Jim Calhoun enjoying life at St. Joseph

WEST HARTFORD — Jim Calhoun’s new office is a smallish space with a window behind the desk that provides a view of the new court below at the O’Connell Athletic Center, which still smells like fresh paint.

There’s no conference table or couch at the far end, because there is no far end. There aren’t stacks and rows of shoes and jerseys and memorabilia from his career or those of many former players. It looks nothing like his old office at UConn, but it feels much the same to him for what takes place there.

“This,” Calhoun said of coaching and running a basketball program, “is food for the soul.”

At 79, he still loves coming in to work.

He arrived on Tuesday in his silver Lexus SUV, holding a coffee, walking ginger

ly. Later in the morning, Calhoun met in his office with assistant coach Glen Miller and senior guard Jaecee Martin, discussing, of all things, potential starting lineups for Calhoun’s fourth season with the Division III program.

Jim Calhoun allowing player influence on a lineup? Are you kidding?

“Would I have done that 20 years ago? Of course not,” he said. “But it’s good, it’s funny, to hear their input. And just the idea of him stepping in here every day, I like that.”

Calhoun picked up his 900th career victory on Jan. 10, 2020, and St. Joseph went on to win the Great Northeast Athletic Conference championship in the program’s second year of existence.

That’s not the only sign of Calhoun’s success. The new building is, too. The USJ athletic staff has been working out of the renovated O’Connell Center, which includes a $15 million, 31,000 square-foot expansion, since June.

It’s a new operation center for an athletic department and university that have steadily improved their profile since the bold move to a coeducational system in 2018. The new O’Connell Center is a Division III jewel, adding 10 new offices, a second basketball/volleyball court, a second weight room and four new locker rooms.

Calhoun occupies a little piece of it on the top floor, just down the hall from a conference room/hospitality suite that also overlooks the court. All 15 USJ programs call O’Connell home. It isn’t necessarily a basketball building. It’s something more.

“We’re making progress, I think,” Calhoun said. “We started with a new cafeteria, then the turf field, then lights, then this. What’s next? Maybe get a baseball team or something. There’s been an infusion of students. Not everything is perfect but, without question, St. Joe’s is in a better place than it was a few years ago.”

The O’Connell Center, which also features a pool as part of the older portion of the facility, can accommodate 750 fans in the bleachers for basketball. Floor seating can push basketball capacity to 1,000, the minimum to host NCAA Tournament games.

Due to the pandemic, GNAC winter sports were canceled in 2020-21, though the Blue Jays did play five non-conference games in the spring. Calhoun, having broken a hip in February and dealing with other health issues and underlying conditions, watched from afar as Miller ran the team.

In June, he was hospitalized for 12 days due to an issue with his bile duct. He’s back now, though, on the golf course, at work.

“It’s still cool to be able to come in and work with players, see them square themselves up a little bit and get a degree,” said Calhoun, who battled stomach cancer in 2019, the latest of several bouts with cancer, and missed portions of many games during the 2019-20 season.

The upcoming season opens with a four-team tournament at the O’Connell Center Nov. 6-7 featuring St. Joseph, New Jersey City, Alvernia and MaineAugusta. St. Joseph’s roster is made up almost exclusively of Connecticut players, including seniors Martin of Hartford (and a transfer from Sacred Heart), Delshawn Jackson Jr. of Hartford, Jordan Powell of Middletown and captain Jake Sullivan of Branford.

Practice begins Oct. 15. “It’s fun to watch it grow,” Calhoun said. “If I had more problems with my stomach, I wouldn’t coach. Otherwise, I fully expect to. Our life is going on, thank God, except for a couple smacks in health and, as my doctor said, ‘The great thing about you is – stomach cancer, this, that, you get into tough things – then again, you have some kind of recovery mechanism in your body that seems to get you out of those things.’”

Calhoun debuted at Northeastern in 1972 and at UConn in 1986. He entered the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 2005 and left UConn in 2012.

Calhoun said he was told in 2017 by university president Rhona Free and others that his presence at St. Joseph would make an impact beyond basketball. It clearly has.

“That’s kind of where my personal pride level is,” he said. “Everybody likes to build. Maintaining is much more difficult, I can tell you. But we’ve been able to build a program and the offshoot has been helping the school get the recognition it deserves. It is a place for the kid who wants to go to a smaller school and have a bigger voice.”

And the place for a coach with a big voice to settle into a smallish office in a shiny new building every morning.

“Everybody’s got to find their nest, to some degree, where they feel comfortable,” Calhoun said. “I was always comfortable at UConn. And now I’ve got a little different kind of nest.”