If Calhoun retires, Geno should step in

Win or lose in tomorrow's national championship, there is a growing feeling that legendary head coach Jim Calhoun could call it quits following the game. He's a guy who has had nothing left to prove for years and now, with the Nate Miles situation not going away, who could blame him for stepping away?

To be clear, I’m not pushing him out the door. The man deserves to have carte blanche when it comes to his decision to call it quits and I’d be completely content with him pulling a Joe Paterno on us and staying as long as he’s breathing and swearing. But I also recognize that he’s a three-time cancer survivor who turns 68 in May and has nothing left to prove in college basketball. If he does decide to retire, all we can do is throw a parade and thank him for what he did in Storrs.

So how do you replace a legend?

There are two schools of thought when it comes to picking a new coach: 1) Make a splash. Do a national search and throw a lot of money at the hottest young coach out there. 2) Hire from within. Or at least someone with direct ties to the program. Provide continuity.

I say do both.

Hire Geno Auriemma.

There isn’t another coach in the country with the perfect combination of fame, credentials and a built-in knowledge of Connecticut basketball than Auriemma. He’s the John Wooden of women’s basketball, architect of arguably the single most dominant team in the history of American sports. That’s not a stretch either. His team is about to win another national championship and virtually none of their wins have come by less than ten points over the last three years.

Why would he bother risking his legacy, you ask? Ego. Auriemma is like the best athlete from your hometown who never made it to the pros. Everyone has respect for him, but at the end of the day he’s still looked at as the best from a very small sample size. It’s not so much about coaching women as it is coaching in a sport that only has a handful of great programs. Either Connecticut or Tennessee (or both) appeared in all but one Final Four over the last decade.

Auriemma would never admit it, but for someone as competitive as he is, it has to bother him to know that historians will always place “women’s” in between “best” and “coach ever” when they refer to him. We could say that doesn’t necessarily imply that he couldn’t get it done on the men’s side, but if we’re being honest, it kind of does.

The thing is I think Auriemma could make a seamless transition to coaching men’s basketball. Above all else, recruiting is about selling yourself to players. That’s why we compare coaches today to used car salesmen and not generals. What works for him when he’s recruiting 18 year old girls will work when he’s recruiting 18 year old guys. He’s charming, good-looking and he’s got that same slick New Yorker attitude that made his has friend John Calipari so successful.

Some might say that he wouldn’t be able to coach men the way he coach women. But that’s assuming that he would want run the same offense he has Maya Moore running now. Of course he’d have to adapt, but how could anyone question his ability as a talent evaluator? I’m pretty sure he would know that he can’t go after 6’4 forwards who can’t grab the rim.

Ironically, the person most opposed to this idea might be Calhoun himself. For years, we’ve heard rumors about the intense rivalry between the two. But is there anyone more capable of matching his famous intensity than Auriemma?

The truth is there’s only one way to replace Calhoun whenever he decides to go.

By hiring another legend.

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Random Rumblings: On Celts/Bulls, the Kentucky Derby and more...

First some thoughts on what some called the greatest playoff series in NBA history, which concluded in Boston last night with a Celtics victory in game seven.

• Let’s dispel that notion right away. For me to consider a series the greatest of all time, I need two things: 1) Both teams should be playing at their highest level, which the Celtics were not. They were missing Kevin Garnett, which would be like the Bulls missing Ben Gordon if Gordon could rebound, play defense and make his teammates better. 2) The series has to mean more than just a victory in one round of the playoffs. Chances are the Celtics will get bounced in the second round, just as the Bulls would have and this incredible first round series will have no effect on the outcome of this year’s NBA Finals.
  
  Now that being said, it was just that, an incredible first round series. I can’t think of a time in recent memory when any of the NBA playoffs became must-see TV, let alone the opening round, but that’s what this was. At least for the finals six minutes of regulation and however many overtimes the game went to.
  
  We learned a lot from this series. Ray Allen cemented his legacy as one of the great shooters in the history of the league. Derrick Rose and Rajon Rondo proved they’re the future of the point guard position. And Gordon probably earned himself a max contract.
  
  Chances are it was the most exciting series we’ll see throughout the playoffs, even if the Lakers and Cavs end up in the Finals.
  
  But that doesn’t make it the best ever, does it?
  
  
• Call me evil, but I consider horse racing is the ultimate meritocracy. A winning horse, even a 50-1 stunner, will spend the rest of his/her life being treated like a royalty while it’s off the glue factory with many of the losers.
  
