UConn-ed

Another day, another Yahoo! Sports Another day, another Yahoo! Sports investigative report into the sleazy business of college recruitinginvestigative report into the sleazy business of college recruiting. Journalists Dan Wetzel, a friend, and Adrian Wojnarowski are among the best in the business of following and documenting many of the alleged transgressions that take place in college and pro basketball.

As I did with Reggie Bush and and OJ Mayo, I think it's important to defend the players, who really have no idea about the backroom dealing that often takes place among AAU coaches, family members, agents, runners and college coaches.

The NCAA, college programs and coaches can shift the blame to the agents, but ultimately it takes two take to tango. What's so damning in this investigation is the volume of calls between an agent and the UConn coaching staff. Not just any agent. But a decertified agent who stands accused of stealing $1 million from a former UConn great and current NBA star Richard "Rip" Hamilton.

According to Yahoo!, there were "1,565 phone and text communications" with Josh Nochimson, a former UConn basketball manager turned agent who once repped Hamilton and Luol Deng. 16 of those calls were from Basketball Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun. Think Kelvin Sampson is shaking his head? Sampson made a few extra calls to recruits and one infamous three-way call, while UConn recruiters made 1,500-plus calls to an alleged thief who stole from one of UConn's own. 16 of those calls were from Basketball Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun.

The problem of funneling players among summer program, college basketball and then back to the agents is nothing new. It is heightened with the NBA age restriction and the embracing of one-(or even two)-and-done. This is what happens when the NCAA and its members attempt to maintain an outdated facade of amateurism, while EVERYTHING about basketball AT ALL LEVELS has been commercialized...whether we want to admit it or not.

There's no explicit fiduciary duty for college coaches to protect their players from unsavory characters, but I would like to believe that college coaches are the players' "in loco parentis." After all, that's what coach recruiters promise to mothers and fathers every day. Nochimson was a former UCONN student basketball manager, so there's added intrigue: His role appears to be essentially babysitting on behalf of UCONN and making sure Miles was delivered to his alma mater. In return, Nochimson would be well positioned when Miles went pro.

UConn athletic department and its basketball coaches should bear some responsibility to protect current players from a guy who stole big money from a former UConn star. Nice notion, of course, but the insatiable appetite coaches have for the NEXT star is often too great to resist. According to the Yahoo report:

“[Nochimson] admitted to stealing,” Hamilton said. “He cried … I always remember my agent saying, ‘Rip, don’t put your hands on him because he’ll be able to sue you. [Nochimson] was doing everything off of me. He looks like a high roller. It’s hard for a kid because you may not have anything and you see this guy.”

Did the experience of Rip Hamilton cause UConn hoops to end its association with Nochimson? Not in this upside down world. Here's the conclusion to the Yahoo! story:

Hamilton’s discovery didn’t stop UConn’s contact with Nochimson. The phone calls and text messages went on well past Miles’ expulsion. Even now, Moore is unwilling to disavow his old student-manager saying that they still haven’t discussed the charges that he stole from Hamilton. “I consider him a friend and a very loyal, trusting person,” Moore said.

Using this standard to judge people, who does Moore consider disloyal and distrusting?

As an aside, my high school plays a periphery role. From the Yahoo! story: "Nate Pomeday remembered Nochimson arriving unannounced with Miles at his gymnasium in Lake Forest, Ill. Nochimson had discussed using Pomeday’s school at the time, Lake Forest Academy, as a place to enroll other basketball players. Pomeday said he never worked out Miles." Nice that an agent wants to turn LFA into a basketball factory.

--Marc Isenberg

Comments

[Nate Jones]

Very on point response, Marc. As you said, "This is what happens when the NCAA and its members attempt to maintain an outdated facade of amateurism, while EVERYTHING about basketball AT ALL LEVELS has been commercialized...whether we want to admit it or not." It gets worse than this when you hear stories of college coaches brokering access to their player to agents. Parents and players often trust college coaches and aau coaches to have their best interest at heart, but it's obvious that a ton of these coaches only care about their own personal gain.

[The Real Athlete Blog]

Good article Marc. The key question is when will the NCAA actually follow up on these Yahoo! probes? They seemed to turn the other way after Yahoo! broke the Bush and Mayo stories.

You're absolutely right that Wetzel and Wojnarowski are doing a fantastic job documenting the transgressions of recruiting, but I hope it's not all for not and the NCAA takes these stories seriously and realizes that something has to be done to change the status quo of the recruiting landscape.

I'm with you that these players should be defended as they often are not aware of what's going on around them (which is sad, but unfortunately the reality). Ignorance is still no excuse though and that's why these players need to be educated more about how this business works and the potential pitfalls they may encounter as they rise up in the ranks. And, it's not going to be the athletic departments or coaches who are going to do the educating, as they are all too wrapped up in it.

[PC]

It continues to boggle my mind that college coaches are able to escape so much of the blame in these situations. Its such a joke. Everyone likes to think they are these standup guys who just coach great basketball. They are the ones right in the middle of most of this 'backroom dealing' and have the most to gain from it no matter which way you look at it. Nate Miles may never make the Pros, but we all now know exactly how much Jim Calhoun makes and therefore know his incentive for getting the best players to Storrs no matter what. Yet the blame always gets diverted to runners, aau coaches, and what sickens me the most, the kids. I'm glad you are standing up for them. Someone needs to.

[GP]

Excellent post and also some great comments. It is interesting that UCONN did whatever it could to not NOT fork over the phone records. I assume its compliance office had sufficient time to review everything and determine whether an NCAA violation occurred or not. It appears that UCONN's strategy is to dig its heels into the ground and not give any ground. As Calhoun likes to say, he's not giving a "dime back." All this does look bad, but maybe there's no NCAA violations.

Consider...

Maybe Calhoun had no knowledge of any of this.
Maybe Nochimson is not a representative of UCONN's athletic interests.
Maybe all those 1500 plus calls were allowable under NCAA rules.

Of course, UCONN is going to have to pay a lot of money to a law firm to prove its case.

[GP]

ALso, I bet UCONN is glad Miles allegedly raped a student and got kicked out of school...otherwise this would be a real mess for the program. See Bobby Bowden.

[Freeman Williams]

Why does Jim Calhoun continue to keep his job at UCONN, while Sampson has been blackballed from college basketball?

[Marc Isenberg]

Excellent point Freeman. Not sure I have an answer to your question. I do think the NCAA views repeat offenders as a bigger problem than someone who does one really bad thing. It will be interesting to see how the NCAA committee on infractions views the UConn case, especially since agents are involved.