The End of an Era

Jim Calhoun cutting down the net during 1 of his 3 National Championships.

As you may have heard, University of Connecticut men's basketball's head coach of 26 years, Jim Calhoun, retired today. Calhoun's legacy may not have been the cleanest or prettiest, but he definitely impacted the lives of many people over his time at the university. He also was a hell of a coach, finishing with a total of 873 career wins between his time at UConn and Northeastern, where he spent the first 14 years of his coaching career.

Throughout his tenure at UConn, Calhoun was almost underrated. He was never mentioned in the same breath as Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Boeheim as the top coaches in the game today. Obviously Bobby Knight, John Wooden, Dean Smith, and Adolph Rupp are also some of the greatest of all-time, but Calhoun belongs in both conversations as one of the best coaches during his generation and of all-time.

Calhoun ranks 5th all-time in wins behind Kryzyzewski, Knight, Boeheim, and Smith. He also won arguably the best basketball conference title, the Big East, seven times (tied for most all time with Georgetown.) This may not seem like that many, but most people don't know just how bad UConn was prior to Calhoun's arrival. The season before Calhoun took over, the team had gone 9-19. Two years later, Calhoun had the team in the NIT, a solid accomplishment for a team because it's a postseason tournament. UConn then went on to win the tournament, their first postseason championship in school history! Their first one ever. If you think about that now, after all of the success UConn has had of late, it's unbelievable.

Calhoun only went up from there leading the school to their first NCAA Tournament berth in 11 years in 1990, and 9 years later the Huskies were hoisting up their first Final Four and NCAA Champion banners. This only led to more success in recent years with two additional National Championships in 2004 and 2011. UConn also made the Final Four in 2009, but they failed to win that season.

On top of this, Calhoun has already been inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005, so Calhoun's legacy basketball-wise is a pretty amazing one. He put the UConn basketball program on its feet, then built it up into a contender, and now has cemented it firmly as one of the top basketball programs in the country. He turned a program that once had no business being in a conference like the Big East, into a force to be reckoned with.

That being said, what he did for the University of Connecticut and the impact it has had on all the people in the area and students is far more impressive. A man who preaches the importance of family, always showed his appreciation and love for the people who has stuck with this program over the years. He even called himself, "the luckiest man alive," during his retirement speech today. That is how much he valued his job and the people around him. He knew that the state of Connecticut had no professional teams to go and see, and that the people of Connecticut and the students lived and died by their team.

As Calhoun steps down from his position as head coach, the "family" atmosphere will continue as Kevin Ollie takes over the reins. Ollie played for Calhoun at UConn and has been an assistant for the program the last two years, while also playing in the NBA for 13 seasons. Calhoun made sure that when it was his time to leave, Ollie would be fully groomed for this job. And despite the team having a postseason ban this season, Calhoun has put Ollie in a position to succeed.

One Last Thing: Calhoun has had his share of NCAA sanctions recently, but so what? Every other successful coach has received some sort of slap on the wrist at one time or another. Calhoun needs to be praised for his accomplishments and should always be regarded as one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time. He also should stick to walking from now on. How many times can you fall off a bike and hurt yourself? Hopefully just twice in Calhoun's case. Fool him once, shame on us, but fool him twice, that's shame on him.