  Maybe that’s why it’s called the sports of kings.
  
  
• Hey, what ever happened to the Jim Calhoun scandal? Maybe the Yahoo! guys will wait until the next time UConn has a shot at a national title.
  
  
• It’s nice to see the Yankees cut ticket prices in half (in some cases) but it will be interesting to see where those tickets end up. I realize the team needs to take care of its biggest customers, but if those guys weren’t attending games at the prices they paid, what makes anyone think they are going to make the effort to sell their tickets or even give ‘em away?
  
  Hopefully, they’ll donate them to charity and use the tickets as a write-off.
  
  
• What a slap in the face to Americans it would be if London was allowed to a host a Super Bowl. In the reverse case, if the United States was granted the right to host a Champions League Final that had an English team in it, we’d be entering a war with our closest ally.
  
  
• The Dodgers went a month without losing at home and even though it’s only May, it’s hard not to think about a Manny Ramirez return to Boston in October. And early November. Thanks WBC.

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Say it ain't so, coach

So this is what it feels like. A fan’s doomsday scenario. This is the Pete Rose supporter finding out about the gambling. It’s the Sonics diehard learning his favorite team is leaving Seattle. If suddenly Derek Jeter’s name replaced ARod’s in all the recent headlines, this is what a Yankees fan would be going through.

I like sports a little less today.

By now, recruitment violations by any coach or any program should come as no surprise. We all realize that the movie Blue Chips could very well have been a work of nonfiction. But yesterday when Yahoo! Sports reported that UConn broke NCAA rules in its courting of Nate Miles, I didn’t want to believe the story. And when I learned that the guys who broke the news, Adrian Wojnarowski and Dan Wetzel, had covered the program in the past (Wajnarowski for the Waterbury Republican and Wetzel for Husky Blue & White) I figured they were just reporters with an agenda.

That’s called denial. UConn fans have been living in it for years.

When Jim Calhoun recruits a kid with a questionable background, like Miles and Caron Butler before him, we call him the father those kids never had. When outsiders start to complain about his recruiting style, like the University of Maryland did with Rudy Gay, we call it sour grapes. And when the media labels him a bully, we call him a bulldog.

Now it appears we’ve been had.

As I see it, there are only two possible explanations for what Calhoun and his staff have done. One is that in 2006, when UConn allegedly began to contact Miles illegally, the program was at a crossroads. The most talented team Calhoun had ever coached was shocked by George Mason in the regional final the season before, and the current team was about to miss the postseason entirely for the first time in 20 years.

Maybe Calhoun got nervous. Maybe he was worried that his program was about to fall off the national radar. Maybe he saw Miles as the next Butler, Ray Allen or Rip Hamilton. Maybe he was desperate.

Or maybe, and this makes me sick just thinking about it, Calhoun has been cheating all along.

That’s the second explanation and it’s completely plausible. It’s hard to believe a guy who had done it right for over 30 years needed to break the rules now. After all, could Calhoun really be that desperate? That same team who struggled in 2006/07 has a chance to reach the final four this weekend. It’s not like he was suddenly coaching St. John’s.

Was Miles, a kid who got expelled about five minutes into college, worth risking a legacy over? Of course not. But if this is how Calhoun had been doing it forever, then it was just business as usual.

Either way, even the most loyal Husky apologist shouldn’t forgive Calhoun if the allegations prove true.

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How will Jim Calhoun be remembered?

Jim Calhoun did what Jim Calhoun has done more than just about any basketball coach in history tonight. He won his 800th game, joining the likes of Bob Knight, Coach K and Dean Smith to become just the seventh Division I coach to reach that mark. Aside from its historical relevance, the victory all but guaranteed that UConn will once again be the top ranked team in America heading into the final week of college basketball’s regular season.

But even though he would never admit it, the win had to be a little bittersweet for Calhoun. The game didn’t seem like a nationally televised battle between No. 2 Connecticut and tenth ranked Marquette. It didn’t feel like win number 800. All that really mattered was that it was the first game following a tirade that made him a featured topic for every talking head in America this week.

By now you obviously know Calhoun made a fool out of himself last weekend when he lashed out at a reporter who asked a question about his salary and whether or not he would take a pay cut to help the state close its enormous budget gap. This, of course, wasn’t nearly the first time Calhoun turned in a post-game press conference worthy of a beer commercial, which has me wondering what his ultimate legacy will be.

