I for one think Khalid would be a great hire, for the position under Nardi as Nardi is now moved up. Seems to me he would fit right into the same slot that Taliek Brown was hired for as Director of Player Development.
Anyone on this board who was not around for his time at UConn, and even some of you who were, do not realize how important Khalid was to leading us to that first, all-important Final 4, and ultimately National Championship. After all of the painful Elite 8 and Sweet 16 losses that preceded that first National Title run, just getting to a Final 4 seemed like a bridge too far. From the Dream Season of 1989-1990 to our first Final 4 and National Championship in 1999, we made the Sweet 16 6 times in total, and the Elite 8 in 3 of those years. And some of those losses were excruciating. Not just the Duke Elite 8 loss in 1990, although that one was certainly horrible enough. But then the losses to Florida and Mississippi St. where we were on paper the better team, and the losses to UCLA in California and North Carolina in Greensboro in the Elite 8's where we played well but ran into the eventual national champions who both had significant "home court advantages". That Florida loss used to haunt me because of how all we needed was our All-American Donyell to hit one of two free throws to seal a Sweet 16 victory and a rematch with a Boston College team that we had dominated through the year... and yet he inexplicably missed both and lost in overtime.
Khalid came to UConn knowing it was on his shoulders to get us over that very sizable 500 pound gorilla in the room. Obviously that group had all the components except for one... a guy who had the moxie to grab the bull by the horns and drag the whole group kicking and screaming forward to victory when it looked like all was lost. This is why I have believed for a long time that the tragectory of the 1998-1999 season, and ultimately everything that has come after it was changed on that January afternoon in Pittsburgh where Khalid stood up in the face of all the racial taunts that were thrown at him that day (which is why he got up on the scorers table at the end of the game) and showed that UConn wasn't going to lay down in the face of immense pressure any longer. Go back and watch it. He WANTED THE BALL to win that game. He made sure to get it, and then made the move and jumper to win the game against one of our hated rivals who we almost never beat at their place during that stretch. It was a house of horrors for us more times than I care to admit.
I'll say it straight out, as back then I lived and died with this team: Khalid, more than any other player before him in the Calhoun era, embodied the level of balls required to build us into being a championship team, not just a winning team. He embodied Calhoun's fire, guts, determination and willingness to stand up and be a leader in the most critical moments to drive us to win on the court. Their is a reason that Khalid, and nobody else said that we would "Shock the World" that night in Tampa in 1999 vs. Duke. Because he was the heart of that team.
Bottom Line: Khalid deserves the chance to be a part of our coaching staff moving forward, and hopefully instilling his winning guts and attitude into future Huskies.
Here is a clip of that famous ending, for those who have not seen it, or want to see it again. Like mainlining adrenaline straight into your artery:
