Yahoo! reports UConn violated recruiting rules

[Fenian_Bastard]

This is also not UConn's first waltz with street agents, either.
IIRC, Howie Dickenman was tied up with Rob Johnson back in the days when Johnson was running players in NYC.

 

[Beaker]

Hard to believe Howie's been at Central CT for as long as he has now. Saw one of their games at the end of the season--endless carping and barking on the bench.

 

[DCguy]

I was thinking about this last night. If Calhoun stepped down/resigned at gunpoint and the UConn brass decided to go outside of the Calhoun coaching tree for the replacement, who would the leading contenders be?

I think it would be great if UConn hired Calipari. Calhoun's head would pop off.

 

[Armchair_QB]

I was thinking about this last night. If Calhoun stepped down/resigned at gunpoint and the UConn brass decided to go outside of the Calhoun coaching tree for the replacement, who would the leading contenders be?

I think it would be great if UConn hired Calipari. Calhoun's head would pop off.

I'm thinking Calipari would be pretty high on the list of guys you wouldn't hire right after getting hit with NCAA probation.

Not "Kelvin Sampson High", but pretty far up there.

 

[DCguy]

I was thinking about this last night. If Calhoun stepped down/resigned at gunpoint and the UConn brass decided to go outside of the Calhoun coaching tree for the replacement, who would the leading contenders be?

I think it would be great if UConn hired Calipari. Calhoun's head would pop off.

I'm thinking Calipari would be pretty high on the list of guys you wouldn't hire right after getting hit with NCAA probation.

Not "Kelvin Sampson High", but pretty far up there.

Haha, yeah, I know. That was a joke. Calhoun hates Calipari from his days at UMass.

A serious answer to that question depends on when that happens. If this was a year or two ago, I'd say Dave Leitao and Karl Hobbs. But those guys are not getting anything in the Big East these days. Maybe George Blaney? He'd get tossed aside with Calhoun's staff if they are found guilty of wrongdoing.

In that case, who knows.

 

[sabrefan]

And then there's this. More kerosene for the fire.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news;_ylt=Aik1_GYG.TUKL.KhvgtnCAk5nYcB?slug=ys-uconnfolo032609&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

 

[ServeItUp]

You know, a lot of the talk on this thread (and in any conversation about how UConn got to where it is) centers around Calhoun's ability to recruit top-notch players to "a small town in the middle of nowhere." What about Jim Boeheim?

Syracuse is a LONG way from anything (by East-Coast standards, anyway; I'd think nothing of the four-hour drive to NYC), it's not the prettiest town in the world, and it snows a bit. However, the list of who's who at the 'Cuse reads like a hall of fame induction sheet. Granted, the Orange spent the 1992-93 season on probation (lost a scholarship, no postseason play), but do we really believe Boeheim's successfully covered his tracks for 16 years?

Really, the only thing UConn and Syracuse have going for them is being in the Big East.

 

[The Big Ragu]

I wouldn't choose to live in Syracuse, and yeah it is cold and not an overly pretty city, but having spent time in both places, there is no comparison between Syracuse and Storrs. You are comparing a really small town in a depressed area (Storrs) with a city of at least 150,000 people (Syracuse) and when you add in the metropolitan Syracuse area, you are looking at what, a quarter of a million people? Plus the finger lakes area has its own charm that the region between Hartford (yuck) and Providence doesn't. There are plenty of schools with successful sports programs that are in areas less happening than Syracuse.

 

[Pancamo]

Flynn and Paul Harris are from Niagra Falls.

The Dome helps as well.

 

[Armchair_QB]

There are plenty of schools with successful sports programs that are in areas less happening than Syracuse.

You just described 10 of the towns in the Big 12.

 

[mustangj17]

I hope Izzo hands it to Calhoun. Shows him you can win with a clean program.

 

[spnited]

I hope Izzo hands it to Calhoun. Shows him you can win with a clean program.

There is no such thing as a clean program. Only some that are less dirty than others.

 

[I Digress]

There are plenty of schools with successful sports programs that are in areas less happening than Syracuse.

You just described 10 of the towns in the Big 12.

And you can have great college campuses/scenes in any number of surprising places.

