Jim Calhoun was 100% correct ...

[Huskybass]

JC basically insisted that KO would take his place. He knew 2 years before any of us that KO was THE right man for the job. Kudos to JC for his conviction and stubbornness. Yet another thing to be thankful for in the JC body of work.

 

[coloradohusky]

For years, I was certain it was going to be Tom Moore. Then again, I remember thinking "Who the hell is Jim Calhoun?" when they hired him. So, wth do I know?

 

[Calhoun's Court]

I remember sitting behind the Northeastern bench in December 1985(I believe) for the Connecticut Mutual Classic and see THEIR coach work the officials, fight for every call and really get into his players -willing them to play better. Oh by the way we got beat badly by NU that day.

I looked over at my soon to be brother in law and said looking at Dom Perno" wish our coach was like that" .

Little did I know at the time that the NU Coach would become my Coach. And the rest is History !!!!

 

[willie99]

I remember sitting behind the Northeastern bench in December 1985(I believe) for the Connecticut Mutual Classic and see THEIR coach work the officials, fight for every call and really get into his players -willing them to play better. Oh by the way we got beat badly by NU that day.

I looked over at my soon to be brother in law and said and looking at Dom Perno" wish our coach was like that" .

Little did I know at the time that the NU Coach would become my Coach. And the rest is History !!!!

I remember them kicking our errr tails

when the names were released during the coaching search, I was praying it would be him

tough out in the dance, team among national leaders in rebounding margin, and he was so damn loyal he didn't even want to leave Northeastern

 

[Calhoun's Court]

I remember them kicking our errr tails

when the names were released during the coaching search, I was praying it would be him

tough out in the dance, team among national leaders in rebounding margin, and he was so damn loyal he didn't even want to leave Northeastern

Yes we did. To the tune of 90-73.

 

[Sibeerian]

I remember sitting behind the Northeastern bench in December 1985(I believe) for the Connecticut Mutual Classic and see THEIR coach work the officials, fight for every call and really get into his players -willing them to play better. Oh by the way we got beat badly by NU that day.

I looked over at my soon to be brother in law and said looking at Dom Perno" wish our coach was like that" .

Little did I know at the time that the NU Coach would become my Coach. And the rest is History !!!!

I was at that game as well. But I can't recall: Was Reggie Lewis on Northeastern at the time? I'm guessing he was.

 

[Calhoun's Court]

I was at that game as well. But I can't recall: Was Reggie Lewis on Northeastern at the time? I'm guessing he was.

Yes him(21 points) and Andre LeFleur(18 points)

 

[Chin Diesel]

I remember sitting behind the Northeastern bench in December 1985(I believe) for the Connecticut Mutual Classic and see THEIR coach work the officials, fight for every call and really get into his players -willing them to play better. Oh by the way we got beat badly by NU that day.

I looked over at my soon to be brother in law and said looking at Dom Perno" wish our coach was like that" .

Little did I know at the time that the NU Coach would become my Coach. And the rest is History !!!!

I was at that game too and had similar thoughts.

 

[WillMadsDad]

"Nobody makes me bleed my own blood, LeFleur. Nobody!"

 

[Dogdeacon]

I was there too, humiliating at the time that we couldn't even win our own damn invitational

 

[Yonick]

I remember them kicking our errr tails

when the names were released during the coaching search, I was praying it would be him

tough out in the dance, team among national leaders in rebounding margin, and he was so damn loyal he didn't even want to leave Northeastern

The final 3 candidates were Mitch Bonaguro, who was Rollie's top assistant at Nova when they won their NC in 86. Mitch had an outstanding 1st season at Fairfield, and his career plummeted shortly after that 87 season. The other candidate was Nick Macarchuk who was at Canasius
at that time. He was a Norwich native. He eventually moved on to Fordham where he had a long, but undistinguished career.
We made the right choice.

 

[Calhoun's Court]

Just one more thought on the JC hiring.

On the night that JC was hired Arnold Dean had him on Sports talk.

I remember the Dean Of Sports asking JC about taking the job.

From what I could make out(JC was talking rapid fire and Mass accent -I listened intently). he simply said we can WIN here.

I thought great just keep us out of the 8-9 game in the BE tourney Little did I realize what he meant by WIN !!!!!

JC went on to extoll the virtues of the Big East and where we were situated location wise between Boston and NY. And how that was to our advantage.

I remember thinking after listening this guy really believes he can do this or he doesn't know what he is up against.


Oh yeah he knew what he was doing................

 

[August_West]

I remember sitting behind the Northeastern bench in December 1985(I believe) for the Connecticut Mutual Classic and see THEIR coach work the officials, fight for every call and really get into his players -willing them to play better. Oh by the way we got beat badly by NU that day.

I looked over at my soon to be brother in law and said looking at Dom Perno" wish our coach was like that" .

Little did I know at the time that the NU Coach would become my Coach. And the rest is History !!!!

Post/Handle for the win!

 

[sdhusky]

Just one more thought on the JC hiring.

On the night that JC was hired Arnold Dean had him on Sports talk.

I remember the Dean Of Sports asking JC about taking the job.

From what I could make out(JC was talking rapid fire and Mass accent -I listened intently). he simply said we can WIN here.

