Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun watches his team practice on Wednesday in Glendale. Connecticut faces Purdue on Thursday in a regional NCAA men's basketball tournament semifinal game.
Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said he and the university are looking into a Yahoo! Sports report claiming the school broke NCAA rules during the recruitment of former basketball player Nate Miles, but added Miles is not at UConn and his team remains focused on the NCAA Tournament.
Yahoo reported Wednesday that Miles, a 6-7 guard from Toledo, Ohio, was given lodging, transportation, meals and representation by sports agent Josh Nochimson, and a UConn assistant coach knew about the relationship between the player and the agent.
The story cited interviews, documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws and other sources.
Nochimson, a former student manager for UConn, was considered a representative of UConn’s athletic interests by the NCAA and was prohibited from having contact with Miles or giving him anything of value, Yahoo reported.
Records also show that five UConn coaches called Nochimson and text-messaged him at least 1,565 times during a nearly two-year period before and after Miles’ recruitment in 2006 and early 2007. Calhoun had 16 of those communications, Yahoo reported.
Miles was expelled from UConn in October without ever playing a game for the Huskies after he was charged with violating a restraining order in a case involving a woman who claimed he assaulted her. He is now attending the College of Southern Idaho and plays for the school’s basketball team.
Miles could not be reached for comment. A cell phone number used by The Associated Press to contact him in the past was answered Wednesday by his uncle, Thomas Pettigrew of Toledo, Ohio, who said the NCAA needs to do more to prevent recruiting violations.
“I just think he got mixed up with the wrong people,” Pettigrew said. “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,” he said. “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.”
Pettigrew added, “No matter what anybody says about him, my nephew is a great basketball player and a good person.”
Calhoun, in Glendale Wednesday as the team prepared for an NCAA regional semifinal against Purdue Thursday night, did not specifically respond to the story’s allegations. He pointed out that Miles is “not involved with our program” and said he is not concerned about the issue distracting the Huskies’ quest for a third national title.
Curry undecided on NBA
DAVIDSON, N.C. – Davidson star Stephen Curry will meet with his father this weekend, then decide whether to stay for his senior season or enter the NBA draft.
“I’m 50 percent in the middle. Every five minutes, I’m thinking one way, I’m thinking the next way,” the nation’s leading scorer said Wednesday, two days after the Wildcats’ season ended with a loss in the NIT. “I’m just playing mind games with myself right now.”
Moving from shooting guard to point guard this season, the slender Curry averaged 28.6 points. He had 15 games of 30 or more points, including games of 44 points against Oklahoma and North Carolina State and 41 against Chattanooga.