Went to the Jimmy V Classic Dinner tonight at Pier Sixty in Manhattan. Didn't get to enjoy the menu, but had a great filling of coach conversation beforehand with Kevin Ollie and Texas coach Rick Barnes.

Here's some of what they had to say:

I asked Ollie if he thinks he'll be animated and, shall we say, "vocal" on the sideline like his predecessor, Jim Calhoun.

“Anybody who knows me from when I played here ... once I got between those lines, I’m a tough competitor. I want guys to compete, to understand who I am, what I demand. I demand excellence in everything I do, I demand that from my coaches, I demand that from myself.

"You can make a suit out of the same material 15 different ways. Me and coach have the same material. I might make my suit different, he might make his suit different, but it’s the same material. It’s hard work, it’s different, it’s understanding that it’s the group greater than the individual. And theyr’e going to understand that. If not, they’re going to be sitting right down beside me and they’re gonna get the picture real quick.”




He added that there's a running joke around the players that "Coach Ollie is different now," moving from assistant to head coach, "but they understand what’s on the line, and putting on that UConn jersey is something special.”

“You’re gonna see the passion," he concluded. "If that’s laid-back passion or (in-your-face) passion, you’ll see it.”

Calhoun has been around Gampel just about every day since his retirement, and Ollie doesn't see that changing anytime soon. And he's happy about that.

“I think he’ll be around. I don’t think he can leave. He’s been great so far. Any question I ask, he’s already seen it, done it. Before I can even say it, he knows what’s coming. He gets me really focused on my task around. He’s been a tremendous asset for me."

Ollie added: “It’s not like I’m following him. I’m right on the side of him. I think we’re locked on. It’s going to be a great new era of UConn basketball, but not an era without Coach Calhoun. I’m gonna be with him. I’m looking forward to it.”

Ollie said that the extra hour or two of practice each week now allowed by the NCAA has helped his team get off to a "tremendous" start, particularly picking up defensive principles. He had a sports psychologist, Dr. Joseph Carr, who's worked with numerous NBA and college teams, come in with the team a few weekends ago and spent about 30 hours with the players, helping them "just getting to know each other, how to common-bond. We established that. I wanted to establish the guys taking ownership of the team. Hopefully they run with it throughout the whole season … and throughout their whole life.”

Ollie said Tyler Olander (ankle) is in "great" health, and that Shabazz Napier should be about "85 percent" by Saturday, when hopefully he'll be back on the floor. Napier hasn't been doing drills, but rather doing rehab in the pool and treadmill, but has ramped up his rehab over the past week.

Ollie said he has a comfort level with both Glen Miller and George Blaney, and that "Glen will be a great person at my side, and just in case I get kicked out of a game, he’ll take over.”

*** Some real interesting stuff as well from Barnes -- who, of course, went up against Calhoun many times at Providence (and later at Texas), and who coached against Ollie when Ollie was a player. Boy, does he respect Ollie.

"I’m not sure people really understand that he was the perfect guy to step into this position," Barnes said of Ollie. "My only thing, as a coach, I wish they would have given him a long-term contract, to have him do what he needs to do. He’s gonna get it done, but still … I can tell you this, there’s not a university in the country that wouldn’t want him to represent their university, the way he conducts himself. And he’s another guy, like Jim Calhoun, that truly, truly loves the University of Connecticut.”

Barnes continued: “We were out recruiting yesterday. I said to him, ‘I’m happy for you, because you’re the perfect guy, but I wish they would have done things different.’ And he immediately said, ‘Hey, this is a great opportunity. I appreciate them giving me this opportunity.’ That tells you all you need to know. He could have gone the other way, but he didn’t … that right there, as much as anything, tells you how loyal he is. I don’t think you could find a coach that wouldn’t say he’d wish he’d have a four or five-year (contract).”

Barnes confirmed one of my favorite Calhoun stories of all time: that UConn recruited both Austin Croshere and Travis Knight, got Knight but not Croshere, and every time Croshere hit a 3-pointer against the Huskies, Calhoun would turn to his assistants and yell, "Wrong guy!"

