BREAKING NEWS: UCONN is found guilty in recruting violations!!!!!!!!

This could mean UK might get some recruits, waiting for ESPN to say more


Last Stand for UConn's Calhoun?

By SCOTT CACCIOLA

Jim Calhoun, the iconic men's basketball coach at the University of Connecticut, has hit a rough patch.

After an 18-16 season in which the team missed the NCAA tournament and Mr. Calhoun took a seven-game leave for medical reasons, the coach and the school have been unable to finalize a new contract.

The delay in the negotiations and the uncertainty about the coach's health has already convinced one of the nation's top recruits to rule out playing at UConn. In another setback for the coach, a person familiar with the matter said a representative from the NCAA, which has been investigating Mr. Calhoun's program for possible recruiting violations, has informed the school that investigators have found violations and will be issuing a report in the near future.

Mr. Calhoun's $1.6 million salary, which ranks among the highest in college basketball, has been a lightning rod for controversy since 2008, when Mr. Calhoun reacted testily to a question about whether a basketball coach ought to be Connecticut's highest-paid employee at a time when the state is reeling from an economic downturn.

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UConn coach Jim Calhoun looks on as his Huskies play Michigan State in a 2009 national-semifinal game in Detroit.
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UConn athletic director Jeff Hathaway and Mr. Calhoun declined to comment on the status of the NCAA investigation. They also agreed that the investigation has not been a factor in contract discussions.

In an interview Monday, Mr. Calhoun said one issue that had delayed his contract is what the coach's role will be after he retires. He said this issue has been resolved and the two sides were "signatures away" from finalizing a four-year deal. Mr. Hathaway wouldn't comment on the status of the contract.

Mr. Calhoun, 67, is one of the most successful coaches in college basketball history, ranking No. 10 all-time in the NCAA's Division I with 823 victories over 38 seasons at Northeastern and UConn. He has won two national championships, in 1999 and 2004, and made three trips to the Final Four, most recently in 2009, when the Huskies were led by Hasheem Thabeet, the No. 2 pick in last year's NBA Draft. In 2005, Mr. Calhoun was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Last season was not the program's finest. After being ranked No. 12 in November, UConn had its worst performance since Mr. Calhoun's first season at the school in 1986-87. Mr. Calhoun missed seven games this winter with a medical condition that the school did not disclose. Mr. Calhoun did not explain the nature of the problem, only that it was a condition that required medication. The team lost to Virginia Tech in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament. Three of UConn's four leading scorers last season were seniors who will not be on the team next season.

The confusion over Mr. Calhoun's contract has discouraged at least one top recruit from attending the school. Josh Selby, a top-ranked high-school point guard from Baltimore whom Mr. Calhoun has recruited, signed with Kansas this month. Uncertainty surrounding the coach's future weighed heavily on the decision, according to Mr. Selby's mother, Maeshon Witherspoon. "In Josh's mind, that was a concern—just how long he's going to be there," she said.

Mr. Calhoun says he was concerned that the delay in signing the contract might affect his recruiting, and that the question has been posed by recruits, but not Mr. Selby. "If that's the way Josh felt, he never expressed it to me," he said. UConn's incoming class is ranked No. 17 by Scout.com, a national recruiting site. "We feel very good about our recruiting class," he added.

In March 2009, published reports based on public phone records alleged that members of the UConn men's basketball staff and a former team manager had made improper contact with a recruit named Nate Miles by providing meals and exceeding the allowable number of calls and texts. According to school officials, the NCAA and the school began independent investigations into the matter last year. A spokeswoman for the NCAA says the organization does not comment on investigations until they are completed.

Mr. Calhoun's current contract, a $9.1 million deal spread out over six years, is set to expire on June 30. Last December, Mr. Calhoun told reporters that a new contract was nearly finished. In March, he said the contract was being finalized. "It got delayed during the season because the season was a tough season and I wasn't focusing my mind on it," Mr. Calhoun said. He added that Mr. Hathaway, the athletic director, was often traveling during the winter, which slowed the process down as well.

One issue, Mr. Calhoun said, is that this is likely his final contract with the school and the two sides were talking about what his responsibilities would be after he was finished coaching. "We were trying to find a way where I would be happy and they would be happy."

Mr. Calhoun said that he expects to be consulted about his successor, although nothing was built into the contract. "I feel very comfortable signing a new contract and I think the university feels very comfortable signing a new contract."

Mr. Calhoun's current contract gives UConn the right to discipline Mr. Calhoun in the event he is found by the university or the NCAA to have committed violations.

Michael Buckner, a Florida attorney who has represented schools under investigation by the NCAA, said he would urge UConn to wait until the case has been resolved before offering Mr. Calhoun a long-term contract. If the school announced a new contract before the investigation was over, Mr. Buckner said, "it would look like the university has already made its decision on how it thinks the case is going to turn out."

At a postgame press conference in 2008, a reporter and political activist asked Mr. Calhoun why the coach of a public university should make $1.6 million in the middle of a fiscal crisis.

"Not a dime back," Mr. Calhoun retorted. "My best advice to you: shut up."

After a clip of the exchange circulated on the Internet, Gov. Jodi Rell, a Republican, called Mr. Calhoun's behavior an "embarrassing display." Two Democratic state legislators, Sen. Mary Ann Handley and Rep. Roberta Willis, sought to have Mr. Calhoun reprimanded. Sen. Handley said she was upset that the state's highest-paid employee was being "so cavalier" in the face of a serious fiscal crisis.
—Sophia Hollander
and Darren Everson contributed to this article.