They may also have ups and downs as a team. Putting a top ten label and top ten expectations on a team that was tenth in their own league in the preseason is a lot to ask because of one unbelievable week.

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UConn's compliance unit had one person. One!

The more details that come out during this investigation into the UConn basketball program, the uglier the black eye gets.

The latest comes from the Hartford Courant:

School officials also failed to mention what probably will be a key defense for former director of basketball operations Beau Archibald: During the time of Miles' recruitment, the athletic department had only one person working in its NCAA compliance department, and that person was overseeing more than 20 athletic programs.

In his 40-page response to charges that he lied to investigators about illegal phone calls to Miles, Archibald argues not only that the 113 calls and 181 texts permissible, but that they were authorized by a compliance unit that was so short-staffed it asked for his help in gathering Miles' academic records.

Pittsburgh attorney C. James Zeszutek wrote in Archibald's defense: "In the fall semester of 2007 the University's Athletics Office of Compliance was woefully understaffed" and therefore Archibald was "pressed into service to assist compliance" with the delicate issue of trying to make sure Miles was academically eligible to play.

Let me get this straight. The compliance unit of UConn, a school in the Big East whose basketball team made the Final Four in 2009 and whose football team won the Big East title in 2007, is made up of one person? That person was so overwhelmed that she asked a member of the basketball coaching staff to try and determine a player's eligibility?

Couldn't this have caused those excessive text messages and phone calls? Could Beau Archibald have lost his job because he was trying to do someone else's job? It sounds like a stretch, but it is absolutely plausible. More to the point, the story makes the UConn Athletic's Department look like an absolute mess.

If you are a Husky's fan, the article is absolutely worth the read. And trust me, it isn't good.


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Reactions to UConn and Jim Calhoun from around the web

Yesterday, UConn released their response to the NCAA's notice of allegations, in which they essentially absolved head coach Jim Calhoun of any and all wrongdoing. Here are our thoughts.

Here is what the rest of the internet is saying:

Jeff Jacobs, Hartford Courant: "Forget the phone calls, texts and tickets. OK, that's an overstatement. Don't forget them. They speak to the program's sloppiness. Yet much of it is nickel and dime stuff. Allegation No. 2 is why Yahoo! Sports worked so hard and so long on this story. This is why the NCAA jumped in with two heavy feet. This is why UConn's legal bill for the entire process is heading toward seven figures. This is why two assistant coaches went overboard. This isn't whispers. This is fact. And UConn should be ashamed of itself. On Friday, UConn raised the flag of mini-surrender to see if the NCAA will salute at the loss of one scholarship this season and next, two years probation, and a reduction on the number of coaches who contact recruits. Think about it. UConn only has 12 scholarships some years anyway. George Blaney rarely travels to recruit. And probation is little more than an order to keep your nose clean."

Dana O'Neil, ESPN.com: "Calhoun is more than a basketball coach. He’s a basketball icon, a Hall of Famer who is a living, breathing advertisement for the university. A stain on his resume is a stain on the university’s image, so the university will admit that the potted plant in the corner of the office committed an NCAA violation before Calhoun did. A year ago, Calhoun came under fire for his salary. Detractors argued that in tough economic times, his $1.6 million deal was out of line and suggested that the state’s priorities were out of whack when the basketball coach was the state’s highest paid employee. This offseason, Connecticut gave Calhoun a new deal, one that gives him $400,000 more this year, $700,000 more next season and will pay him $13 million over five years. UConn will pay him without apology because of the attention Calhoun brings to the university. And their decision to defend Calhoun to the NCAA? Consider it little more than protecting an investment."

John Stevens, Rush The Court: "We’ll all just have to wait until (most likely) December for the final NCAA decision, but if the NCAA is consistent with its recent statements, they will probably institute penalties more severe than what Connecticut has volunteered. That verdict, and the changing perception about Jim Calhoun — whether it’s fair or not — will affect UConn basketball much more than will be initially evident when it’s handed down."

