Makai Ashton-Langford hails from Worcester, Massachusetts, not far from the Connecticut border.

He grew up rooting for UConn and has admitted he's dreamed of someday being a Husky. But it's not as sure a shot as one might think.

UConn has offered Ashton-Langford, a Class of 2017 point guard, but by all accounts, he's going to wait at least through the spring and summer circuits to make any commitments anywhere. UConn and Providence have been his most dogged pursuers, with DePaul also showing keen interest. Louisville has inquired about him and, more recently, so has Kentucky.

John Calipari saw Ashton-Langford play back in November, shortly after the Cushing Academy guard had broken his hand. No one knew his hand was broken at the time, and he didn't have his best game. Ashton-Langford sat out the next 6-7 weeks, but he's back now, shooting the ball as well as ever, and sure to start attracting more interest outside of the New England schools (who can and have seen him play numerous times over the winter) once the college basketball season winds down.

"People have done a good job getting out the word, in a general sense, that Makai's got a heavy UConn lead," said Cushing's first-year head coach, Mike Wolf. "I think they're clearly high, high on his list. But the idea that other schools aren't in the mix is a false one."

With Jalen Adams (another former Cushing point guard) and Alterique Gilbert in tow, Ashton-Langford could see two point guards ahead of him by the time he'd hit campus in the fall of 2017. Ashton-Langford is more of a true point guard than Adams, although Wolf believes he's can't be labeled as a classic point guard.

"He's got some Allen Iverson-esque point guard in his game," said the coach.

Both Wolf and Vin Pastore, who coaches Ashton-Langford on the Mass Rivals AAU team, agree that the kid is an elite defender.

"He's an elite defensive ball-stopper," said Wolf. "He guards the best player on any team at pretty much any position except the post, and if we asked him to do that, he'd probably do that, too."

Added Pastore: "He's the best defender at that position in the country, which fits UConn to a 'T.'"

Now, it's just a matter of whether UConn fits Ashton-Langford's needs to a 'T.'

Couldn't make the trip to Houston today, but terrific win for UConn. Any conference road win is good, and to do it against a good Houston team (that's beat the Huskies at Hofheinz Pavilion the past two seasons) gives it extra value.

Instead, made the trip up 91 to Springfield College for the Spalding Hoophall Classic, where a few UConn targets (and one commit) played on Sunday.

There were two on Westtown School from Pennsylvania -- Cameron Reddish, a 6-foot-7 Class of 2018 guard, and Mohammed Bamba, a 7-foot Class of 2017 center.

Kevin Ollie offered Reddish recently, and Bamba holds an offer from the Huskies as well. Reddish struggled a bit on Sunday, with some of the biggest coaching names in college basketball (Roy Williams, John Calipari, etc.) on-hand. He scored eight points on just 1-for-7 shooting and nabbed seven boards in Westtown's 53-35 win over Potters House Christian.

Bamba was better, with 13 points, 16 rebounds and 10 blocks. All signs seem to point to him going to Duke or Kentucky, but he did have some nice words for Kevin Ollie.

Here's what the two had to say:

REDDISH:

(On who's been recruiting him the most, and what he thinks about UConn)



(on his strengths as a player)

"I feel like I'm a really good shooter, which I didn't quite show today. I can dribble very well, I have a very high IQ, and I rebound the ball really well. I have to stay mentally strong."

(on how he'll handle the recruiting process the next couple of years)

"I'm just gonna take it slow, let my parents and coaches take care of that."

Reddish's father, Robert, played at VCU.

BAMBA:

(on whether UConn is on his radar)

"Definitely. Coach Ollie was in the gym a couple of weeks back when he offered Cam. He stopped by to stay hello. He's a great guy."

"Coach Ollie has a different approach. It seems like the approach of he's a father of a recruit. He knows how to talk to players very well. He's a people person."

(on what questions he's asking coaches who are recruiting him)

"Who else are they recruiting from my class, to see if there's anyone I'd enjoy playing with. I'm also looking for a veteran point guard, so I'm looking at the point guards from the Class of 2016, like Frank (Jackson, a Duke commit)."

It sounds like Bamba is Duke-bound, though of course, it's still very early.

I know, I know -- Kentucky is the greatest team ever assembled. The Wildcats can even beat the 76ers -- not this year's 76ers, mind you, but the 1983 76ers of Dr. J, Moses Malone and "fo, fo, fo."

Or not. Let's pump the breaks on Kentucky a little bit here, OK? Yes, the 'Cats looked great destroying Kansas by 32 points. Yes, they've got nine McDonald's All-Americans -- and that doesn't even include one of their best players, Willie Cauley-Stein.

But these are mostly freshmen and sophomores. They're kids. And this platoon system has the potential to blow up in John Calipari's face, if certain guys don't buy into the team concept as much as he'd like. Didn't we learn from last season, when people were talking about Kentucky going undefeated and it wound up a No. 8 seed for the NCAA tournament?

Kentucky's good, and maybe it will win the national title. But for now, the 'Cats stay at No. 2 on my ballot. I had Wisconsin No. 1 last week, and I'm not going to drop the Badgers after a week in which they won two games by 24 points each.

Elsewhere, we knock out SMU, Stanford, Syracuse and Memphis and welcome Miami, West Virginia, Creighton and Providence.

Tough week for the AAC. SMU got swamped by a very good Gonzaga team (on the road, admittedly) as well as Indiana. Memphis has somehow played just one game, and it wasn't pretty -- a 15-point loss to a very good Wichita State. And UConn lost in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off tourney finals to West Virginia.

I drop the Huskies from No. 12 to 23, but they'd better be careful, with Texas coming to town on Sunday and Duke on the horizon a couple of weeks later.

My ballot:

1. Wisconsin
2. Kentucky
3. Arizona
4. Duke
5. Wichita State
6. North Carolina
7. Louisville
8. Texas
9. Iowa State
10. Gonzaga
11. Villanova
12. Kansas
13. Virginia
14. San Diego State
15. VCU
16. Michigan
17. Miami
18. Florida
19. Michigan State
20. Ohio State
21. Oklahoma
22. West Virginia
23. UConn
24. Creighton
25. Providence

The release of UConn's 2014-15 schedule means -- never mind football -- college basketball is just around the corner. Sort of.

The Huskies can actually start practicing on Oct. 3, per NCAA rules, though they likely will start after that. Teams can get in 30 practices in the 42 days prior to their first game (in UConn's case, on Friday, Nov. 14 against Bryant).

Anyway, here's a breakdown of UConn's 2014-15 schedule, with a look at some of the Huskies' opponents:

Tuesday, Nov. 4, vs. Southern Connecticut State University (exhibition): Huskies play Owls in an exhibition for second straight season. Won 93-65 last season at Gampel.

Sunday, Nov. 9 vs. Assumption College (exhibition): Greyhounds, Huskies have never met in an official game.

Friday, Nov. 14 vs. Bryant: Just second time programs have met. UConn demolished Bulldogs 88-58 in 2008 in Hartford.

Thursday, Nov. 20 at Puerto Rico Tip-Off in San Juan, Puerto Rico, 12:30 p.m.: Huskies open up against College of Charleston. Will UConn be going against current assistant Karl Hobbs, who is reportedly a candidate for the (amazingly) still vacant head coaching job?

Friday, Nov. 21 at Puerto Rico Tip-Off in San Juan, Puerto Rico: UConn will face either Texas A&M or Dayton. Flyers beat Ohio State, Syracuse and Stanford last year en route to Elite Eight, where they finally fell to Florida.

Sunday, Nov. 23 at Puerto Rico Tip-Off in San Juan, Puerto Rico: Huskies could face Boston College for second time in as many seasons after not playing former Big East rivals for nearly 10 years. Steve Alford's New Mexico, which beat UConn in Paradise Jam finals in 2012, and George Mason (need we remind you) are other possible foes.

