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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 9, 2010

Gavin Edwards

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

St. John's - 73
Connecticut - 51

THE MODERATOR: Coach Jim Calhoun. We also have Gavin Edwards and Kemba Walker.
COACH JIM CALHOUN: Most importantly, give congratulations to St. John's. They come out here with purpose, physicality and quite frankly handed us our butts. They knocked us off all screens. They completely outplayed us. They were much hungrier than we were. We turned the ball over 20 times. We've been shooting 80% the past five games from the foul line; today 6 for 18. Quite frankly just got handled by a St. John's team who played very hungry. And played once, again as I said, with purpose. I was not at the game in Connecticut, but certainly they've improved greatly with all duties, except for (Anthony) Mason, who is a good player, but wasn't a great factor.
They certainly have a bright future ahead of them. Juniors and seniors they'll be one of the better teams I think in the BIG EAST. Certainly top five or six next year. Today the team I saw today from St. John's was terrific. The team I saw from Connecticut today was not very good at all.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Jim, how do you explain Jerome's play these last three games or so?
COACH JIM CALHOUN: He hasn't played well. He's played very poorly. If I could explain it, I would try to do something about it. He's played very poorly.

Q. Coach, especially the second half, you were sitting down a lot, pretty calm. Do you feel like after a while the players come back and --
COACH JIM CALHOUN: No, I try to be a different kind of coach different games with this team. When this team has been here -- last time we were here we got beat on a Wall lay-up with 40-something seconds to go against Kentucky. I thought the season was going to turn out the way it ended today.
To answer the question, no, I never felt helpless. Just some of it was an aberration, I guess, maybe of St. John's. Some of it was maybe just disappointment with the way we performed and were handled physically, so easy. They hit set screens and they were wide open. They are not known as a three-point shooting team; they go 7 for 13 today.
My theory on that always is when you can do what you want, your confidence increases and you make shots, and I've seen a lot of teams do that. We've had teams that have done that themselves. Clearly it was not the kind of performance that we would like to have had. I know if I was yelling and screaming and sitting -- they had eight dunks that they had in the lane. I'm not sure how many of those would have been blocked if I would have been jumping and yelling.
THE MODERATOR: Any questions for the players?

Q. Gavin, can you put a finger on why at different points of the season the team seemed to show such progress followed by setback?
GAVIN EDWARDS: I don't think there's any way we can explain it. If we could have explained it, we would have fixed it. We wouldn't have had so many ups and downs this season. So I mean, just sporadic. We don't really play the way we should all the time, and it really shows.

Q. Coach, I have a question for you: Your son was quoted earlier today saying in response to a story on SNY that he expects you to coach several years. What are your thoughts?
COACH JIM CALHOUN: I'm really worried about how we played today. I have had no thoughts about anything except hopefully getting to the game against Marquette tomorrow. And then I always at the end of every season I feel healthy, thank God, I feel like -- not today, I guess. But I feel like I'm capable of coaching. Never entered my mind. I was made aware of the story. And it had nothing to do with anything and was not based upon any substantive fact.
As a matter of fact, the two comments, I talked to two people, one I haven't talked to in a year and the other I haven't talked about that situation and my future in maybe eight months. Between the two of them, that's an average of ten months I have not talked to either of those people about my own personal situation.
Like everything else, I'm in the business of trying to recruit players to UConn. I love the school. And I still love coaching. But right now it is erroneous. It couldn't be farther -- when I saw or heard a couple of the facts about me talking to certain people, who I have not had a word with, it was unfortunate, I haven't had a word with one for one year and the other for eight months about the situation. And yes, there is a contract offer out there. I haven't seen the final copy. But it's out there, yes.

Q. The next couple of days what is going to happen (inaudible).
COACH JIM CALHOUN: We won't practice for a couple of days at least. Then I don't know if we will practice or not. I think it's a good time to reflect where we are today and how we ended up today. This is certainly not typical. We've been beaten before and ended seasons on some sour notes and some great notes. But I think it's a good time to maybe sit back. I've always had great respect. The only thing we can hope for is an NIT berth, obviously. I have great respect for that. I never thought about turning it down.
I think it's a good time to sit down with myself and my staff and think about what we want to do going forward. Particularly after today. I think maybe it's a good time to sit down, you know, and -- it's a good time to sit down and think about closing the curtain for this year or continuing on, if we have that opportunity. But there are sometimes maybe for everybody -- I've always said continue. Kemba is one of my favorite players. Gavin is one of my favorite players. Both of them two of my favorite people. I really like this group. It's been the strangest year of basketball how we've performed various times. How could you think that two weeks ago we were in the midst of beating Villanova at Villanova, coming back and beating Rutgers by 18, and then going and beating West Virginia and then losing four straight. We haven't looked very great at times during those four straight losses by the way.
As brilliant as we looked to win those three games in a row. We looked as bad losing those games. Not to Louisville. Louisville was a two-point game. A couple of these games we have not looked great at all.

Q. Coach, if you get invited to the NIT, will you definitely go?
COACH JIM CALHOUN: I'm going to sit down, and the best thing for me to do and my staff to do is to kind of contemplate. I guess I have to talk to the athletic director and I'll talk to him. Obviously he makes the final judgment. He runs the athletic department. So obviously I have to confer with him.
But I have great respect for the NIT. Always have. We were fortunate enough in '88 to get our program going with a great NIT win. It's always a good time to make sure you look at your team, see what they have. Eight games by four points under, we lost all of them. And took an awful lot out of the team. I want to make sure if there's a step back on the court to play basketball game that they would be able to bring emotion, energy and all the things you should bring to competition.
And so once again, I'm not vacillating. I'm saying quite frankly -- it would be awful for me personally if I made that decision because I have great respect to keep playing. I always think you should keep playing. Right around the corner something good is going to happen. It's a coach's dream. No way I felt we would lose today. I know in a couple of days if we laced them up again, there's no way I would ever think we would lose again. It's what keeps us going at times.
THE MODERATOR: UConn, thank you.

End of FastScripts

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