The UConn men's basketball team made the Final Four on Saturday. The Huskies have demolished the competition thus far, winning by successive margins of 56, 26, 12 and seven. So they're good. But, even so, it's hard to root for them amid the controversy that is swirling around them.
UConn first caught my eye when coach Jim Calhoun went on a tirade during a press conference. He lost it when a freelance writer asked a question about Calhoun's relatively exorbitant salary, which at $1.6 million is by far the highest of any state employee in Connecticut. UConn is a state school, and a lot of people are upset about Calhoun's $1.6 mil when the state is struggling to cut its $2 billion budget deficit.
Calhoun decided to pull a Sprewell, retorting "Not a dime back. I'd like to be able to retire someday." Calhoun comes off like a jerk here, no pun intended. Leaving aside the fact that this statement is insensitive to the less well-off — who somehow manage to retire even though they don't earn $1.6 million a year — the statement is offensive to everyone. Not only that, Calhoun scoffed at the $1.6 million figure that has been publicly reported, bluntly saying, "I make a lot more than that." I imagine that if pressed on this lapse in judgment, he would plead temporary insanity. Connecticut's governor, Jodi Rell, called it "an embarrassing display."
Calhoun's response: "We bring in $12 million to this university." Well, that figure doesn't include the basketball program's $6 million in expenses, but still, Calhoun does run a profitable athletics program, so good for him. Again, I raise the question: Shouldn't the millions that UConn's basketball program rakes in be distributed partly among the players and not just coaches?
Well, in UConn's case, maybe it is.
Last week, Yahoo! Sports reported that Jim Calhoun and the university's athletics program had violated NCAA rules with their recruitment process. UConn signee Nate Miles was given lodging, transportation and meals by the school — all prohibited by the NCAA. The chief culprit linking Miles and the school was agent and booster Josh Nochimson, who provided his services to Miles. Assistant coach Tom Moore had been in contact with both of them, and presumably, if a member of the coaching staff knew of the matter, it would be naïve to believe that this was an isolated incident. Coaches are permitted a single call a month to high school juniors, but UConn's staff sent over 1,500 text messages to Miles in a single month.
Calhoun attempted to discredit the story by saying that "it was a blog story," implying that the Internet is a cesspool of falsehoods. Calhoun also stated that the NCAA had granted Miles eligibility, so therefore there was no malfeasance. The NCAA of course responded, stating that it did not have all the information about Mills in hand, so its ruling at the time was wrong, similar to Calhoun's salary. I'm going to say that Calhoun could use a publicity agent. That, or a functional cerebrum.
There's another "con" to the story. Miles himself once egregiously broke the law. Before he even played for UConn, he was charged with violating a restraining order. The event occurred all of 16 minutes after a court had granted the order to a woman who said Miles had been harassing her.
It was later reported that another UConn recruit, Ater Majok, was linked to Nochimson. Again, Nochimson's a shady guy. He was accused of stealing money from UConn alum Rip Hamilton. Majok eventually signed with UConn and will be playing next year. But still there's more, as starter A.J. Price was charged with stealing a laptop a few years ago. Overall, the graduation rate for UConn basketball players is a cool 33 percent, which is about as low as it gets.
If I have one piece of advice for Calhoun, it's this: Retire early. You've earned it.
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Jeremy Greenhouse is a sophomore majoring in English. He can be reached at Jeremy.Greenhouse@tufts.edu.