Sunday, Nov. 30 vs. Texas: Longhorns return all five starters and should be a preseason Top 15 pick – until Rick Barnes finds a way to mess it all up.

Friday, Dec. 5 vs. Yale: Huskies tamed Bulldogs 80-62 last year in the teams’ first meeting in 10 years.

UConn holds a 44-22 all-time advantage. Yale won't have Stratford's Brandon Sherrod, who'll be singing somewhere across the globe with the Whiffenpoofs.

Sunday, Dec. 14 vs. Coppin State: UConn is 5-0 all-time against Eagles, who will also play at Michigan this season.

Thursday, Dec. 18 vs. Duke at IZOD Center, East Rutherford, N.J., 8 p.m.: Despite losing Jabari Parker and Rodney Hood to the NBA draft, Blue Devils will be a preseason Top 5, maybe even No. 1. Duke boasts the top-rated recruiting class in the land, led by 6-foot-10 center Jahlil Okafor. This should be a fun one, as great rivalry is renewed. Two of Huskies’ biggest wins in program history (the 1999 national championship game and the 2004 Final Four) came against Duke. The Blue Devils, of course, handed UConn a crushing, overtime loss in the 1990 Elite Eight, ending the Huskies’ “Dream Season” on a Christian Laettner buzzer-beater. Duke holds the overall series edge, 5-4, including the most recent meeting, a 68-59 win on Nov. 27, 2009 in the NIT Season Tip-Off championships at Madison Square Garden.

Monday, Dec. 22 vs. Columbia: UConn is 7-2 all-time against the Lions, most recently with a 70-57 win on Nov. 11, 2011 at Gampel.

Sunday, Dec. 28 vs. Central Connecticut: Huskies face former longtime UConn assistant Howie Dickenman’s crew for first time in nine years. UConn has never lost in 12 meeting with these Blue Devils.

Wednesday, Dec. 31 vs. Temple: For first time in three years, UConn isn’t on the road for New Year’s Eve. Huskies open up AAC play against Owls, who finished ninth in the 10-team league a year ago at 4-14.

Saturday, Jan. 3 at Florida, O’Connell Center, Gainesville, Florida, 2 p.m.: Gators went 36-3 last season – 36-1 against teams not named UConn. The Huskies edged Florida on Dec. 2 at Gampel, 65-64, on Shabazz Napier’s 15-foot jumper at the buzzer. Gator coach Billy Donovan called the play “luck,” and Florida had the chance to avenge the loss in the Final Four. But the Huskies’ clamped down defensively, frustrating SEC player of the year Scottie Wilbekin all night, and needed no “luck” to score a 63-53 win. This game finishes the teams’ home-and-home series.

Tuesday, Jan. 6 at South Florida, Sun Dome, Tampa, 7 p.m.: Huskies stay in the Sunshine State for an AAC bout with USF and its new head coach Orlando Antigua, the former John Calipari assistant at Kentucky. Antigua should help Bulls on recruiting trail, but that won't do them much good this season.

Saturday, Jan. 10 vs. Cincinnati, 11 a.m.: Sean Kilpatrick (the guy who was peeved he lost out to Napier for AAC player of the year honors) and Justin Jackson are both gone, but Bearcats should play their usual tough defense and be solid once again.

Tuesday, Jan. 13 at Tulsa, Reynolds Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma: Huskies’ first-ever trip to Tulsa would’ve been more fun if Danny Manning were still head coach. But he bolted for Wake Forest, and instead former Missouri, Miami head man Frank Haith is at the helm. This could be a tough game for Huskies.

Saturday, Jan. 17 at Stanford, Maples Pavilion, Palo Alto, Calif.: Cardinal handed UConn its first loss of the season last year, 53-51 on Dec. 18 in Hartford, and wound up advancing to the Sweet 16.

Thursday, Jan. 22 vs. Central Florida, 7 p.m.: Knights have lost virtually everyone from last year’s team that went 4-14 in AAC, including all-league pick Isaiah Sykes. Could be a long season in Orlando. Incidentally, this will be only time the teams play this season.

Sunday, Jan. 25 vs. South Florida, noon: Anthony Collins, a preseason all-AAC pick who missed almost all of last year due to injury, should be back at the point for Bulls. Corey Allen, Jr. and Chris Perry are also decent returnees.

Thursday, Jan. 29 at Cincinnati, Fifth Third Arena, Cincinnati, 8 p.m.: Are the Bearcats UConn’s biggest rival in the AAC?

Sunday, Feb. 1 at Houston, Hofheinz Pavilion, Houston, 3 p.m.: Huskies return to site of their awful New Year’s Eve loss last season. Kelvin Sampson has taken over as head coach, but Ta’Shawn Thomas  (Oklahoma) and Danuel House (Texas A&M) have both transferred, leaving cupboard bare. Had those two stayed, Cougars may have been an NCAA tourney team. Now, they'll rely primarily on a bunch of JUCO's.

Wednesday, Feb. 4 vs. East Carolina, 7 p.m.: First meeting as league rivals between Huskies and Pirates. UConn actually holds a 3-1 all-time series lead, but haven’t played each other since 1978.

Saturday, Feb. 7 at Tulane, Devlin Fieldhouse, New Orleans, 6 p.m.: Green Wave will play most home games at 3,500-seat on-campus arena, but it’s possible this one could be switched to downtown arena where New Orleans Pelicans play.

Thursday, Feb. 12  vs. Tulsa, 7 p.m.: Don’t sleep on Tulsa, which went on a late-season surge and won the Conference USA tournament last season. Golden Hurricane is led by James Woodard, a do-everything guard who could warrant preseason all-AAC honors.

Saturday, Feb. 14 at SMU, Moody Coliseum, Dallas, 9 p.m.: An ESPN College GameDay presentation, should be a rowdy night. Mustangs could’ve been preseason top 15 if No. 1 national recruit Emmanuel Mudiay hadn’t bolted to play professionally in China, but they still might be the AAC favorites. After all, SMU did beat UConn both times they met last season.

Thursday, Feb. 19 at Memphis, FedExForum, Memphis, 9 p.m.: Huskies went a perfect 3-0 last year against Tigers, including twice at FedExForum – the latter game a 72-53 dismantling in an AAC tournament bout.

Sunday, Feb. 22 vs. Tulane, 4 p.m.: Green Wave return 90 percent of its offense from team that went .500 overall (17-17) and in C-USA (8-8).

Wednesday, Feb. 25 at East Carolina, Williams Arena, Greenville, North Carolina, 7 p.m.:  Four of five top scorers are back from team that went 17-17 overall.  However, top scorer Akeem Richmond is gone.

Sunday, March 1 vs. SMU, 2 p.m.: A CBS-televised affair, could be marquee game of AAC schedule. Despite no Mudiay, Mustangs have all-AAC standouts Nic Moore and Markus Kennedy back, along with talented Keith Frazier and Xavier transfer Justin Martin.

Thursday, March 5 vs. Memphis, 9 p.m.: Tigers lost Joe Jackson and other top guards to graduation, but may have league’s best frontcourt, led by all-AAC pick Shaq Goodwin and AAC rookie of the year Austin Nichols.

Saturday, March 7 at Temple, Liacouras Center, Philadelphia: Owls lost top scorer Dalton Pepper to graduation, top rebounder Anthony Lee to transfer (Ohio State). Could be another tough one for coach Fran Dunphy, who'll rely on whole slew of newcomers.

John Calipari had just left the AT&T Center floor after Kentucky’s Final Four win over Wisconsin Saturday night when he bumped into an old adversary.

“We’ll go after this again,” Calipari said to Jim Calhoun.

“Yeah,” Calhoun replied, “but the other guy might be tougher than me.”

