Chillious returning to coach South Kent

Raphael Chillious is coming back to Connecticut. Back to his “baby.” Back home.

Chillious hails from Mount Zion, Md., and has spent the past 12 years as an assistant coach at numerous colleges, including UConn. But he made his name in the world of basketball at South Kent Prep, the small, private school in western Connecticut, right by the New York border.

Chillious helped build South Kent into a national powerhouse in his five seasons at the helm, consistently churning out future college stars and pros, before leaving to become an assistant at Washington in 2008.

Now, he’s going back, leaving his job as associate head coach at East Carolina to take over the head coaching reins at South Kent vacated by Bill Barton in March.

“It’s definitely home,” Chillious said. “That’s one of the reasons I decided to accept (the job). South Kent, that’s kind of my baby.

They want to get it back to where it was. That made the decision, not easy, but made it possible.”

But that was hardly the only reason. This winter, Chillious’s wife developed breast cancer.

“That put a lot of things in perspective, in terms of what’s most important — and that’s being around my family as much as possible,” Chillious said.

When the coronavirus pandemic put an end to the college basketball season in mid-March, it allowed Chillious to be there for his wife, rather than coaching in conference tournaments or being out on the road recruiting.

“This is the most my family has seen me at one time in the last 10, 12 years,” said Chillious, whose wife has been cancer-free for about a month. “It actually allowed me to never miss one doctor’s appointment, surgery, radiation treatments. I was there every step of the way. If college basketball was still going on, I might have missed some of that. I didn’t have

to miss one beat.”

Coaching South Kent will offer far fewer demands on Chillious’s time than a college job would. Not that it will be an easy task. The program has struggled in recent years, so much so that two of Chillious’ most prominent South Kent alums — Isaiah Thomas and Dorrell Wright — encouraged him to return after the departure of Bill Barton.

“They all felt, ‘It’s kind of our baby, and it just didn’t seem the same anymore,’ ” Chillious recalled. “They really encouraged me to go back and get it going

again.”

Thomas, who starred at Washington and was later a two-time All-Star with the Boston Celtics, and Wright, who played 11 NBA seasons with four different teams, are among the numerous standouts Chillious coached during his first stint at South Kent. Others include Andray Blatche, Dion Waiters, Gilbert Brown and Jack McClinton. Prior to South Kent, Chillious coached future UConn and NBA star Josh Boone at West Nottingham Academy in Maryland.

Chillious parlayed his success at South Kent to jobs at Washington, Villanova (for one season), back to Washington, then to UConn for one season

(2017-18) before he and the rest of Kevin Ollie’s staff were dismissed. Chillious has been at ECU, which played against UConn in the American Athletic Conference, the past two seasons.

“It was great,” he said. “It’s kind of a hidden little gem in eastern North Carolina. The fan base down here is really, really good. Pirate Nation definitely has its own little niche.”

Chillious’s time at UConn was brief but enjoyable, he said. He has not been deposed in Ollie’s long-going bid to recoup the nearly $11 million left on his contract.

“I love the state of Connecticut, period,” Chillious said. “It’s a great place, man. Rabid fan base everywhere.”

Once his daughter completes her school year and his family is able to sell their house in North Carolina, Chillious will return to Connecticut, where his daughter was born was born nearly 13 years ago.

He’ll be returning home.

SELLING FAST

UConn just put season tickets and renewals on sale Wednesday, and in two days has already sold more tickets than the first six weeks of last year. And that’s with the prospect of this upcoming season being delayed (or even canceled) by COVID-19.

Jessica Hill / Associated Press Former UConn associate head coach Raphael Chillious, right, and assistant coach Dwayne Killings during an October 2017 exhibition game in Hartford.