UConn official tells AP 2 assistants resign day before school announces update on NCAA probe

AP Source: 2 UConn assistants resign

STORRS, Conn. — A University of Connecticut official told The Associated Press that two assistant coaches have left the men’s basketball program a day before the school plans to hold a news conference to update an NCAA investigation of potential recruiting violations.

School officials, including coach Jim Calhoun, were to attend Friday’s on-campus event.

A school official said assistant coach Patrick Sellers and director of basketball operations Beau Archibald had both agreed to resign from the school in advance of the news conference. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information.

The Hartford Courant, citing unidentified sources, first reported the resignations Thursday.

Messages seeking comment from the AP were left for Calhoun, Sellers and an NCAA official.

The NCAA has been investigating the program since shortly after a report by Yahoo! Sports in March 2009 that former team manager Josh Nochimson helped guide basketball recruit Nate Miles to Connecticut, giving him lodging, transportation, meals and representation.

The Yahoo! report also alleged that UConn coaches exceeded limits on the number of phone calls that can be made to recruits.

As a former team manager, Nochimson could be considered a representative of UConn’s athletic interests by the NCAA and prohibited from having contact with Miles or giving him anything of value. Documents released by the school showed pages and pages of phone and text message correspondence between Nochimson and UConn coaches Calhoun, Tom Moore, who is now head coach at Quinnipiac, and Sellers.

Miles was expelled from UConn in October 2008 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 played last season for the College of Southern Idaho.

Calhoun has acknowledged that he or his staff might have made mistakes in recruiting Miles, and earlier this month said he expected the investigation would find violations.

“They are not going to do a review for 14, 15 months and then say, ‘See you later?’” he said. “That normally doesn’t occur.”

Calhoun, who turned 68 this month, has led the Huskies to two national championships. He signed a five-year, $13 million contract earlier this month.

UConn was 18-16 last season. Calhoun took a medical leave of absence in January, missing seven games with an undisclosed condition.