UConn Legacy in Doubt After Scandal

As in any developing scandal, the paramount question here is, "Who knew?" In the case of the UConn Con, it's more than clear that the Connecticut coaches knew about a former student manager, Josh Nochimson, and his relationship with a recruit named Nate Miles. The issue becomes whether they also knew that Nochimson, a sports agent accused of stealing more than $1 million by at least one famous client, was providing Miles with lodging, transportation, meals and representation while UConn was recruiting him.

If the coaches were aware -- and the NCAA concludes that thousands of phone calls and text messages made to Nochimson in a two-year period, some by head coach Jim Calhoun, violate the spirit of a new institutional rule called "coach control" -- well, folks, we might be looking at our next Kelvin Sampson/Indiana superscam in college basketball.

And that would bring down one of America's celebrated programs, a team that has a chance to win a national title 11 nights from now in Detroit.

Just when March Madness rises to a chalky, marquee-name crescendo, the Badness inevitably invades and reminds us of the sport's ever-present sinister underbelly. Spurred Wednesday by a Yahoo! Sports report, the NCAA likely will investigate a Connecticut program led by a Hall of Fame coach, Calhoun, whose health remains a major concern and already has landed him in the hospital with exhaustion during the big tournament. It shouldn't surprise anyone if Calhoun, 66, retires in a few weeks following a tumultuous few seasons that have included erratic play, a second bout with cancer and a foolish episode in which he publicly battled an activist who questioned the logic of his $1.6 million salary amid an economic crisis. To depart during a probe would be a sad way to go out, but the details seeping out of the Storrs, Conn. campus are sadder.

According to the report, UConn assistant Tom Moore, now the head coach at Quinnipiac University, knew of the Miles-Nochimson connection as early as the fall of 2006. In December of that year, Moore reportedly made 27 phone calls to two people described as Miles' guardian and uncle and three calls to Miles himself. The NCAA forbids more than one call a month to a recruit or family member in such a situation. If Moore was the conduit between the program and Miles-Nochimson tag team, it will be difficult for Calhoun and university athletic officials to claim a lack of knowledge and involvement -- particularly when records obtained by Yahoo! indicate that five UConn coaches exchanged at least 1,565 phone and text messages with Nochimson, with 16 coming from Calhoun. This would attach Nochimson directly to the program, an association that prohibited him from being involved in Miles' recruitment, much less showering him with perks and dealing with his family.

Effectively, he would have been a representative of the program -- an agent and booster -- engaging in illegal recruiting activities. Did Calhoun know? It doesn't help his cause that another player who recently signed with UConn, a former Sudanese refugee forward Ater Majok, also is affiilated with Nochimson. And that Nochimson represented NBA star and ex-UConn guard Rip Hamilton until Hamilton fired him and accused him of stealing more than $1 million. And that Nochimson represented another former Sudanese refugee, Luol Deng, in failed negotiations with the Chicago Bulls, forcing Deng to hire another agent to finish his long-term extension last year. True, Miles never played for the Huskies -- he was expelled last October -- and Majok won't be eligible to play until next season. That means UConn won't be in jeopardy of forfeiting victories during its current run to the Sweet 16, where they'll battle Purdue Thursday evening in Glendale, Ariz. But though the Huskies will be playing in a domed football stadium, a cloud will be over their heads.

In the middle of the storm is Calhoun, who did absolutely nothing to knock down the Yahoo! report, other than to say he doesn't know how to get to the site on the Internet. Someone should give him a computer lesson. His legacy in the sport is on the rocks.

"The university is taking any allegations towards its program .... very responsibly and tries to live under the responsibility of the NCAA rules," Calhoun said. "The university is going to look into any matter, as we would, when we hear light of something with regards to .... making sure that we are being compliant."

And what is his relationship with Nochimson?

"I'm not going to speak about any individual," Calhoun said. "He was with our program for six years, got his master's degree. Beyond that, while he was in our program, he was a good kid, worked hard, etc. That was my relationship with him during that particular point in time. I have a very close relationship with Rip, going to Rip's wedding in June as a matter of fact. But that's basically my characterization. I don't want to go into detail as far as anything else."

Athletic director Jeff Hathaway said he was in touch with the NCAA during Miles' recruitment and suggested the governing body was aware of details "the whole way." But I'm sure the NCAA wasn't aware of 1,565 phone calls and text messages, numbers that sound alarms in the aftermath of the Sampson case. The difference, of course, is that Sampson's program at Oklahoma had been involved in an impermissible-phone-call mess when the same violations took place in his Indiana program. Still, such a phone flurry at UConn suggests an in-house disregard for the rules. That could spell big, big trouble.

If the agent business always has had its share of parasites, the landscape is scummier than ever. Agents are getting involved with players early in their teens and are directing them to certain college programs, which is dirty pool. In an interview with the Associated Press, Thomas Pettigrew, Miles' uncle, said of the controversy, "I just think he got mixed up with the wrong people. There was a whole bunch of adults who should have been doing their job instead of doing what they did. That's how society is. They chew you up and spit you out. If they can use you, they use you. I think the whole situation is funny, because I'm sure there are people who are supposed to be looking over that."

Allow me to point out that Pettigrew wasn't talking about one person. He was indicting many, not a good sign for UConn. More big-time programs are involved in these agent relationships than you know; some just happen to get caught. For Calhoun, it's another tough blow in a hard life. There he was again, having to talk about a scandal instead of a basketball team that was hugely impressive in the first two rounds.

"I have been through a couple things in my life, and I've learned how to stand up to those," he said. "Once again, I have no control over some things that have happened to me from my father's death (when he was a teen) to all the various things that have happened in my lifetime. All I know is to go forward, stand up and be counted. That's exactly what I plan to do and get my team as ready as I possibly can to play Purdue. That's what I know how to do. That's what I have been taught by my dad, by my mom. My family has been taught that. My two sons have been taught the exact same thing. We've got to go forward. We can't dwell on anything that was said, not said, make any evaluation of it except let other people who can at this particular point in time look into what they need look into."

At the very least, it has become a media distraction for a team that seems destined to play Memphis in the West Regional final. Maybe it won't affect the players when they're on a fast break or trying to get a defensive stop, but with more national media covering UConn as the tournament progresses, questions about Nochimson are just beginning. The players say they're immune to it. "We are just mentally tough," Jeff Adrien said. "It starts with our coach. We don't let stuff like that bother us or whatever. We have been through a lot of ups and downs in our lives and everything. We just know how to block it off."

"We really don't pay any attention to it. We don't really know anything about it, have nothing to say about it," A.J. Price said. "Yeah, we just focus on the things we know how to do, which is play basketball. We just go out there and take it one game at a time. Everything else will eventually come out in the wash and take care of itself."

But what if the dirt doesn't come out in the wash? Calhoun told his players to ignore the fallout, enjoy watching the Suns game in Phoenix on Wednesday night and try to enjoy the moment. He told them, "Fellows, you probably are going to see something on TV, a couple different things. It is something that occurred a year or two ago, whatever it may be. Just to let you know, the university is taking very good care of it. They will look into it. As far as we're concerned, we are here to beat Purdue, and I want you to know that. If you vary from that, you will look back and say 'I was worried about something that didn't really affect me one way or the other' and we let opportunities slip by.

"The one thing in life is, you only get so many opportunities. You get beat by a buzzer-beater and you go home. You play them well, you advance and your team appears to be getting better -- it is a great opportunity for us. That's what we talked to the kids about, and then we shut it off."

If only it was that simple to shut off a stinkbomb.