Last weekend, the website Collegespun.com posted some interesting research about various major college basketball programs and the money their players have gone on to earn in the NBA. UConn, which currently has 13 players who earned more than $76 million this past season, ranks second on the list. Duke’s players earned $77.2 million, but there are five more, 18 of them.
Rudy Gay ($16.4 million) and Emeka Okafor ($13.5) led Huskies in the salary column.
Anyway, here is a link to collegespun’s piece.
This is a list of UConn players in the NBA and their current salaries. Imagine this might spur some
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Perhaps there used to be a stigma attached to college basketball players who transferred, the perception that there must be some problem. But with more than 400 transfers this year moving around this year alone, it would be counterproductive for schools to think that way nowadays.
They can’t all have attitude problems.
Rodney Purvis, one of the top guards in the Class of 2012, left NC State, he says, not because he was unhappy with playing time or any of the coaches or the school. He averaged 25 minutes a game, but felt he just didn’t fit in with their style of play. He transferred to UConn on April 5.
“I didn’t fit as far as the offense,” Purvis said Thursday, after a workout. “Even the coaches told me, ‘our offense is really for guys who catch and shoot.’ I had to get somewhere where I could play my game, and that’s attacking, having fun, playing in transition. It was the style of play, that’s all.”
“It was really hard for anybody to find a role on that team. We had a lot of really good guys and it was hard
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Just chatted with Jim Calhoun, who is heading to Sarasota, Fla., for Dick Vitale Gala on Friday night, at which he will be one of the honorees …
The event, in its eighth year, has raised $10 million for pediatric cancer research and the Jimmy V. Foundation. This is, as one imagines, a cause near and dear to Calhoun’s heart, as a cancer survivor.
“Jim Valvano did a lot of great things during his life,” Calhoun was saying, “win championships, help kids, change lives. But what he did when he was losing his own life, and he knew it, to set up a situation that keeps on helping people is just incredible. Something like this means a lot to me. It inspires me, not that I’m not already inspired but we can all use more inspiration, to see what more I can do to help people.”
Valvano passed away in 1993. Calhoun first met him in the early 1970s when V. was an assistant under Dee Rowe at UConn and he was recruiting one of Calhoun’s players at Dedham (Mass.) High.
“He could motivate anybody,” Calhoun said, “he could convince of anything. If he didn’t coach, he could have been an entertainer – he was that good, and that captivating.”
The always-glittering Dickie V. Gala at the Ritz Carlton is also honoring former Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden and Kansas basketball coach Bill Self, and it is sold out.
Calhoun, who turned 71 on May 10, is still a whirlwind of activity. His role at UConn going forward has not
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UConn’s upset victory over Michigan State at Ramstein Air Base in Germany last Nov. 9 has become a gift that keeps on giving. It turns out the Huskies, on national TV in Kevin Ollie’s first game as head coach, left an impression that night on Daniel Hamilton, the top-30 recruit who committed to UConn this past weekend.
“It looked like they were a brotherhood,” Hamilton said, by phone from Los Angeles on Monday night. “That’s where I started to think I could see myself playing for UConn. Guys were unselfish, and the big thing was, it just looked like they were having fun.”
Hamilton, who just averaged 22 points per game with his AAU team, ICP Elite, during a tournament in Dallas this weekend, announced his decision after a victory on Friday night. He had visited UConn a week earlier, May 3-5, where he played pickup with DeAndre Daniels, a friend from LA, and Ryan Boatright, and he spent some time in their dorm playing video games.
“They treated me like I was family,” he said.
Hamilton said he had the same impression when he visited coach Kevin Ollie’s home.
“It was a great atmosphere,” Hamilton said. “Coach Ollie seems very humble. He’s a people person, everybody seems to like being around him. I’ve never heard anyone talk bad about him. … That’s the kind of coach I wanted to play for, someone I can talk to any time, about anything.”
Daniel Hamilton’s familiarity with UConn actually goes way back. When he was in seventh grade, he came
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UConn got the news it was hoping for about midnight Friday. Daniel Hamilton, a top-shelf recruit in the Class of 2014, made public his intention to join the Huskies. He told Eric Bossi and Jerry Meyer following his AAU game in Dallas, and then tweeted his commitment.
“Ya boy, just committed to Connecticut,” Hamilton tweeted at 12:06 a.m. Eastern Time. “#huskyguard can’t wait.”
Hamilton, a 6-foot-7, 175-pound swingman, is considered an elite recruit, ranked 27th in his class by ESPN. He played at St. John Bosco High in Bellflower, Calif., where he averaged 14.5 points, 7.1 assists and 7.2 rebounds per game. He figures to fit perfectly into the small forward spot.