I thought great just keep us out of the 8-9 game in the BE tourney Little did I realize what he meant by WIN !!!!!

JC went on to extoll the virtues of the Big East and where we were situated location wise between Boston and NY. And how that was to our advantage.

I remember thinking after listening this guy really believes he can do this or he doesn't know what he is up against.


Oh yeah he knew what he was doing......

There is football coach in town who sounds just like this...

 

[Chief00]

Quite frankly, I hope so, but the football coach has a ridiculous body of work to achieve before even coming close. Moreover, guess what if he has 10% of Calhoun's success he won't be here. Loyalty to the school probably allowed his success as with Geno. They stayed in one place and achieved great things.

 

[mauconnfan]

I remember sitting behind the Northeastern bench in December 1985(I believe) for the Connecticut Mutual Classic and see THEIR coach work the officials, fight for every call and really get into his players -willing them to play better. Oh by the way we got beat badly by NU that day.

I looked over at my soon to be brother in law and said looking at Dom Perno" wish our coach was like that" .

Little did I know at the time that the NU Coach would become my Coach. And the rest is History !!!!

Spot on CC……..and he took his jacket off early in the game and threw it when yelling at a ref for one particular call early, he was getting homed at the Mutual Classic and you know what happened don't; you…..he got every call after that………..I was there also

And there was another candidate I can't remember his last name but he was scout witht he Bucks and CT native from the Torrington area I believe….Bob ??? something

 

[OkaForPrez]

There is football coach in town who sounds just like this...

Except the value of being between two major metropolitan areas is a basketball specific advantage. Now if we were USF or Houston....

 

[sdhusky]

Except the value of being between two major metropolitan areas is a basketball specific advantage. Now if we were USF or Houston....

There were plenty of reasons for Calhoun to fail. See Boston College or Rutgers Football.

Put Calhoun at coach at BCU and they would have multiple NC.

Put the FB equivalent of Calhoun at Rutgers, and they would be playing in BCS games most years.

Utah & Boise St aren't exactly football hotbeds and a 2 star FB recruit from New England is 10x more likely to get to the NFL than a 2 star from Fl or TX.

 

[Huskies4ever]

I was there too, humiliating at the time that we couldn't even win our own damn invitational

Dook didn't win theirs in 1999.

 

[Husky1]

I think the other guy was Bob Staak. I remember being out in Hartford after the first game which we won to set up the championship game bs Northeastern. Even though we were not "UCONN" yet, we still had good tradition and they were, well they were Northeastern. I will never forget running into some Northeastern players and sort of talking a bit of trash about how we would win the next night. What stands out so much is the absolute conviction they had that they were going to kick our butt, which they did. JC was just so great in underdog role and getting his players to believe.

 

[mauconnfan]

I think the other guy was Bob Staak. I remember being out in Hartford after the first game which we won to set up the championship game bs Northeastern. Even though we were not "UCONN" yet, we still had good tradition and they were, well they were Northeastern. I will never forget running into some Northeastern players and sort of talking a bit of trash about how we would win the next night. What stands out so much is the absolute conviction they had that they were going to kick our butt, which they did. JC was just so great in underdog role and getting his players to believe.

I don't think Staak was ever considered but I could be wrong……..was he not at Wake then?

Anyway this was an older guy who was around the NBA game a for a long time and threw his hat in the pool………Torrington native but damn I can't think of it……….

 

[LIUCHusky]

I don't think Staak was ever considered but I could be wrong……..was he not at Wake then?

Anyway this was an older guy who was around the NBA game a for a long time and threw his hat in the pool………Torrington native but damn I can't think of it……….

Bob Zuffelato. In addition to his many years with the NBA he also coached BC back in the 70's I believe.

 

[Woof 101]

The final 3 candidates were Mitch Bonaguro, who was Rollie's top assistant at Nova when they won their NC in 86. Mitch had an outstanding 1st season at Fairfield, and his career plummeted shortly after that 87 season. The other candidate was Nick Macarchuk who was at Canasius
at that time. He was a Norwich native. He eventually moved on to Fordham where he had a long, but undistinguished career.
We made the right choice.

I remember pulling for Tom Penders at the time, an up and coming UCONN alum. My memory may be that bad but was he not in the final mix?
Tom ended up taking the RI job two weeks before the season started and ending with co coach of the year in their conference.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

We actually were favorite in that tourney nicknamed the cupcake classic.
Northeastern ran us out of our own gym. It was a beating worse than a typical Perno Big East loss where we always seemed to find a way to lose at the end.That kind of sealed his fate.
The day JC was named. The father of one of my soccer players stopped at my house.
He was working for ESPN and was a graduate of Northeastern ,actually working for their AD after graduation.
He was sick at the prospect of losing JC. I remember him telling me you guys have just hired a great coach. Little did we know.

 

[LIUCHusky]

I remember pulling for Tom Penders at the time, an up and coming UCONN alum. My memory may be that bad but was he not in the final mix?
Tom ended up taking the RI job two weeks before the season started and ending with co coach of the year in their conference.

Not only was he not in the final mix, he was never in any mix regarding this job. John Toner would never consider hiring Tom Penders to coach a UConn basketball team. A lot of alums would have liked Tommy to have been considered. Thank goodness Toner went in the direction he did.