Calhoun, of course, was referring to Kevin Ollie, his heir apparent who has led UConn into the national championship game in just his second season as head coach. Indeed, while Calhoun vs. Calipari would add even more spice to Monday night’s national championship game, Ollie and Calipari are prepared to being their own rivalry.

It certainly seems to be getting off to a friendlierstart than the one Calhoun and Calipari were involved in years ago.

“Wonderful coach,” Ollie said of Calipari on Sunday. “Everybody says he’s a great motivator. Yeah, but he’s a great coach, too. To get all those guys to buy in and not give up on them … you see the fruits of their labor right now. They’re playing their best basketball, they allow their teams to play the best basketball and grow up and mature.”

Ollie and Calipari actually share a bit of history – Calipari was Larry Brown’s assistant coach with the 76ers in 1999-2000 when Ollie was on the team.

“He is one of the wonderful people that I’ve ever come across in my life,” Calipari said. “Genuine, loyal, and a great coach. Because you know what he was doing while he was playing? He was coaching. That’s how he played. He was an unbelievable student of the gam then. He was teaching me when I was in Philly. As an assistant for Coach Brown, he was teaching me. So, fond memories.”

Much fonder than Calipari’s memories of his rivalry with Calhoun years ago, when Calipari was the new guy at UMass, trying to make an imprint in New England college basketball, and Calhoun was the veteran who didn’t want to cede anything.

“It was a rivalry,” Calipari recalled. “We wanted it to be, they did not. Which I don’t blame them. They were in the Big East, we were in the Atlantic 10. We really didn’t play each other, but you had two teams going at each other.”

UMass and UConn played just twice when Calipari was there, with the Huskies winning both games, once in Storrs (104-75 in 1989) and once at Amherst (94-75 in 1990). The schools’ yearly rivalry resumed in 1997, almost immediately after Calipari left to coach the Nets.

Still, time heals all wounds.

“Sometimes, the things we fight each other about, we forget years later why we’re fighting,” Calhoun said on Sunday. “John’s trying to do his job. He does it differently than how we do it at UConn. But, he certainly is a good coach, he’s had great success with the young kids that he’s coached.”

He added: “There are very few guys that you stay mad at. When you’re competing against someone over players, over scoreboards, trying to win games … as far as John goes, he’s got a chance to win his second national championship. He’s certainly done a good job.”

BOATRIGHT HONORS SLAIN COUSIN 

Boatright talked about how tough it was to grow up in Aurora.

"People say it's the suburbs, but when they tear the projects down in Chicago, where's everybody gonna go? They're going to Aurora. It's just like Chicago. It's tough, man. There's gang activity, stuff like that. It's a rough environment. So just growing up in it and being a small guy, you're naturally just tough. You can't be a punk. My mom's the same way. She had me at 16. She just raised me to be a tough dude, but to be smart at the same time, which is why I'm here in college and not in jail or dead. Growing up like that, man, seeing the things I saw and going through the things I've been through, I'm fearless. Nothing scares me. 

LENAHAN LENDS SUPPORT FROM BEHIND BENCH

Cheshire’s Pat Lenehan, the junior walk-on who played at Xavier High, hasn’t been able to sit on the bench during UConn’s NCAA run. In the tournament, teams only have 17 seats on the bench, as opposed to 19 during the regular season. So Lenehan and sophomore walk-on Nnamdi Amilo have ceded their spots on the bench to senior walk-on Tor Watts.

“Tor earned the spot last year and he’s a senior, so I wouldn’t even want to rotate at this point,” Lenehan said. “It would be really cool for me to be on the bench, but I’m happy for Tor. He’s gotten into two tournament games. I’m happy for everything he’s been able to do.”

Lenehan’s greatest accomplishments, of course, have come in the classroom. He recently earned a Goldwater Scholarship, one of the most prestigious undergraduate academic honors in the nation.

EMMERT ‘PLEASED’ WITH UCONN’S SUCCESS

NCAA president Mark Emmert met with the media Sunday and was asked how he felt about UConn, a team barred from the postseason a year ago due to APR penalties, being in the title game.

“I’m personally very pleased at it,” he said. “The reality is that the University of Connecticut, as we all know, had really abysmal APR performance for a consistent period of time. They had to achieve, in relatively short order, essentially a 1,000 APR, a perfect score. They have got a new president, new coach, new AD, and they were deeply committed to making those changes and they have done it. It’s actually very impressive.”

Emmert was provost and chancellor at UConn in the late-1990’s.

“It was painful for me to watch them go through that,” he continued. “As the former chief academic officer, it was painful to watch them go through those kind of issues, and I’m delighted that they’re doing well, not just on the court, but in the classroom.”

Seth Davis is in town (of course) as one of CBS's analysts for the Final Four. He was born at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and his first job after graduating from Duke was as a sports writer for the New Haven Register. He worked there for 2 1/2 years before moving on.

I did this story on Davis four years ago, so I'm not going to rehash it all here. But I caught up with him for a few words on Friday (incidentally, for fans who made the trip down to Dallas, he'll be serving Subway's new flatizzas with Jared the Subway Guy on Saturday from 10:45-11:30 a.m. at a Subway restaurant on 1222 Commerce Street in Dallas).

Davis remembers his 2 1/2 years at the Register fondly, living in a high-rise apartment that was right down the street from Yale-New Haven Hospital and walking distance from Toad's Place.

"Walking distance is a generous term," said Davis, who caught acts like the Radiators, Squeeze and Southside Johnny at the well-known venue.

He didn't cover much UConn at the time (Dave Solomon was on the beat), but made lifelong bonds. One of them was with Vito Montelli, the longtime St. Joseph's basketball coach. He recalls being at a St. Joe's year-end banquet one year with John Calipari, who was and remains good friends with Montelli. When Davis saw Calipari the other day, he asked about Montelli.

"I told him I’ve got tickets for him," Calipari replied. "I want him down here, but he can’t make it."

"Calipari really loves him," Davis noted.

Davis and his family lived in Ridgefield for several years, but last July moved out to Los Angeles, where Davis had been researching for three full summers for his recently published book on John Wooden.

As for the Huskies' chances this weekend, Davis said:

“I certainly wouldn’t have expected them to be here. I’m a big believe in luck. This is not to diminish them or anybody else who’s here, but everybody outside of Florida … I mean, UConn needed overtime to beat St. Joe’s. You appreciate that, how hard it is to get here, how easy it is to lose once you get here. But, when you have good guards, that can erase a lot of deficiencies. That’s why, to me, Kevin Ollie is the perfect coach for this team. He’s got two scoring point guards, and getting them to play together is not easy to do. He’s a really impressive guy. I love his attitude, his demeanor. He’s very eloquent. I really like Kevin.”

Great game. Looks like these two teams could form a nice rivalry for years to come, though as Memphis Josh Pastner noted: “We need to get a win to make it a little more of a rivalry. They’re 2-0 against us. But it’s a high-level basketball game, two high-level teams. I think it’ll be fun for the future to keep having high-level games like this.”

No doubt, we could get used to this. As for UConn's 86-81 overtime win on Saturday, Shabazz Napier and Ryan Boatright were clutch and terrific. But the Huskies likely don't win without Phil Nolan.

Here are some postgame quotes:

PASTNER:

(on the fact that Memphis was whistled for 23 fouls to UConn's 12, and UConn shot 36 free throws to the Tigers' nine)

(on the AAC)

“The league is really good. I said it from the beginning that we should have six teams in. Obviously now, there’s no question we should have five in. You look at our top five, I think our five is the best of any out there in the country. I really believe that. But our league from top to bottom is very good. Rutgers, Houston, South Florida, Central Florida, Temple – they’re very good teams. They’re better than their records. This is a great league. Obviously, Mr. Aresco does an unbelievable job and Paul Brazeau, so we’re very grateful and fortunate to be in the league and for the exposure we get with the TV package. That’s been terrific for the program.”

