A source close to UConn coach Jim Calhoun says the coach is shocked at how long it has taken the school to begin negotiating terms of a new multiyear deal.
"They have not been in a rush to get it done," the source said, referring to UConn officials.
UConn spokesman Kyle Muncy said Tuesday that the two sides have been in discussions for some time, and that Calhoun has expressed a desire to continue coaching at the school.
The source said the two sides "were looking at four, maybe five [years]" for the extension.
"He doesn't care about being the highest paid guy," the source added. "He wants to be compensated where he deserves to be compensated among his peers."
Muncy said the deal would be for more than one year.
"It's not going to be a one-year contract," Muncy told the Associated Press. "How many years it's going to be, I don't know, but it will not be a one-year contract."
The source said the two sides "hope to be done before the season starts."
UConn AD Jeff Hathaway said a stipulation in Calhoun's contract mandates that contract discussions would begin in June 2009.
"So June of '09 has come and gone and those conversations have started and continued to start," Hathaway said Wednesday at Yankee Stadium.
He added: "I think everybody that knows the University of Connecticut and its basketball program knows that Jim Calhoun is going to be the coach."
Calhoun, 67, has won two national titles and took the Huskies to the Final Four last season. He is set to make $1.6 million in 2009-10, the final year of a six-year deal.
Women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma, who has brought six national championships to Storrs, recently signed a five-year, $8 million deal.
Calhoun, who was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005, has a career record of 805-342, good enough for sixth place on the NCAA Division I career wins list. He is 557-205 at UConn.
Several off-the-court issues had prompted questions about Calhoun's future, including an investigation into UConn's recruitment of former player Nate Miles. Calhoun has acknowledged that he or his staff may have made mistakes in recruiting Miles.
The coach also has been treated for cancer three times during his UConn career, including last summer when he successfully battled skin cancer.
In June, he had to be hospitalized after breaking several ribs during a charity bike ride.
Most recently, UConn has lost out on several key recruits, including Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick point guard Kyrie Irving and Dix Hills (N.Y.) Half Hollow Hills West forward Tobias Harris, both of whom crossed UConn off their lists.
Sources said Calhoun was livid when Irving opted to take his fifth official visit to Seton Hall instead of UConn.
"I think they really liked Kyrie Irving at one point," a source said about UConn's level of interest.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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