Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell called Huskies coach Jim Calhoun's earlier argument with a reporter "embarrassing."
I very rarely defend Jim Calhoun, so this should be an interesting post. Mr. 800 was absolutely, positively, 100% right in what he said at that press conference. Could he have handled the situation with a little more tact? Absolutely, but anyone in his position would have been furious to answer such an asinine question at a press conference after a tough day at work.
Ken Krayeske is a hack of a political activist, a "reporter" in the loosest sense of the term. He attended Saturday's game on a photo press pass (you know, for professional photographers, not average guy with a Polaroid) and proceeded to ask the first question.
At a basketball game, talk about basketball. Sure Calhoun is making a whole hell of a lot more money than 99% of Americans in this economic crisis, but it's not your place to confront him on it. He does his job well, gets paid for it, and brings in money for the school. The governor should stand beside him instead of supporting some free lancer with a political beef.
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I thought Calhoun handled himself fairly well, given the question. Most other coaches would have gone straight into a screaming tirade, but he was about as cool as could be expected, I thought. Plus, he didn't fly into a tapestry of profanity, like I would have done.
It was nice that the other--er, I mean, real--reporters in the room started going off on the guy, too.
Hey guys, I keep looking at the Big East standings and even if we go 9-9 and win a game in the tourney, I really don't know if we will get in. They will not put 10 teams from the Big East in and right now we are 10. Cinci is at 9 and they beat us head to head so even if they lose to West Virginia tonight, they will still be ahead of us. It is our own fault if we don't get in though. You can't lose 7 in a row and expect to make the big dance.
If we do make it, it will almost certainly be at Providence's expense. Even now, I think our resume is better than theirs. We've played a tougher conference schedule, we match or beat them for quality wins, and we have the head-to-head win on their floor.
Good point. Now, it's 2-1 in the BET to feel fine on Selection Sunday. First round should be an easy win against Rutgers or DePaul. Second round will be a play-in game against the likes of Providence or Cincinnati. Win two, don't embarrass yourself against one of the top four teams, and you should be in.
Of course, this is still based on a 9-9 conference record.
The Big East won't get fewer than eight, but nine might be a problem. Nine would throw off the NCAA's pod system. They won't admit it, but that situation could play a factor.
Cincy and Providence are our biggest rivals for the last spots now. I'll take a better look at all this after things shakeout this weekend with just one or two games left in the season.
With Cinci winning tonight, I think it just made it that much harder. They only have 7 conference losses and a win against us. I don't think we can feel confident with 2-1 the rest of the way and a win in the tourney against a bad team. Unfortunately, I have a bad feeling here fellas. I hope I'm wrong because if we could make they tourney, I think we will have a good run in us.
Sorry, I probably wasn't clear the first time. We need a second round win in the BET, it'll come against a similarly placed bubble team and should put us over Cincy, Providence, or whoever for the final at-large bid.
Obviously, we still need to wait a little before predicting matchups, but I'd feel confident at 20-13 overall on Selection Sunday (2-1 rest of the regular season and 2-1 in the BET).
how about we just beat uconn tomorrow and be done with it?
Sounds good.
The only problem with how Calhoun responded was his $12 million contribution figure is misleading. I do believe that the UConn hoops program produces $12 million of revenue but it absolutely does not contribute $12 million of earnings after any and all expenses are included. The real question is, after all expenses (including Calhoun's salary) what, if any, amount of profit is contributed to the school.
The real question is, what would the revenue figure be if someone other than Calhoun were the coach (and how much of a premium are they paying him because of his historical performance as one of the best coaches in college BB).
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