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Calhoun Addresses Situation
Looking a bit frazzled, only comfortable when the topic turned to basketball and tomorrow night's game with Purdue, Jim Calhoun addressed today's Yahoo Sports report that accuses UConn of potentially serious recruiting violations at a press conference a short time ago.
"I heard something last night at about 12 a.m. The university is taking any allegations towards its program ... I was in touch with Jeff Hathaway at 5:30 a.m. Phoenix time, and right before we left for practice. The university is going to look into any matter – as we would, when we hear of something (like this) – regardless of what we think, it still falls under the guidelines of making sure that we're being compliant.
"Secondly, there are no current student-athletes involved with this story. Third, the university worked very closely with our compliance people and with an outside legal agency and obviously the NCAA Eligibility Center, and it was determined that the student-athlete was fully eligible for his freshman year and ready to go …"
"It's a newspaper story … it wasn't a newspaper, it was a blog story that appeared on something I probably can't get a hold of, which was Yahoo! The student-athlete is not involved with the program, he was cleared by compliance people, an outside legal source, and the NCAA. Something was written, and we take very seriously our responsibility as NCAA members. As we speak … Jeff (Hathaway) is looking into what was put on that blog."
(on how to keep this from being a distraction)
"I can't do anything about it, all I can control is things I can control. I do try to control the officials, but that's part of the game (deftly changes subject to Moore, Robbie Hummel, JaJuan Johnson, etc.) … In Philadelphia, there was a distraction of me not being there. We talked this morning at breakfast at what opportunity we have. We don't ever want to look back upon this and say we didn't give it our best. Purdue is plenty of basketball team enough to handle."
(on how he addressed the situation to the team)
"Basically, I said to them, 'Fellas, you probably are going to see something on TV, a couple of different things. It's something that occurred over a year or two ago, whatever it may be. Just to let you know, the university will look into that. As far as I'm concerned, we're here to beat Purdue. If you vary from that, you'll look back and say 'I was worried about something that didn't affect me, one way or another,' and you'll let an opportunity slip by. You only have so many opportunities … And we shut it off. The kids are talking about going to a Phoenix Suns game tonight, I think they're really looking at other things: where they're going for dinner, all those things."
(on how he deals with distraction)
"The one reason I've been able to coach for 37 years – a lot of things have happened. When you start coaching in college in 1972, and you start thinking about all the various things culturally that were going on in the city of Boston at that time – sit-ins, things that I didn't have control over at that time – we had to handle. Hopefully those years of experience will come to the front here, that we can keep our kids focused on what we're going to do and let them understand that the university, led by Jeff Hathaway, will handle anything else that needs to be handled."
(on his relationship with Josh Nochimson)
"He was with our program for six years, got his master's degree. While he was with our program, he was a good kid, worked hard, etc. That was my relationship during that particular point in time. I have a very good relationship with Rip – I'll be going to Rip's wedding, as a matter of fact, in June."
(on his reaction to getting the news of the situation)
"Do you like getting that message? No. Do you like having to talk to your athletic director at 5:30 a.m.? I want to talk to him about other things. I want to talk about George (Blaney) about should we blitz the pick and roll. Hopefully, I've been through a couple of things in my life. I've learned to stand up to those. I have no control over some of the things that have happened to me, from my father's death – this is nothing like that, obviously – to all various things that have happened to me in my lifetime. The only thing I've ever known is to stand up, keeping on going forward and be counted. That's what I know how to do."
"I heard something last night at about 12 a.m. The university is taking any allegations towards its program ... I was in touch with Jeff Hathaway at 5:30 a.m. Phoenix time, and right before we left for practice. The university is going to look into any matter – as we would, when we hear of something (like this) – regardless of what we think, it still falls under the guidelines of making sure that we're being compliant.
"Secondly, there are no current student-athletes involved with this story. Third, the university worked very closely with our compliance people and with an outside legal agency and obviously the NCAA Eligibility Center, and it was determined that the student-athlete was fully eligible for his freshman year and ready to go …"
"It's a newspaper story … it wasn't a newspaper, it was a blog story that appeared on something I probably can't get a hold of, which was Yahoo! The student-athlete is not involved with the program, he was cleared by compliance people, an outside legal source, and the NCAA. Something was written, and we take very seriously our responsibility as NCAA members. As we speak … Jeff (Hathaway) is looking into what was put on that blog."
(on how to keep this from being a distraction)
"I can't do anything about it, all I can control is things I can control. I do try to control the officials, but that's part of the game (deftly changes subject to Moore, Robbie Hummel, JaJuan Johnson, etc.) … In Philadelphia, there was a distraction of me not being there. We talked this morning at breakfast at what opportunity we have. We don't ever want to look back upon this and say we didn't give it our best. Purdue is plenty of basketball team enough to handle."
(on how he addressed the situation to the team)
"Basically, I said to them, 'Fellas, you probably are going to see something on TV, a couple of different things. It's something that occurred over a year or two ago, whatever it may be. Just to let you know, the university will look into that. As far as I'm concerned, we're here to beat Purdue. If you vary from that, you'll look back and say 'I was worried about something that didn't affect me, one way or another,' and you'll let an opportunity slip by. You only have so many opportunities … And we shut it off. The kids are talking about going to a Phoenix Suns game tonight, I think they're really looking at other things: where they're going for dinner, all those things."
(on how he deals with distraction)
"The one reason I've been able to coach for 37 years – a lot of things have happened. When you start coaching in college in 1972, and you start thinking about all the various things culturally that were going on in the city of Boston at that time – sit-ins, things that I didn't have control over at that time – we had to handle. Hopefully those years of experience will come to the front here, that we can keep our kids focused on what we're going to do and let them understand that the university, led by Jeff Hathaway, will handle anything else that needs to be handled."
(on his relationship with Josh Nochimson)
"He was with our program for six years, got his master's degree. While he was with our program, he was a good kid, worked hard, etc. That was my relationship during that particular point in time. I have a very good relationship with Rip – I'll be going to Rip's wedding, as a matter of fact, in June."
(on his reaction to getting the news of the situation)
"Do you like getting that message? No. Do you like having to talk to your athletic director at 5:30 a.m.? I want to talk to him about other things. I want to talk about George (Blaney) about should we blitz the pick and roll. Hopefully, I've been through a couple of things in my life. I've learned to stand up to those. I have no control over some of the things that have happened to me, from my father's death – this is nothing like that, obviously – to all various things that have happened to me in my lifetime. The only thing I've ever known is to stand up, keeping on going forward and be counted. That's what I know how to do."
posted by David Borges at
5:28 PM
1 Comments:
Dude, you still have a job with the register? You know your days are numbered right? When the Register starts making budget cuts, you know you are one of the first to go, and it won't really be because of the budget, it's gonn abe because you like to bite the hand that feeds you. you are an ignorant sexist.
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