He was accused of numerous recruiting violations. His players performed poorly in school, so much so that they will be ineligible for the NCAA tournament in 2013. He once told a reporter asking about his high income and if it could contribute to bringing down the state debt: "My best advice to you? Shutup." He was far from endearing to his own players. He even took out his star two minutes into games if he thought he wasn't playing hard enough. He ran to mid court at time outs solely to cuss loudly into a players ear, embarrass him to work harder. He is unapologetic, hard-nosed, and uncompromising. 

He is now retired coach, Jim Calhoun. His mistakes will be amplified in the coming weeks, his faults magnified, but to a Connecticut sports fan, Jim Calhoun was one of the best things to ever happen to Connecticut. 

Calhoun began his head coaching career in 1971 at Northeastern. He was the first coach to take Northeastern to the Division 1 March Madness tournament. He did it four times. In 15 years he was the winningest coach Northeastern ever had, but he decided to change gears. In 1986 Calhoun took over a destitute UCONN Huskies team, a perennial last place squad. 

Now the story sounds like a fairy tale. Last to first, underdog to favorite, so on and so forth. Calhoun had no lemons but created lemonade from lemon extract, water, and sugar. College basketball centers around recruiting. Schools like Duke or North Carolina or UCLA had no problem with this and their rich traditions. Calhoun had a bigger mountain to climb.

"Wanna play against Georgetown?" "Want to play in Madison Square Garden?" Of course these fresh faced seventeen year olds wanted to do this, but for UCONN? In Storrs Connecticut? For a guy like Calhoun with the face of a man that "took care of it" for the mafia? Calhoun did not recruit players simply because they were above average basketball players. He recruited players who would fight. His teams became characterized by their resemblance to their coach: dogged in their defensive effort, calloused under pressure, sometimes just plain mean. How else could the Huskies have beaten the Blue Devils in 99'?

Watch the game. The team emulates their coach. Their best player, Rip Hamilton, is awkward, skinny, and determined. 

There are lists of NBA players from UCONN. There are three championships the Huskies can account for. There are final fours, and broken rules, and hostile confrontations. And then there's Jim Calhoun. The guy who always beat the favorite. Who coached a team with one good player and three solid ones to eleven straight wins and a national championship in 2010-11. Who beat back cancer three separate instances and returned to the sideline each time, intimidating referees and his own players alike. With his rough voice and convincing manner Calhoun said it best: "That's the dumbest (bleeping) question I've ever heard. I've explained it 1,000 times. I (bleeped) up." Wait wrong one.

"I know who I am. I know what I've done in 39 years of coaching. You don't have to tell me, you don't have to write it, but I know who I am. Quite frankly, I'm pretty comfortable with who I am. Have I made mistakes? Yes. Do I have warts? Yeah, I do, like all of you. But I know who I am and I'm comfortable with what I've done."