SUPER BOWL 2012

Michael Bradley's injured right ankle is worse than it at first appeared.

Bradley, a redshirt freshman, has a fractured right ankle that will require surgery later this week. He is expected to have to go through six weeks of rehab and should be able to return to action in early December.

Bradley's injury was originally thought to be a severely sprained ankle, and Jim Calhoun said at practice on Saturday that he hoped Bradley would return to action by mid-week. He suffered the injury about three weeks ago and hasn't been participating much in practice, save for stationery bike work. He did, however, participate in the Husky Run on Oct. 12, though he walked most of the course.

Also:

Former UConn AD Jeff Hathaway has landed on his feet. He's been hired by the Big East and named consultant to the commissioner for men’s basketball, commissioner John Marinatto announced.

Hathaway will advise the conference on men’s basketball matters.

Hathaway is a four-year member of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee and will serve as chair for the 2011-12 basketball season.

Ending whatever doubt still remained, Jim Calhoun has informed UConn president Susan Herbst that he will return to coach the Huskies for a 26th season.



Calhoun, who signed a five-year, $13 million contract extension in May, 2010, has repeatedly said over the past six months or so that he hadn’t made a decision about his return. Even during the Huskies’ improbable run to a third national title last April, Calhoun said he would wait until after spending some time with his family to decide.



He wouldn’t comment publicly on his decision Wednesday.



Certainly, things couldn’t be much better for Calhoun and his program right now. On the heels of the national title, Calhoun has raked in three prized recruits – including one of the top-rated big men in America, Middletown’s Andre Drummond, last week. Jeff Hathaway, the athletic director with whom Calhoun has feuded for years, has left the position and been replaced on an interim basis with Paul Pendergast, an ally of Calhoun’s. Herbst and Calhoun also have great admiration for each other.

Still, Calhoun had apparently put off his decision until Wednesday.



Also on Wednesday, UConn’s 2011-12 schedule was made public. The Huskies will kick off their regular season on Nov. 11 at Gampel Pavilon against Columbia. Prior to the game, the 2011 national championship banner will be unveiled. UConn will also play a home-and-home series with Syracuse for the first time since 2006-07.



UConn’s Big East slate begins on Dec. 28 at South Florida. Of course, Calhoun will not be on the sidelines for that game, or the Huskies’ New Year’s Eve bout with St. John’s at the XL Cetner in Hartford or on Jan. 3 at Seton Hall. Calhoun was suspended for the first three games of the Big East season as a result of NCAA violations in the recruitment of Nate Miles.



Obviously, that embarrassment wasn’t enough to keep Calhoun away from the sidelines for good this season.

Jeff Hathaway’s eight-year tenure as director of athletics at the University of Connecticut came to an end on Friday.



Officially, Hathaway has “retired” from the position, though in reality his departure is the result of an unflattering review of his job performance conducted by an independent group called MGT of America.



Hathaway will remain employed by UConn through Sept. 15 to assist in the transition process.



“I have been proud to serve the University of Connecticut for nearly two decades, including the last eight years as Director of Athletics,” Hathaway said in a statement released by UConn. “It is an honor and privilege to have led this outstanding Division of Athletics and to have worked with so many remarkable student-athletes, coaches, staff members and colleagues at the University, the Big East Conference and NCAA … After 20 years of being associated with UConn, I felt the time was right for me to pursue new challenges.”



Senior Associate Director of Athletics Paul McCarthy will assume responsibilities of the athletic director position until an interim director is named.



“I want to thank Jeff for his long service to UConn and our Division of Athletics,” said UConn President Susan Herbst. “The university has had unprecedented success on the field, on the court and in the classroom for more than a decade and he has a great deal to be proud of during his tenure. I join so many others at the university in thanking him for his service and in wishing him well.”



Under terms of the separation agreement between Hathaway and the university, Hathaway will essentially receive his yearly salary of $531,717, minus any compensation he earns from another job in the athletics field. His biweekly payments will cease on Sept. 15, 2013.



Although UConn’s athletic teams are coming off a tremendous season in which the men’s basketball team won a national championship, the women’s basketball team went to the Final Four, the football team went to the Fiesta Bowl and the baseball team advanced to the Super Regionals, Hathaway has come under fire.



Scandal in the men’s basketball program which led to NCAA sanctions, the failure to replace a key fundraising position, drops across the board in season-ticket sales, even highly publicized criticism from a major donor have been among the many issues embattling Hathaway in recent years.



Last month, UConn paid MGT of America, $28,400 to perform a “360 evaluation” of Hathaway’s performance as athletic director. Reportedly, the review consisted of heavy criticism of Hathaway from the more than 30 people with ties to UConn athletics who were interviewed.



The 360 evaluation process has been terminated prior to its completion, according to the separation agreement, and its results are not likely to be made public.



The arrival of Herbst in June may have signaled the beginning of the end for Hathaway, 52. Herbst has strongly supported UConn men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun, a frequent critic of Hathaway’s.



Among other things, sources say Calhoun is unhappy with the way his contract negotiations – which included monetary penalties for his team’s poor APR scores – unfolded, as well as a perceived lack of support from Hathaway during the NCAA investigation. Hathaway told NCAA investigators that he had never seen a coach so obsessed with landing a recruit as Calhoun was with Nate Miles, the key figure in the recruiting violations.



For the past four years, Hathaway has served on the NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Committee, representing the Big East. He is slated to serve as the committee chairman this year, though it’s unclear whether his termination at UConn will thwart that honor. The school has agreed not to interfere with any efforts Hathaway may engage in to chair the committee.



Hathaway has been UConn’s AD since 2003, when he replaced Lew Perkins, who left to take over the same job at the University of Kansas.



