UConn's Jim Calhoun to call it a career

[DarkJourney]

By Andy Katz | ESPN.com

Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun is expected to announce his retirement at a news conference Thursday, multiple sources told ESPN.com.

Calhoun, who coached the Huskies to three national titles, will be replaced by assistant coach Kevin Ollie, the sources said.

Terms of Calhoun's exit and Ollie's agreement were not finalized Wednesday.

A source close to Calhoun told ESPN.com that the Hall of Fame coach has had a lot of time to think about his retirement during the past month. Calhoun fractured his hip in early August after falling off his bicycle.

Calhoun, 70, has two years remaining on his contract. UConn recently was ruled ineligible for the 2013 NCAA tournament due to poor APR scores.

A cancer survivor, Calhoun previously had stated that he wanted Ollie to be his successor.

Calhoun told ESPN.com this past summer that whenever he retired, he would mimic Dean Smith's plan of waiting right until the start of the season. Smith ended his tenure at North Carolina prior to the 1996-97 season, when UNC named longtime assistant Bill Guthridge as his successor.

Calhoun was suspended for three games last season stemming from NCAA violations in the case of former student Nate Miles. He also underwent surgery last season to deal with nerve pain caused by a chipped bone in his back.

[The_Admiral]

Shut up.

[raysfan24]

Give us the link to the article and I'll believe you

[DarkJourney]

Here you go you :censored:ing idiots:

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/8371331/connecticut-huskies-jim-calhoun-announce-retirement-sources-say

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ap-source-uconn-coach-jim-232204334--ncaab.html

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/basketball/ncaa/09/12/calhoun-retires.ap/index.html?sct=hp_t2_a2&eref=sihp

[crashcarson15]

Good riddance.

[raysfan24]

Wow. UConn basketball will be a lot different.

[Cujo]

Not that he's going out as bad as Paterno did, but Coach Calhoun kinda tarnished his image there at the end with the violations.

[Raysfan12]

Violations + Calhoun's retirement + Louisville and the rest of the BE = Rough 2012-13 season for the Huskies.

[pmoehrin]

I don't see this program doing much without Calhoun at the helm. Its a very competitive recruiting environment so you can only rest so much on prestige. The school isn't in a great location and your in a very tough basketball conference.

The timing of this strikes me as really odd. I know he's claiming he's leaving for health reasons, but what's so different with his health now as opposed to four months ago? The first question I would ask, because now your starting to get into serious practices. Your not doing much conditioning work anymore. Now your starting to work on installing what's going to be the core of your offensive and defensive strategy for the season.

Maybe they knew he was leaving before the story and planned accordingly, but this is one of the worst points in the year you can quit as a coach. I would almost prefer a coach to quit mid season.

[The_Admiral]

Maybe they knew he was leaving before the story and planned accordingly, but this is one of the worst points in the year you can quit as a coach.

Calhoun told ESPN.com this past summer that whenever he retired, he would mimic Dean Smith's plan of waiting right until the start of the season.

What a self-serving dickhole.

[ninersdd]

I remember Lute Olson retiring 4 years ago right before the season started, but that was because he suddenly had a stroke the week before and his doctors ordered him to.(And sadly when he is at the Cats games, you can tell he's not 100% there anymore). Admiral hit the nail on the head with regards to him being a dick.

[Cujo]

Maybe they knew he was leaving before the story and planned accordingly, but this is one of the worst points in the year you can quit as a coach.

Calhoun told ESPN.com this past summer that whenever he retired, he would mimic Dean Smith's plan of waiting right until the start of the season.

What a self-serving dickhole.

So he basically tricked students into going to Storrs..... That's college athletics for you.

[The_Admiral]

I wonder if the program will bring in twelve million dawluhs without him.

[Lights Out]

Not that he's going out as bad as Paterno did, but Coach Calhoun kinda tarnished his image there at the end with the violations.

At the end? His image had already been tarnished by the Kirk King and Ricky Moore scandal, the AJ Price scandal, and the Nate Miles scandal.

[Raysfan12]

I don't see this program doing much without Calhoun at the helm. Its a very competitive recruiting environment so you can only rest so much on prestige. The school isn't in a great location and your in a very tough basketball conference.