RYAN BOATRIGHT:

(on stepping up and hitting a big 3-pointer in OT, despite recent shooting slump)

(on becoming 48th player in UConn history to score 1,000 career points)

“Just an honor, man. Coach Cal and KO gave me the opportunity to come in here and play for this great university. Every time I put that jersey on, I just try to give it my all every time. It’s a blessing to be able to score 1,000 points at this wonderful university.”

SHABAZZ NAPIER:

(on the scrum on the floor at the end of regulation in which things got chippy, no fouls were called and Memphis lost possession on a shot-clock violation)

(David) Pellom was on the floor, I felt like he was kicking. Myself, I wouldn’t want one of my teammates getting kicked, on accident or on purpose. I was doing my best to get him up, and he kind of got a hand in. Their teammates came in … it was really nothing big, but they kind of made it big. I wasn’t too worried about it. I wasn’t going to throw any (punches) at anybody. I was just trying to get him off my big man so he wouldn’t get hurt.”

“It was definitely good that we got in a little scrum. Coach got a minute to draw up a good play. The refs had to figure out what the time was, and coach took a little time out and figured out what we were going to do.”

(on his missed 3-pointer that went in and out at the end of regulation)

“I thought it was going in. I thought I came off the pick, Phil (Nolan) set a second one. I got an open space, it just was one of those shots that’s called toilet flush. It didn’t go in, it just clogged up and came back out. It happens.”

(Napier wasn't injured when he sat out for a long span late in the first half. He did, however, grab at his back at one point early in the latter half)

“I shot the ball and I kind of got a stinger in my back. I came down awkward. But it went away.”

(on future rivalry with Memphis)

“Definitely. Memphis is definitely a great talent. They have been since the (John) Calipari days. They’ve got a great program, a great group of players that are going to go there. And Connecticut is one of the top-five programs in the country. It’s going to be a tough rivalry for years to come.”

“I think Cincinnati’s a rivalry, they’ve been there in the Big East, it always comes down to the crunch. Memphis is a godo team. It’s a new league, of course there’s (few) rivalries. But this league has a lot of new rivalries that are gonna happen. Just like the ACC – Syracuse is at the top of the chain right now, somebody has to be a rivalry with them. We’re getting to know each other, and hopefully we’ll find some rivalries.”

(on his relationship with Boatright)

“When we first got here, it was tough. We weren’t working hand-in-hand. But as last season went on, this season went on, we became much closer. The chemistry got much better. Nothing’s perfect, we continue to work on it. We have a brotherhood here. We believe we’re brothers. We don’t have the same blood, but we’re close enough.”

(on Phil Nolan's big offensive rebound to set up his game-tying 3-point play)

“Phillip definitely came in and took care of his minutes. He definitely played Shaq the best (he could), and was getting me open on a lot of picks. He’s definitely one of our best pick-and-roll defenders. He high-hedges really well, and he likes to talk all the time. Today, he definitely did a good job. We continue to need that from him, no matter if he’s not there offensively. When we gave him the ball, he did his best, and he had a couple of layups that he got fouled on and just continued to work.”

KEVIN OLLIE:

(on Boatright)

"He might not be shooting well, but I can never question his heart and his effort and his enthusiasm to win ... We’re not going to agree on everything, him and Bazz – we go at it sometimes. That’s what you’re supposed to do as a team. But at the end of the day, you want to win as brothers. Ryan has one of the biggest hearts I've ever been around."

He added that UConn cancelled practice the other day due to the snowstorm, but every player came to Gampel to get up shots.

(on the scrum, and Nolan's big offensive rebound)

“I don’t even know what scramble you’re talking about. I liked the offensive rebound. Shabazz shot a shot, Phil went to go get the basketball. We got outrebounded, but that was the biggest rebound of all."

(on Napier's shot at end of regulation)

“Phil set a great screen for Bazz to get open. The ball went in and out. That’s all Phil, getting him open. Shabazz will be the first one to say that. It’s not all about Shabazz, it’s not all about Ryan. It’s a team effort. Whoever played in the game came in and did their part.”

UConn won't play two bigger games this season, at least until March, than the two it'll play Thursday and Saturday nights. It starts Thursday night at No. 17 Memphis, then there's a quick turnaround for Saturday night's ESPN College Gameday battle with Louisville in Storrs.

Playing back-to-back games vs. ranked foes was old hat for UConn back in its Big East days. Heck, the Huskies had such consecutive match-ups nine times over the past five seasons.

But this will likely be UConn's only chance to do so this regular season, and it just feels a lot bigger and more important than in recent years, doesn't it? UConn really needs to at least split the two, if not sweep. Getting swept would really put the Huskies behind the eight-ball in terms of hopes for a league title and, for that matter, possibly even an NCAA tournament berth.

(Incidentally, the last nine times UConn has faced Top 25 teams in consecutive games, the Huskies lost both games four times, won both of them twice and split the two three times. Last year, UConn beat No. 17 Notre Dame on Jan. 12 on the road, then lost to No. 1 Louisville two days later in Storrs).

Here's what Kevin Ollie and Ryan Boatright had to say about Memphis:





A few more tidbits:

*** There are six Memphis kids (and eight Tennessee-born kids altogether) on the Memphis roster. There is just one Connecticut scholarship player (Tyler Olander) on the Connecticut roster. In fact, Memphis has as many Connecticut kids on its roster as UConn does. Kuran Iverson, who was a two-time Register All-State selection while at West Hartford's Northwest Catholic High, is a freshman for the Tigers. He's seen precious little playing time this season, particularly lately, having appeared in just one of Memphis's first four conference games. Iverson, a 6-10 forward, is averaging 2.8 points and 1.3 rebounds in 9.4 minutes of action overall this season.

UConn recruited Iverson, but not heavily.

*** This will mark UConn’s first-ever game at Memphis. The Huskies and Tigers have met just once before, on Nov. 16, 2007 in a 2K Sports College Hoops Classic game at Madison Square Garden. The John Calipari, Derrick Rose-led Tigers won, 81-70.

UConn is the second of four FedEx Forum newcomers in 2013-14. Memphis is 22-1 when facing teams making their first visits to the arena.

*** Did you know both Ollie and Memphis coach Josh Pastner have NCAA title rings. Ollie got his as an assistant to Jim Calhoun in 2011. Pastner got his as a (ahem) ... player on the 1997 Arizona title team.

UConn faces Boston College for the first time in nearly nine years on Thursday at 7 p.m. in a 2K Sports Classic game at Madison Square Garden.

The two former Big East rivals are, of course, no longer in the Big East. BC left for the ACC in 2005, a controversial move at the time that proved to be somewhat prescient. While the Eagles' athletic teams are now largely wallowing in obscurity and neglect, the programs are, at least, flush with money.

When BC announced it was leaving 10 years ago, Jim Calhoun vowed never to play the Eagles again. His very public dissing of BC and animus toward athletic director Gene DeFilippo helped lead to a Cold War between the two schools for years. A couple of years ago, DeFilippo admitted to the Boston Globe that BC was instrumental in keeping UConn out of the ACC as conference expansion raged on.

"It was a matter of turf," DeFilippo told the Globe. "We wanted to be the New England team."

Tensions have eased in recent years. As far back as 2007, Calhoun admitted he wouldn't mind scheduling the Eagles. I asked Calhoun about the whole situation last week, and he's happy to see the two schools renew their rivalry -- and hopes to see it continue in the future.

“I wasn’t upset with BC. I was upset with decisions made, behind the scenes, which I’m not going to go in great detail about," he said. "But, in 2005, a lot of us kind of had to hold the thing together. They were a verbal, ‘Yes, we want to hold this thing together.’ But what they were saying and what was going on, not through the school itself but from the athletic department, wasn’t necessarily fact. So, from a selfish standpoint, to have a good rivalry in Boston, because I enjoy going back there every year … Rivalries are great, and BC should be a very natural rivalry, them being in the ACC and we being, certainly, at that level.”

