Sports

Calhoun’s Huskies look like Conn men

The hall of Fame coach slumped back in his chair, arms folded, legs crossed, as a senior St. John’s walk-on named John Taubeneck dribbled out the final garbage time seconds of a Hall of Shame nightmare.

Soon Jim Calhoun, resembling a zombie, began shaking hands with Norm Roberts and Red Storm players he might meet again in the NIT if, in the next day or two, he gets the tiniest inkling in his head that his Huskies won’t disgrace themselves, the school and the uniform the way they did yesterday.

When they were Conn Men, not UConn.

Roberts, even after a glorious victory like this, doesn’t get to decide when he walks away from his dream job. Calhoun does, and should, and those closest to him expect him to fight off retirement thoughts with the same fury he has fought off cancer and, most recently, a bout with hypertension.

The Lion of Storrs cannot, will not, go out like this, a 73-51 loser in the first round of the Big East tournament to a St. John’s team that played with so much more heart than the Conn Men you almost wondered whether Lou Carnesecca, seated behind the St. John’s bench, saw Chris Mullin and Walter Berry and Mark Jackson every time he closed his eyes.

Calhoun, 68 years old in May, hasn’t suddenly forgotten how to coach. His players, losers of four straight with an NCAA Tournament berth there for the taking, have forgotten how to play.

“I love the school, and I still love coaching, and yes, there is a contract offer out there,” said Calhoun, whose contract would be a five-year extension. “I haven’t seen the final copy. But it’s out there, yes.”

The Lion of Storrs didn’t roar much yesterday. He folded his arms and matter-of-factly lectured Gavin Edwards during a timeout after Malik Boothe stole the ball from Edwards. Roberts, fighting against all odds for his job, showed much more fire. Calhoun was either bewitched, bothered, bewildered or actually dispirited by his team’s unconscionable breakdown in every imaginable fundamental facet of the game — or all of the above.

“No, I never felt helpless,” Calhoun said. He was soon talking about The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight from Jamaica hitting 7 of its 13 treys.

“My theory on that always is when you can do what you want, your confidence increases and you make shots,” Calhoun said.

And the Conn Men sure let St. John’s do what it wanted. No effort, no defense, no pride. One play summed up the difference between the teams: when Paris Horne dove for one of the many loose balls the Conn Men surrendered to St. John’s late in the game and wisely called timeout before the scrum arrived at halfcourt.

“They had eight dunks that they had in the lane,” Calhoun said. “I’m not sure how many of those would have been blocked if I would have been jumping and yelling.”

The worst of the Conn Men was Jerome Dyson — nine turnovers in 26 minutes. No one — including Dyson — could explain his recent meltdown.

“I feel like I let my team down,” Dyson said. “I feel like I was making one bad play after another.”

He spoke softly, inside a morgue of a locker room. Calhoun had brought his sorrow into the coach’s room.

“It’s tough for Coach,” Edwards said. “He’s such a competitor that he expects all of his teams to come out and just play. We just kinda went half speed the whole game and Coach doesn’t really know how to handle that.”

Calhoun’s right-hand man, George Blaney, emerged in the Garden tunnel. Calhoun had already called “erroneous” an SNY report that claimed he was ready to say goodbye.

“I’ve never believed he’s not coming back — he loves to be in the gym, and that’s what he does,” Blaney said. “You don’t get to 800 wins by giving in.”

Calhoun talked about the respect he has for the NIT. The last time he took his team there was 2000-01.

“I just want to make sure that if they were gonna step back on the court to play a basketball game, that they would be able to bring emotion, energy and all the things you should bring to competition,” Calhoun said.

Kemba Walker was asked if he would welcome an NIT bid.

“If we do go in the NIT and we’re just gonna play like that,” he said, “I’d rather not.”