UConn self-imposes penalties after NCAA Notice of Allegations

By ADAM ZAGORIA

UConn has self-imposed a series of penalties in response to the NCAA Notice of Allegations, including reducing the number of scholarships for the 2019-20 season from 13 to 12 and paying a $5,000 fine to the NCAA.

UConn’s decision to self-impose penalties is an attempt to head off further punishment by the NCAA down the road. UConn won the NCAA title in 2014 during Kevin Ollie’s first year at the helm. Ollie was fired last March and is suing UConn, alleging it racially discriminated against him.

“Our athletics department recognizes its responsibility to promote an atmosphere of honesty and integrity as it relates to NCAA compliance and beyond,” UConn AD David Benedict said in a statement. “We take these allegations very seriously and will continue to fully cooperate with the NCAA throughout this process.”

This comes as first-year coach Dan Hurley is attempting to rebuild the program. Hurley came to UConn this season after previous stints at Rhode Island and Wagner, and now has to deal with sanctions and lawsuits in Ollie’s wake.

UConn coach Dan Hurley returns to New Jersey for game honoring 9/11 victims

By PAT EATON-ROBB

STORRS, Conn. (AP) — UConn basketball coach Dan Hurley was teaching high school history at St. Benedict’s in Newark, New Jersey on Sept. 11, 2001, when he looked out the window and saw smoke rising from the World Trade Center across the Hudson River in New York.

“I remember probably within 10 minutes of seeing the smoke, just being called into the auditorium and just the chaos of what was happening on the way into the assembly,” he said. “Then everyone got this message.”

One of Hurley’s friends would lose his brother, a New York firefighter, in the terrorist attacks that day. Hurley had just started at the prep school as a teacher and the basketball coach. He took several of St. Benedict’s international students into his home while the school was temporarily closed during the ensuing chaos.