Win Shields UConn, if Only for Now

GLENDALE, AZ -- The questions, gentle and revolving around basketball, were over, and most of the media had scrambled out of the room when Jim Calhoun, still sitting at the podium, cleared his throat.

"I have one thing to say," said the Connecticut coach, grabbing the microphone, and this time his voice sounded authoritative, confident, as if he had finally come to grips with the scandal banging at his front door. Calhoun proceeded to announce that at 7:00 Thursday morning, roughly 12 hours before the Huskies put the finishing touches on a 72-60 win over Purdue in the NCAA West Regional, he had spoken by phone with UConn athletic director Jeff Hathaway -- a conversation Calhoun characterized as "very fruitful."

"He said, 'Go get Purdue.' And I said, 'Fine.' And as I said, we are continuing to do the things on the outside we need to do. My job today was to come and coach our basketball team, and the kids took care of that."

Calhoun understands it will never be that simple, now that the NCAA has joined the investigation of alleged recruiting violations by UConn's men's basketball program. One day earlier, Calhoun sniffed at a Yahoo! Sports article detailing the relationship between former UConn recruit Nate Miles and Josh Nochimson, an agent who gave Miles lodging, meals and transportation. A former UConn manager, Nochimson was a "representative" of the school's athletic interests and thus prohibited from having any role in the recruitment of players. The exhaustively researched story, thick with details and documents obtained through Freedom of Information laws, also reported that a UConn assistant coach knew about the relationship between the player and agent. Calhoun's initial reaction was an embarrassing fumble as he labeled the investigation a "blog" and mumbled something about not being able to "get a hold of" Web sites on the internet.

For decades, Calhoun has managed to avoid being sullied by the slime of college sports, with not one NCAA violation throughout his 37-year career. Pretending he doesn't comprehend new media and cyberspace is hardly a smart strategy, considering the ramifications at stake. It's his reputation, his legacy as a Hall of Fame coach, and feigning ignorance won't make the probe and queries go away.

It's an entirely different dimension inside the Huskies' locker room, with the televisions and phones and computers switched off. Calhoun didn't try to tell his current players, none of whom have been dragged into the muck, to ignore chatter surrounding the investigation, because that would be like asking them to stop eating junk food. "But we knew how to tune it out," Craig Austrie said as he sat on a bench and scarfed down a post-game meal Thursday, in no hurry to wash away the sweat of a Sweet 16 victory. "We can't worry about what other people might have done or what people are saying about them."

NCAA Tournament Action

GREENSBORO, NC - MARCH 21: Wayne Ellington #22 of the North Carolina Tar Heels drives against Garrett Temple #14 of the Louisiana State University Tigers during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum on March 21, 2009 in Greensboro, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Wayne Ellington;Garrett Temple

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PORTLAND, OR - MARCH 21: A Washington Huskies cheerleader performs during a break in the action against the Purdue Boilermakers during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Rose Garden on March 21, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Manny Harris #3 of the Michigan Wolverines jumps to the basket for a lay up against Taylor Griffin #32 of the Oklahoma Sooners in the first half during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Manny Harris

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Zack Novan #0 and Zack Gibson #32 of the Michigan Wolverines vie for the loose ball with Blake Griffin #23 of the Oklahoma Sooners in the first half during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Zack Gibson;Zack Novak;Blake Griffin

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Willie Warren #13 of the Oklahoma Sooners makes contact as he goes to the basket with Zack Gibson #32 of the Michigan Wolverines in the first hafl during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Willie Warren

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Taylor Griffin #32 of the Oklahoma Sooners goes up for the short jump shot against DeShawn Sims #34 of the Michigan Wolverines in the first half during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Taylor Griffin;DeShawn Sims

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PORTLAND, OR - MARCH 21: JaJuan Johnson #25 of the Purdue Boilermakers goes up for a shot over Jon Brockman #40 of the Washington Huskies in the second half during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Rose Garden on March 21, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** JaJuan Johnson;Jon Brockman

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Taylor Griffin #23 of the Oklahoma Sooners and Zack Novak #0 of the Michigan Wolverines vie for position to the loose ball in the first half during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Zack Novak;Taylor Griffin

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KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 21: Head Coach Jeff Capel of the Michigan Wolverines yells from the sideline during their game against the Oklahoma Sooners in the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center on March 21, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Jeff Capel

