Jim Calhoun to Join Saint Joseph to Help Men's Basketball

University of Connecticut's former basketball coach, Jim Calhoun, is coming out of retirement to be a consultant and help the University of Saint Joseph's first men's basketball program.

Calhoun is a Hall of Famer who led UConn's men's basketball team to three national championships and the announcement came Thursday morning that Calhoun will return to basketball in a part-time role.

"I terribly miss the coaching on a daily basis. I miss the association with the kids. I miss getting up at 6 in the morning, getting on that bus," Calhoun said.

Calhoun retired from coaching 2012 and now serves as special assistant to the director of athletics at UConn.

Calhoun will be a consultant for the university's Division III school men's team in West Hartford.

Calhoun would be responsible for helping create the school's first men's basketball program. The University of Saint Joseph Blue Jays are scheduled to begin playing in fall 2018 when the university admits full-time, traditional male undergraduate students for the first time.

Saint Joseph's was formerly an all-female school.

At his annual golf tournament in August, Calhoun talked about how much he missed coaching.

"It's not a great day. You go in and you play a game, you win it. It feels like 85 degrees, perfect weather and you get on that 'cause a group of us got up and worked for the last three or four months to get this and we did it. Together we did it, and that's the part that I really miss," Calhoun said.

The athletic director at Saint Joseph's, Bill Carderelli, coached with Calhoun in Storrs in 1986.

Calhoun built the UConn basketball program and would have to do it from scratch again at Saint Joseph's.

A press conference is scheduled at the school on Thursday.

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