UConn checks recruit report

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 he added Miles is not at Connecticut and his team remains focused on the NCAA tournament.

Yahoo reported Wednesday that Miles, a 6-foot-7 guard from Toledo, Ohio, was given lodging, transportation, meals and representation by sports agent Josh Nochimson, and a Connecticut 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.

“We can keep our kids focused on what we’re going to do, let them understand that the university . . . will handle anything else that needs to be handled,” Calhoun said.

Nochimson, a former student manager at Connecticut, was considered a representative of the school’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 Connecticut 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 Connecticut in October without 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 attending the College of Southern Idaho and plays for the school’s basketball team.

Miles could not be reached for comment. Nochimson did not return a message seeking comment. The NCAA declined to comment.

Yahoo reported that NCAA rules allow only one phone call per month to a prospect or his family in the player’s junior year of high school, but said Connecticut exceeded that limit from late 2006 into 2007, which may be a major recruiting violation.

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