Just in Time for the Sweet 16: Looks Like UConn Committed a Few No-No’s

Jim Calhoun now has his first big stain on his resume with allegations he illegally recruited a prospect from 2006-08.

Yahoo! Sports has broken the investigative piece that claims recruitment of a former prospect, Nate Miles, was littered with NCAA violations for two years (2006-08).The story is now just starting to pick up speed, and will surely be the off-the-court discussion over the next four days.

And you thought Jim Calhoun going to the hospital last week was a distraction.

Miles was provided with lodging, transportation, restaurant meals and representation by Josh Nochimson – a professional sports agent and former UConn student manager – between 2006 and 2008, according to multiple sources. As a representative of UConn’s athletic interests, NCAA rules barred Nochimson from having contact with Miles or from providing him with anything of value.

In total, it was uncovered that 1,565 phone calls and/or text messages were sent between UConn and/or Nochimson/Miles.

Calhoun is directly related to 16 communications, and it gets even sketchier when you read into the fact some of these calls would be two, three minutes in length (that must not count! they can’t track this!), end, then another call would begin on a different number. So it’d be like an asssistant coach talking to Miles, saying, “Alright, buddy, let’s switch phones. I’ll call your uncle.” then resuming the conversation.

In other words: totally on the up and up. And in case you forgot: The NCAA allows one phone call per month to a recruit. That’s like giving the key to a cell full of prisoners and saying, “OK, guys, only one of you gets to walk free after we all leave the building.”

We know all of this due to the ever-present Freedom of Information Act. And if you connect the dots, you realize UConn’s staff knew of Nochimson and Miles’ relationship because of Nichomson’s ties with the program.

The documents were requested in October and received two weeks ago. Many of UConn’s communications with Nochimson were clustered with calls and texts to Miles or his inner circle. UConn athletic director Jeff Hathaway and Calhoun declined comment through a university spokesman late Tuesday

Records indicate multiple communcations between the team and Miles.

The real deal here is that Nichomson is still, by proxy, defined as an “athletic interest” to Connecticut, and rightfully so. He got the job he did (an agent) due to his ties with Calhoun and the UConn program. And don’t kid yourself: It’s always these shady guys who end up getting caught. Ever noticed that? When do we find a good apple getting involved in all this?

Tom Moore, who’s now the coach at Quinnipiac, seems to be the assistant coach who was doing most of the dirty work. No word yet on what penalties he might face. And as for Miles? Oh, he’s a quality kid; got kicked out of UConn this past season for breaking the terms of a restraining order after he allegedly roughed up a girl who chose not to have sex with him. He’s now making a difference at the College of Southern Idaho, a junior college.

What’s worse? Southern Idaho’s coach, Steve Gosar, went on the record to say that UConn was still trying to get Miles back to the school for the 2009-10 season!