Calhoun Feels Heat, but Program Is Cool

Jim Calhoun brought a prop, a University of Connecticut student newspaper. With his finger, he pointed to a front-page column. With the conciseness of a writing instructor, Calhoun summarized the subject. Get off Calhoun’s back.

As the No. 3-ranked Huskies arrive in Southern California for a Friday game against Pepperdine, Connecticut’s coach is still facing the repercussions of a summer of trouble for two of his key players.

Point guards A.J. Price and Marcus Williams and a non-student allegedly stole and attempted to pawn four laptop computers taken from an on-campus housing complex. Two were stolen from the rooms of Connecticut women’s basketball players. Williams and Price became suspects when police discovered they had tried to pawn the computers.

Williams, a 6-foot-3 junior from Crenshaw High, is in an accelerated rehabilitation program. If he completes 400 hours of community service, in 18 months the charges will be erased from his record. Calhoun suspended Williams, the projected starter, for the first 11 games of the season though he will be available when Connecticut opens Big East Conference play against Marquette on Jan. 3.

Price, a redshirt freshman from Amityville, N.Y., who missed last season while recovering from a condition that caused bleeding into his brain, has been suspended by Calhoun for the season. Price is on the same accelerated rehab program as Williams.

Calhoun has taken criticism. A Hartford Courant columnist suggested that Price received the far more severe punishment from Calhoun because Price wasn’t as important to Connecticut as the physically gifted Williams, a potential NBA draft choice.

Even though a friend of Williams allegedly conceived of the thefts, and even though Williams was the one who unsuccessfully attempted to peddle the hot computers to pawn shops around Storrs, Price received the harsher penalty, Calhoun said, “because A.J. lied about what he did to me and to the police.”

Calhoun, beginning his 20th season at Connecticut, was also criticized last week after Doug Wiggins, a highly recruited guard from nearby East Hartford, went back on his verbal commitment to St. John’s to sign with Connecticut.

Second-year St. John’s Coach Norm Roberts is said to be furious, but he understands nothing good can come from feuding with Calhoun.

“Look, the kid is from Connecticut, he grew up wanting to play here,” Calhoun said. “I told him last March not to commit early. He did. But he lives nearby. He came to some practices, nothing wrong. He told my assistants he wasn’t sure about St. John’s. I did everything above board. As soon as the kid said he might change his mind, I called our conference commissioner. He was not going to St. John’s. Period.”

Calhoun wishes critics from outside the program would trust him. “Look at my record over 20 years. Look at what I’ve done,” he said. “Look at where the program is. Look at the kids who’ve come through here. Ray Allen, great, great kid, great, great player. He didn’t want to leave school.”

In a few seconds, Calhoun reeled off what he said were national statistics on petty larcenies. “Were these kids stupid? Sure. Do I give them the death penalty? What good is that?”

When Calhoun asks that his body of work do the talking, the words can come from both sides of his mouth.

There are the successes: Calhoun won NCAA championships in 1999 and 2004, one NIT title, and has six Elite Eight appearances and nine Big East regular-season titles. He was chosen to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and was the John R. Wooden Legends of Coaching Award winner in 2005.

But there are the blots: At least four players since 1990 have been charged with shoplifting or robbery; two with driving under the influence; three with possession of marijuana; two were accused of trying to exchange game tickets for Timberland boots; five were charged with either assault or causing a public disturbance or breach of peace; one former coach with patronizing a prostitute.

But the players keep coming. The program is annually given a chance to win a national title. Even with Williams out until January, this team is no exception.

Sophomore forward Rudy Gay, 6-9 and 220, may be the best player in the country, possibly the No. 1 pick in the next NBA draft. He could have gone to the NBA a year ago, but he said, “I want to get better and I’m at the place where I can do that.”

At center is 6-10 junior Josh Boone who has started 68 of 69 games for the Huskies. Boone can be too “deferential,” Calhoun said. “So can Rudy. These guys are great players and they need to think like great players.”

Freshman Craig Austrie will most likely start at point guard until Williams is back from suspension.

“This is the fastest team I’ve ever had,” Calhoun said. “I think we have the potential to be good.”

All the negative hubbub in the last few months was disheartening, Calhoun said.

“You feel it in your stomach when one of your kids does something,” the coach lamented. “Both those kids know they’ve done wrong. They’ve apologized. They’ve owned up to it, they are making amends. Do you know how much work 400 hours of community service is? That’s real work. Marcus is doing it.

“These stories out there, you put them together as one, you just take the bad, that’s wrong. Look at the big picture. Take a look at that. Then you decide about me.”

Big pictures can be messy. Looking at them doesn’t always make things clear.