Connecticut announced Tuesday that head men's basketball coach Jim Calhoun will take a medical leave of absence, effective immediately. Connecticut Health Center physician Peter Schulman recommended the leave of absence "to address some temporary medical issues, none of which involve any previous medical conditions that he has dealt with." Connecticut Director of Athletics Jeff Hathaway said, "Our primary concern is coach Calhoun's health and his complete recovery. We will do everything possible to support him during this time. Jim and I both know that the men's basketball program is in very capable hands under the leadership of associate head coach George Blaney."  

Other transactions

Football – Houston and head coach Kevin Sumlin agree to a contract extension through 2015. Sumlin, who has been in charge of the Cougar program since 2007, guided the team to a 10-4 record and a No. 12 ranking in the AP Top 25 this past season … DePauw promoted Robby Long to head football coach. Long, who has served as interim head coach since August of last year, becomes the fourth African-American head coach in Division III and the 27th ethnic minority to lead an NCAA football program. Long spent five seasons as an assistant coach at DePauw, including the last three as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator. Long formerly was a graduate assistant coach at Illinois, where he was a three-year letter-winner and played on the 2001 Big Ten championship team.

Football assistants – Pacific (Oregon) added Josh Fetter as defensive coordinator. Fetter has spent the past four years as defensive line coach at Portland State and formerly completed assistant coaching stints at Western State and Central Washington … Scott Turner was elevated to wide receivers coach at Pittsburgh. For the past two seasons, Turner has served as an offensive assistant for the Panthers … Georgia added Scott Lakatos as defensive backs coach. Lakatos was secondary coach at Connecticut and formerly spent three seasons as the secondary coach at Rutgers … Memphis chose Brian Mitchell as cornerbacks coach. Mitchell most recently has been an assistant at Texas Tech and formerly was a defensive assistant at BYU for 11 seasons … Tennessee named Charlie Baggett as assistant head football coach and wide receivers coach, announced that offensive coordinator Jim Chaney will remain on staff and added Terry Joseph and Eric Russell as assistant coaches.   

Conferences

The Atlantic Coast Conference hired Shamaree Brown as director of student-athlete programs and Lee Butler as associate director of championships. Brown was assistant director of compliance and championships at the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, while Butler has been assistant director of event management at Miami (Florida) since 2007.

Deaths

Former Clemson and NFL standout Gaines Adams died January 17. He was 26. Adams played at Clemson from 2003-06 and had recently finished his third NFL season with stints at Tampa Bay and Chicago. At Clemson, the first team all-American tied the school record for career sacks (28) and was named the 2006 ACC Defensive Player of the Year.