For UConn, the 2012-2013 season was an opportunity to take inventory. Incoming head coach Kevin Ollie inherited a roster featuring a dynamic backcourt combination in Ryan Boatright and Shabazz Napier, a talented forward in DeAndre Daniels, and several unproven youngsters, including guard Omar Calhoun.
In what was considered a lost season, with a postseason ban in effect, UConn fans were left to watch with an eye to the future — hoping to catch a glimpse of talent that would carry the program in the coming years. Shabazz Napier blossomed into the star who would lead the Huskies to a title the next year. Boatright and Daniels improved. But Calhoun was the team’s biggest surprise.
In his first game in a UConn uniform — an exhibition against AIC — Calhoun led all scorers with 24 points. Immediately, he had established himself as a key player in Ollie’s rotation. Calhoun didn’t play less than 25 minutes in a single game until an injury kept him out of the season finale versus Providence. In fact, Calhoun played more minutes than anyone on the roster except Napier and Boatright. His 11.1 points per game were fourth on the team (Napier, Boatright and Daniels).
Never shy, Calhoun launched 134 three-point attempts that season — his 32.1 percent, while not too impressive, is betrayed a bit by his 2-17 performance in his last two games. Overall, Calhoun scored 321 points in only 29 games. That’s more than his teammate Napier scored in the 41 games of his freshman season, and identical to the total Kemba Walker reached in 36 games in 2009.
Calhoun looked like a star in the making. Unlike the undersized duo of Boatright and Napier, or Daniels who meandered between the small and power forward slots, Calhoun had a clear course for a future as an NBA shooting guard. At 6’5” and 205 lbs, athletic and strong, Calhoun looked the part of a professional — those are also Ray Allen’s measurements, for reference.
Calhoun’s greatest moment in a UConn uniform came in a February 2013 game against Georgetown. With UConn trailing by three in the waning seconds, Calhoun buried a clutch three-pointer to send the game into overtime. The Huskies would eventually lose, but the memory of that shot — and an impressive season — carried over into the offseason.
Despite battling a wrist injury that would hinder his shot towards the end of the season and force him to sit out UConn’s final game, it was two off-season hip surgeries that began the strange slide that would plague Calhoun. The details of the procedures were gruesome: shaving bone to alleviate pressure and discomfort, first with the left hip, then the right.
While recovering from surgery, Calhoun missed out on off-season opportunities to improve his game. When he returned to the court to begin the 2013-2014 season, his mobility seemed to have returned, but his shooting stroke went missing.
After three double-figure scoring efforts to begin the year, in which he made eight of his 18 three-point attempts (44%), over the team’s next 37 games, Calhoun only crept into double-figures twice, and saw his minutes plummet along with his three-point percentage. The numbers were ugly: 30.5 percent from the floor, 24.1 percent from three. Calhoun played only 13.4 minutes a game as seniors Niels Giffey and Lasan Kromah usurped his playing time.
Perhaps most telling, in UConn’s eight losses Calhoun scored a total of ten points. Although the Huskies would go on to win the National Championship, it was apparent that Ollie could not depend on Calhoun in a must-win game. In the NCAA Tournament, Calhoun did not see the court in four of the six games, including the final three games of the year.
Because of his struggles, there were off-season whispers of a possible transfer. UConn’s backcourt was reloading with incoming transfer Rodney Purvis, freshmen Sam Cassell Jr. and swingman Daniel Hamilton. Returning guard Terrence Samuel figured to see an increase in playing time. In a crowded field, it would have been hard to fault Calhoun for seeking a fresh start somewhere else.
But, to his credit, Calhoun returned. There was a path for him to succeed. With so many unproven commodities on the roster, many thought Ollie would give Calhoun — the veteran — the first opportunity to play. Before he got the chance, a preseason knee injury forced Calhoun back to the sidelines.
That was in October. Calhoun hasn’t played since.
Despite being medically cleared, Calhoun has been on the bench watching his teammates struggle without him. As a unit, this year’s Huskies are shooting under 30 percent from three-point range. Cassell, who is the biggest beneficiary of Calhoun’s absence, is shooting 24.2 percent from deep and looks overmatched at times against quick defenses.
Shabazz Napier famously said that he was never truly healthy. The wear and tear of the college basketball season has a way of finding the parts of the body that are exploitable and prodding them until the player, coaches and training staff learn to either live with it or take corrective action.
“Omar has been cleared by the doctors,” Ollie told the media after UConn’s loss to Yale. “It still hurts, but hopefully he is able to get back there mentally.”
Attempting to read people’s minds is a dangerous game — even more so when coupled with the unpredictability of a twenty year-old — but the case of Calhoun grows more intriguing with every game he misses. The obvious parallel is Derrick Rose — the NBA star who suffered a debilitating knee injury and did not rejoin his ailing team despite the clearance of the Bulls’ medical staff. The difference, however, is that Rose was an established star, in the first year of an estimated $94 million contract. With money guaranteed, and the promise of a next season, Rose’s decision to sit — while bringing him plenty of bad PR — was based on some form of logic and strategy.
It’s difficult to find strategy in Calhoun’s decision. While once an NBA prospect, Calhoun needs to display his potential on the big stage to crawl back into that discussion. Some believe he is targeting a medical redshirt, protecting this season of eligibility. While it would give him time to heal his body, he would risk joining a 2015-2016 roster with established guards and less available minutes.
A transfer at the end of the season would mean sitting out another year (so three consecutive missed or wasted seasons). Even if you reached for the worst case scenario, that Calhoun doesn’t want to play for Ollie, it’s implausible that he would sacrifice so much of his eligibility to escape the team.
The scariest possibility is that Calhoun is more severely injured than the medical staff has determined. With his injury history (which also includes a concussion from February of last season), he should be accustomed to self-evaluating his ailments. Hopefully, a new diagnosis won’t emerge, but it would explain why Calhoun is not playing despite the medical clearance.
The most likely scenario, it would seem, is that the same crisis of confidence that effected Calhoun’s jump shot last year is effecting his health now. If he is afraid that his hips, or his knee, or his wrist will fail him on the court, he may instead opt to remain on the bench.
It’s hard not to feel bad for Calhoun. Whatever his reasons may be, UConn needs Calhoun to get back on the court. Ollie has done an admirable job of not embarrassing Calhoun in public, but as the situation continues to garner more attention, it will become more difficult to conceal the whole story. Omar Calhoun doesn’t owe anyone an explanation. He’s an adult and his decisions are his own. But for his own sake, and that of his team, hopefully Calhoun returns to the court soon.
He is not playing because he is transferring – wants to play next year
From how I read the transfer rules, he would not be able to play next year. The rule states you must have “one year of academic resistance,” at the new school. Being injured doesn’t gain him exclusion from that rule.