JIM CALHOUN HATES KIDS WITH CANCER

by The Original JD, Six Pack Sports Report

Most people know that Jim Calhoun is the head basketball coach of the UConn Huskies and if you didn't know that you do now so don't tell people that you've never learned anything from SPSR. There have been a lot of things said about Calhoun and his coaching prowess, his ability to satisfy both women and men, and the fact that he is basically a god for about a 70 mile stretch of I-95. One thing that is often overlooked though is that he is a coward who apparently hates children with cancer.

In sports there is saying that "you can't be the man, until you beat the man." Many college basketball programs adhere to that principle - they schedule difficult non conference games to bring in both revenue and experience. The 2K Classic to Benefit Coaches vs Cancer is an early season tournament that allows teams to see where they stand, while raising money for a good cause, and playing some teams that they otherwise wouldn't get the chance to play. I stress that some people believe in competition, Jim Calhoun is not one of those people.

You see here in Worcester, Massachusetts there is a tiny college that you might know about because a certain ESPN Page 2 writer went there. It's called the College of the Holy Cross and in college basketball circles they are the lovable losers of first round NCAA tournament games to much bigger programs, gaining moral victories by keeping the score close for most of the game. They are coached by Ralph Willard a cancer survivor and they have yearned to be included in the Coaches vs Cancer Classic since last year. One of the players on the Holy Cross basketball team Andrew Keister a sophomore cancer survivor himself wrote to the Gazelle Group (organizers of the event) and asked that Holy Cross be considered for this years tournament. After the four host schools were selected Holy Cross was the first team asked - and naturally they accepted.

There is one catch though because Holy Cross is an educational institution first, and a athletics school second the only condition for the Crusaders was that they be allowed to play at UConn so that the students would not miss excessive hours of school time during the middle of the semester. The tournament organizers agreed and Holy Cross was signed up to play in the UConn bracket of the tournament. Everything seemed in line so the 'Saders set up the rest of their schedule and began looking forward to the 2007-2008 basketball season. Things seemed to be going well until Ralph Willard found out that they had been moved to the Oklahoma region for the Coaches vs Cancer Classic last week.

According to an interview that Jim Calhoun gave to the Republican-American of Waterbury, Conn he "submitted a list of preferred opponents to the Gazelle Group and that Holy Cross, because of it's slow-down style of play, was not among those opponents." Basically for those of you who went to UConn and thus don't understand what this means - Jim Calhoun told the Gazelle Group that his team would not face Holy Cross because they might lose. Instead Calhoun had the Crusaders replaced with Buffalo and the Cross was sent to Oklahoma. This came as a huge surprise to Ralph Willard who had already established that he would not take his team across the country for this tournament and thus Holy Cross was forced to withdraw from the tournament. An event I remind you that both Willard and one of his players (both cancer survivors) had a strong desire to be a part of.

Willard in this area is well known to be a genuinely nice human being and he actually seemed stunned that this happened. He told the Worcester Telegram that "I'm devastated for Andrew, he thought that playing the tournament would be a great example for kids suffering with cancer that they can make it, that there are good outcomes. I've been in this business for a long time and this is something that just shocks me. It's perplexing. It makes no sense." Willard continued "if you're going to have a tournament and call it Coaches vs. Cancer, a tournament that's supposed to support people with cancer and support cancer research, then it has to be about more than just winning and losing basketball games, that's the way I feel."

The most surprising part of the story to some people is that Jim Calhoun himself is a cancer survivor and the first person he called when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer two years ago was -- you guessed it -- Ralph Willard. These two guys are best friends and the fact that Calhoun would do something like this so late in the game shows what type of man he is. If you look at the UConn schedule for non conference games this year it's amazing: Morgan State, Buffalo or Ohio Valley, Gonzaga, Gardner-Webb, Florida A&M, Northeastern, Quinnipiac, Maine, Central Florida, and Indiana. Not exactly a murderers row of opponents.

Another reason that I have no respect for Calhoun or his team is that one of the teams that used to be on that schedule was my own alma mater UMass - Amherst. Calhoun is notorious around the campus of UMass for saying "when they were bad we were good, and when they were good we were great" and that is true so he had no problem scheduling the Minutemen. That all changed a few years ago when UMass started bringing in some big time recruits, started winning some games and even beat UConn in Amherst in the best game I've ever seen in person. Since then UConn has removed UMass from their schedule because they'd rather test themselves against Morgan State then against a team that might actually give them a game. It's obvious that Jim Calhoun has a history of making the non conference schedule for UConn as simple as possible because he's a coward.

Did I let my UConn bias come into play for this piece? Yeah probably. But Jim Calhoun has a history of being a d-bag and this was the icing on the cake. I haven't seen a lot said about the fact that he basically had Holy Cross removed because he would rather face Morgan State but the word needs to be out there - Jim Calhoun hates kids with cancer.

(Originally published 9/28)