Gary Parrish, CBSSports: "If Calhoun was promoting an atmosphere for compliance, I would love for somebody to explain how. The coaching staff -- which featured two members who were subsequently forced to resign because of this scandal -- recruited a player (Nate Miles) with an agent (Josh Nochimson), and the staff worked through the agent during the recruiting process. There are excessive phone calls, and despite all this Calhoun has consistently downplayed the significance of almost everything. How is that not "failing to promote an atmosphere of compliance"?"

Sports By Brooks: "Calhoun knew about the relationship between a representative of the UConn’s athletic interests and a UConn recruit that reportedly led to said recruit being provided improper benefits. During recruiting Calhoun also, himself, admitted to making phone calls and distributing free tickets in a way that constituted NCAA rules violations. Yet faced with that hard truth, UConn AD Hathaway said today that Calhoun has a "demonstrated commitment to NCAA compliance." Disgrace."

Matt Norlander, College Hoops Journal: "Fair or not, college basketball coaches receive the majority of the attention, good or bad. Calhoun knows this. His fight in this regard is a futile one. It’s uncomfortable, in a way: A coach who has become — and for many, many years after his retirement will be — the face of UConn men’s basketball is trying to spread the blame around."

Chris Ellsbury, Connecticut Post: "Yes, Jim Calhoun knew everything that was going on. Yet, with so many potential red flags regarding the recruitment of Nate Miles and Miles' involvement with NBA agent/UConn grad Josh Nochimson, did Calhoun ever once stop to consider the consequences? Apparently not. Because he and his staff kept right on trying to make Miles a Husky. For three years."
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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?

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Did UConn just get the death penalty?

On Friday afternoon, the UConn athletic department and coaching staff addressed the notice of allegations they received from the NCAA and the eight major infractions that were found.

They all revolve around UConn's recruitment of Nate Miles, which was exposed in an article by Dan Wetzel and Adrian Wojnarowski for Yahoo! Sports back in March of 2009. Essentially, Calhoun's staff was caught making impermissible phone calls to Miles and, through Josh Nochimson, a former UConn student manager-turned-agent, providing Miles with impermissible benefits.

Its already cost two UConn assistants, Beau Archibald and Patrick Sellers, the father of former UConn star Rod Sellers, their jobs, and potentially their careers. Jim Calhoun avoided the heavy artillery, getting grazed with a citation for "failure to monitor" the program. (The ironic part is that Calhoun actually succeeded in doing what the best in his profession do -- "monitoring" from a safe enough distance that sh*t hits the fan, none of it lands on his shoes. Ask John Calipari about that.)

Jim Calhoun waits for his turn to speak at a press conference addressing the NCAA's allegations against him.
(photo credit: AP/Jessica Hill)

The question now becomes how much of a punishment is UConn going to face. UConn will have until August 20th to self-impose sanctions on the basketball program, and then will face a COI hearing on October 15th and 16th.

"If it's a recruiting case, then you look for recruiting sanctions," Rick Evrard, UConn's legal counsel in NCAA-related matters, to Dave Borges of the New Haven Register. "If it's a competitive-advantage case, where a student-athlete has competed while ineligible, then you look for vacation of contests, wins, participation in NCAA tournaments. If it has to do with academic fraud, you’re going to look institutionally at the systems in place."

Since Miles never played a game for UConn (In fact, the kid that Calhoun risked his legacy on lasted only weeks on campus before being expelled for violating a restraining order. Think about that. In a matter of weeks, he was not only able to get a restraining order against him, he was able to violate it as well. Real winner, that kid.) they aren't at risk for having any wins vacated, but they will likely face some recruiting sanctions. Limits on the amount of time they can spend on the road, the number of phone calls they are allowed to make, and even the reduction of a scholarship or two are likely punishments.

In and of themselves, they are nothing that a healthy program cannot survive.

But the problem is that right now, UConn is not a healthy program.

