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I apologize for the delayed report on last Friday's V Foundation Gala in Sarasota. This is an incredible fundraising dinner that Dick Vitale has hosted for 8 consecutive years. It is a pretty lavish $1,000 a plate affair that is so awe inspiring and fun that I encourage anyone who has the means to please go support future dinners. Due to a great connection, I paid slightly less ($13). Each year Vitale honors coaches who have beaten cancer, raised significant money to fight cancer, or both. Coach Calhoun was one of the three honorees this year, along with Bill Self and Bobby Bowden. At the risk of composing a Dogmanian post in terms of length I'll share my UConn specific stuff first and for anyone interested add my experiences with other coaches/celebrities beneath that.
I met Coach Calhoun in 1990 while working my prestigious $6 an hour job as a clerk at Storrs Drug. It was the Dream Season and we were well into our improbable rise to national prominence. Coach stopped in one day to buy a Sunday paper, I was too in awe to compose a string of intelligible English words together and always clamored for one more chance to meet him and express how what he built has affected myself and so many of my friends.
Fast forward to Friday night- The basic itinerary was:
-Press conference and tv interviews from 5-6
-Cocktail hour from 6-7:30
-Dinner from 7:30-11
-After party from 11 on
My friend and I had press credentials so we patiently waited out Coach's interviews with local tv and the full press conference with Vitale, Nick Valvano, Self and Bowden. Just before 6, Coach was finally alone and we pounced like the stalkers we are. We introduced ourselves as UConn alums, figuring we'd get a quick minute with him and hopefully a picture or two when JC says "Why don't we sit down" and motions to 3 chairs behind us. For 15 minutes he talked to us like we were family essentially, my friend and I looking at each other frequently with a "Can you f'in believe he's hanging with us this long?" looks. As we all know with Coach, he's brilliant but not the easiest guy to get to stay on track, he goes on tangents into other tangents sometimes without ever answering the question you asked. One such instance was when I asked him when he knew KO was the guy, I never got an exact answer. He said each year for the past several years though, he had brought up a possible succession plan with Hathaway and "Jeff" wanted no part of that conversation essentially. Here's the meat of the conversation in a nutshell:
-Couldn't discuss recruiting much but unsolicited he said he thinks "Facey is going to be special"
-Doesn't like the new logo because he said it isn't ours. He said 78% of people disagree with him however, lol. I asked if he knew The Boneyard, he said of course and seemed to respect the board considerably. I explained many of us on here disliked the new logo at first, but I estimated 70-80% of us now like it.
-One and dones. He said with top recruits these days there are two things they care about. How many NBA guys have you produced and how many NCs do you have? I mentioned the Calipari model and he said "What John is doing is a little different" and went to explain that "Susan" probably wouldn't be that happy if we kept losing kids after one year.
-KO and the success of last year's team. I was a little surprised at his answer when we asked about how amazed he was by what KO got those kids to do last year with nothing to play for. His stance was it's much easier to play when you've got zero pressure on you. He went on for a while about this and never praised KO in the process. I was kind of taken aback by his thoughts on that topic.
-Talked a lot about his leg and the shooting pain he had for years. After mentioning the event on June 8 he went into a lot of detail, maybe too much detail about his bike, how he used to ride 100 miles a day etc.. and after 12 or so marathons and things like stomping on the sidelines that he had an issue with his knee which led to increased bike riding. What it illustrated to me was what incredible work ethic and determination he has, and why he wouldn't accept any less from his players.
-Other attendees from the UConn family. He said Ray might show, KO was a late scratch and that Kemba was expected. I might be wrong but I think Jake and a late arriving Kemba were the only UConn guys to show. None of the assistant coaches were there, I'm not even sure his kids were there. This wasn't a Hall of Fame induction or anything but on a night when Coach was being honored for beating cancer three times and for raising so much money, it seemed odd that nobody else showed, even Blaney. The only guess I can make is maybe Coach didn't make a big deal of the event, and the coaches and players in turn thought it wasn't a big deal to attend.
-At each table there is a basketball with the honorees and Vitale's signatures. The winning bidder has carte blanche to roam around afterwards and get as many autographs as possible on the ball. Nobody else at our table was that interested in the ball so fortunately I won the bid. When we went up front to Jay Wright, Calhoun was only about 10 feet away. Jay was super cool as we expected. When we mentioned we were UConn fans, Wright went over to bust Calhoun's balls about it. Calhoun retorted with a comment about whether Wright put Dick Vitale up to "the BS" referring to him as the "George Clooney of college basketball". It was a really funny moment and great confirmation that Wright and JC have a really good relationship and a lot of fun together. I told Jay I was sorry to lose him from our conference. He was in total agreement, saying "Can you believe that?" about breaking up arguably the greatest conference in college basketball history. Just then Kemba showed up to greet Coach. We grabbed Kemba for a quick photo and I asked if he'd sign my ball with a reference to 2011. He wrote, 2011 Champs, Kemba Walker, #11! That was the icing on the cake, the night was complete at that point.
