Let's take a moment to appreciate the terrific job Kevin Ollie has done as UConn's head coach since taking over for Jim Calhoun prior to last season.

“You could just see the confidence his team has played with,” said Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg, a longtime friend of Ollie’s who’ll match wits with him in Friday night’s Sweet 16 battle at Madison Square Garden. “Even last year, when they couldn’t play in the postseason, just to see what he was starting … It’s hard to do. People don’t really realize how difficult it is to replace a legend like Jim Calhoun.”

St. Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli echoed those sentiments last week.

“You’re replacing a guy that’s hung all those banners, who’s in the Hall of Fame,” Martelli noted. “Sometimes, guys from the NBA don’t always get college basketball. But Kevin Ollie … he gets it.”

Ollie’s not the first coach to have immediate success after taking over for a legend. Mike Davis replaced Bob Knight at Indiana in 2000 and, the following season, had the Hoosiers in the national championship game. Four years after that, however, he resigned. Bill Guthridge took over for Dean Smith in 1997 and led the Tar Heels to the Final Four that season and again two years later before retiring.

Here's guessing Ollie has a bit more staying power than Davis and Guthridge.

I spoke with Davis, who's now in his second season as head coach at Texas Southern, by phone on Tuesday night. From afar, he's been very impressed by what Ollie's done.

“I think he’s done a terrific job,” said Davis, "especially coming into a situation where they couldn’t go to the postseason the first year, and having really good players stay and play for him. That speaks volumes for him and his team.”

Davis’s situation was a little different than Ollie’s. Knight was fired just before the start of the 2000 season as a result of numerous issues, including choking a player at practice. Calhoun, of course, simply retired.

“It’s always tough (replacing a legend),” Davis continued. “You’re never going to replace him. Normally, it’s the guy after you that’s able to coach the team (better).”

Davis added that he didn’t really feel pressure at first, everything happened so quickly. But once he realized the demands at IU – anything short of a Sweet 16 was considered a massive failure – the pressure really got to him. He resigned after six years on the job. After six more seasons at Alabama-Birmingham, Davis is now in his second season as head man at Texas Southern, whom he just led to an NCAA tourney appearance.

He's never met Ollie, but keeps an eye on the job he's doing.

“As a player, he was a guy that always made the team because of his work ethic,” Davis noted. “As a coach, you see the passion and love for the players and university that he has.”

Here's our story for tomorrow's Register looking at all the positives (and a few negatives) from Ollie's first two seasons tv the helm.

*** Here's one small item that didn't make the story: per Ollie’s contract, he receives one month's annual base salary ($33,333) for reaching the NCAA tourney, one month for reaching the regional semifinals, one month for reaching the Final Four and two months for winning the national title. Thus far, he's earned $66,666, with the chance to earn $99,999 more.

Ollie also gets a $10,000 payment for an annual APR score of 930 or better in a single year. UConn is expected to get a perfect APR of 1,000 for the 2012-13 season.

Kevin Ollie has done an excellent job in his first two years as UConn's head coach. That's almost indisputable. He won 20 games last year, when the Huskies had no postseason hopes, and he's at 26-7 entering tonight's AAC tournament championship game with Louisville.

He's 0-3 against Rick Pitino. There's no shame in that, of course: Pitino is a Hall of Famer, and Louisville won the national title last season and certainly looks like a good bet to repeat this year.

Still, would it be somewhat of a coaching breakthrough for Ollie to beat Pitino tonight? I think so. Jim Calhoun doesn't necessarily agree.

“No, in all honesty," said Calhoun, who's had a long history of matching wits with Pitino over the years. "My last four out of five trips against (Bob) Knight, I beat Knight. First time I ever faced him was very significant, because I’d known him, a couple of years older than me. He had been a hero. It was amazing for me … Bob Knight. But after a while …”

(It should be noted that Calhoun faced Knight three times in his career, beating him twice. But Calhoun has never been great with math).

After UConn's win over Cincinnati on Friday night, Ollie was asked if he really wanted to beat Pitino because Pitino once cut him from the Celtics some 15 years ago, after Ollie had played for Pitino in the NBA summer league
. Pitino instead chose UK product Wayne Turner.

"I really don't care about the Celtics," Ollie said. "Rick -- actually, I grew so much with Rick that summer, so I became a better point guard with him. He came to the decision where he had to let me go, but when you have a setback like that, it just gets you ready for another opportunity. It's nothing against Rick, I love Rick to death. He's a Hall of Fame coach, he's a great coach, a good friend of mine. I could learn a lot from Rick Pitino."

No doubt, Ryan Boatright had the quote of the day today. The kid can't watch ESPN anymore, and I'm right there with him (though, for me, it has more to do with the station's obnoxious love affair with the NFL than anything else).

