Jalen Adams wrinkled his brow, looking confused. “What do you mean?” he responded when asked if the UConn men’s basketball team was distracted by off-the-court issues Sunday night.
The NCAA inquiry?
“Oh no, we’re not worrying about any of that,” said Adams, a junior. “We were just focusing on Temple.”
On Friday, it emerged that UConn, a program that has fallen on such hard times on the court, was possibly in trouble with the NCAA, which notified the school of its inquiry into men’s basketball recruiting. Sometimes, this can infuse a team with an us-against-the-world mentality.
But the Huskies played one of their worst games of the season and lost at Temple, 85-57, on Sunday night.
Coach Kevin Ollie, in his first exposure to media since the news broke, tried to stave off post-game questions by issuing a pregame statement, which was passed out to reporters 40 minutes before tipoff.
“With regard to the inquiry directed at our men’s basketball program,” Ollie’s statement read, “I want to express that we will cooperate fully with NCAA as this process moves forward as we are committed to promoting an atmosphere of compliance with NCAA regulations.
“… As we head into the final weeks of the season, our total focus will be on helping our team improve and reach its highest potential. To that end, we have no further comment on this matter.”
This mirrored what university president Susan Herbst had said, and out of necessity it is the company line. No one can comment once the NCAA launches an inquiry, players were clearly told not to comment, and yet the questions continue —and will continue for some time. A slow-moving body with plenty of other cases, the NCAA could take many months to reveal its findings. Ollie must continue with his mission — recruiting and developing players, preparing for games, while twisting in the wind.
“The vibes are still good,” Ollie said, when the first NCAA-related question was asked in his post-game press conference Sunday, “and we look forward to cooperating with the NCAA and I’ll just go back to my statement. … [The players] will be fine.”
The Huskies, 11-10 this season, have had a pattern of following up encouraging efforts with abysmal losses. Coming off a win at home against SMU, the defending American Athletic Conference champion — maybe their best win of the season — UConn checked out of this game against Temple, which came in with a 2-6 conference record, early. They turned the ball over 10 times in the first half, and after making an 18-14 run, they were buried with a 24-4 spurt, and never got close again.
“No comment; I don’t know anything about that,” sophomore Christian Vital said, when asked about the inquiry. “We prepared the same way. Temple played a good game.”
This NCAA inquiry is the latest in a long series of bad news for UConn men’s basketball, which won the most recent of its four national championships in April 2014, a year and a half after Ollie replaced the retiring Jim Calhoun. Since that triumph in Arlington, Texas, UConn has struggled to recruit and develop top talent, and has not had an NCAA lottery pick in seven drafts after having 13 in the previous 18 years. The school was left behind in conference realignment, not invited to a Power Five conference, nor included by its old rivals in the new Big East. It has struggled on the court, last season posting a losing record for the first time in 30 years and this season losing six games by 20-plus point margins. They have little chance now of gaining an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. It has struggled with declining attendance, only selling out two home games over the last season and a half.
All of this has made Ollie, who replaced Calhoun in September 2012, deeply unpopular with UConn fans. His contract runs through 2021 at $3 million per season, and he would be owed all of that if fired, unless fired “for cause.”
Details of the NCAA inquiry emerged Saturday. It is focused on recruiting, and includes interaction with several players, not necessarily players who came to UConn. The NCAA has been conducting interviews for several months, though it is not clear whether current coaches or staffers have been interviewed yet.
After the FBI revealed its investigation into fraud and bribery in college basketball last fall, schools were urged to conduct internal reviews. UConn did, retaining the law firm of Lightfoot, Franklin and White, which specializes in NCAA investigations. But this inquiry was not triggered by the internal review, but by an external source.
“UConn is absolutely committed to a culture of compliance and intends to fully cooperate, as always, with the NCAA,” read Herbst’s statement, the only comment from UConn on Friday. “We will do so in a thorough and transparent manner reflective of the model athletic and academic institution we continually strive to be.”
Athletic director David Benedict has yet to comment. He is traveling, and was not at the Temple game.
Geno Auriemma, who coaches the currently undefeated UConn women’s team, was asked about the possible damage to the UConn brand following his win before a sold-out Gampel Pavilion on Saturday.
“The interesting thing is 10,000 people came to the game today and I bet not one of them cared too much about what was going on [with the men’s team],” Auriemma said. “So I think if we continue to put a good product on the floor, on the field, wherever, we'll be OK.”
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