PDA

View Full Version : Calhoun Takes Indefinite Leave



Fish80
02-03-2012, 02:37 PM
uconn-coach-calhoun-takes-indefinite-leave (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-03/uconn-coach-calhoun-takes-indefinite-leave.html)

Jarhead
02-03-2012, 02:43 PM
uconn-coach-calhoun-takes-indefinite-leave (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-03/uconn-coach-calhoun-takes-indefinite-leave.html)

Here's a more complete bit of coverage on Coach Calhoun (http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7537722/connecticut-huskies-coach-jim-calhoun-takes-indefinite-medical-leave).

sagegrouse
02-03-2012, 03:03 PM
Here is the diagnosis:


The Hall of Fame coach, who turns 70 in May, has been suffering for several months from spinal stenosis, a lower back condition that causes him severe pain and hampers mobility, according to the release.

Now I know there are no doctors on this Board under the age of 35 because, from other threads, it is clear that the academic pressures for premeds at Duke in the last 15 years left no time for hoops. But I want to hear from you older guys who could juggle medicine and basketball (and have a social life besides).

Surely you are out there and have some inputs.

sagegrouse

devildeac
02-03-2012, 03:36 PM
Here is the diagnosis:



Now I know there are no doctors on this Board under the age of 35 because, from other threads, it is clear that the academic pressures for premeds at Duke in the last 15 years left no time for hoops. But I want to hear from you older guys who could juggle medicine and basketball (and have a social life besides).

Surely you are out there and have some inputs.

sagegrouse

If billy still reads DBR, he is an orthopedic surgeon and might provide some insight. I just deal with the cardiac plumbing and electrical systems so I would be way out of line here but I do fit the age criteria ;>)) .

diablesseblu
02-03-2012, 04:31 PM
My mother suffered with spinal stenosis for years. It's a very individual condition re symptoms, pain management issues, and prognosis.

In her case, the symptoms were bad stabbing pains down her legs, and, more troubling to her, neuropathy in her feet. The medication for the neuropathy (numbness) had side effects (extreme drowsiness) that made it, for her, almost dangerous to take.

They decided mother was not a good surgical candidate. Fortunately, a local physician (a Duke trained anesthesiologist) is a master of using spinal steroidal injections as a treatment for this condition. Mother's condition was so bad that he eventually administered more injections over a shorter period of time than the usual protocol. For all of the diagnostic/treatment efforts involved, it took almost two years for her quality of life to significantly improve.

Calhoun's never been my favorite. However, my heart really goes out to him and his family on this one. It's a miserable condition to suffer from and a real cr**shoot in terms of treatment options. I'm amazed he's persevered this long as an active coach.

OldPhiKap
02-03-2012, 04:48 PM
Best wishes for a speedy recovery and I hope any treatment/rehab goes well. OPK

-bdbd
02-03-2012, 06:45 PM
Best wishes to Coach Calhoun for a speedy recovery. Obviously not a favorite of many on these boards, but nobody deserves that sort of pain.

I didn't see any comment in the story re the school's decision on whether they'll still count the losses and wins on his record, as we know that is the individual school's option...

Per the Bloomberg article: Calhoun led UConn to last season’s National Collegiate Athletic Association championship, his third in 26 years at the Storrs, Connecticut-based university. His 869 wins rank third among active coaches in college basketball’s top level, trailing fellow Basketball Hall of Fame members Mike Krzyzewski (919) of Duke and Jim Boeheim (878) of Syracuse.

This might make Coaches Boeheim and K rest a little easier re their all-time-wins tallies being a little safer. You just never know how much longer one of these guys is going to coach.

hurleyfor3
02-03-2012, 06:53 PM
I believe Calhoun has taken "credit" for all the other games he has missed over the years, whether due to medical leave, suspension or retroactive invalidation by the NCAA. This includes the vacated 2-1 record in the 1996 NCAA Tournament. In other words, the Eddie Sutton approach.