But he also told me this story: After Barnes' Longhorns had beaten UConn in the Elite Eight in 2003, Calhoun sent Barnes a letter (not an email, a letter) a couple of days later.

"I got a great, great letter from him," Barnes recalled. "He told me how much he hated losing, and said, ‘I want you to know that I’m extremely happy for you.’ It was one of those letters where when you read it … I felt he meant it, because he knew that we both had some tough jobs along the way."

I only caught the last five years of Jim Calhoun’s career, though that was bountiful enough: from two Final Fours and a national championship to the NIT and first-round exits; from Kemba, A.J. and Hasheem, to Nate Miles, Ken Krayeske and Josh Nochimson. A little bit of everything. Like my time covering the Red Sox beforehand, there was (is) never a dull moment covering UConn.

I think I got a somewhat watered down version of Calhoun. No doubt, he could still be as cantankerous as anyone. He still yelled at press conferences from time to time (see: Krayeske), but not with the same fervor as he did at late Register columnist Dave Solomon. He didn’t seem as overly interested and, at times, agitated about what we wrote about him – at least with the local press. He was actually calm at about 95 percent of the practices I attended (the Sunday morning, post-Rutgers practice this past January being a notable exception).

He was really pretty accessible – often taking my calls to his cell phone or returning them in timely fashion. If I stopped by Gampel on a July day and stopped by his office, he usually had time to talk for a few minutes.

My lasting impression of Calhoun will be that he was the worst loser I’ve ever seen in sports. I don’t really mean that negatively. Other than Tiger Woods (whom I’ve never really covered), I’ve never seen someone so irritated and upset – sometimes even immature – after a loss. His sidelines behavior could be embarrassing, and it essentially stemmed from the fact that his team wasn’t winning, or playing hard, or playing well – and, by extension, embarrassing him in front of some 15,000 people.

One of his most embarrassing episodes came during a Dec. 6, 2007 game at Gampel against Northeastern. On the heels of a postseason-less prior year, the Huskies weren’t playing well and were in danger of losing to the Huskies (Calhoun’s alma mater!) and he was pulling tantrums all night until finally being ejected by Wally Rutecki. After the game, he called Rutecki “incompetent.” Not one of his prouder moments.

Calhoun’s insatiable hatred of losing is a huge part of what made him so great. I’m not a big fan of the cliché “he willed his team to win,” but Calhoun really did do that. He willed his team to win.

I think that’s part of the reason why Calhoun doesn’t boast the same type of coaching tree that guys like Dean Smith, Coach K and others have. Sure, he’s had assistants go on to other jobs, but nobody like a Roy Williams (Smith), a Mike Brey (K), etc. I think part of that is because his success isn’t built so much on coaching philosophy and X’s and O’s. Rather, it’s been built on a competitiveness and appetite for victory that can’t be taught or imitated. In that sense (and many others), he’s really pretty similar to Bob Knight, who doesn’t have the most impressive coaching tree, either (Coach K aside).

The first time I really introduced myself to Calhoun was in August, 2007, shortly after I took over the beat. He wasn’t enamored with my predecessor at the Register, and the very first words he said to me after I introduced myself was, “Well, I didn’t like the other guy …”

Straight and to the point, no doubt. You pretty much always know where you stand with Jim Calhoun.

Last night, myself and some other beat guys engaged in a #calhounmemories tweet-fest on Twitter. I don’t have the tenure of guys like Neill Ostrout or Ed Daigneault, so I didn’t have as many stories. But here are two of my favorites, told to me by other people:

*** UConn recruited both Kirk King and Austin Croshere back in the day. It got King, but Croshere went to Providence. Every time UConn played the Friars and Croshere hit a 3-pointer or a big hoop, Calhoun would twirl around to his assistants and scream, “Wrong guy!!!!”

*** At a coaches’ golf tournament a few years ago, Calhoun got what he considered an inconvenient tee time. While on the putting green surrounded by other coaches, Calhoun could apparently be heard muttering, “How many (bleeping) national championships do you have to win to get a good tee time around here!?!?!”

There ain’t two Jim Calhouns, that’s for sure. A true original. He’ll be missed on the sidelines.