Everyone has advice for Connecticut basketball coach Jim Calhoun this week. Everyone seems to have an opinion, a theory, a diagnosis, or a remedy. Some people are downright mean. Others want to appear compassionate. Many actually do care about the well-being of the 67-year-old Hall of Famer.
But the experts who tell you they have it all figured out are wrong, not to mention extremely out of line. How can you tell someone else how to live their life, especially when most of us don’t know exactly what is wrong?
UConn announced Tuesday that Calhoun would be taking a medical leave of absence. It was effective immediately. There is no timetable for his return. Until Calhoun wants to tell us the medical issues that have sent him home – not to a hospital – we won’t know for sure. UConn has only told us that it isn’t a cardiac problem and it isn’t related to any of Calhoun’s previous cancer battles.
That’s great news.
Calhoun left the Huskies in 2003 for surgery, after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He has been treated twice for skin cancer, most recently in 2008 when he needed surgery and 33 radiation treatments to help fight off the nasty dreaded disease. He has missed all or part of 22 UConn games, including Wednesday’s victory over St. John’s, since 1990 with some form of illness.
I can’t think of any other school in the NCAA that provides a page of health records on their head coach in the game notes. UConn did Wednesday night. It’s not funny. It’s just different – and necessary, given the circumstances.
In the past, Calhoun has elected to be very transparent with the public. It wasn’t always easy, but he wanted UConn fans, and college basketball fans across the nation to understand anyone can get cancer – and it doesn’t have to kill.
“I’m a private person and when we were first dealing with this, I didn’t want Jim to go public,” his wife, Pat, said in 2008. “But if just one person listened and is helped by this, then it makes it worthwhile.”
This time, Calhoun’s primary-care physician has simply said he recommended a medical leave from his coaching position to “address some temporary medical issues.” That has led to speculation that the problems are stress related. We know coaching is a stressful job. Those who have watched Calhoun know he is fully immersed in his job. The man hates to lose and the Huskies were on a three-game losing streak when he called associate head coach George Blaney and gave him the news.
“The doctor told him to take time off,” Blaney said. “[Calhoun] said, ‘He finally told me I needed to do this. So I’m listening for once.’ ”
I’ve known Calhoun since 1985. I covered UConn basketball as the beat writer for The Hartford Courant during Calhoun’s first 11 seasons with the Huskies and I’ve been around the program quite a bit since then. We’ve had a professional relationship. He has been mad at me; told me he never wanted to speak to me again. He ripped me in a national magazine. I got mad at him. But we’ve always talked things out and moved on. I have enjoyed watching him win two national championships.
When Calhoun was 45 or 50, he wouldn’t have listened to his doctor. He would have kept going. But he knows better now. One of Calhoun’s closest friends told me the doctor’s orders are to stay away from the team, stay away from the office, and that probably meant an order not to watch the Huskies on TV. That sounds crazy, but what good would this leave of absence be if Calhoun is pacing in front of the TV as he team plays. That’s only going to delay his return – and I guarantee you Calhoun wants to be back as soon as possible.
I imagine his wife took the remote control away Wednesday night. Maybe she unplugged the TV or had cable service cut off. Jim and Pat are two of the most intelligent and charitable people around. Maybe they caught up on some reading Wednesday night. Maybe they talked about the future. Calhoun might have taken a phone call or two from one of his sons, with updates on the score from the XL Center in Hartford.
When Calhoun left Detroit after losing to Michigan State in the Final Four last year, I thought he might retire. He had been deeply hurt by some things written about him and allegations of recruiting violations that popped up during the NCAA Tournament. But he quickly decided that he would return to UConn. Even though an NCAA investigation still looms as a possibility, Calhoun has not expressed any real concern and the impact of that remains to be seen.
You can read the ridiculous theories on the message boards online. Some UConn fans are urging Calhoun to walk away for good. Not sure why. Don’t those fans understand that Calhoun is UConn basketball? When he retires, UConn basketball will not be the same and I don’t care who is hired to follow in his footsteps. Many in the UConn athletic department have been quietly worried about that for the past two years or so.
Some have advanced the theory that Calhoun is faking these medical conditions to inspire his players to do better. What a bunch of garbage. Calhoun is at his toughest when things are down. That makes him work harder. And he loves to push his players in practice. That’s what makes them better, not walking away in some publicity stunt.
This is a man who fell off is bike during a charity event last June, broke several ribs but kept on riding. He crossed the finish line, fainted and was taken to the hospital. He could have killed himself. When I saw him in August, hitting a golf ball off the tee at another of his charity events, he admitted he started golfing with Blaney before he was supposed to. I simply told him it confirmed what everyone already knew. He’s the toughest SOB on the planet. We both laughed.
Stress can manifest itself in many ways. When Calhoun wants us to know exactly what is going on, he will talk. Until then, I urge my fellow media members to think before they write.
UConn’s last loss before the leave was Sunday at Michigan. A writer in Detroit actually wrote this Wednesday: “While the medical leave is concerning, especially given his history with cancer, it’s more interesting on another degree of separation, how it will affect the Wolverines. . . . It will be interesting to see how the NCAA tournament selection committee handles Calhoun’s leave.”
Really? That certainly is another degree of separation. I’ll agree with that.
On the other extreme, a well-known national college basketball writer has come out and said Calhoun should retire after this season. Based on what? A leave of absence where no one has given, us the reason. Sorry, can’t agree there.
Let Calhoun retire on his own terms. He deserves that after everything he has been through and everything he has done for UConn and the State of Connecticut. The man has coached 1,164 games, more than any other active Division I coach. Blaney picked up victory No. 817 for Calhoun on Wednesday night. Only Bob Knight, Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp, Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Phelan have more.
But Calhoun also is a husband, a father and a grandfather. The fact he has taken this leave of absence is another indication that his family comes first. They will help him make the decision to retire – whenever that might be.
UConn guard Kemba Walker says he wouldn’t be surprised if Calhoun returns for Saturday’s game against No. 1 Texas. I don’t think that will happen, but with Calhoun it’s never say never. Whenever the doctor clears him, he will be back.
I know Calhoun will do the right thing because of something he told me in 2008. During his radiation treatments, I spent several hours with him one morning. We rode to the hospital together. I watched him take his treatment. I talked to his doctors and nurses. We had a conversation I will never forget. He shared a great deal with me that day.
On the ride back from the hospital, this is what he said. And this is why I know Jim Calhoun will do the right thing.
“I don’t want to be the guy with the most victories in the graveyard, the guy with the most money in the graveyard. I just don’t want to be in the graveyard. Eventually, like every one else, my time will come. But the way I feel about my family and the way I feel about my life, the way I feel about a lot of things that I can still do, and the joy I get out of living . . . I’m not willing to give any of that up. I have no desire to do that.”
Tags: Adolph Rupp, Bob Knight, Dean Smith, Geoge Blaney, Jim Calhoun, Jim Phelan, Kemba Walker, Mike Krzyzewski, Pat Calhoun, UConn Huskies