The timing of this strikes me as really odd. I know he's claiming he's leaving for health reasons, but what's so different with his health now as opposed to four months ago? The first question I would ask, because now your starting to get into serious practices. Your not doing much conditioning work anymore. Now your starting to work on installing what's going to be the core of your offensive and defensive strategy for the season.

Maybe they knew he was leaving before the story and planned accordingly, but this is one of the worst points in the year you can quit as a coach. I would almost prefer a coach to quit mid season.

Before Calhoun, UConn was an unknown in college basketball and it will be that way after Calhoun leaves. UConn will be hit rough because of the sanctions and the competition especially Louisville, a Top 2 team in the country this season.

Maybe they knew he was leaving before the story and planned accordingly, but this is one of the worst points in the year you can quit as a coach.

Calhoun told ESPN.com this past summer that whenever he retired, he would mimic Dean Smith's plan of waiting right until the start of the season.

What a self-serving dickhole.

So be basically tricked students into going to Storrs..... That's college athletics for you.

Wow....

[pmoehrin]

Maybe they knew he was leaving before the story and planned accordingly, but this is one of the worst points in the year you can quit as a coach.

Calhoun told ESPN.com this past summer that whenever he retired, he would mimic Dean Smith's plan of waiting right until the start of the season.

What a self-serving dickhole.

With Smith leaving though they had another guy right behind him in Bill Guthridge with pretty much the exact same coaching philosophy as Smith had. He could leave and UNC basketball wouldn't miss a beat, nor did they. Guthridge took them to two Final Fours in three years.

Kevin Ollie is a complete unknown as a coach. The guy has only been retired as a player for two years. I have no idea what your going to get from him, but I really think he's being put in a tough spot. The only positive I can say is Calhoun ran a pretty simple offense. No a hard team to scout because they may run 8 plays a game if that. A monkey could learn and run Jim Calhoun's offense. But when your only running 8 plays a game you damn well better be good at those 8 plays and that's where it may be a bit more difficult for Ollie. As easy as it is to learn, very difficult to be successful because of have small the margin for error is because every team knows exactly what your going to do.

I think it going to be very difficult but not impossible for Ollie to install a different style of offense if he wants to. There's still enough time to do it, but the clock is ticking.

[The_Admiral]

A monkey could learn and run Jim Calhoun's offense.

And he won't give a dime back. Get some monkeys, and come back and see me. Get some monkeys, and come back and see me.

[NJTank]

Calhoun's health has been declining for a few years so anybody shocked by this was not paying attention, and with ESPN UConn will always be a top program

[rams80]

Just pick up some Calipari Lite type and UConn will be back before you know it. Now that I think about it, Kelvin Sampson's show cause penalty should be up in about a year.

[pmoehrin]

A monkey could learn and run Jim Calhoun's offense.

And he won't give a dime back. Get some monkeys, and come back and see me. Get some monkeys, and come back and see me.

I know your making a joke in reference to that whole incident with him being questioned over how much he gets paid, but just to make sure my words aren't taken out of context (which I'm not accusing you of doing just making sure nobody else does) I'm just making the point that its an easy offense to run, but it doesn't mean its any less effective then a complex one when done right. Bobby Knight pretty much ran the same offense as well which just as easy to run if not easier. If you wanted to know why he got so angry sometimes it was because you had to be an idiot to not figure it out.

As far as Calhoun being a dick though I mean yeah. He's about as self centered of a person as you can get. Great coach but that's about all the positives that can be said about him. Terrible timining with him leaving. I would hope the staff there had some type of backup plan. Anytime somebody tells you maybe, you have to assume its a no and plan for it, which I think they did to some extent. But again if Kevin Ollie wants to put in a new system all the prep work that would have normally been done in the spring and summer has to be done now, and its just going to make the schedule that much tighter if indeed that's what happens.

As ESPN and UConn goes I can't really say ESPN plays too many favorites with college basketball. I know some people say too much Duke and UNC, but those teams are top 10 virtually every year though, so they do deserve a tremendous amount of coverage. I will say they could cover the mid-majors a little better and not just at tourney time, but that's about my only real criticism of them. I remember a couple years ago UConn was having a relly down year (I want to say it was '09-'10, the year before they won the title) and I hardly ever saw them on TV, so I think they will get a fair amount of media coverage.