The Big East Conference announced on Friday afternoon that it had issued a reprimand for UConn head coach Jim Calhoun for comments he made about an official after last night’s 69-60 win over Northeastern.
On official Wally Rutecki, who called the second technical, Calhoun said: “He’s not very good. The other two guys aren’t bad. … I just think he’s incompetent.”
Calhoun’s first technical, issued by Tim Clougherty, was for laughing. Clougherty took it as an insult. Calhoun thought that was absurd — “Maybe I had gas,” he said — but he took issue with the second. Calhoun admitted using an expletive while talking to a player but said Rutecki called him for being out of the coaching box.
Jim Calhoun did offer an apology through the athletic department at UConn.
I would like to sincerely apologize for my words last night and truly understand that my comments were inappropriate. I will do everything I can to keep this from happening again in the future and, most importantly, will work to avoid putting my team, my university, the officials and the BIG EAST in this unfortunate position again with ill-advised comments.â€
It definitely seems as though these new rules involving bench decorum are affecting the way Calhoun coaches.