Other notes:
Jake walked in during cocktail hour with his wife. We stopped him and chatted him up. He was extremely gracious, said he's back living in CT now and they have 5 kids. I thanked him for 99 and said he was exactly what we needed down low. He thanked me and took pics with us. His wife Jennifer must be 6'3", basically the perfect complement to Jake's height. He couldn't have been nicer, for someone I didn't expect to see, that was a great surprise.
Bill Self- Quick pictures, small chit chat. Congratulated him on Wiggins. He said something along the lines of "Yeah, he's pretty good". If that's pretty good, I wonder what his definition of great is.
Billy Donovan-Got pics with him, told him how happy we were to be playing them. He seemed psyched too and said "Yeah, we'll be up there this year!" Good to see how much he apparently respects our program.
Tom Crean-Extremely gracious and accomodating. Signed and took pictures. I asked about the possibility of a series at some point and he pointed out he hopes we meet up in NY this year.
Tom Izz0- Everyone had said great things about him that night and he didn't disappoint. Got a quick picture and autograph. Told him how much I respect his program and enjoy watching his teams. Asked how his team was looking this year, he said they could be special.
Artis Gilmore-Big Mofo. Even at his age, he's an intimidating presence but nice to chat with and get pictures.
Seth Greenberg- Got quick pictures. I heard Ollie on a podcast last year with Seth. KO told him he loved him as he signed off. I asked how he knew KO so well. He said he's known him since he recruited him over 20 years ago.
Jungle Jack Hannah-Sort of a fish out of water and a sports event. I guess one of his grandkids is battling cancer though, which is why he attended. Extremely down to earth, what you see on tv is exactly what you get.
Denny Crum-Pleasant enough, just shook his hand, talked about Louisville a bit (80,86 and current program)
Vitale-Got to meet him briefly and take a picture. As much of a tool as he can be with his shtick and love for Duke, he's a tremendous person who has spearheaded this tireless effort to raise over $10 million to fund pediatric cancer research. Great guy, hopes he lives a lot longer to keep doing what he's doing for these kids and their families.
Eye Candy-At an event where most attendees are either rich, famous athletes and coaches or all of the above, it's not a revelation that the quality of eye candy was impressive to say the least.
Sorry for the long-windedness. Had a lot to share and probably left a lot out even. I hope I didn't bore you too much in the process. Have many pictures I can post as well if anyone is interested.
Flahusky
I met Coach Calhoun in 1990 while working my prestigious $6 an hour job as a clerk at Storrs Drug. It was the Dream Season and we were well into our improbable rise to national prominence. Coach stopped in one day to buy a Sunday paper, I was too in awe to compose a string of intelligible English words together and always clamored for one more chance to meet him and express how what he built has affected myself and so many of my friends.
Fast forward to Friday night- The basic itinerary was:
-Press conference and tv interviews from 5-6
-Cocktail hour from 6-7:30
-Dinner from 7:30-11
-After party from 11 on
My friend and I had press credentials so we patiently waited out Coach's interviews with local tv and the full press conference with Vitale, Nick Valvano, Self and Bowden. Just before 6, Coach was finally alone and we pounced like the stalkers we are. We introduced ourselves as UConn alums, figuring we'd get a quick minute with him and hopefully a picture or two when JC says "Why don't we sit down" and motions to 3 chairs behind us. For 15 minutes he talked to us like we were family essentially, my friend and I looking at each other frequently with a "Can you f'in believe he's hanging with us this long?" looks. As we all know with Coach, he's brilliant but not the easiest guy to get to stay on track, he goes on tangents into other tangents sometimes without ever answering the question you asked. One such instance was when I asked him when he knew KO was the guy, I never got an exact answer. He said each year for the past several years though, he had brought up a possible succession plan with Hathaway and "Jeff" wanted no part of that conversation essentially. Here's the meat of the conversation in a nutshell:
-Couldn't discuss recruiting much but unsolicited he said he thinks "Facey is going to be special"
-Doesn't like the new logo because he said it isn't ours. He said 78% of people disagree with him however, lol. I asked if he knew The Boneyard, he said of course and seemed to respect the board considerably. I explained many of us on here disliked the new logo at first, but I estimated 70-80% of us now like it.
-One and dones. He said with top recruits these days there are two things they care about. How many NBA guys have you produced and how many NCs do you have? I mentioned the Calipari model and he said "What John is doing is a little different" and went to explain that "Susan" probably wouldn't be that happy if we kept losing kids after one year.