 

[ServeItUp]

Good points, all. I was pointing out that it seems unfair to assume Calhoun has to be cooking things to get recruits to come to Storrs. Now, it appears he was but, as I Digress pointed out, cool college towns crop up everywhere. My question about Boeheim could easily be asked of Tony Bennett in Pullman (moot point now). Or Stew Morrill in Logan. Or Scott Drew in Waco. Or Darrin Horn in Bowling Green.

 

[outofplace]

Good points, all. I was pointing out that it seems unfair to assume Calhoun has to be cooking things to get recruits to come to Storrs. Now, it appears he was but, as I Digress pointed out, cool college towns crop up everywhere. My question about Boeheim could easily be asked of Tony Bennett in Pullman (moot point now). Or Stew Morrill in Logan. Or Scott Drew in Waco. Or Darrin Horn in Bowling Green.

Except all of the posts on this thread come from the starting point of the report that UConn did violate recruiting rules.

 

[The Big Ragu]

The other thing about Boeheim and Syracuse is that Syracuse sports and Syracuse basketball have more of a tradition than UConn does. Until relatively recently, with its football program getting bigger, UConn didn't have anything near the overall level of sports that Syracuse has had going to back to before Jim Brown. It still doesn't. You can trace Syracuse basketball being good back to at least Dave Bing in the 60s. Calhoun didn't walk into a program at UConn with anything near the same kind of tradition, when he took over. Plus, even though I believe that UConn basketball was one of the founding schools of the Big East, for years the program wasn't nearly as good as Syracuse and Georgetown, which were the main two powers in the conference. Also, Boeheim's roots with Syracuse are deep. Calhoun is a New England guy, but he wasn't raised on UConn basketball the way Boeheim was at Syracuse. Boeheim played for Syracuse and he was an assistant coach for years before taking over as head coach. And during that entire time during which Boeheim was involved with the program in one way or another, from the 60s and through the 70s and 80s until now, Syracuse had a national reputation and was making NCAA tournaments and sending players to the NBA. Calhoun has done wonders building up UConn's program in a relatively short time. But Boeheim took over a program that already had a strong reputation and tradition, which presumably makes recruiting easier.

 

[TigerVols]

Tradition means zip when it comes to 17-year-old blue-chip basketball recruits, IMO.

 

[mustangj17]

Jeff Goodman was on a radio show today, said that another chapter regarding UCONN and Ater Majok will be explored before the Final Four.

He said it could be more damaging than the first one.

Here is the link if you want to listen to the audio. Starts somewhere after the 2:30 mark.

http://audio.weei.com/m/22056139/jeff_goodman_weei_com.htm

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

Majok declares for the draft, won't hire an agent, wants NBA feedback and intends to return to school, where's he's still not eligible until after the fall semester.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090423/ap_on_sp_co_ne/bkc_uconn_majok_1

 

[pseudo]

MUST a FOIA request be responded to? It doesn't have the same power as subpoena, right?

If you ignore a FOI request, you can be sued. And you will lose.

Yes ...

MUST a FOIA request be responded to? It doesn't have the same power as subpoena, right?

In theory yes, or close to it.

In reality, public institutions can make you jump through so many hoops and wait so long to get the information that you're only going to get it if you're VERY persistent and patient. FOIA requests are pretty much useless for daily stories.

... and more yes.

If you're filing a juicy FOIA request, be prepared to wait a while before that story sees the light of day -- and to keep filing.

But, eventually, they're required by law to release it.

Coming back to this ...
Per Woj (at his Joyce Symposium workshop on Tuesday morning), UConn ignored the FOIs until Yahoo's lawyers gave the school notice that they were filing a lawsuit, then grudgingly gave in. As noted in the story, he and Wetzel finally got their hands on that stack of phone records -- I forget how many pages he said they had to go through, but considering the "at least 1,565 phone and text communications with Nochimson, including 16 from head coach Jim Calhoun," it had to be a bunch -- 13 days before it ran.

And he still can't believe Moore didn't just deny everything.

(BTW, congrats to AW on being named this year's John Domino Award recipient. They couldn't have made a better choice, and it was obvious how much the honor meant to him.)