Should UCONN head coach Jim Calhoun retire amid allegations of recruiting violations?

Yes

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by Melody Bish

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The University of Connecticut Huskies men's basketball team became a force to be dealt with under the head coaching tutelage of Jim Calhoun. After spending over a decade as head coach of the Northeastern University Basketball Program, Calhoun was announced as head coach of the University of Connecticut Huskies men's basketball program in 1986. The Huskies have been an active part of the athletic history of UConn since the early 1900's and members of The Big East Basketball Conference since its inception.

Sports are a serious aspect of the college experience in Storrs, Connecticut, however national level team sports have become something the University takes special pride in over the past decade. Academic quality and a men's and women's basketball program with national presence, and, indeed, NCAA Championships became the standard at UConn. Jim Calhoun's tenure brought with it personal success, as Coach Calhoun was voted into the Dr. James Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995. a year which saw Calhoun win his 700th game as a head coach. Indeed, Coach Calhoun's tenure as UConn's Head Coach coincided with the Huskies rise to perennial candidates for the Collegiate National Championship. Calhoun's career, to date, at Storrs includes four national championships, 1 NIT championship and six Big East Conference Titles; with the coach winning his 900th game during the 2008 basketball campaign.

A large aspect of an NCAA Coach's job is recruiting the best possible high school players for his program and the recruiting of high school players is enforced with a series of rules by the NCAA. Under current scrutiny by the NCAA for permitting improper relationships between high school recruits and professional agents, who, allegedly, were welcomed into the fold of the basketball by Calhoun, who turned a blind eye to their presence, thus tacitly permitting the agents to act as a recruitment enhancement for UCONN by providing gifts of various kinds to potential recruits. As the NCAA continues review of the potential recruiting violations under Calhoun, the storied coach battles, not only the NCAA investigation but his second bout with cancer facing skuamous cell carcinoma.

Though the coaching waters have become rocky for Coach Calhoun, he has announced a plan to continue as head coach of the Huskies. Given the myriad successes Jim Calhoun coached UConn teams have experienced, along with Calhoun's personal success, it is time for Calhoun to retire lest the final memory of his coaching history be a series of NCAA sanctions imposed upon the Huskies. Certainly, even in retirement any NCAA Sanctions based on malfeasance by UConn during his coaching tenure will tend to scar Coach Calhoun's reputation as one of the greatest coaches in collegiate history, such scarring will be far less dramatic if they come after Calhoun's retirement, rather than as part of his career active coaching record.

Stepping down from his long held coaching coaching position at UConn doubtless will be difficult for a man with vigorous commitment to his basketball program, however the time has come for Jim Calhoun to retire, preserving his coaching honor and minimizing the potential harm to his career and the school whose standard he has carried for overt twenty years.

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