One-on-one With... Jim Calhoun

I almost never think about other coaches when I'm coaching, except Mike Krzyzewski, because I know I'm not quitting and he's not quitting. I don't care what the score is, he ain't gonna give up. A referee told me one time that if you go to basketball heaven, you at least need to go to hell one time, and that's working a Jim Calhoun--Mike Krzyzewski game. "Some guys want some of the calls," he said. "Some guys want the majority of the calls. You two want every single call." But Mike does it better than I do.

You guys are pretty good friends.

One of the fun days I had last summer was when I was out recruiting, sitting in a place, and the first three guys there were me, Mike and Jimmy Boeheim. And Mike being Mike, he says, "Now we can say any f------ thing we want. It's just the three of us." I loved it. We were upstairs on a little balcony looking down, and we just talked. Then a couple of guys gathered around us and we shut down. But it was really cool. Mike's been incredible about my cancer, my broken hip. Incredible.

It seems like you have peace of mind.

I've had conversations with former players where I told them, "I rode you too hard when you were here." And they say, "Yeah, you rode me to the NBA." I've had that answer a few times. During the time they were here, I'm sure the kids felt what I was saying to them was hurtful. It was intended to be hurtful in that I wanted them to wake up, to stand up. I like what an AAU coach once told me: "That kid's gonna be a great player once he gets by you."

What are you reading now?

Right now I'm reading Eisenhower, which is a fascinating book. I've always pictured Dwight David Eisenhower as a staunch West Point guy. It's fascinating reading because it's the exact opposite of what I imagined. He might have kept us out of at least three nuclear disasters.

You read a lot. Have you ever tried writing a short story?

I've had people offer me the chance to do those kinds of things. But everybody says I'm an open book, and I don't think they really know what they speak of. I think I'm a little more complex than people realize. I get letters from friends saying you've won so much, you've proved so much, you don't have to keep proving. But there's no on and off button. I really wish there were at times.

But then again, I see other coaches saying, "My team won't play hard." What do you mean they won't play hard? If you only allow them to play one way, and that's hard, they'll play hard. I don't think anybody can say that about a Jim Calhoun team, not one game but over a period of time, that we didn't play hard.