They are a program that, despite being only 14 months removed from a Final Four, is on its last legs.

Jim Calhoun is UConn basketball. There's no other way to put it. When he left Northeastern for Storrs in 1986, UConn was coming off of a 9-19 season and had made just one NCAA Tournament appearance since joining the Big East in 1979. Within four years, he had led UConn to a Big East regular season title, a Big East Tournament title, and a trip to the Elite Eight. In the 20 years since, UConn has become one of the country's premiere basketball programs, winning two national title, making a third Final Four, competing year-in and year-out atop the Big East, and routinely sending players to the NBA.

Calhoun did that. He put UConn on the map.

Despite signing a five-year, $13 million extension earlier this spring, Calhoun's tenure at UConn is winding down. He's 68 years old. He's been battling health problems -- he's a three time cancer survivor -- and missed part of the 2009 NCAA Tournament as well as seven games this past season. He's in the twilight of his career.

On the surface, that isn't a death knell for UConn basketball. Legends can be replaced. It took a while, but UNC was able to survive Dean Smith's retirement, winning two titles in the last six seasons. Sean Miller eventually took over for Lute Olson and has the Arizona program poised for a return to glory. Its not easy (ask Indiana), but its possible.

But UConn is in a much different situation than any of those programs. The Huskies have lost a ton of talent the last two seasons -- AJ Price, Hasheem Thabeet, Jeff Adrien, Jerome Dyson, Stanley Robinson, Gavin Edwards -- and haven't done much to replace them. Their 2008 recruiting class consisted of Kemba Walker and not much else, unless you count Ater Majok, who didn't step foot on the court until midway through the '09-'10 season.

Their 2009 recruiting haul featured Alex Oriakhi, who started for UConn this season, but of the three perimeter players Calhoun brought in -- Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, Darius Smith, and Jamaal Trice -- Coombs-McDaniel was the only one that was able to earn any minutes. This year, UConn was in the mix for seemingly every big time prospect -- Brandon Knight, Josh Selby, Cory Joseph, Doron Lamb, CJ Leslie -- but the only top 50 recruit they were able to land was Roscoe Smith. Jeremy Lamb and Shabazz Napier are four star recruits according to Rivals, but so were Darius Smith and Jamaal Trice.

The past two seasons, UConn's recruiting has essentially been Kemba Walker and Alex Oriakhi.
(photo credit: Rush the Court)

Simply put, UConn is getting beaten on the recruiting trail, and it isn't difficult to see why. There's uncertainty about the longevity of Calhoun's career, as well as his health. There's uncertainty about the sanctions UConn will be hit with. There's uncertainty over how good this program is going to be in the not-so-distant future.

And you better believe that every coach recruiting against UConn, and every member of a recruit's inner circle, is making sure that recruit is well aware of those question marks.

How many elite recruits are going to want to play for a school dealing with those issues?

Making it worse is the loss of Archibald and Sellers. Right now, most schools have already targeted who they are going after in the class of 2011, have assigned assistants to their recruitment, and ideally have established a strong relationship with those targets. UConn now has to fill two holes in their coaching staff, reassign recruiting responsibilities, and then send out these new coaches to try and convince some of the best players in the country that UConn is, in fact, still an elite basketball program.

They'll have their work cut out for them.

Safe to say, it doesn't look like things are going to be getting better for the Huskies anytime soon. Its difficult to see a scenario where UConn is back competing for national titles before Calhoun calls it a career. If that is the case, what happens to UConn post-Calhoun?

Are they going to be able to land a premiere head coach? Like I said, UConn isn't historically a basketball powerhouse pre-Calhoun. This isn't North Carolina or Kansas. Players don't go to UConn because of its history, they go there because Calhoun has a reputation for developing pros; for turning guys that were somewhat overlooked in high school -- Ray Allen, Emeka Okafor, Ben Gordon, Rip Hamilton -- into NBA stars.

