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He sat down at the podium and for the next 30 minutes, Jim Calhoun took center stage. After complaining of feeling “lousy” and undergoing a battery of tests Thursday at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (missing UConn’s 103-47 win over Chattanooga), the Huskies coach was back at work Friday, leading his team through a two-hour workout at the Palestra before heading here to the Wachovia Center to address the media.

It’s tough trying to get a decent photo when you’re using the camera on your Blackberry phone but at least you can (hopefully) see that the coach looked in good spirits and was ready to get back on the sidelines.

Here’s his opening statement:
“First thing I want to say how proud I was of our kids yesterday, the way they just played, quite frankly, terrific basketball, kept their composure early. It was a 19-17 game, 12 to go. We had been there before a little bit, especially Jeff (Adrien) and Craig (Austrie), when we played Albany four years ago. Instead of trying to make it all happen at once, they in turn just piece-mailed some things together. Had a big halftime lead and went onto an impressive win. Couldn’t be happier for them and more proud of my good friend of 40 years George Blaney. So it was a terrific win for us. We’ve had a great deal of success, particularly over the past couple decades in NCAA post-season play, but we needed to kind of reestablish ourselves. At least for a game we certainly did that. I was very, very proud of them.

“As far as me personally, I fully expected to coach the game yesterday early in the morning, 10, 11 o’clock. I mentioned to Jeff Anderson, our doctor, that I wasn’t feeling particularly well, had felt weak for a couple days, but no problem. He said, Let’s go down and have you checked out. So we went down. I was checked out. Next thing I know, this hour or so turned into being admitted so they could do a full and thorough examination.

“They looked at virtually everything, it seems, and came out with the fact that I probably was totally dehydrated. They could find that out. I left early this morning. I bribed my way out of there as quick as I could. Quite frankly, I feel good now. I probably feel good because, once again, I got a full physical examination. I will say one thing. The full exam, which got high ratings, did not include a psychiatrist.”

Chris

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UConn men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun just arrived at the Wachovia Center with the Huskies team bus. He is “doing fine” according to good friend and UConn Associate Director of Athletics/Licensing and Athletic Traditions Tim Tolokan.
He will address the media at the Huskies press conference at 2:30 p.m.

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UConn men’s coach Jim Calhoun has been released from the hospital. We might get to talk to him today, we might not. We’ll see.

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It was a game … for about 10 minutes.
A.J. Price spoke about “imposing their will” on Chattnooga and that’s exactly what the Huskies did, destroying the Mocs 103-47. Coach Jim Calhoun wasn’t feeling well and missed the game. He was admitted to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for observation and is expected to be back coaching on Saturday.

Hasheem Thabeet (20 points, 13 rebounds) and Jeff Adrien (13 and 16) had double-doubles. Stanley Robinson had 24 and A.J. Price 20 for the Huskies.

Here’s some comments from A.J. Price:
“I think it’s (the win) a great confidence boost. We heard so much about us not winning a post season game. We wanted to get the monkey off our back, perform well, the way we did today. We can move on from here. We know Saturday (Texas A&M) is going to be a tough test, and we’re up for the challenge.”

(Talking to coach on the phone afterwards:)
“He told us it was a great performance. We did a great job defensively. We scored the basketball in transition the way we should have. He was upbeat about everything, told us he couldn’t wait to join us again. We can’t wait to have him back.”

(On making three straight 3-pointers after missing his first four shots)
“I was just thinking about getting one to go down for me. Couldn’t hit one, it seemed like, to start the game. Once I got the first one, I just got into a rhythm. I’ll a rhythm shooter. Got myself going after that. I think my teammates did a great job of pushing the ball in transition and getting the ball to me where I was able to make a play. The shots started going down for me.”

The Texas A&M Aggies — and their very impressive cheerleading squad — will be UConn’s second round opponent on Saturday.

Hey, I know it’s not the best photo in the world, at least I’m trying. Trust me. They are remarkable athletes in every sense of the word.

Chris

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Greetings from the Wachovia Center where the Connecticut Huskies start their quest, along with 63 other teams, to capture the NCAA title.

Today is usually the fun day with the practices being open to the public and all the teams going through layup lines and dunking contests. Tomorrow, though, Chattanooga’s will play the role of David and try and slay Goliath. However, the Mocs will need a lot more than a slingshot to stop the Huskies, even without Jerome Dyson.

Chattanooga coach John Shulman was great in his press conference. He started as a JV basketball coach at his old high school in Johnson City, Tennessee and over the past 24 years, he’s worked his way up the ladder, getting his first real chance at Division I coaching with the Mocs.
He marveled at Jim Calhoun’s 801 wins, joking that might not ever even get to coach in 800 games (he’s coached in 161) and that he keeps preaching two things to his team: Dream and believe. Coming off a 1-7 start to finish 18-16, Chattanooga has done just that. Dream and believe.
Shulman also knows how to party. When Chattanooga won the Southern Conference title and got the automatic berth in the NCAA tournament, the coach and his brother Jim celebrated by … eating hash browns at the local Waffle House.
What kind of hash browns?
“Scattered, smothered, covered and peppered,” Shulman said.
To those who never mastered Waffle House 101, “scattered” is hash browns spread over the grill, “smothered” is smothered with onions, “covered” is covered with cheese and “peppered” is with topped with jalapeno peppers.
Yum.