“I’ve never been one to hold back on how I felt about things, and that’s how I felt about it. I don’t apologize for it. I mean, why would we ruin a New England rivalry?”

While Calhoun said he wasn't upset with BC, there's no doubt that he and DeFilippo, who's now retired, didn't see eye-to-eye, to put it mildly.

“No, not at all, when that started. He and I got along before that. But he and I had a disagreement over the direction they said they were going, but they weren’t going. But, that’s all in the past, it’s all in the future now. I think it’ll be a very good game for us.”

Calhoun would like to rekindle more New England rivalries, not just with BC.

“I watched UMass (at the Coaches vs. Cancer tournament in Boston last week), the best team of the six. I’m not telling Kevin (Ollie) who to play, but that’s not a bad rivalry for us, either. When John (Calipari) got there and they got good, we played them.”

*** On a conference call today, Kevin Ollie also talked about rekindling the BC-UConn rivalry:

"It’s a great team, right in our region. We had a lot of wars in the Big East. I remember a lot of them when played at UConn. Coach Steve Donahue is doing a great job, they’re explosive on the offensive end. (Olivier) Hanlan is one of the top point guards in country, he's doing wonderful job. They’re going to continue to play their type of basketball."

Ollie said his fondest memory of BC-UConn was a game up at Chestnut Hill lwhen "we were down 29 or 30 -- I may be exaggerating, I get that from Coach Calhoun -- and we came back. I remember that game vividly. We always had some tough battles. I love the challenge Boston College presents every game."

UConn, of course, was 8-0 vs. the Eagles when Ollie was a player, in the midst of an amazing 23 straight wins the Huskies had over BC from 1988 to 2000. UConn won 28 of the last 31 meetings and is 54-35 all-time against BC -- though the Eagles did win the last match-up on Jan. 5, 2005 in Hartford.

Couple of quick little nuggets this afternoon:

I must have missed this, having gone on vacation soon after the basketball season was over, but former UConn grad assistant/jack-of-all-trades Ben Wood has found a new home at the University of Rhode Island.

Wood, a graduate of Woodbury's Nonnewaug High School, is the director of player development at URI. He'll run the team's video operations, coordinate film exchange and opponent breakdowns and edits, as well as oversee the team's community relations program, staff of team managers, and serve as the staff liasion with the academic services office.

Wood, a 2007 UConn grad (and 2009 masters grad from UConn), was a well-respected part of the Huskies' program for the past several years. He started as a team manager as a freshman, became the head manager as a junior in 2007 and, after graduating with a geography degree, became graduate manager while working on his geography master's.

This year, he was slated to begin writing his dissertation and his professors told him he really had to fully commit to that for a year. Not wanting to get out of basketball, he looked for a job and, with a great deal of help from UConn associate head coach George Blaney (who shares Seton Hall bonds with new URI coach Danny Hurley), got the job despite never having met Hurley before the interview.

Everyone in the UConn program was happy for Wood, including Jim Calhoun.

“Before I had told anybody, he knew I had the job," Wood recalled. "He left me a voice mail that was very, very nice, thanked me for all I had helped with. He’s always encouraged me to want more, go for more.”

In his new position, Wood is basically like UConn's Kevin Freeman: can't coach on the floor, can't recruit, but can be in coaches' meetings, etc.

*** Meanwhile, the news isn't as good for ex-UConn star Charlie Villanueva, who was cut from the Dominican Republic national team and won't be with them at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

The Dominican head coach, of course, is John Calipari.

"Charlie was not in good form when we saw him," Calipari said to Deportes en la Z, after Villanueva had a private workout for the team in New York. "He was overweight, and unfortunately, we could not slow down the entire team and it was a decision taken collectively."

Warning: If you hate John Calipari and have any preconceived notions about what a dirty scoundrel he is, don't read this story. Or, better yet, maybe you should.

Calipari was in Stratford Wednesday night, not to recruit a player but to be the guest speaker at the St. Joseph's boys basketball banquet. Stems from his long-time friendship with St. Joe's coach Vito Montelli.

I'm not saying this is the greatest act of kindness ever performed by a college basketball coach (though it's not the first time Cal has done something like this). But let's face it, the head coach of the national champions didn't have to come from Kentucky to Stratford, Conn., on a Wednesday night to address a high school boys basketball team -- one which holds no potential recruits for him. Just a guy being loyal to his friend.

Not saying Calipari is a saint, but maybe he's not as evil as some make him out to be.

*** On another note, while sifting through my blog archives this morning looking for an old post, I came across this from April 9, 2009, just a few days after UConn had been beaten by Michigan State in the Final Four: Calhoun, through a press release sent out by the school, announced that he would be returning to coach UConn  the following season. Why? To nip all the rumors of his potential retirement in the bud, and as much as anything else, help the Huskies on the recruiting trail.

So when Calhoun says now that, with two years left on his contract, there's no reason for him to announce he's returning and that the only announcement would be if he's not returning ... well, that wasn't the case three years ago. Obviously, he wants to keep some doors open.

According to Adam Zagoria, Alex Oriakhi had some pretty heady house guests over the past several days: John Calipari, Frank Haith and Chris Mack (coaches of Kentucky, Mizzou and Xavier, respectively, in case you didn't know).

Zags also reports that Oriakhi will visit Missouri this weekend (where he can catch up with former longtime AAU teammate Phil Pressey) and Kentucky the following weekend. North Carolina and Duke aren't out of the picture yet, Oriakhi says, but Washington apparently is.

We'll see where this all ends up. Seems re-uniting with Jamal Coombs-McDaniel and Patrick Sellers at Hofstra won't happen, though they'd love it if it did.

Plenty more UConn-related news sure to come over the next week or so ...

According to CBSsports.com's Jeff Goodman, Alex Oriakhi will be meeting with John Calipari, newly-crowned national championship head coach of Kentucky, today. Goodman says he's been told that Oriakhi would be able to play at the SEC school if he chooses an area of study not offered at UConn. I was told last month that Oriakhi was majoring in sociology but was thinking of switching majors to sports communications and journalism. But then, I was also told that he had no plans of transferring anywhere.

Per Goodman, Oriakhi would be eligible to play right away, but that's only if UConn is barred from next year's NCAA tournament. The school is currently appealing its ban and is also hoping the NCAA Committee on Academic Performance changes its calendar on which APR scores it uses to impose postseason bans.

On a somewhat related note (bear with me for a moment), it was recently revealed that LSU football player scored a 4 on his NFL Wonderlic test. For me, the issue isn't whether this should or shouldn't have been leaked or what the test means for future players or how over-hyped and over-publicized the stupid NFL draft process is in the first place. The issue is this: how did Claiborne stay academically eligible at LSU if he obviously has a learning disability?

I mean, seriously, does the SEC even pretend it cares about educating its top-line athletes. I don't care that John Calipari utilizes the one-and-done system to his advantage and better than everyone else. My question is how his players leave school in "good academic standing" when it's obvious (and completely understandable) that they're worrying about their draft stock from now until June and will be busy with NBA tryouts, camps, etc.

Calipari said the other day that Kentucky has the highest APR score in the SEC. How is that possible? Or maybe it's not surprising, given the obvious lack of focus on education at LSU and elsewhere.

UConn freshman forward DeAndre Daniels can be forgiven if his mind hasn’t totally been on basketball in recent days.

Daniels’ sister, Keirstyn Schumpert, had surgery on Sunday to remove a brain tumor. Doctors were able to remove the tumor and Schumpert is still resting in the hospital but could go home as soon as Thursday, according to Daniels.

He and his family were at the hospital for about seven hours on Sunday.

“It was real tough, just waiting until the doctor came out to tell us what’s going on,” he said.

Daniels added that right now, the right side of his sister’s face is numb, but she is cancer-free.