“Congrats to my little bro [Hamilton] committing to UConn,” tweeted DeAndre Daniels, who is also from the Los Angeles area.
UConn coaches cannot comment on a recruit until he signs his letter of intent, and that cannot come until November.
Hamilton’s brother, Jordan, plays in the NBA for the Denver Nuggets and was also recruited by UConn, but eventually chose Texas. His other brother, Isaac, plays at Texas-El Paso. Daniel Hamilton visited Storrs with his parents last weekend and program insiders felt good about the visit, anticipating he might make a quick decision.
He arrived in Dallas with his AAU team to play in the Nike EYBL tournament Friday and told reporters after his game he was going to UConn.
Hamilton will join guard Rodney Purvis, who transferred from NC State and will be eligible to play in 2014-15, to give the Huskies two very highly regarded players to form the core of the team with much of the current team finishing eligibility or expected to depart after next season.
For coach Kevin Ollie, who grew up in Los Angeles, it’s a break-through in that area as a recruiting base. All in all – a big night for the UConn program.
STORRS – R.J. Evans’ year at UConn is complete. He has reached his goals, and developed a few more.
Evans will receive his master’s degree in educational psychology on Saturday in UConn’s graduate ceremony, having completed the 30-credit program in 12 months – as he was playing basketball for the Huskies.
“I tell coach [Kevin] Ollie, ‘if R.J. were a mutual fund, I’d be buying him right now,’” says Scott Brown, Evans’ academic advisor, “because he’s going to be doing something.”
Evans, from Salem, Conn., arrived at UConn last summer with a degree in economics from Holy Cross and one year’s playing eligibility. Once he accepted a scholarship to play basketball, he asked Brown, who is UConn’s NCAA faculty representative and a professor of educational psychology, about the program.
“R.J. said he wanted to be a basketball coach,” Brown said, “and I told him a lot of famous coaches have
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Way back when, Ricky Moore was a high school player making an official visit to UConn, and Kevin Ollie was one of the team leaders that showed him around.
Now Moore, 37, is a full assistant on Ollie’s coaching staff and in July he will be taking to the road to help re-create the positive UConn experience for recruits.
I sat down with Moore this week for some of his thoughts on his new role, his career at UConn, including the 1999 title and how it shaped him, and his years playing overseas. Here is what he learned from watching OIlie last season:
“What I saw, it wasn’t about wins and losses. Guys came to practice, competed in practice. He wouldn’t let you [get by] if you were having an Okay practice, he wanted to get the best o ut of you in
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Omar Calhoun had two off-season surgical procedures to address discomfort in both hips, a UConn spokesman confirmed.
Calhoun had surgery to address femoral acetabular impingement (FAI) on his left hip in March and his right hip in April. The surgery involves shaving bone to alleviate discomfort, and hopefully avoid future discomfort. Recovery time is three to four months, so Calhoun, who will be a sophomore next season, should be 100 percent by mid-August. If he was considering trying for Team USA this summer, this injury would eliminate that.
Calhoun averaged 11.3 points and 3.9 rebounds last season, playing at small forward in all but the last game. He was hampered by a wrist injury late in the season.
Word of Calhoun’s surgeries was first reported via twitter by Hearst Connecticut Newspapers.
Q: Dom, what is the news on the recruiting front? Who are KO and UConn targeting? And what are realistic chances of the Huskies landing these prospects?
Jeff
Cromwell
A: Hi Jeff. The main development this week was Daniel Hamilton’s visit. Hamilton, 6-foot-6, the brother of Jordan Hamilton and a very highly rated shooting guard from the Los Angeles area, visited last weekend, as was scheduled a while ago. Daniel came with his parents. This visit went well, by all accounts, including Hamilton’s quote to Adam Zagoria (read here).
UConn is still limited in the number of official visits it can host, so the
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UConn has lined up another powerful non conference opponent: Florida.
As we mentioned here on April 24, when the Huskies were at the State Capitol, a series with the Gators has been in the works, as UConn looks to upgrade its out-of-conference schedule. There were scheduling conflicts to be worked out on both ends.
Apparently, they have been. Gatorzone, Florida’s official website, has listed UConn among Florida’s non-conference opponents next season, reporting the game will be Dec. 2, and “Florida’s first trip to Storrs.” (Not sure if the game is at Gampel or XL, though.)
UConn usually waits until all paperwork is complete to announce these things.
The Gators, perennial contenders under Billy Donovan, were 29-8 last season, reaching the Elite 8. It figures to be the start of an exciting series for UConn, assuming it includes a reciprocal trip to Florida. The Huskies and Gators last played in the 1994 NCAA Tournament, a painful OT loss for UConn in the Sweet 16 in Miami.
The Huskies need to beef up their non-conference schedule, to offset the loss of high-
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