With the Connecticut Huskies back in the NCAA college basketball Final Four, head coach Jim Calhoun understands how difficult it is to make it to this point for any school, even one as successful as UConn. In the Final Four conference call on Monday morning, Jim Calhoun talked about how even teams with great players can fall short in March.
“In our first 13 years, we had some great players, Ray Allen, just some terrific players in our program, didn't get to a Final Four,” Calhoun said. “I was at Northeastern for 14 years. In '86,I came to UConn. Got hit by a Christian Laettner shot in 1990. Lost to Oakland in 1996. Lost to a terrific Carolina team with Vince Carter and company. We were really close and couldn't get there. Then we finally got there.
“I enjoyed every moment. Brought a team in on Tuesday night and we made sure in Tampa, St. Pete, to really enjoy it. Then we were fortunate to go back in 2004, 2009. You just don't know whether you're going to go back or not.”
Calhoun name dropped John Cheney, who never made it to the Final Four despite being a Hall of Fame college coach. However, in 2011 there are also two young coaches that have the opportunity to lead their team into the championship game in Brad Stevens and Shaka Smart and Jim Calhoun will never admit that a team like VCU does not belong in the Final Four.
“One thing as far as small schools,” Calhoun explained. “If they have five really good players and a pretty good bench, there's no such thing as a small school in the sport of basketball.
“Obviously what's happened at VCU I love because it's something I would have thought about doing, didn't by the way, to burn up a month. I love it.”
However, before Jim Calhoun hopes to battle Butler or VCU, his UConn Huskies have to get past a tough Kentucky Wildcats, a team UConn already beat once this year in the 2010-11 Maui Classic.
“I don't think that game means anything in this particular game,” Calhoun said. “They're now a terrific 3‑point shooting team. I think one of the things John (Calipari) has done particularly good is run, control halfcourt offense, and of course they make 3’slike crazy. They always could drive, but now they drive. If you try to take that away, they're going to make shots from the outside. They use really their veterans exceptionally well to help their young freshmen who are no longer young. They're very good players.”
Of course, UConn has very good players as well, led by Kemba Walker, described by some as the best college basketball player in the nation.
“Right now he's as good of a player in the country, midrange jump shot, he can make threes. To me he's the most valuable player in the United States,” Calhoun said. “So when I recruited him, I thought I was going to get a quick New York City point push guard, defender, all that type of thing. And he's evolved into even more than that.”
Kentucky and UConn face off in the Final Four on Saturday, April 2, at 8:49 pm.
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