Schumpert is a standout guard at Manchester High. Daniels wasn’t sure what the surgery could mean for her basketball future.

*** Royce White is a matchup nightmare, but it's starting to feel like people are making him out to be the next Magic Johnson. No doubt, however, he's a big concern for UConn.

"I think the thing he does is he makes you -- you don't want to get polarized on him and get beat," said Jim Calhoun. "He can help facilitate that, so it becomes very difficult. But he's a heck of a basketball player. I was talking to a pro scout today who's seen him four or five times and just said he's got some (Kevin) McHale stuff inside. Right now, I wouldn't consider him a great shooter outside, but he just does things to help his team win."

Andre Drummond, Roscoe Smith and Alex Oriakhi could all see time guarding White.

"Just to give you an idea," Calhoun noted, "this morning at practice, we played four different guys on him -- small, big. We tried different sets trying to figure out which way he'd try to go after us.

Said Drummond: “He’s a big man that dribbles the ball, passes to his open teammate. A lot of focus is on him, because you’re not used to see a 6-8 big bring the ball up the court and run their offense. But we know what we’ve got to do to win this game.”

That means utilize the Huskies’ significant size advantage by rebounding and defending inside.

“If anything, it creates a matchup problem for them,” Drummond added. “(White is) shorter, you’ve got me and Alex down on the post.”
For what it's worth, UConn came off very confident today. Not cocky, but definitely confident.

*** And, of course, there's ISU's prowess on 3-pointers -- a bugaboo for UConn defensively most of the season.

“In some of the regular season games, I think we didn’t work as hard to defend the 3 as we could,” said Jeremy Lamb. “We let people get open shots, and they were able to hit a couple, and it gave them confidence to hit more. I think we’ve just really got to be ready to close out, no easy buckets.

In short, the Cyclones can be a matchup problem for UConn.

“They’re attacking two things that, during the year, have reared its ugly head for us,” Calhoun admitted. “We block shots down low very well, but we haven’t taken away the kind of penetration I’d like to see. And, at a particular point in seven or eight games, we were just God-awful (defending the) 3. We’ve worked hard and gotten better at it, but we’re going to be put to the ultimate test.”

*** Win and the Huskies should get the Saturday night date that everybody seems to want: a rematch with Kentucky, the No. 1 overall seed.

"You definitely hear it from the fans, they definitely want to see the UConn-Kentucky matchup," said Oriakhi. "Coach tells us to take it one game at a time. We're just trying to beat Iowa State and then play Saturday. If we win on Saturday, we want to play again."

There were about 8,000 UK fans at the Wildcats' open practice on Wednesday. There were about eight UConn fans.

*** Although UConn and Iowa State have never played each other, the Cyclones have two players who have played against the Huskies.

Chris Allen was a sophomore on the Michigan State team in 2009 that beat UConn in the Final Four. He scored two points in nine minutes off the bench in the Spartans’ 82-73 victory in Detroit. Allen also played on MSU’s Final Four team the following year before transferring to Iowa State. He has played in 14 NCAA tournament games, most by any player in this year’s field.

Also, senior guard Scott Christopherson was a freshman at Marquette in 2008 when the Golden Eagles lost at UConn, 89-73. He transferred to ISU the following season.

In fact, Iowa State has seven transfers on its roster, including ex-Michigan State standout Korie Lucious, who’s red-shirting this season.

“Did I plan on bringing six of them in my first year?” Hoiberg said. “No, it just happened to be a year where a lot of guys were leaving their schools.”

*** Brigham Young arrived in town on Wednesday after rallying from 25 points down to beat Iona the night before. The Cougars will face Marquette on Thursday.

BYU has a UConn tie: first-year BYU assistant coach Mark Pope is the brother-in-law of former UConn director of basketball operations Beau Archibald. Pope, a team captain on the 1996 national-champion Kentucky team, is married to Archibald’s sister, LeeAnne. The couple married in 1999 and has four daughters.

*** Some interesting stuff from John Calipari on how to alleviate the one-and-done situation (something he says he doesn't like) and Calhoun on whether Calipari might move on to the NBA, particularly if he finally wins a national title.

Said Calipari: "Here's what I would say. It starts with you get the NCAA in the room, and you say you give these kids the stipend they deserve. That's one.

Two, the insurance that they have to pay for themselves, which can be upwards of $15,000 per year, $20,000 per year that they have to pay for themselves. They're loaned the money, and then they have to repay it when they come out. The NCAA should pay that to encourage them to stay.

The third thing is families, the NBA, and the NCAA should get together and have a loan program for those families‑‑ we're only talking 30 kids. We're not talking 500 players. We're talking 30 kids that would be eligible for that insurance. They should be able to have a loan. To what level, I don't know.

The last two things are the NBA. And Billy Hunter and I have talked about these. One, if a young man stays more than two years, his contract, his rookie contract should be shorter. And if a young man graduates, his pay scale should be higher when he comes in. Now we encourage these young people. It's about them. You should stay because of the integrity of our school. Unless you're Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, you guys leave and go change the world. But you guys, you stay in school because it's the integrity. It doesn't make sense to me.

My thing is these kids are chasing their dreams just like tennis players and golfers and geniuses and computer geeks and all the others. They're chasing their dreams the same way. And what we've got to do is come together and say, how do we do right by these young people? How do we make sure?

If the NBA says, no, we don't want to shorten their contract, well, then, it's on them. It's not on Billy Hunter, and it's not on the NCAA. If the NCAA says, no, we're not going to pay for this insurance. Those kids should pay for it themselves, disability insurance. Then that's on the NCAA.

But I think there's some things we can do, and hopefully people will come together and say these are simple things that would encourage young people to stay in school.

Let me say this. It's like last year. Brandon Knight. Brandon Knight was a 4.0 student and had 60 college credits after one year. He transferred in 23 honors courses, and he graduated with 60 college credits. That's two years of work in one year. But he was the seventh pick of the draft. How could you tell him to stay?

And Detroit, the Pistons, they love him. They want him to be what their whole organization is about. So it's not academic, and it isn't. It's what is right for these young people."

Say what you want about Calipari, but he makes some very solid points. Too bad it's unlikely the NBA Players Association would ever accept.

And here's what Calhoun had to say about Calipari:

"John at present rate, based upon numbers, is going in the Hall of Fame, assuming he stays in college basketball. And if he keeps‑‑ in 1990, we got beat by Christian Laettner's shot. For the next nine years, we were tortured that we weren't good because we couldn't win a National Championship, and we were good. Ray Allen, Donyell‑‑ we all know there's a lot of good players at UConn. We average 26 wins a year, the whole thing. A lot of final eights, just couldn't get there.


If you stick with it and you smell it enough, you'll get it. So I don't think it's a case of John winning or not winning a National Championship. Can I imagine John going in the NBA or anything else? Yes. Or anything else? Yes. I think John very simply marches‑‑ always has, even when he was a young guy. When he was at Pitt, marches to his own drummer, and I think that John has taken that and obviously done a very good job coaching‑wise and otherwise.

Let's put it this way. Maybe in your own set of mind, would you think it's some sort of standard, because I heard a lot of years until I won a few‑‑ you know, he's on the landscape now. You really don't have to look, find, and come up with a much better coach, quite frankly. I know he has a lot of very good talent. He does a lot with that very good talent.

My point being simply, if he feels that way, what you're talking, that's the difference. I've never had a chance to ask him, nor would I really. It's going to be his choice. He certainly can handle the players, that's one thing. And I've always said that some of our best teams are much more difficult to handle because of talent, and he's done a remarkable job doing that.

I don't think he has to prove anything more in college basketball if he got a very good NBA job, if that's what he'd want to do. I personally don't think he has to prove anything."

Michael Bradley will give up his scholarship to Andre Drummond this season. Bradley will qualify for significant financial aid due to his unique upbringing. He spent a good portion of his childhood at the Tennessee Baptist Children's Home in Chattanooga.