If anyone’s making the trip down from Husky Nation to see the games, Texas A&M and BYU lead things off at 12:30 p.m. with UConn and Chattanooga next around 3. At 7 p.m., the local favorite, Villanova takes on American before VCU and UCLA get going around 9:30 p.m.

See ya then!

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We are here in the City of Brotherly Love, or as John Adams so frustratingly sang in the musical 1776, “foul, fetid, fuming, foggy, filthy, Philadelphia.”
Yours truly and the Post’s intrepid UConn men’s basketball beat writer Neill Ostrout — rested and raring to go after that six-OT thriller against Syracuse in the Big East tournament last Thursday — are here preparing for the Huskies NCAA first round game against Chattanooga at the Wachovia Center, with a second round game against Texas A&M or BYU coming on Saturday. UConn shouldn’t have any trouble with the Mocs (Oops, we said that last year against San Diego too, didn’t we?) but it’s unlikely that anyone important will blow out their ACL (Jim Calhoun may blow his stack), so the Huskies should be good to get through both these games and into the Sweet 16.
Of course, when you come to Philadelphia, you have to sample the local fare and here, the local fare is … CHEESESTEAKS! (I’m trying not to drool like Homer Simpson).
Neill and I had to, I mean, we absolutely had to, stop at Pat’s the King of Steaks, which is located off Broad Street on Wharton or Passyunk Avenues. Geno’s, located across the street, may have the Neon (at night the place is lit up like a Christmas tree) but it’s Pat’s that has the best steak. Hey, it’s my opinion and I’m not changing it.
I ordered single (meat) … with (onions) and Cheese Whiz. Now, I’m not exactly sure what Cheese Whiz is and I really don’t want to know but it’s got to be good for you, right?
I mean, just look at that …

Doesn’t that look healthy?? Yum. Yum. I suppose in the manner of good sportsmanship, Neill and I might make our way to Geno’s to try their cheesesteaks and possibly to Steve’s Prince of Steaks, but I’m not promising anything.

Tomorrow, Neill and I will spend most of the day (goodbye sunshine) deep inside the Wachovia Center, listening to the press conferences from the eight schools that are here — Villanova, American, UCLA and VCU (East Region) are playing in the night session. We will talk to coach Calhoun and as many players as we can and fill you in on everything that’s going on leading up to Thursday’s 3 p.m. tip off.

So for now, (burp!), I mean, excuse me and good luck filling out your NCAA brackets.
Chris

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I went to Fairfield this week to see how Stags men’s basketball coach Ed Cooley was recovering after a season that could only be described as incredible.

Incredible in the fact that Cooley lost two starters in mid-season to season-ending injuries, lost another for an extended period of time in February, lost a fourth to disciplinary reasons (he was dismissed from the team) and had others playing through illness and various aches and pains.

Who can survive that? Since Marquette lost Dominic James, the Golden Eagles have lost five of their last six games. Since UConn lost Jerome Dyson, the Huskies have gone just 4-3. Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin missed a game against Kansas with a concussion. Guess what? The Sooners lost. Imagine North Carolina without Tyler Hansbrough? Imagine Memphis without Tyreke Evans?

But somehow, amazingly, the Stags did survive. They finished the season with a 17-15 record, their first winning season since Tim O’Toole guided Fairfield to a 19-12 campaign in 2003-04.

The injuries forced Cooley and his staff to throw game plans out the window. The remaining players – guys that hadn’t played a lot of meaningful minutes until all this stuff started happening – rose to the occasion and played on guts and heart and willed themselves to a couple of wins that had no business achieving.

“I talked to (Boston College) coach (Al) Skinner yesterday (Cooley was an assistant at BC under Skinner from 1997-2006) and he said, ‘Eddie, how you doin?’ and I said, ‘Coach …in all my years of basketball I’ve never been this tired.’ “ Cooley said, sipping coffee in his office. “He said, ‘When you go through what you did, your mind is never on off.’ Man …it’s been a long year.”

Still …

“It’s insane how that year went. Just the fact that we were able to accomplish a win with just six players,” Cooley said. “I thought our kids way overachieved … way overachieved and it’s a credit to them for believing for what we were selling. If you told me that I’d lose five starters (Herbie Allen missed a game with the flu) and you told me we’d be over .500? No way.”

Stories on my talk with coach Cooley will appear in Sunday’s Connecticut Post.

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Don Wilson’s Bridgeport Youth Lacrosse will be hosting a “Family Day” this Saturday at the Cardinal Shehan Center from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be a clinic by the New York Titans, along with a skills contest, scrimmage games and other youth activities. In addition, there will be a music, food, a bike show, autograph table, picture booth and raffles.
A donation to Bridgeport Youth Lacrosse will be admission into the event.