While it’s impossible to say who will replace Hathaway or when, it could happen soon. UConn took less than two days, after all, to replace Perkins with Hathaway eight years ago.

Here's my feature from today's Register on Jeremy Lamb, who appears even more athletic and confident this summer and is ready to assume a leadership role on this year's Huskies team.

And here, Register columnist Dave Solomon offers some insight on the Jeff Hathaway situation, which appears to be heading towards a divorce with the school.

Over the past few weeks, Kemba Walker has burned just about any player who’s tried to guard him.

He’s torched guys who were the defensive players of the year in their conferences, shot over smaller guards, blurred past 6-foot-8 forwards and forever resigned poor 6-10 Gary McGhee to Craig Ehlo status after an ankle-breaking move for a game-winning shot.


Tomorrow night, DeAndre Liggins gets his chance. Liggins, a 6-6 junior who was the Southeastern Conference defensive player of the year, is certainly ready.

“The thing with me is taking on the challenge, being competitive,” the Chicago native said on Friday, “having confidence that I can stop the other guy.”

Liggins has stopped other top players this season, most notably Tennessee star Scotty Hopson (5-for-18, 24 points in his two meetings with Liggins this season). Of course, he wasn’t so successful guarding Walker in the Maui Invitational championship game on Nov. 24. Liggins – and several other Wildcat defenders – allowed Walker to pour in 29 points and lead the Huskies to the title.

“He killed me, he killed us,” Liggins recalled. “He had it going offensively. He has great confidence and my job is to contain him a little more.”

Walker has all but said that no one can stop him in the past, but he was judicious in his praise of Liggins on Friday.

“He’s one of the better defenders because he’s extremely active and had a height mismatch over me,” Walker said. “He’s got great length. I know it’s going to be a difficult, tough night for me. But I’m just counting on my teammates to give me the ball in the right situations and set up some great screens.”

Liggins is anticipating a tough night, as well.

“You can’t stop players like (Walker),” he said. “You just have to do your best on them. If he makes shots over you, then you have to live with that. But he is going to make shots over me (tonight). He is going to make some crazy shots, but I have to keep playing. I can’t get frustrated.”

Cal vs. Cal, Pt. Deux

Not to belabor this, but it is fun: Jim Calhoun and John Calipari are having fun with the (correct) perception that the two don’t get along well.

When asked about their bitter feuds back when Calipari was coaching UMass, Calhoun said: “He was loud, 50 miles away, trying to fight for a little bit of turf in New England … John really was trying to claim New England, he could never say he ‘parked the car in Harvard yard,’ he didn’t know what clam chowder really was. He had the red stuff, not the real clam chowder. I took umbrage to it, but I take umbrage to a lot of things.”

Calhoun did add, however: "He's developed into, in my opinion, a terrific coach. I watched the way he coaches. His kids play hard, play great defense and play together. He's been getting, as you well know, tremendous, big-name players. I have a lot of respect for him as a coach and no disdain for him as a person."

Calipari addressed Calhoun’s “My Three Sons” reference earlier in the week, when he referred to the other three (younger) coaches in the Final Four as “my two sons, and my problem child.”

“I did tell him that I knew (“My Three Sons” star) Fred MacMurray, Mr. Calhoun,” Calipari said, “and you are no Fred MacMurray.”

Awkward!

Calipari was asked two questions at today's press conference that indirectly referenced his past, which includes his two prior Final Four apperances (with UMass and Memphis) being vacated later by the NCAA.

First, he was asked if he is the "2000 Jerry Tarkanian."


"I respect everything that Jerry did, his kids, how they played, all those things," Calipari said. "But no, I think I'm the 2011 John Calipari. I don't know what that means and I hate to talk in the third party. But I am who I am."

Later, someone asked him "how it feels to coach in your first Final Four?"

Calipari smiled and said, "I don't deal with that. We've been here three times. Those players played those games and did what they were supposed to. I'm so proud of what they've all accomplished. It's been fun. It's been a good experience, and this is going to be a good experience."

Not Here to Talk About the Past

Calhoun was reminded of his own checkered past, as well. He was asked about Nate Miles' recent interview with Slam magazine, in which Miles said UConn's athletics administration knew that the Yahoo story was coming out and were looking (particularly A.D. Jeff Hathaway) for a way to boot him out of school.

"I said my personal and private feelings would not be discussed, and are not going to be discussed," Calhoun said. "If anybody wants to drag up an experiene that happened two years ago, bring it back up, that's their choice. I'm going forward because I'm going forward with my life."

Here's what Jim Calhoun, Jeff Hathaway and UConn prez Philip Austin had to say about the NCAA's penalties on the UConn program:

Statement from President Philip E. Austin:

This is deeply disappointing to the UConn community. Let me be very clear, we will comply fully with the NCAA’s sanctions and work with great resolve to restore the luster to our men’s basketball program.

Statement from Director of Athletics Jeffrey A. Hathaway:

We have worked closely with the NCAA from the time we learned of the allegations.

When we submitted our response to the NCAA Committee on Infractions acknowledging violations in the men’s basketball program, we immediately self-imposed a series of penalties and corrective measures that are included as part of the NCAA Committee on Infractions report. We are disappointed that the Committee determined that additional penalties needed to be imposed.

We value the principles of the NCAA and fully recommit ourselves to running a program of impeccable integrity.

Statement from Head Basketball Coach Jim Calhoun:

I am very disappointed with the NCAA’s decision in this case. My lawyer and I are evaluating my options and will make a decision which way to proceed.

In the meantime, I will not make any further statements about the case as our program prepares for what I hope will be an exciting and successful postseason.