It's a pretty terrific gesture on Bradley's part. I've been told by those close to him that he has been willing to do it from the start, so long as everything works out financially, and that he didn't feel forced into doing it.

Still, the whole situation makes me a little uncomfortable. Why should a kid who obviously has come from a tough background have to forfeit his scholarship to a kid who didn't even decide he'd be attending college until a few days before classes started? And I'm not blaming Drummond here, either. He's 18 years old, after all -- he's allowed to be a bit indecisive, especially when you consider all the various pressures on him to finally make a choice.

I blame a system that allows these types of things to happen. And please, spare me the argument that John Calipari ran a bunch of kids off the team when he first got to Kentucky. You really want to be lumped in the same class as Calipari? Rick Pitino made players give up scholarships too, you say? Doesn't make it any less wrong.

Hopefully, everything works out well for Michael Bradley. We don't know the exact details of what kind of aid he'll be getting, and what kind of loans he may have to pay back. I'm going to assume that Jim Calhoun, who has always looked out for the best interests of his players, has done so here and has made sure that Bradley hasn't been put in a great financial burden.

I'm going to hope so, anyway.

While John Calipari will get $325,000 in postseason bonuses despite losing to Jim Calhoun in the Final Four, Calhoun may not get one dime back for winning a national championship.

Here's my story in today's Register detailing how Calhoun may not get his $87,500 bonus for winning the national championship due to the program's failure to meet APR standards.

The gist: according to the five-year contract extension Calhoun and UConn agreed to back in May, Calhoun is to receive a bonus equal to three months of his annual salary for winning the NCAA championship. Calhoun’s base salary is currently $350,000 (he makes nearly $2 million more in speaking and media fees), so that bonus, which would be paid out in August, would equal about $87,500.

However, the contract also stipulates that such a payment would only be made “if the Academic Progress Rate (APR) … for the men’s basketball team has been satisfactorily met.” UConn should learn in a few weeks whether it meets APR standards, but it’s a virtual certainty that the program will fall short of the standard score of 925.

That means Calhoun could suffer a double-whammy: not only could his bonus be kept from him, but per his contract, he must also donate $100,000 to UConn’s general scholarship fund if the men’s hoops program fails to meet APR standards. Oh, and the Huskies would lose at least one, and most likely two scholarships for next season (on top of the scholarship they’ve already been docked by the NCAA committee on infractions).

Ouch!

Some at UConn believe the school’s new administration, headed by incoming president Susan Herbst, could overlook the contract stipulation that Calhoun doesn’t receive his bonus. But if not, failing to meet APR standards could ultimately cost the 25th-year UConn head coach about $187,500.

The APR is a metric established by the NCAA in February, 2005, to measure the success of collegiate teams in moving student-athletes towards graduation. Each player on a given roster earns a maximum of two points per team – one for being academically eligible and one for staying with the institution.

The fact that Kemba Walker is on course to graduate in three years won’t help UConn right now, since this year’s APR, which should be released in mid-May, is based on the most recently completed academic year and the last reported four-year rolling average. That means that for this season, the APR data for 2009-10 is utilized.

In order to avoid scholarship reductions (and, in Calhoun’s case, to earn his postseason bonuses), teams must have an APR above 925 – equal to a 50-percent graduation rate.

What will hurt the Huskies this time around is the amount of players who left the program ineligible, and not on track to earn their degree. Once again, the program will get burned by Nate Miles, who was expelled from the school in the fall of 2008. His departure has counted against UConn’s APR score for the past two academic years, and will continue to do so for the next two, as well.

And this probably won’t make Calhoun feel much better: Calipari, his longtime nemesis whom Calhoun beat in the Final Four, is scheduled to earn $325,000 for Kentucky’s postseason run. According to reports, Calipari earns $50,000 for winning the SEC tournament, $100,000 for reaching the Sweet 16 and $175,000 for reaching the Final Four. That means Calipari’s bonuses alone nearly equal Calhoun’s base salary.

Calhoun’s contract has no bonuses for winning the Big East tournament. He would have earned half a month’s salary for winning national coach of the year and a quarter month’s salary for being selected Big East coach of the year, but he won neither.

Oh, and this: Geno Auriemma (another one of Calhoun's not-so-good friends) is slated to receive his bonus of about $58,333, even though the UConn women’s basketball team was upset in the Final Four. Auriemma has the same base salary as Calhoun and the same bonus stipulations: a month’s salary for reaching the NCAA tourney, two months’ salary for reaching the Final Four or three months’ for winning the national title.

Over the past few weeks, Kemba Walker has burned just about any player who’s tried to guard him.

He’s torched guys who were the defensive players of the year in their conferences, shot over smaller guards, blurred past 6-foot-8 forwards and forever resigned poor 6-10 Gary McGhee to Craig Ehlo status after an ankle-breaking move for a game-winning shot.


Tomorrow night, DeAndre Liggins gets his chance. Liggins, a 6-6 junior who was the Southeastern Conference defensive player of the year, is certainly ready.

“The thing with me is taking on the challenge, being competitive,” the Chicago native said on Friday, “having confidence that I can stop the other guy.”

Liggins has stopped other top players this season, most notably Tennessee star Scotty Hopson (5-for-18, 24 points in his two meetings with Liggins this season). Of course, he wasn’t so successful guarding Walker in the Maui Invitational championship game on Nov. 24. Liggins – and several other Wildcat defenders – allowed Walker to pour in 29 points and lead the Huskies to the title.

“He killed me, he killed us,” Liggins recalled. “He had it going offensively. He has great confidence and my job is to contain him a little more.”

Walker has all but said that no one can stop him in the past, but he was judicious in his praise of Liggins on Friday.

“He’s one of the better defenders because he’s extremely active and had a height mismatch over me,” Walker said. “He’s got great length. I know it’s going to be a difficult, tough night for me. But I’m just counting on my teammates to give me the ball in the right situations and set up some great screens.”

Liggins is anticipating a tough night, as well.

“You can’t stop players like (Walker),” he said. “You just have to do your best on them. If he makes shots over you, then you have to live with that. But he is going to make shots over me (tonight). He is going to make some crazy shots, but I have to keep playing. I can’t get frustrated.”

Cal vs. Cal, Pt. Deux

Not to belabor this, but it is fun: Jim Calhoun and John Calipari are having fun with the (correct) perception that the two don’t get along well.

When asked about their bitter feuds back when Calipari was coaching UMass, Calhoun said: “He was loud, 50 miles away, trying to fight for a little bit of turf in New England … John really was trying to claim New England, he could never say he ‘parked the car in Harvard yard,’ he didn’t know what clam chowder really was. He had the red stuff, not the real clam chowder. I took umbrage to it, but I take umbrage to a lot of things.”

Calhoun did add, however: "He's developed into, in my opinion, a terrific coach. I watched the way he coaches. His kids play hard, play great defense and play together. He's been getting, as you well know, tremendous, big-name players. I have a lot of respect for him as a coach and no disdain for him as a person."

Calipari addressed Calhoun’s “My Three Sons” reference earlier in the week, when he referred to the other three (younger) coaches in the Final Four as “my two sons, and my problem child.”

“I did tell him that I knew (“My Three Sons” star) Fred MacMurray, Mr. Calhoun,” Calipari said, “and you are no Fred MacMurray.”

Awkward!

Calipari was asked two questions at today's press conference that indirectly referenced his past, which includes his two prior Final Four apperances (with UMass and Memphis) being vacated later by the NCAA.

First, he was asked if he is the "2000 Jerry Tarkanian."


"I respect everything that Jerry did, his kids, how they played, all those things," Calipari said. "But no, I think I'm the 2011 John Calipari. I don't know what that means and I hate to talk in the third party. But I am who I am."

Later, someone asked him "how it feels to coach in your first Final Four?"