Are recruits still going to want to go to the woods of Storrs, CT, without Calhoun's coaching?

I hope UConn fans enjoyed that 2009 Final Four run. It may be a long time before you see another one.
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UConn hemorrhaging money to defend Calhoun and the basketball program

Jim Calhoun has won two national titles during his tenure at UConn, but in today's era of youtube and viral videos, Calhoun's internet notoriety stems from the "not a dime back" comment he made to a reporter two seasons ago.

If he isn't giving dimes back, maybe he should focus on limiting the number of dimes that the university spends.

In case you have been living under a rock for the last year and change, UConn is currently under investigation by the NCAA for violations first reported by Yahoo last March. The allegations were that Jim Calhoun, through former UConn manager Josh Nochimsin, were funneling extra benefits to recruit Nate Miles.

UConn was given a $300,000 budget to defend themselves against these allegations, money that was supposed to last them three years. But according to a Hartford Courant report, UConn has already burned through all that cash, and more:

The state Office of Policy and Management has agreed to allow UConn to spend an additional $375,000 to pay Bond, Schoeneck & King of Kansas City. The original contract with the law firm ... called for a three-year contract capped at $300,000. But state records show that UConn overspent that amount in a one-year period between April 2009 and April 2010, when more than $338,000 in legal bills were paid.

At this rate, that may not be enough.

This report couldn't have come at a worse time for Calhoun, who just last week inked a new five-year, $13 million contract with the school.

To be fair, this is all Athletic Department money that is being spent. Its the money generated by ticket sales, not tuition dollars. Regardless of where the money is coming from, critics are sure to point out that it is $700,000 that could/should have been spent elsewhere.

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St. John's routs UConn, who decided not to make the trip to MSG

Last year in the Big East tournament, UConn battled for 70 minutes and six overtimes before finally succumbing to Jonny Flynn and the inexhaustible Syracuse Orange.

This year, it didn't take ten minutes for the Huskies to throw in the towel against the Johnnies, losing 73-51 in a Big East Tournament first round game that they were never in.

"Give congratulations to St. John's," Jim Calhoun said after the game. "They came out here with purpose, physicality, and quite frankly handed us our butts."

St. John's jumped out to a 12-4 lead six minutes into the game, and extended that lead to as much as 17 points before the first half was over. While I hate to steal a line from Jimmy Dykes, the difference here was "want to". St. John's came out of the gates fired up. They ran the floor harder; they gave more effort on the defensive end; they executed offensively; they got seemingly every loose ball.

"I think the second- and third-effort plays sometimes come down to winning a game," St. John's senior Malik Boothe told reporters. "And I think we did that more than they did tonight. And we got the win."

What Malik and I are getting at is that St. John's was far and away the better basketball team today.

And while a lot of that credit must go to the St. John's team and how well they played, a part of the blame falls on the shoulders of UConn.

But just how much are we talkin' here?

Calhoun wasn't the only one confused by UConn's performance today.
(photo credit: NYDN)

This is a UConn team that has three or four guys that could end up being NBA players. They've knocked off Texas, Villanova, and West Virginia this season. They came within a John Wall jumper and a couple Kemba Walker missed free throws of beating Kentucky on the same floor that St. John's beat them by 22 this afternoon.

Its not as if this team doesn't have the talent. You show me ten teams with a top three more talented than Jerome Dyson, Kemba Walker, and Sticks Robinson, and I'll show you ten teams headed for the Sweet 16.

Simply put, UConn did not come to play today. Just like they didn't come to play against South Florida in the season finale or Notre Dame last Wednesday. After falling to Louisville, UConn had three chances to play their way into the NCAA Tournament and blew all three.

(Side note: the fall of Jerome Dyson has been incredible to watch. Dyson played like he was shaving points tonight. He finished just 2-6 from the field for four points and had nine turnovers in 26 minutes. Every time he touched the ball in the second half, it was a turnover. The worst part was that he didn't seem to care. Dyson apathetic attitude and poor play down the stretch of the season may have done more than cost UConn the NCAA tournament; it may have cost him a spot in the NBA Draft.)

