UCONN COACH CALHOUN RETIRES AFTER 40 YEARS AS A HEAD COACH



Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun will announce his retirement at a news conference at 2 p.m. Thursday, the school confirmed Wednesday night.
Calhoun, who coached the Huskies to three national titles, will be replaced by assistant coach Kevin Ollie, multiple sources told ESPN.com.
Calhoun, 70, won 873 games in 40 years as a head coach, first at Northeastern and the last 26 years at UConn, where he put four teams in the Final Four, winning national titles in 1999, 2004 and 2011.
Calhoun has two years remaining on his contract and previously had stated that he wanted Ollie to be his successor. UConn recently was ruled ineligible for the 2013 NCAA tournament due to poor Academic Progress Rate scores.
A source close to Calhoun told ESPN.com that the Hall of Fame coach has had a lot of time to think about his retirement during the past month. Calhoun fractured his hip in early August after falling off his bicycle.
Calhoun told ESPN.com this past summer that whenever he retired, he would mimic Dean Smith's plan of waiting right until the start of the season. Smith ended his tenure at North Carolina prior to the 1996-97 season, when UNC named longtime assistant Bill Guthridge as his successor.
Calhoun, elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005, is a three-time cancer survivor and missed eight games last season while suffering from a painful spinal condition. He returned just four days after having back surgery to coach the Huskies in their regular-season finale and the postseason.
UConn finished the year 20-14, losing to Iowa State in the first-round of the NCAA tournament.
In addition to his medical leave, he served a three-game suspension at the start of the Big East season last winter for failing to maintain an atmosphere of compliance in his program, an issue that dated back to recruiting violations in 2008.
Calhoun was hired by UConn in May 1986, and won an NIT title in his second season. His teams won 10 Big East regular-season championships and seven Big East tournament titles.
Jim Calhoun turned around the UConn men's basketball program, leading the school to three national championships. In 1999, he coached the Huskies to a 34-2 record and their first NCAA championship, a 77-74 upset of Duke.
In 2004, the Huskies started and ended the season at No. 1, beating Georgia Tech in the NCAA championship game 82-73. The Huskies, led by Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon, won their six tournament games by an average of more than 17 points.
In 2011, UConn finished the regular season ninth in the Big East before reeling off a remarkable 11 consecutive wins during the postseason, including a 53-41 victory against Butler in the national championship game.
Calhoun's only loss in the Final Four came in 2009 to Michigan State in the national semifinals. Calhoun missed the Huskies' first NCAA tournament game that season after being hospitalized for dehydration.
That was one of several health issues that marked his tenure at UConn, where he missed 29 games, and left another 11 because of illness. He successfully battled prostate cancer in 2003 and skin cancer twice, most recently in 2008.
In May 2010, the program was cited by the NCAA for eight major rules violations. The allegations came at the end of a 15-month investigation into the recruiting of former player Nate Miles, who was expelled from UConn in October 2008 without ever playing a game for the Huskies.
Besides accusations that his staff improperly contacted recruits, gave them improper benefits and improperly distributed free tickets to high school coaches and others, Calhoun was cited for failing to maintain an atmosphere of compliance.
The accusations led to the resignations of two assistants, and a promise from Calhoun to make things right. He told reporters that the idea of bringing closure to that issue was a "major, major factor" in his decision to come back after the 2011 championship season.
Calhoun also faced criticism for his team's performance in the classroom. His team failed to qualify academically for the 2013 NCAA tournament under rules passed in the fall of 2011.
UConn sought a waiver citing improved scores in 2011-12, but that was rejected and five underclassmen left the Huskies after last season.

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