We all know he’s more Knight than Krzyzewski, but will he be remembered as more bitter than brilliant? Will his reputation for being a bully trump everything he did both on and off the court?

You can’t ask most Connecticut residents this question. Calhoun is a saint in the Constitution State. Even as Husky fans statewide are losing their jobs and homes, most would argue he is a bargain at $1.6 million per year. Put it this way: If the man ran for Governor, he’d whip any opponent the way his Huskies used to whip Marathon Oil every preseason. His only challenger would be Geno Auriemma.

But nationally, I’m not sure he’s looked at in the same light. On television, he comes off more as a foul-mouthed, mean-spirited man than someone who has helped raise millions of dollars for cancer and autism research. If you do a YouTube search of his name, the majority of the hits that come back are of him attacking the media.

A Google search nets similar results.

And whether it’s fair or not, this is how we learn about people. We use the internet. And that’s not changing anytime soon.

So yes, I do think it’s fair to have questions about Calhoun’s legacy. The man is an all-time winner who turned Storrs, Ct into the basketball capitol of the country. But in this era of endless information, we’ve learned that he isn’t exactly what Husky fans make him out to be. They call him fiery.

I call him flawed.

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Random Rumblings

• Mike Smith and Tony Sparano may have failed to reach the next round of the playoffs, but that doesn’t take away from the incredible impact each had on his team this season, and that puts a lot of pressure on those interviewing for vacant head positions around the league. General Managers throughout the NFL just watched the Falcons and Dolphins reach the playoffs a season after combining for just five wins, which suggests that the right head coach shouldn’t need very long to turn even the worst team around.
  
  It’s not like Smith and Sparano came in with much to work with either. Each had new quarterbacks on the roster, one who had never taken a snap in the NFL and another who had a reputation for throwing like the first basemen on your beer-league softball team. That means that even the Lions, who have one of the best receivers in the league in Calvin Johnson, should have high expectations for their next head coach. And in a place like Cleveland, where the Browns were the sexy pick to reach the playoffs, ten wins will be an absolute necessity.
  
  
• Of course, no matter how talented the roster is, it’s hard to trust anyone running the Cleveland Browns. Anyone who has paid attention to the Jets the past few seasons will tell you Eric Mangini is not a guy who should run the show. Yet Cleveland, obsessed with anyone who has ever had anything to do with the Patriots, have made him the front runner for its head job.
  
  
• By the way, if the Broncos don’t have a head coach by Friday, you can bet Bob Stoops will have interest then.
  
  
• Brett Favre is “leaning” toward retirement again, which is like Oprah leaning toward dieting – the end result is inevitable. I’m sure Brett will change his mind and find a team good enough for him, one that will allow him to run the show even as he throws pick after pick.
  
  It’s embarrassing that A) no one in the mainstream media was ever willing to point out what an egomaniac this guy was while in Green Bay and B) the Jets were completely fine with trading for a guy that had no interest in being a good teammate. There are plenty of sports where camaraderie is overrated. Michael Jordan spent far more time at the blackjack table than he did at the dinner table with his teammates and Manny Ramirez probably couldn’t name ten guys he’s ever played with – both still led their teams to championships. But football is the one sport where a good relationship with the guys around you is imperative.
  
  Of course Favre thought it was okay to alienate himself from his teammates from day one, as if the best way to lead players was to avoid them. Is this the type of guy you want quarterbacking your team next season?
  
  
• Charles Barkley is John Daly with a larger following. And if the state of Alabama ever votes him governor, it should be kicked out of the union.
  
  
• Something doesn’t feel right about this UConn team. It’s almost like two seasons ago where the players were so scared of getting pulled by Jim Calhoun that they could never play to their full potential. Calhoun needs to ease up and remember what worked last season.
  
  
• A healthy, fresh-legged bench player who can play defense, score in bunches and pass the basketball is what the Boston Celtics need. Yet everyone seems to think Stephon Marbury in a limited role will automatically mean failure for the Celtics.
  
  
• I didn’t do one of those story of the year columns because to me, it was so clear-cut that it didn’t even warrant a post: Michael Phelps.
  
  For young people like me, there have been few, if any, points in our lives where it felt great to be an American. We’re in a war most people oppose. The first President that we’ve actually followed is one of the most-hated men on earth. And most people associate American sports with steroids and showboating. But 2008 was one of those years that gave us chills we normally only feel while watching movies. We stopped being apathetic toward politics and turned out in record numbers to vote a black man into office. And over the summer, we watched men swim as though it were the Super Bowl because an American was making history.
  