Correction: The three games he sat out this season were credited to his assistant (http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7429657/ncaa-credits-last-two-uconn-huskies-wins-george-blaney-not-jim-calhoun). But it sure looks like he's taken credit for everything else.

uh_no
02-03-2012, 07:45 PM
I believe Calhoun has taken "credit" for all the other games he has missed over the years, whether due to medical leave, suspension or retroactive invalidation by the NCAA. This includes the vacated 2-1 record in the 1996 NCAA Tournament. In other words, the Eddie Sutton approach.

Correction: The three games he sat out this season were credited to his assistant (http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7429657/ncaa-credits-last-two-uconn-huskies-wins-george-blaney-not-jim-calhoun). But it sure looks like he's taken credit for everything else.

I'm curious to a source on the 1996 vacations. I'm not doubting to you, I'm just curious as to what the justification is/was.

As to the game to game absences due to illness, I believe its common for the head coach to get credit. Coach K has come out and said he WANTS credit for the losses in the 95 season, but i think that was a special case due to it being so much of the season.

Ultimately it doesn't matter what he or the school "takes credit for".....all that matters is what the NCAA says (as was the coach with K not getting credit for the wins in 95, and calhoun this year with the suspensions, and calipari with the vacations).

hurleyfor3
02-03-2012, 08:23 PM
I'm curious to a source on the 1996 vacations. I'm not doubting to you, I'm just curious as to what the justification is/was.

OK, it looks like the NCAA record book (http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/m_basketball_RB/2012/coaches.pdf), Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Calhoun), and basketball-reference (http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/coaches/jim-calhoun-1.html) all have Calhoun with 855 wins entering this season and 30 wins in 1996. His non-vacated total was 32-3 that year. Sources seem to disagree over whether the vacated loss counts against him.

So I stand corrected there.

None of these sources seem to deduct from Calhoun's total the games he's missed for medical/personal reasons, most memorably in 2003 and 2010, but perhaps in other years as well. (For some reason I recall him sitting out a game or two in 2006 as self-punishment over the Marcus Williams affair.) They all list Calhoun at 23-10 in '03 and 18-16 in '10, which is the same as Uconn's overall record in those years, and is consistent with a lifetime total of 855 wins through the 2011 season.

My original point was to explore some sort of precedent regarding whether Calhoun will seek credit for the upcoming games he will be missing. Researching Calhoun's history isn't my favorite thing to do, but I guess I got the ball rolling. I maintain he claims wins unless expressly forbidden from doing so by the ncaa.

billy
02-03-2012, 09:29 PM
If billy still reads DBR, he is an orthopedic surgeon and might provide some insight. I just deal with the cardiac plumbing and electrical systems so I would be way out of line here but I do fit the age criteria ;>)) .

...thanks for the intro, dd. Not my particular area, but, as the press-release says, it (spinal stenosis) is a condition that can cause severe pain and limited mobility. To borrow the electrical system analogy from devildeac, picture the nerves to your legs running through narrow conduits formed by the bones in your spine. If those nerves are pinched, you can get pain, weakness, and/or numbness or tingling in your low back, hips, and legs. Spinal stenosis generally indicates that the pinching is caused by degenerative change or arthritis of the spine. Regardless of the specific cause, the pain can be debilitating and require strong pain medication, steroid packs, or muscle relaxers.

Sometimes spinal stenosis is treated with surgery - I don't know the specifics of coach K's past spine surgery, but the parallels are certainly interesting. See the link below for a better, more complete description.

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00329

devildeac
02-03-2012, 10:39 PM
...thanks for the intro, dd. Not my particular area, but, as the press-release says, it (spinal stenosis) is a condition that can cause severe pain and limited mobility. To borrow the electrical system analogy from devildeac, picture the nerves to your legs running through narrow conduits formed by the bones in your spine. If those nerves are pinched, you can get pain, weakness, and/or numbness or tingling in your low back, hips, and legs. Spinal stenosis generally indicates that the pinching is caused by degenerative change or arthritis of the spine. Regardless of the specific cause, the pain can be debilitating and require strong pain medication, steroid packs, or muscle relaxers.

