- Joined
- Aug 20, 2012
- Messages
- 48
- Reaction Score
- 20
Greater Waterbury 12/17/2012, Page C05
New book puts UConn men's basketball in perspective
This is an event that every UConn men's basketball fan will enjoy. Perhaps it is a book that every UConn bas-ketball fan must own. It is defi-nitely the supreme UConn stocking stuffer of the season.
...
Burns is an Ansonia native, former Chargers athlete and coach, who is now a professor of political science at Loyola University New Orleans.
Formerly a professor of polit-ical science, American govern-ment, and urban politics at Trinity College in Hartford, Burns has the background to explore the topic of UConn hoops and Jim Calhoun like a historian, but the passion and personality to write it like a sports fan.
The book is densely re-searched - this is not the re-gurgitating of press clippings - but light, anecdotal and re-vealing. The history of the book is as interesting as the history it tells.
"I wrote the book as a diver-sion from Hurricane Katrina," Burns said. "I was evacuated from New Orleans two days be-fore Katrina and lived with the Jesuit priests at Fairfield Uni-versity for four months." Seven years in the making, "Shock the World" is his-torically de-tailed, but it doesn't read like a textbook.
"I love sports, but I never wanted it to be my job," said Burns, whose childhood dream was "to be a play-by-play broadcaster."
I suppose it is not a long leap from there to hoop historian.
A 1988 UConn grad and still a passionate Huskies fan, Burns points out proudly that Loyola is 1-1 all-time against UConn, which tells you how far UConn hoops has come as much as any statistic.
The book, Burns said, "It's about UConn basketball, but Calhoun is clearly the lead fig-ure in all this."
Burns was stonewalled in every attempt to talk to Cal-houn, but, "Calhoun said in 2011, 'If you want to know about me, talk to my players.'" That is what Burns did. He talked to everyone. "I talked to the stars, the bench players, and the role players," he said.
He unearthed wonderful sto-ries, which he feels will res-onate with passionate UConn fans, and that's everyone around here.
UConn basketball "is always present in my mind," he said. "The feedback I get from a lot of people is (the book) helped them relive their favorite mem-ories. UConn basketball is a big part of our lives."
"The other reason I wrote the book is that this is one of the greatest sports stories in my lifetime," Burns said.
Anyone old enough to re-member UConn hoops pre-Cal-houn will identify with this comment: "We won three NCAA tournament champi-onships. I still cannot believe that."
For much of Husky history there was, as Burns put it, "No glory in sight. UConn was the only non-city in the Big East, but we have a legitimate cam-pus. Ray Allen called it 'a farm.' Calhoun took all the neg-atives and turned them into positives. He was able to con-trol the environment and con-trol the players."
Burns tells us that Donyell Marshall wanted to transfer out of UConn. He was willing to go anywhere just "to get away from Calhoun." Later, though, he admitted that the coach changed his life.
Calhoun always made the first day of practice the worst day of practice, Burns said. "Everything must be earned," to the extent that highly prized recruits were not allowed in the locker room until they earned their way in.
When Chris Smith commit-ted, "He didn't know where UConn was," Burns said, and that from a Connecticut native.
There is nothing about UConn today that is remotely similar to UConn pre-Calhoun. Basketball changed everything. We knew that. Burns explores how it happened.
But don't take it from me. Visit the Whittemore Library Tuesday, no admission charge, and meet Burns. Even if you think you know UConn basket-ball, Peter Burns' book just might shock your world.
Send comments to jpalladi-no@rep-am.com.
_____
<http://republicanamerican.ct.newsmemory.com/newsmemvol2/connecticut/republi
canamerican/20121217/wa1217c05.pdf.0/img/Image_1.jpg>
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY PATRICK JACKSON
Ansonia native Peter Burns, shown here interviewing former UConn star Kemba
Walker in New Orleans, will be in Naugatuck Tuesday at the Howard Whittemore
library to discuss and sign copies of his new book, "Shock the World: UConn
basketball in the Calhoun era."
