Kemba Walker is congratulated by Brandon Jennings -- who, ironically, nearly went to UConn -- after being selected 9th overall in NBA draft. In fact, had Jennings gone to Storrs, Walker probably wouldn't have wound up a Husky.



And here, Kemba meets the Connecticut media shortly after being selected:

Remember a few years ago, when UConn played Memphis in a preseason NIT game at the Garden and Jim Calhoun and John Calipari tried to pretend everything was cool between the two of them?

Didn't buy it then? Me neither. And don't buy whatever the two coaches say over the next week, either. They still don't like each other.

No further proof needed than this bit from a good Sports Illustrated story on Calipari a few weeks ago:

If the Wildcats' spring ends early, there will be matchups Calipari won't watch. There are rivals he can't abid, and vice versa; even without being asked he gives you a list: Pitino, Pearl, Connecticut's Jim Calhoun.

No worries, John. Guaranteed the feeling is mutual.

Here's a little piece I did today on Kemba Walker's leadership skills. Plenty more coming over the next week.

Here's a few snippets from today's conference call with the coaches from the Final Four teams:

JIM CALHOUN

On the three other coaches in this year's Final Four:

"My two sons, and my problem child."

On what he takes from UConn's win over Kentucky for the Maui Invitational title back in late November:

"Nothing, absolutely nothing. Except I remember the last four minutes of the first half. It was not any indication of what they've become, or what we went through. I don't think that game means absolutely anything."

On his public perception:

"There's no way that you're going to please everybody. If I please my God, my family, that's important to me. And if I please my players and my university, then I'm fine ... What I'm sometimes perceived as, I don't recognize that person. YOu get stuck with something, and that becomes you."

On losing out on recruits Brandon Knight and Doron Lamb, both now at Kentucky:

"Yes, there was a great deal of disappointment. At one time, we were recruiting Brandon Jennings ... loved the place and wanted to come here. We determined Brandon Jennings hadn't made his mind up, and we went after a kid we thought we could get. A kid named Kemba Walker.

When we got Shabazz (Napier) and Jeremy Lamb, we thought we got two pretty good players.

You get a lot more no's than yeses.

It's kind of ironic that we're playing against two kids we really went hard after.

If I spent all my time on the kids we lost, I guess we would have won a lot of championships. I'm much more interested in the kids we get. Kemba and Shabazz: how have they worked together? Shabazz has been sensational, has taken a lot of pressure off Kemba this year and allowed him to play (off the ball)."

On if he's thought of his place in the game if he wins a third national championship:

"Any legacy stuff, I can look at later. I just can't wait to get this team to the Final Four."

JOHN CALIPARI:

On key to Jim Calhoun's success over the years:

"I think he's a battler, he holds the bar high, doesn't accept anythying but their best ... and he has talented players. He got talented players to buy in, and has done a great job throughout his whole career ... He is as good as they get."

On growing and improving as a coach:

"Let me explain to all who are listening: I do not have this figured out."

Jim Calhoun was asked about the Mick Cronin situation at today's press conference. Calhoun had hinted a couple of weeks ago that Cronin hadn't voted for Kemba Walker as first-team all-Big East. Cronin said last night that he had spoken with Calhoun about the situation. Here's the transcript:

Q. Mick said last night that you called him earlier this week, I guess, to talk about what Kemba Walker -- whether you voted for him or --
COACH JIM CALHOUN: I called him. I didn't ask him that question. I just said that there was a misunderstanding, he and I needed to talk as opposed to publicly discuss it, and we had a good conversation.

Q. So it's all cleared up?
COACH JIM CALHOUN: It's all cleared up. We had a good conversation. I never knew there was a -- I was just talking about my kid, who I was trying to push every way, and I said someone's away for a month and we went to two different places and they wrote about how they recruited him. I said maybe they didn't vote for him or something, and I shouldn't have said that and I did. So I called Mick just to let him know that. I'm the one who said something initially and just wanted to have him get squared away.
So I'll root for him. I think he's done terrific -- as I just said, he's done a terrific job. And I initiated the phone call and we had a good conversation.

Earlier, Walker was asked about his recruitment by Cronin and the Bearcats:

Q. When you guys were in Cincinnati, Mick Cronin talked about how close you came to going to Cincinnati. How close did you actually come and what kind of relationship do you have with him?
KEMBA WALKER: It was close. But I really wanted to come to UConn my entire life. So I was just waiting for the opportunity and it came. But as far as me and Coach Cronin, we had a great relationship. He did a great job recruiting me. He had a good relationship with my parents, also. So if UConn didn't come in, it would have most likely been Cincinnati.
So, yeah, it was pretty close.

Calhoun was asked about that, too:

Q. Kemba was in here talking about his recruitment a little bit and how he considered Cincinnati but UConn was his first choice. Can you talk a little bit about his recruitment and did you ever think he might go somewhere else besides UConn?
COACH JIM CALHOUN: We know that he had said to Mo Hicks at that time, his coach at Rice, who is now at St. John's, that his dream school was UConn. At the same time, in around that period, September, October, Brandon Jennings was visiting us. And Brandon, like did he with the other three schools, committed on the visit. He had done at the previous two schools, so I didn't no if it was that firm of a commitment.
And he's a great, great kid, by the way. Brandon was a great, great kid.
When the visiting got conclusion and we made a phone call to Brandon and Brandon said, well, I still want to visit a couple more schools but I'm definitely coming to UConn, I turned to Andre LaFleur and said, let's see if you can go all out to try to get Kemba Walker. He'll be a program player, a terrific player for us, a lead guard. We've got Taliek Brown, we'd got Ben Gordon. Let's go after him full blown. He'll be here long term in the program. And the rest I guess is history in some ways.
I always thought he'd be a good to very good to excellent guard. I didn't know -- I didn't automatically see some of the greatness that I now see.