UCONN Might Have Made Mistakes? Noooooo…

Whaa? Agents and free shit are against the rules? Since when?

 After Connecticut beat Purdue to advance to the Elite Eight, Sporting News and Yahoo! Sports interviewed UCONN coach Jim Calhoun about the allegations that he cheated like a river boat gambler while recruiting Nate Miles.  Unfortunately Calhoun broke from tradition by not asking the reporters if they were “really that stupid,” and instead repeated exactly what his agent, attorney and athletic director told him to.

“Could I have made a mistake? Sure.” Calhoun said. “The (rules) manual is 508 pages. Someone could’ve made a mistake.”

Yeah! Leave the poor man alone.  How would he know that college players can’t have agents?  Or that you can’t supply them with free transportation and meals.  Or that you can’t call them an unlimited number of times during their junior year of high school.  Who’s Kelvin Sampson again?  Never mind that.  Who made all these crazy rules, anyway? And when?

Nevermind the fact that they did all this for a kid who already had a restraining order against him for beating up his girlfriend.  The fact that he got expelled for violating that restraining order is a moot point.

Here’s where Calhoun has a problem.  It’s clear to everyone outside the state of Connecticut that he’s a shitbag, but in an attempt to avoid harsh NCAA penalties he has to play stupid.  It’s hard to play stupid when you repeatedly and publicly call others out for it without looking like a shitbag all over again. 

Who knew that cheating, being a raging hard-on, and recruiting Chris Brown wannabe’s was a bad idea?

Tags: college basketball, Connecticut, Jim Calhoun, NCAA Tournament, UConn

NCAA Reveals What We Already Suspected

I'll give you a sub this big if we win tonight, Hasheem

Jim Calhoun has been the head men’s basketball coach at Connecticut for 23 years and has seen 22 of his players drafted into the NBA.  That much we know.  What we don’t know is how many of his players were recruited illegally. 

Yahoo Sports is reporting today that UConn coaches broke NCAA contact rules in recruiting Nate Miles, a player they would eventually sign and then expel.  The violations include improper benefits supplied by a former UConn student manager turned agent and an excessive number of phone calls made to Miles while he was a junior in high school. 

No word on the severity of the punishment that could be handed down by the NCAA, but you have to believe Calhoun and his staff are guilty.  At this point in college sports, especially basketball and football, no one can have prolonged success or bring in top-tier talent without you wondering how many NCAA violations they committed.  It’s like steroids in baseball. 

And Jim Calhoun is like the Pete Carroll of basketball.  He’s turned his school into a powerhouse because he’s a good coach, but he’s not going to do it without elite players.  They’re both smart enough to let their assistants get their hands dirty in recruiting though.  Are you listening Kelvin Sampson? 

Unlike Carroll, Calhoun doesn’t have an incredible environment to help recruit players.  Having never been to Storrs, Connecticut, I feel confident in saying it’s not an ideal location for most students.  Recruiting players there must be like convincing fat chicks to go to the gym.  The only way it’s going to happen is to bribe them.  Money, cars, a Twinkee at the end of a stick, all of them effective but all of them NCAA infractions.

This must be the reason the Huskies always have dominant big men while the rest of the country scrounges for one every few years.  Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed how they manage to replace a 6-10 guy with 2 6-10 guys every year.  It’s like they’re genetically engineering them, which isn’t an NCAA violation.  See Uconn?  If you had given this some thought, you could have saved yourself from sanctions and from long recruiting trips.

Tags: basketball, Connecticut, Jim Calhoun, Nate Miles, NCAA, Pete Carroll

Bill Self Doesn’t Need Your Rules

I'll give you this many grams, recruit

Kansas basketball coach Bill Self may have committed a recruiting violation recently.  Everyone loves these stories because of the seedy details, so what did Self do, gave recruits strippers, drugs, money or cars?  Nope, he said hello to a recruit. 

That’s right, shocking isn’t it?  I mean, I’ve heard some despicable recruiting stories but this one takes the cake.  I know what you’re thinking- “What’s so bad about saying hi” and I’ll tell you.  Saying hello to a potential recruit means so much more than just hello.  

Here’s what Self really said:

“Hey there recruit, how much money do you need a month to play ball at KU?  Would your mom like to ’work’ at a bank or more of an office setting?  Do you prefer Mercedes or BMW?  Campus police have already been instructed to look the other way when you’re involved so you’re welcome to rape all the Jayhawk hos you need.  If you need anything else, you can find me in the back room at the Lawrence strip club.’

Like I said, shocking.  I’ll be shocked if Coach Self doesn’t get at least a 5 year ban for this blatant shattering of NCAA rules.  It’s like he thinks he’s above the law.  Well let me tell you something, Bill.  A national championship doesn’t mean you can get away with anything… I don’t care what Jim Calhoun told you.

Tags: Bill Self, Jim Calhoun, Kansas, NCAA