Maybe last night's speculation about Calhoun stepping down was correct.

If he cannot get a team this talented to care about a push towards the NCAA Tournament, or to care about making a run in the Big East Tournament, maybe he has lost his touch.

For what its worth, Calhoun flat out denied all speculation after the game. He said that he hasn't "spoken about that situation and my future in maybe eight months" with Chris Carlin and Adam Schein, who broke the story last night, and that "right now it is erroneous". Take that as you will.

The ironic part about of this entire situation is that St. John's coach Norm Roberts was the one that came into the Big East tournament with concerns regarding his future coaching status. This performance may have saved his job. This is a talented team that returns 10 juniors next year and only loses Anthony Mason. As of now, it looks like the Johnnies are on the way up.

The opposite can be said for UConn. They graduate Jerome Dyson, Stanley Robinson, and Gavin Edwards. They've already had one recruit -- Cleveland Melvin, who was closer to a mid-major player than a Big East player as it is -- back out of their commitment. The jewel of next year's class -- Roscoe Smith -- has already expressed his doubts over his commitment.

Things have gotten so bad at UConn this season that Jim Calhoun, whose program was thrust into the national scene with a 1988 NIT title, openly questioned whether or not the Huskies would accept an NIT bid.

"I have great respect for the NIT," Calhoun said after the game, "but I think it's a good time to sit down with myself and my staff and think about what we want to do going forward. ... I want to make sure if there's a step back on the court to play a basketball game that they would be able to bring emotion, energy, and all the things you should bring to competition."

"Maybe its a good time to sit down and think about closing the curtain for this year."

Maybe he's right.

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Dangers in listening to the rumors....

Last night, Adam Schein and Chris Carlin, the masterminds behind the SNY TV show Loudmouths, tweeted and discussed on their show their show how sources close to UConn head coach Jim Calhoun believed he was retiring at year's end.

It wouldn't surprise anyone. Jim Calhoun's health and the Huskie's struggles have led to those rumors all season long.

But alas, they seem to be false, as both Seth Davis and Adam Zagoria went on record saying they spoke to Jim Calhoun's son Jeff and that those rumors were not true.

That wasn't the only rumor-mongering that has occurred over the last 24 hours.

Yesterday after, LEO Weekly, an "alternative magazine" based out of Louisville reported that there was a "national media race" to expose John Wall and/or DeMarcus Cousins for receiving "cash money and, perhaps, real estate."

But once again, those rumors seem to be false, as KSR's Matt Jones made some calls and found "absolutely no validity or even a shred of truth" to them.

Like they say, don't believe everything that you read.

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Jim Calhoun thinks you should see a therapist

UConn lost to Cincinnati at the XL Center on Saturday afternoon 60-48 in what will be considered, by many, nothing short of a disaster.

The Huskies were pitiful, displaying a lackluster, disinterested effort. Before a last minute flurry that cut the lead to 52-46, UConn spent most of the game averaging less than a point-per-minute. They were out-rebounded 46-32. They committed 16 turnovers. They shot 9-18 from the floor and 34.6% from the floor, a season-low.

What made their embarrassing performance all the more confusing was that this looked like a terrible situation for Cincinnati to be walking into. UConn was coming off of a promising performance in a loss at Syracuse. They were on the ropes for an NCAA Tournament bid. Their last game against Cinci ended in a controversial finish when John Cahill (the same guy that gave Jim Boeheim a timeout on Monday) called a foul on Gavin Edwards with 0.7 seconds left, sending Lance Stephenson to the line.

Oh, and Jim Calhoun was finally returning to the sidelines.

So while many expected a resurgence from the Huskies, what they got was a fall from grace, an invitation to the NIT, and people questioning whether Calhoun has lost this team.

