Perhaps Jim Calhoun is getting tired of reading about how Geno Auriemma is the trolliest troll to ever troll.
Tom Westerholm of Masslive.com quietly posted a Q&A with the Hall of Fame coach five days ago, which included this gem of a comment from Calhoun, talking about recruiting national champion Ben Gordon:
I remember sitting with Mike Krzyzewski and watching Ben Gordon. Ben Gordon averaged 17 points per game in 10 years in the NBA. Mike saw what he was, and I saw what he could be. Both are very good observations, but my observation was kind of tilted a little more toward our program, and how Ben could help us get back to winning a championship.
Is it me, or did Calhoun just take a swipe at Krzyzewski’s ability to evaluate talent, or at least imply that he was better at it?
We all know this was one of Calhoun’s strengths — seeing potential and actually helping his players realize it once they reached Storrs. This is why he was able to see the potential in guys like Gordon, or a better example, fellow national champion Emeka Okafor. Calhoun explains in that same Q&A how Okafor was not a highly sought-after recruit, but had the tools to become great.
UConn fans love to point out how Krzyzewski constantly brings in McDonald’s All-Americans, many more than the Huskies have ever had, yet UConn has won four championships since 1999, to only three for the Blue Devils.
Oh, and those two Final Four wins over Duke, one of them led by Gordon and Okafor.