Calipari smiled and said, "I don't deal with that. We've been here three times. Those players played those games and did what they were supposed to. I'm so proud of what they've all accomplished. It's been fun. It's been a good experience, and this is going to be a good experience."

Not Here to Talk About the Past

Calhoun was reminded of his own checkered past, as well. He was asked about Nate Miles' recent interview with Slam magazine, in which Miles said UConn's athletics administration knew that the Yahoo story was coming out and were looking (particularly A.D. Jeff Hathaway) for a way to boot him out of school.

"I said my personal and private feelings would not be discussed, and are not going to be discussed," Calhoun said. "If anybody wants to drag up an experiene that happened two years ago, bring it back up, that's their choice. I'm going forward because I'm going forward with my life."

Please feel free to join me for a live chat today at 1:30 p.m. from Reliant Stadium in Houston. I'll be talking UConn hoops and Final Four hoops in general. You can join me here and/or submit questions throughout the day via Twitter at #NHRUConn.

Thanks, and hope to see you then.

In the meantime, here are my stories from today's Register, on Kentucky's Brandon Knight, who nearly went to UConn, and on the Jim Calhoun-John Calipari relationship over the years.

... or should I say, The Hooner vs. Johnny Clam Chowder? Nah, Cal vs. Cal works fine. Heck, John Calipari is referred to rather chummily in Kentucky's media notes as Cal, so why can't we?

As we blogged about a few days ago, these two guys don't like each other much. Perhaps their frosty relationship is best described in this piece on lostletterman.com, which explains how Calhoun used to dub him "Johnny Clam Chowder" in an attempt to mock Calipari as an outsider (from Pittsburgh) trying to tell people what's good for New England basketball.

Good stuff there. And here's how Calipari responds to my question on how he'd characterize his current relationship with Jim Calhoun:



Now, let's see how the two coaches stack up, head-to-head, in various different categories.

Head-to-head: Calhoun 3, Calipari 2

Career victories: Calhoun 853, Calipari 509

Career winning pct.: Calhoun .699 (853-367), Calipari .771 (509-151)

Current players on NBA opening day rosters: Calhoun 11 (Allen, Hamilton, Butler, Okafor, Gordon, Villanueva, Gay, Armstrong, Thabeet, Price, Adrien; Calipari 12 (Bledsoe, Camby, Carney, Cousins, Dorsey, Douglas-Roberts, Evans, Orton, Patterson, Rose, Wall, Williams)

Active coaching tree (former assistants now head coaches): Calhoun 6 (Dickenman, Hobbs, Jarvis, Moore, Pikiell, Woodward), Calipari 6 (Barbee, Flint, Kellogg, Martin, Pastner, Roccaforte)

30-win seasons: Calhoun 8, Calipari 7

NCAA tournament wins: Calhoun 47, Calipari 32

National championships: Calhoun 2, Calipari 0

Final Fours: Calhoun 4, Calipari 3

Final Fours vacated by NCAA committee on infractions: Calhoun 0, Calipari 2

Programs brought to Final Four: Calhoun 1, Calipari 3

Sweet 16's: Calhoun 13, Calipari 8

Elite 8's: Calhoun 9, Calipari 6

NIT championships: Calhoun 1, Calipari 1

Background: Boston Irish, Pittsburgh Italian. Let's call this one a draw.

NBA experience: Claims he was once final cut in Celtics camp, 2 1/2 messy years as head coach of Nets. Let's call this one a draw, too.

Infamous quotes: "I f@$&ed up" or "Not one dime back" or countless others vs. calling a New Jersey reporter a "Mexican idiot."

Scandal: Nate Miles recruiting mess vs. Marcus Camby's pay-for-play or Derrick Rose cheating on SATs

Angering other coaches: Unfairly blaming Mick Cronin for not voting Kemba Walker first team all-Big East vs. John Chaney threatening to kill him.

Dave Beckerman tried.

Not in a pushy way -- he knows Brandon Knight already has dozens of hangers-on pushing and pulling him one way or another, so he'd never impose anything on him. But Beckerman, the New Haven native and longtime UConn fan who coached Knight at Pine Crest School in Boca Raton, Fla., tried in his own way to persuade Knight to choose Jim Calhoun and UConn over John Calipari and Kentucky.

Didn't work. Knight, was we all know, opted for Lexington last April in a press conference at Pine Crest School that I attended (I was on vacation in Florida at the time).

Why did Knight go Blue? Beckerman thinks there were various reasons.

"The (Jasper) Howard issue, the issue of health with Jim Calhoun, his contract, the (NCAA) investigation. A lot of things added up, and at the end of the day may have even been used against UConn, which I’m not sure of.”

He also noted that Knight had relatives who lived in the Lexington area.

On Thursday, Knight talked about his decision to choose UK over UConn. "It was a tough decision, but Kentucky was my final choice. I liked UConn, but I just felt better off going to Kentucky," adding that Beckerman informed him about UConn, but "really just wanted the best for me.”

He also noted that Calipari's success with one-and-done point guards like Derrick Rose, Tyreke Evans and John Wall also played a role.

“It definitely weighed in my decision, just knowing that a lot of other guards that were pretty good in high school trusted Coach Cal to get them to the next level, and to help them get better individually. Also the fact that other players around those people got a lot better.”

Knight’s decision was crushing to UConn fans at the time. Around the same time, the program was being shunned by other top recruits (Josh Shelby, Corey Joseph and Doron Lamb, who’s also now a freshman guard at UK), and Knight’s nix seemed to hint that Calhoun was slipping on the recruiting trail.

Rather, it may have been a blessing in disguise. Had Knight committed to UConn, Shabazz Napier almost certainly wouldn’t have come to Storrs (at least for this season; Napier said he may have opted for another year at prep school had Knight become a Husky).



And though Jeremy Lamb had already committed to the Huskies, it’s doubtful he would have emerged as the dynamic, versatile scorer he’s become over the past couple of months.

It’s also hard to envision how Walker and Knight would have shared the same backcourt, even if both have proven quite adept at playing off the ball.

Still, Beckerman, who founded the former New Haven-based Starter sports apparel line and was the head coach at Hamden Hall for a few years, can’t help thinking of how life would have been different for Knight in Storrs.

“I think he clearly would have been a much more offensive threat,” Beckerman said. “I don’t know if that would have taken away from Kemba in terms of offense, and I don’t know if Kemba cares about that. Calipari is trying to mold him into a pass-first,shoot-second point guard. Jim Calhoun lets the natural instincts come out in a player. That’s his formula for success.”

Knight averaged 17.3 points and 4.2 assists per game as a Wildcat freshman. He’s reached double figures in all but three of UK’s 37 games, but has really risen to prominence in the NCAA tournament. Knight’s bank shot with two seconds left against Princeton (his only two points of the game) kept the Wildcats from an embarrassing first-round loss. And his jumper with 5.4 seconds left against Ohio State moved the Wildcats into the Elite Eight, where they beat North Carolina behind Knight’s game-high 22 points.

Knight’s Kemba-like ability in the clutch is nothing new to Beckerman, who recalled a regional championship game in Knight’s junior season. Pine Crest was losing, one of its best players had just fouled out and everyone on the bench – including Beckerman – had their heads down.

During a timeout, Knight turned to Beckerman and asked, “Coach, what time is practice tomorrow?” He then proceeded to go out and hit three 3-pointers and six straight free throws over the next three minutes, propelling Pine Crest into the state finals with a 52-point effort.

Now Beckerman, who winters in Boca Raton while coaching Pine Crest but spends his summers in Guilford, will be torn while watching the Final Four. He’ll root for Knight to have a good game, but root for UConn to win.

And deep down, he’ll still wonder what it would have been like had Brandon Knight become a Husky.

“It would have been great for UConn,” Beckerman said, “and, candidly, I think it would have been great for Brandon.”