Report: Jim Calhoun To Retire As Connecticut Basketball Coach

The NBC affiliate in Hartford, CT is reporting, via an anonymous source, that long time Connecticut Huskies basketball coach Jim Calhoun will retire from coaching instead of coaching the 2012-2013 season. The report states:

UConn men's basketball coach Jim Calhoun's retirement is imminent, according to a source close to the coach.

Calhoun, 70, has coached the Huskies to three national championships in his 26-year-tenure as head coach. His last title came in 2011. UConn won national championships in 1999 and 2004 as well.

Calhoun has been mulling the decision all summer. Many speculated that he would not return for a season where UConn had lost players who were allowed to transfer because of NCAA sanctions over the team's academic performance. The sanctions will keep UConn from competing in either the Big East Tournament or in the NCAA Tournament. The sentiment that he would retire rather than coach this season was only heightened by his breaking his hip and needing surgery to repair it.

Now speculation will turn to who will be his replacement. Current assistant George Blaney sat in for Calhoun last year when Calhoun needed back surgery, but it has been widely acknowledged that Calhoun wishes for assistant and former player Kevin Ollie to get the job. With the fall semester under way and the season just a few weeks from starting, UConn will have to make a decision soon.