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PORTLAND, OR - MARCH 21: Lewis Jackson #23 of the Purdue Boilermakers goes up for a layup as Quincy Pondexter #20 of the Washington Huskies looks on during the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament at the Rose Garden on March 21, 2009 in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Lewis Jackson;Quincy Pondexter

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But the Huskies understand: no matter how hard they charge through the tournament, no matter if they beat Missouri -- shocking 102-91 victors over Memphis in Thursday's nightcap -- and spin the romp into a third NCAA title in the span of a decade, it's impossible to avoid the elephant on the court. The more they are asked about the distraction, the more it becomes distracting. A.J. Price can't shoot over it, Hasheem Thabeet can't swat it into oblivion.

"All we can do is play our game," Austrie said, and that is exactly what the top-seeded Huskies did in chasing off Purdue. Despite their toughness and defensive rep, the Boilermakers couldn't avoid the freakish long stretch of Thabeet, the 7-foot-3 Tanzanian who had 15 points, 15 rebounds, four block shots and his share of non-calls
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"He made the lane a place you don't want to go," said Calhoun, adding if it weren't for Thabeet and his second-half performance, especially, "the game might have been different if we had just a, quote, regular center."

UConn rushed to an 8-0 start in the cavernous University of Phoenix Stadium, as Purdue's shots kept clanking around the rim. "We had open looks, they just didn't go down," forward Robbie Hummel would say after being limited to just one layup in the second half.

With his team up 30-25 at the half, Calhoun barely raised his voice during the break because his squad, top heavy with seniors, began banging their hands on the walls and shouting at one another before the coaches even entered the room. Remember what we've been through, somebody said, and the subtext was clear: there was Price, seriously ill from a congenital condition that led to bleeding in his brain his freshman season, then suspended from the team for a year for his role in the theft of laptops from dorm rooms; and the loss of guard Jerome Dyson; and the health issues of Calhoun, a cancer survivor hospitalized because of exhaustion during the team's first-round game.

The players challenged Thabeet to use his body more, to claim the paint. For Austrie to tempt the big shots, for Price to not worry a out being swallowed by Purdue's double teams.

"We all said a little bit of everything," said Austrie. Whatever the motivation, it worked. Purdue, winners of the Big Ten tournament, pushed to within four points, but Thabeet was everywhere, blocking shots, dominating both boards, dunking, menacing.

The Boilermakers ended up shooting just 37 percent from the floor and were outrebounded, 39-28. A 3-pointer by Austrie made it 55-44 with seven minutes left, effectively sealing the lock on a return trip to the Elite Eight. When Austrie finally came out of the game, a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the arc and 6-for-6 from the free throw line, Calhoun whispered something in his senior guard's ear.

"You were sensational," said the coach, and as Austrie related the story to me later in the locker room, his eyes flashed with pride. "A great word," said Austrie. Outside on the dais, Calhoun compared Austrie to Jonathan Papelbon, the Red Sox closer. Coming from a crusty old Bostonian, there's probably no greater compliment. He said he was thrilled to see Austrie grinning, finally, because "Craig doesn't give you a lot of smiles."

NCAA Tournament Action

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Calhoun bubbled over with praise for his players, for Purdue's grittiness. It was a fitting rebound for the man who on Wednesday seemed discombobulated and rattled over the Yahoo! report, who could only stress the fact that Miles -- expelled in October when he was charged with violating a restraining order in a case involving a female student who claimed he assaulted her -- played in zero games for UConn. But Calhoun didn't try to explain away Yahoo's detailing of 1,565 phone calls and text messages between Nochimson and UConn coaches, including 16 contacts from Calhoun himself. Calhoun might not know how to navigate the internet, but he knows coaches are forbidden from communicating with agents who give improper benefits to recruits. Eventually, Calhoun is going to have to come up with a plausible explanation for those phone records if he wants to keep his program from being sanctioned, if he hopes to keep his name from being uttered in the same sentence as Kelvin Sampson.

"As I told you all along, this has been a special group," Calhoun said, again steering the conversation toward his current team, a team that has put together a tremendous 30-win run this season, a team that, as far as we know, hasn't been touched by the recruiting scandal.

No matter how many times Calhoun gets to drop the word "sensational" on his players across the next week, it will get lost in the crossfire of allegations and muck.