  The Michael Phelps story is our generation’s Miracle.

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Random Rumblings: Time for the Rays to get serious

• Maybe, as SI’s John Heyman suggested on WFAN yesterday, the Tampa Bay Rays didn’t actually believe this would be their year. Maybe the team wasn’t prepared to negotiate deadline deals because it thought a .500 record was the ultimate goal in 2008.
  
  But now, everything has changed and the Rays need to make a move. The team is still in first place, two games ahead of the Red Sox and four in front of the Yankees, but it is in desperate need of a bat. The Rays have scored more than four runs in a game just three times since it completed a sweep of Kansas City on July 6.
  
  Jason Bay, a player I love, might be the guy the team is trying to trade for, but he isn’t the best player available. That honor goes to none other than Barry Bonds, the guy whose OBP last season was almost 100 points higher than anyone in the Rays lineup today.
  
  Even if Bonds has regressed, he is still going to be on base 40 percent of the time and will undoubtedly put butts in seats. And if you’re telling me he isn’t more valuable than any of the players the Rays currently stick at DH, you’re out of your mind.
  
  The Rays considered Bonds an option before the season; now it’s time to make the Home Run King a priority.
  
  
• The Angels had a perfect night in Boston, acquiring Mark Teixeira before its game and then watching John Lackey no-hit the Sox for 8 1/3 innings. Already a World Series favorite, the trade puts the Angels in a league of its own, far ahead of the Red Sox, who they seem to dominate every time they meet.
  
  
• ESPN ranked UConn Men’s Basketball the sixth best program of the last 20 years, which is a testament to how Coach Jim Calhoun transformed a regional program into a national brand. But you have to wonder if he is proud of the current state of the program.
  
  His players have had off the court problems dating back to the laptop incidents, which have resulted in a couple arrests and even more transfers. Most recently, he brought in Nate Miles, a red flag guy who took the spot of the academically ineligible Stanley Robinson.
  
  Calhoun is an old school guy and it seems like he has figured out in a hurry that you have to be willing to compromise integrity in order to remain sustainable as a big time basketball program. It will be interesting to see how much more of this he can take.
  
  
• I’m always amazed by the people who complain about the length of the baseball and basketball seasons. They’re almost always the same ones who get all jazzed up about who is going to report to football camp in July.

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Random Rumblings (On Favre, college basketball and Calhoun)

• Like all the legends in sports that have retired before him, Brett Favre used family as one of the main reasons why he retired from football this week. And we accept it–maybe more than we did from Michael Jordan- because of who he is and all he’s been through.
  
  But what if the Packers were able to sign Randy Moss? Would Favre have walked away then?
  
  The answer is no. Despite the success the team had this season, Favre didn’t believe he had the right pieces to win a Super Bowl, and he said as much when he talked about how getting there in losing wouldn’t be good enough.
  
  Family might have been the reason he retired. But he wasn’t talking about his wife and children. He was talking about Greg Jennings and company – his second family.
  
  The one he didn’t believe in.
  
  
• The NCAA Basketball Tournament might be the greatest event in sports, but it is going to be hard for most of the country to get excited about players they just don’t know, and that’s why the NBA forcing players to attend school for a year is going to hurt the college game in the long run.
  
  Last year, Kevin Durant and Greg Oden became household names because of the success their teams were having. This year’s best player, Michael Beasley, plays on an average Kansas State team that is barely ever on national television.
  
  The same goes for a lot of the big-name freshmen. O.j. Mayo’s USC team still needs to do work in order to qualify for the Big Dance. Eric Gordon at Indiana has been overshadowed but the Kelvin Sampson situation. And most people probably don’t even know what team Jerryd Bayless plays for.
  
  And the trend isn’t going anywhere. As long as the freshman classes are more talented than the juniors and seniors, the average fan will not get a chance to learn about the stars they are watching come tournament time.
  
  And interest will fade.
  
  
• Speaking of college basketball, The Big Lead asked who the coach of the year was going to be and didn’t include Jim Calhoun.
  
  The guy has won a National Title has a huge underdog (1999) and as an overwhelming favorite (2004), but if he can get Connecticut to the Final Four this season, it has to be his best coaching job.
  
  And he should be rewarded.

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