-KO and the success of last year's team. I was a little surprised at his answer when we asked about how amazed he was by what KO got those kids to do last year with nothing to play for. His stance was it's much easier to play when you've got zero pressure on you. He went on for a while about this and never praised KO in the process. I was kind of taken aback by his thoughts on that topic.
-Talked a lot about his leg and the shooting pain he had for years. After mentioning the event on June 8 he went into a lot of detail, maybe too much detail about his bike, how he used to ride 100 miles a day etc.. and after 12 or so marathons and things like stomping on the sidelines that he had an issue with his knee which led to increased bike riding. What it illustrated to me was what incredible work ethic and determination he has, and why he wouldn't accept any less from his players.
-Other attendees from the UConn family. He said Ray might show, KO was a late scratch and that Kemba was expected. I might be wrong but I think Jake and a late arriving Kemba were the only UConn guys to show. None of the assistant coaches were there, I'm not even sure his kids were there. This wasn't a Hall of Fame induction or anything but on a night when Coach was being honored for beating cancer three times and for raising so much money, it seemed odd that nobody else showed, even Blaney. The only guess I can make is maybe Coach didn't make a big deal of the event, and the coaches and players in turn thought it wasn't a big deal to attend.
-At each table there is a basketball with the honorees and Vitale's signatures. The winning bidder has carte blanche to roam around afterwards and get as many autographs as possible on the ball. Nobody else at our table was that interested in the ball so fortunately I won the bid. When we went up front to Jay Wright, Calhoun was only about 10 feet away. Jay was super cool as we expected. When we mentioned we were UConn fans, Wright went over to bust Calhoun's balls about it. Calhoun retorted with a comment about whether Wright put Dick Vitale up to "the BS" referring to him as the "George Clooney of college basketball". It was a really funny moment and great confirmation that Wright and JC have a really good relationship and a lot of fun together. I told Jay I was sorry to lose him from our conference. He was in total agreement, saying "Can you believe that?" about breaking up arguably the greatest conference in college basketball history. Just then Kemba showed up to greet Coach. We grabbed Kemba for a quick photo and I asked if he'd sign my ball with a reference to 2011. He wrote, 2011 Champs, Kemba Walker, #11! That was the icing on the cake, the night was complete at that point.
Other notes:
Jake walked in during cocktail hour with his wife. We stopped him and chatted him up. He was extremely gracious, said he's back living in CT now and they have 5 kids. I thanked him for 99 and said he was exactly what we needed down low. He thanked me and took pics with us. His wife Jennifer must be 6'3", basically the perfect complement to Jake's height. He couldn't have been nicer, for someone I didn't expect to see, that was a great surprise.
Bill Self- Quick pictures, small chit chat. Congratulated him on Wiggins. He said something along the lines of "Yeah, he's pretty good". If that's pretty good, I wonder what his definition of great is.
Billy Donovan-Got pics with him, told him how happy we were to be playing them. He seemed psyched too and said "Yeah, we'll be up there this year!" Good to see how much he apparently respects our program.
Tom Crean-Extremely gracious and accomodating. Signed and took pictures. I asked about the possibility of a series at some point and he pointed out he hopes we meet up in NY this year.
Tom Izz0- Everyone had said great things about him that night and he didn't disappoint. Got a quick picture and autograph. Told him how much I respect his program and enjoy watching his teams. Asked how his team was looking this year, he said they could be special.
Artis Gilmore-Big Mofo. Even at his age, he's an intimidating presence but nice to chat with and get pictures.
Seth Greenberg- Got quick pictures. I heard Ollie on a podcast last year with Seth. KO told him he loved him as he signed off. I asked how he knew KO so well. He said he's known him since he recruited him over 20 years ago.
Jungle Jack Hannah-Sort of a fish out of water and a sports event. I guess one of his grandkids is battling cancer though, which is why he attended. Extremely down to earth, what you see on tv is exactly what you get.
Denny Crum-Pleasant enough, just shook his hand, talked about Louisville a bit (80,86 and current program)
Vitale-Got to meet him briefly and take a picture. As much of a tool as he can be with his shtick and love for Duke, he's a tremendous person who has spearheaded this tireless effort to raise over $10 million to fund pediatric cancer research. Great guy, hopes he lives a lot longer to keep doing what he's doing for these kids and their families.
Eye Candy-At an event where most attendees are either rich, famous athletes and coaches or all of the above, it's not a revelation that the quality of eye candy was impressive to say the least.
Sorry for the long-windedness. Had a lot to share and probably left a lot out even. I hope I didn't bore you too much in the process. Have many pictures I can post as well if anyone is interested.
Flahusky
