After watching Notre Dame officially announce its move to the ACC [7], the Big East has been dealt another blow. Jim Calhoun, head coach of the UConn Huskies, is set to retire today [8].
Calhoun has faced multiple health concerns over the past decade, including a fight with prostate cancer. Last season, he took a leave of absence aftering suffering from spinal stenosis, and last month he broke his hip after falling off of his bicycle.
A press conference is scheduled for this afternoon to announce Calhoun's retirement and to name Kevin Ollie [9], Calhoun's assistant for two years, as the head coach for this season.
Calhoun has been a mainstay in the UConn program since 1986 after a stint at Northeastern where he built them into a yearly contender in their conference on the national stage. Calhoun finishes his career with 873 victories—sixth all time—and three national championships, with his latest coming in 2011 when the Huskies went on an historic run through the Big East tournament and the NCAA tournament, culminating in a 53-41 victory over Butler in the championship game.
Calhoun has always produced NBA-ready talent, including the likes of Ray Allen, Richard Hamilton and Ben Gordon.
What most Syracuse fans remember about Calhoun are his head-to-head matchups with Jim Boeheim. These two titans in today's college landscape drove basketball in the Big East for the past 25 years. For the past decade or so, Calhoun and Boeheim have been consistently battling for most career wins, while consistently vying for national championships.This has only intensified the rivalry between UConn and Syracuse.
It's a rivalry that will be missed.
Calhoun, 70, was elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame alongside Boeheim in 2005.
Photo courtesy of The Daily Campus [10].
