Paper or Plastic?

Jim Calhoun was at the grand opening of an impressive new Price Chopper store in Middletown this afternoon. For those who'd say we'd cover the opening of an envelope if Calhoun was there, well ... I didn't see any envelopes being opened. Just a cake being cut by Calhoun and Price Chopper CEO Neil Golub.

Calhoun was asked about the assistant coach search:

"We won't announce anything this week. Right now, we'd love to be able to go forward, but it doesn't make any sense. I've already put a deadline that by next Tuesday or Wednesday, we've got to come forward, because we're right on the corner of recruiting. We go out on July 6 and we want to have someone in place."

He said that both the assistant coach and the director of basketball operations (or administration) positions would hopefully be named at the same time.

"We're 90-percent our mind being made up, trying to work things out, and hopefully we'll offer contracts in a week."

Reports have had Kevin Ollie as the prime candidate for the assistant coach position, and Glen Miller as the leader in the clubhouse fro the director of basketball administration job.

"Glenn Miller's name is a good name, someone I'd be very interested in. You can go with Dave Leitao, you can go with Kevin Ollie ... it's been a period of time where a lot of our former players have reached out and come back. We want to be, in all aspects, the UConn that everybody knows. And I think we are, but we want to have everybody come back to show that."

***Calhoun was asked if he'd talked to Tom Izzo, whom he's often labeled a "dear friend," lately.

"I talked to Tom before it all started ... he said, 'What do you think?' I said, 'Well, I've been in that position, not financially that you're in but close to it, and it wasn't for me. It might be for him. I think he'd be very good."

***Calhoun said the Charlotte Bobcats recently called him about both Jerome Dyson and Gavin Edwards, and that Scott Howard-Cooper of SI.com was recently at the Chris Paul Camp and said that Kemba Walker was "the best point guard there, far and away ... which is awfully nice to here."

***Calhoun believes his annual bike ride this past Saturday will end up raising between $500,000 and $700,000.

***As to Calhoun's relationship with Price Chopper: "They're a family-run business. There aren't many left anymore. I want to do things in Connecticut with people ... Price Chopper has become our bellweather sponsor as we go through the Cancer Challenge, the Celebrity Challenge in August, the food drive in December."

He noted that Price Chopper has donated well over $100,000 to those causes.

"When I speak for Webster Bank, obviously I believe in Webster, but I work for Webster. I don't work for Price Chopper, so it makes a great relationship. We're doing this as a community effort."