In a lengthy report, Yahoo released details that indicate that Connecticut committed violations in the recruitment of former Husky Nate Miles. The highly regarded guard never played for Connecticut after the school kicked him out for charges that he violated a restraining order obtained by a woman who said Miles tried to force her to have sex. Although Miles did not play for the Huskies, the team might face an NCAA investigation and punishment because of apparent transgressions committed during Miles’ recruitment, as outlined by Yahoo.
Miles was provided with lodging, transportation, restaurant meals and representation by Josh Nochimson – a professional sports agent and former UConn student manager – between 2006 and 2008, according to multiple sources. As a representative of UConn’s athletic interests, Nochimson was prohibited by NCAA rules from having contact with Miles and from providing him with anything of value.
The UConn basketball staff was in constant contact with Nochimson during a nearly two-year period up to and after Miles’ recruitment. Five different UConn coaches traded at least 1,565 phone and text communications with Nochimson, including 16 from head coach Jim Calhoun. Yahoo! Sports obtained the records through the Freedom of Information Act. The documents were requested in October and received two weeks ago. Many of UConn’s communications with Nochimson were clustered with calls and texts to Miles or his inner circle.
UConn may have committed major recruiting violations by exceeding NCAA limits on phone calls to Miles and those closest to him, records show. The NCAA allows a single phone call per month to a prospect or his family in a player’s junior year of high school. That limit was exceeded over several months from late 2006 into 2007. In December of 2006, for instance, Tom Moore, then a UConn assistant coach, made 27 calls to Miles’ guardian and a person Miles referred to as an uncle. Moore made three calls to Miles.
Yahoo released the report as part of a larger package exploring the role of sports agents, like Josh Nochimson, in college basketball recruiting.
In the current climate of college basketball, where agents dip into the prep ranks to secure future professional clients, Nochimson’s is a common tale. Agents increasingly “babysit” or “quarterback” a young prospect through his amateur career, including one season of college basketball, in hopes of landing him as an NBA client. Agents will place a prospect with a specific school where the college coach will reciprocate by delivering the player back once he’s ready to turn pro.
The fact that Moore knew Nochimson and Miles were talking was a violation. When asked if he had lost sight of the fact that Nochimson wasn’t just an NBA agent, but a representative of athletic interests, Moore said: “Probably. I looked at him as a young professional working as an agent, doing what he does in his career.”
That UConn was aware of the improper Nochimson-Miles relationship could be a further violation, according to the NCAA. Under NCAA rules, UConn is culpable for contact and benefits provided by any representative of its athletic interests regardless of the school’s knowledge. In this case, Moore not only admitted to Yahoo! Sports, “I know that Josh contacted Nate a couple of times,” but documents show pages upon pages of phone and text correspondence.
If the NCAA opts to investigate Connecticut, the team can look to the Kelvin Sampson recruiting scandal as an example of the NCAA’s attitude toward recruiting violations. Sampson and his staff violated NCAA rules for contacting recruits at both Oklahoma and Indiana, and his disregard or ignorance of the rules cost him his job with the Hoosiers after only two seasons in Bloomington.