New book puts UConn men's basketball in perspective
This is an event that every UConn men's basketball fan will enjoy. Perhaps it is a book that every UConn bas-ketball fan must own. It is defi-nitely the supreme UConn stocking stuffer of the season.
...
Burns is an Ansonia native, former Chargers athlete and coach, who is now a professor of political science at Loyola University New Orleans.
Formerly a professor of polit-ical science, American govern-ment, and urban politics at Trinity College in Hartford, Burns has the background to explore the topic of UConn hoops and Jim Calhoun like a historian, but the passion and personality to write it like a sports fan.
The book is densely re-searched - this is not the re-gurgitating of press clippings - but light, anecdotal and re-vealing. The history of the book is as interesting as the history it tells.
"I wrote the book as a diver-sion from Hurricane Katrina," Burns said. "I was evacuated from New Orleans two days be-fore Katrina and lived with the Jesuit priests at Fairfield Uni-versity for four months." Seven years in the making, "Shock the World" is his-torically de-tailed, but it doesn't read like a textbook.
"I love sports, but I never wanted it to be my job," said Burns, whose childhood dream was "to be a play-by-play broadcaster."
I suppose it is not a long leap from there to hoop historian.
A 1988 UConn grad and still a passionate Huskies fan, Burns points out proudly that Loyola is 1-1 all-time against UConn, which tells you how far UConn hoops has come as much as any statistic.
The book, Burns said, "It's about UConn basketball, but Calhoun is clearly the lead fig-ure in all this."
Burns was stonewalled in every attempt to talk to Cal-houn, but, "Calhoun said in 2011, 'If you want to know about me, talk to my players.'" That is what Burns did. He talked to everyone. "I talked to the stars, the bench players, and the role players," he said.
He unearthed wonderful sto-ries, which he feels will res-onate with passionate UConn fans, and that's everyone around here.
UConn basketball "is always present in my mind," he said. "The feedback I get from a lot of people is (the book) helped them relive their favorite mem-ories. UConn basketball is a big part of our lives."
"The other reason I wrote the book is that this is one of the greatest sports stories in my lifetime," Burns said.
Anyone old enough to re-member UConn hoops pre-Cal-houn will identify with this comment: "We won three NCAA tournament champi-onships. I still cannot believe that."
For much of Husky history there was, as Burns put it, "No glory in sight. UConn was the only non-city in the Big East, but we have a legitimate cam-pus. Ray Allen called it 'a farm.' Calhoun took all the neg-atives and turned them into positives. He was able to con-trol the environment and con-trol the players."
Burns tells us that Donyell Marshall wanted to transfer out of UConn. He was willing to go anywhere just "to get away from Calhoun." Later, though, he admitted that the coach changed his life.
Calhoun always made the first day of practice the worst day of practice, Burns said. "Everything must be earned," to the extent that highly prized recruits were not allowed in the locker room until they earned their way in.
When Chris Smith commit-ted, "He didn't know where UConn was," Burns said, and that from a Connecticut native.
There is nothing about UConn today that is remotely similar to UConn pre-Calhoun. Basketball changed everything. We knew that. Burns explores how it happened.
But don't take it from me. Visit the Whittemore Library Tuesday, no admission charge, and meet Burns. Even if you think you know UConn basket-ball, Peter Burns' book just might shock your world.
Send comments to jpalladi-no@rep-am.com.
_____
<http://republicanamerican.ct.newsmemory.com/newsmemvol2/connecticut/republi
canamerican/20121217/wa1217c05.pdf.0/img/Image_1.jpg>
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY PATRICK JACKSON
Ansonia native Peter Burns, shown here interviewing former UConn star Kemba
Walker in New Orleans, will be in Naugatuck Tuesday at the Howard Whittemore
library to discuss and sign copies of his new book, "Shock the World: UConn
basketball in the Calhoun era."