Apparently, it'll take more than a broken hip to keep Jim Calhoun from coaching the Huskies this fall -- and possibly beyond. A weekend cycling accident landed him in surgery Saturday evening and reports Monday were that the 70-year-old Hall of Fame coach was resting comfortably, he'd be released from the hospital on Tuesday, and returning to work in the next week or so.
"Nothing has changed," he told Mark Blaudshun of the Boston Globe. "I will be going about my business."
Indeed he will. And not just in the near-term either. Details via ESPN's Andy Katz.
"According to those very close to Jim Calhoun they expect him to not only make a full recovery, but to return to the bench this season," Katz said over the weekend. "He's got two seasons left on his contract and Jim Calhoun told me earlier this spring that he fully intends to fulfill his contract. Next season, UConn cannot compete in the postseason. The year after, he thinks he'll have a team that can compete for an NCAA berth. So right now, despite this latest health setback, there is no indication that Jim Calhoun plans to stop coaching at UConn."
This sounds a lot like Calhoun, doesn't it? We've written both last summer and this one that we fully expect Calhoun to continue coaching because we're not sure what else he'd do with all his free time. And remember: while recruiting Omar Calhoun in the spring of 2011, he promised the guard that he'd still be coaching when he got to Storrs. And now, if Katz is right, it sounds like Calhoun is looking ahead to 2013-14, when the Huskies will be again eligible for conference and national tournament play.
But this goes beyond basketball.
“I mean, he’s the man,” former Husky guard Richard Hamilton said over the weekend. “You look at everybody that’s here right now. He not just produced great players, but he produced us into great people and great men.”