When asked prior to UConn's practice (in preparation for Wednesday's bout at the Garden with St. John's) about how frustrating it is knowing that UConn can't play in the postseason, especially at this time of year, he replied: “I don’t even like watching ESPN half the time. I see the daggun’, ‘Journey to the Tourney’ commercial every other commercial. I get irritated, so I turn the TV off.”

Here's the video:

That's "daggun'" as in Roy Williams' pet saying. Maybe it's "daggone," or "daggum." Not sure. But Boatright's point was clear: with March Madness seeping back into the national lexicon over the next couple of months, it's tough for UConn to be on the outside looking in.

“It’s definitely frustrating," Boatright continued, "especially when you work hard every day, you put the work in that we put in, and you see other schools that aren’t even doing as well as you and they’re getting a chance to play in the tournament. It’s frustrating, but we knew going into the season that we weren’t going to be able to (play in the postseason). We’re alright.”

Added Kevin Ollie: “I imagine if you look at it that way, it gets frustrating. We’re trying to emphasize the positive things – you’ve got a good record in the Big East, you still have that opportunity to win that conference championship, which is very elusive. That’s the first and foremost goal, anyway – for any season – to win that conference championship.”

“I don’t see this team dwelling on the negatives.”

*** At the Husky Run back in October, Shabazz Napier noted that the Huskies might relish the chance to play spoiler.

"Why not go out there and hurt someone else’s postseason?," he said at the time. "We’re going to do our best to win every game possible, and realize we’ve still got a chance to win a championship – the regular season championship."

Certainly, St. John's (at 14-8, 6-4 Big East) is a team that needs to build a resume for NCAA tourney consideration.

On Tuesday, Napier added: “You kinda think about (being the spoiler). The first thing you think about is trying to win the game. After you win the game, that’s probably the second thing you think about. I just wanna go out there and play them with utmost respect and try to win a game. Especially playing for the last time in Madison Square Garden, it’s something special for the whole team … If we win, just think about that we spoiled it a little bit for them.”

*** Red Storm freshman Chris Obekpa leads the Big East and is second in the nation in blocked shot at 4.50 per game. UConn, of course,heavily recruited the 6-foot-9 center from Long Island. Omar Calhoun put the hard sell on Obekpa after committing to the Huskies.

"I tried to," Calhoun said. "It didn't work too well, but me and him are close friends. He knows how to time blocks and jump. He’s definitely someone like me likes playing with.”

Enosch Wolf will have to go up against Obekpa on Wednesday night.

“He’s a good defensive player," said Wolf. "I’ve just got to stay solid, try to maybe outsmart him a little bit. I know he’s really athletic.”

*** Naturally, Calhoun (a Brooklyn native) was recruited hard by St. John's, as well.

“Coach (Steve) Lavin’s a great guy," he said. "St. John’s is a great school. Everyone looks at St. John’s if they’re from New York.”

*** Seen at Gampel today: Taliek Brown (he's taking courses to get his degree) and SNY honcho (and Mets owner) Fred Wilpon.

*** UConn's bout with Syracuse on Feb. 13 will be ESPN's 7 p.m. game. Brent Musberger and Bob Knight are expected to be on the call.

Although I was at the UConn-Rutgers game Saturday night, I didn't see Jim Calhoun's interaction with DeAndre Daniels during a late-game timeout. Too busy tweeting and writing a game story.

I hadn't even heard of the alleged incident until a few days later, and didn't see the video until this evening. After watching it, there is no doubt in my mind that Calhoun hit Daniels. There is also no doubt in my mind that it is not a fireable offense, in the vein of Bob Knight or Woody Hayes. Or, you could argue, past incidents by Calhoun, as detailed in this column by the Courant's Jeff Jacobs that needed to be written.

Two or three years ago, I saw Calhoun hit Stanley Robinson in the abdomen with both (open) hands, out near the middle of the floor after callling a timeout. Really whacked him hard. A collective gasp could be heard from the first 10 or so rows behind UConn's bench. Nothing was made of it by any writer -- myself included. Maybe I should have, maybe not. Just Jim being Jim, y'know?

But there's no room for that. I don't even believe there's room for Calhoun's in-your-face screaming at Ryan Boatright the other night. We laugh about it, tweet about it, and the players usually seem to be able to brush it off pretty quickly. But there's no need to embarass an 18-year-old kid like that before 15,000 people and on national TV. Why? Because he made you look bad, Jim?

Calhoun is a tremendous coach, even a bit underrated (you rarely hear his name mentioned in the same breath as Coach K, Adolph Rupp, Bob Knight and Dean Smith, even though he's got more national titles than Smith and as many as Knight). Perhaps no one in the history of the sport has done a better job at building a program from nothing than Calhoun.

But there's no room for making physical contact with kids, no matter how innocuous it may seem.