Jim Calhoun Defuses Idea That He'd Like to Coach Again Someday. Sort of.

Jim Calhoun did an in-game interview with Andy Katz on Thursday night in which he seemed to insinuate he'd consider getting back into coaching at some point. Apparently, it created quite a stir on Twitter and message boards, but after talking to Calhoun this evening, there doesn't seem much to it all.

Here's how Calhoun described the Katz interview:

“Andy asked me if I was going to get back into coaching, I said, ‘No, I don’t think anyway possible.’ He said, ‘What are you doing here?’ I like to follow the ball. As long as I can keep hearing it bounce, I’m going to keep following it. He said something to the effect of, ‘What about Larry Brown?’ I said, ‘He’s my hero, he’s three years older, maybe I’ll follow him. Maybe I’ll be his assistant next year.’ He said, ‘So you definitely will coach?’ I said, ‘No.’ ‘You definitely won’t coach?’ I said, ‘If something great came along.’ Anything in life’s possible, I told him.”

“It was a 22-point game … I got some phone calls, and it was kind of funny.”

Calhoun said he's had some opportunities to coach at the international level, but really nothing too intriguing has been presented to him since his retirement 18 months ago. He's offered advice to friends and colleagues in the business, most recently Steve Pikiell, whose Stony Brook squad plays a big game on Saturday.

“With all that said, the only thing I know right now is that I miss the game. A lot of the other stuff I really don’t miss.”

Like recruiting?

"I know coaches like to sit and complain about that. Some of the things that happened, you don’t like. But recruiting itself? I love that. I think we were pretty good at getting good players. We got good players long before we should have got good players.”

How about practices?

“That was like my 2 ½ hours at Mass. You could do a lot more at practice. I love practice. I love the kids. I don’t mind traveling to games … Bottom line is, right now, watching Kevin’s team I’m proud as hell."

Then, as only Jim Calhoun can do, he added a little something that keeps the door open -- just a little -- to him coaching again one day.

“The good thing is, I’m a free agent. And yet, I have a lot of things in my life that I’ll continue to do, but I’d be foolish to say to anybody, ‘You don’t miss the game?’ I miss it terribly. It’s been my whole life. Of course you’re going to miss it.”