As you can imagine, Jim Calhoun was none too pleased. He made that abundantly clear in the press conference after the game.

 

Did you catch the I think you need to see a therapist?

Calhoun is no stranger to press conference blow-ups, and surely this one will make the rounds. What's more is that it actually is an intriguing question.

Has Calhoun actually lost this team?

Personally, I don't think he has. UConn looked just as listless in their loss at Providence (In fact, I would argue that scoring 66 points against Providence is more worrisome than scoring 48 against Cincinnati.), in the first half against Syracuse, and countless other times this season. The fact of the matter is that the Huskies don't have a vocal leader on this team. They don't have a sparkplug. They don't have someone with the desire to put the team on their shoulders.

Because Stanley Robinson, Jerome Dyson, and Kemba Walker are all certainly talented enough to do it.

In fewer words, UConn is missing an AJ Price this season.

And it has cost them a season.
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Should Jim Calhoun retire?

As you all should know by now, Jim Calhoun has taken an indefinite medical leave of absence from the UConn Huskie's sidelines.

Being the fourth time in the last two seasons that this has happened, a number of people have weighed in on whether or not Calhoun should retire (Seth Davis, Eamonn Brennan, College Hoops Journal). The argument is justified. Calhoun has battled health issues for the last seven years - he's a three-time cancer survivor, broke five ribs in a fall in a bike race last summer before finishing the remaining 38 miles of the race, and he's 67 years old. And with UConn still facing the possibility of NCAA sanctions as the result of an alleged recruiting violation, the timing just seems right.

Medical issues aside, Calhoun has not fallen off as a coach.
(photo credit: FOXSports)

There seems to be a general theme to these arguments. Calhoun has done enough in his tenure with the Huskies to determine, on his own terms, whatever they may be, when the best time for him to step down his.

This is partly true.

Yes, Calhoun has had a hall-of-fame career.

Yes, he built UConn into a powerhouse.

Yes, he has the right to determine when he wants to retire.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that his job is perfectly safe.

The fact of the matter is that UConn is one of the best basketball programs in the country. They routinely compete for conference titles, they make NCAA Tournaments, and they have success in those NCAA Tournaments. Three titles and two Final Fours prove it.

But if UConn gets to the point where they are no longer competing at that level, than regardless of who is in charge, the UConn brass has every right to replace the coach. A college coach is still, in fact, and employee of the university. Its part of the reason I didn't have a huge problem with Florida State forcing out Bobby Bowden.

Their current team is far from that point. They made the final four last season, and after losing three starters - and arguably their three best players from last season (Jeff Adrien, Hasheem Thabeet, AJ Price) - Calhoun once again has this team on the brink of reaching the NCAA Tournament. Believe it or not, but Calhoun is still coaching at an elite level. He's still bringing in five star recruits - Alex Oriakhi this year, Roscoe Smith next year.

No one's calling for Billy Donovan to step down at Florida as his Gator teams have struggled after winning back-to-back titles. Roy Williams has had down seasons after both of his titles, and he's not feeling any heat.

But there's a difference.

Those two aren't dealing with health issues.

Calhoun is.

And despite those health issues, he's still coaching at a very high level.

The question then becomes, is his health negatively affecting his coaching? I'd argue the exact opposite - his coaching, which hasn't fallen off, is negatively affecting his health. And if he's fine with that, if he's fine with risking his life to do what he loves, who are we to tell him not to?

Let me ask you this: do you think the UConn team is better off with Calhoun coaching, or with George Blaney coaching? Are they better off dealing with Calhoun having to take time off here and there to deal with stress, or exhaustion, or his next cancer flare-up, or whatever the issue may be, or would they be better next season with the coach they bring in to replace him?

Personally, I think the answer's Calhoun.

If Calhoun and his family is ok with him risking his health, and if the results of his coaching don't fall off, I don't see any reason for him to retire until he believes its the right time.

If he's earned anything in his coaching career, its the right to not be second-guessed.

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