Sometimes spinal stenosis is treated with surgery - I don't know the specifics of coach K's past spine surgery, but the parallels are certainly interesting. See the link below for a better, more complete description.

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00329

This is certainly faaaar better than I would have done. Thanks! Wondered if you were still reading/lurking here, Doc!

uh_no
02-04-2012, 02:17 AM
OK, it looks like the NCAA record book (http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/m_basketball_RB/2012/coaches.pdf), Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Calhoun), and basketball-reference (http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/coaches/jim-calhoun-1.html) all have Calhoun with 855 wins entering this season and 30 wins in 1996. His non-vacated total was 32-3 that year. Sources seem to disagree over whether the vacated loss counts against him.

So I stand corrected there.

None of these sources seem to deduct from Calhoun's total the games he's missed for medical/personal reasons, most memorably in 2003 and 2010, but perhaps in other years as well. (For some reason I recall him sitting out a game or two in 2006 as self-punishment over the Marcus Williams affair.) They all list Calhoun at 23-10 in '03 and 18-16 in '10, which is the same as Uconn's overall record in those years, and is consistent with a lifetime total of 855 wins through the 2011 season.

My original point was to explore some sort of precedent regarding whether Calhoun will seek credit for the upcoming games he will be missing. Researching Calhoun's history isn't my favorite thing to do, but I guess I got the ball rolling. I maintain he claims wins unless expressly forbidden from doing so by the ncaa.

Calhoun being calhoun, i have no doubt the goal in his mind has been to pass rupp (9) and smith (12) in the coaching wins list....

They have 9 regular season games left and likely at least 3 post season games....so it's pushing it to see if he gets there this year....I said at the beginning of the year 90% he'd retire at the end of the year, but at that time it looked like a certainty he'd catch both deano and rupp.....If he can get enough victories to catch rupp, he'll retire (imo).....so i expect him to fight to claim all of them....if he doesn't, I bet he pulls a RMK and retires after he hits the mark next year (barring health issues)

Olympic Fan
02-04-2012, 11:13 AM
Just to clarify.

When Calhoun voluntarily steps down for any issue, the school has the option of counting the win/losses he misses on his record or for an assistant.

But he has no option with the two games UConn had to vacate in 1996. They do NOT count. If you remember, The NCAA came down hard on John Calipari for celebrating his 500th win when he had to count 42 games that were vacated by the NCAA:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/sec/2011-06-16-kentucky-alters-calipari-win-total_n.htm

Just an aside, but last December, UNC's interim football coach Everett Withers kept talking about keeping UNC's bowl "streak" alive and their streak of eight win seasons. There are no streaks with the games UNC vacated in 2008 and 2009. At least the vacated games are part of their self-imposed penalties ... officially, UNC has a two-year bowl streak. But they were winless in 2008 and 2009.

53n206
02-04-2012, 11:15 AM
Spinal stenosis is a serious problem It is a somewhat catch all phrase that indicates that pressure is on the spinal cord and can be factors of bone degeneration, disk impingement, other ligamentous pressures. Hopefully some inflammatory swelling is involved in Coach Calhoun's situation which may be relieved by time or by steroid injections. Surgery may help, but it depends upon the cause. From my understanding it may be hard to treat.

billy
02-04-2012, 12:01 PM
According to the N&O, he's already tried "conservative" (i.e. non-surgical) treatments:


"The initial approach recommended to him was stretching, physical therapy and exercise, and that was successful for several months. It turns out that there is some degenerative problem in the lumbar vertebrae and it's impinging on the nerves."

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/02/04/1829103/calhoun-taking-medical-leave.html#storylink=cpy

Unfortunately, many cases of spinal stenosis are not treatable surgically. If non-surgical care isn't sufficient to alleviate pain, and the patient is not a surgical candidate, there aren't too many choices left other than pain management (i.e. opiod/narcotic pain meds), which might make high-level thought difficult. I'm not optimistic, but I certainly hope he improves - not so much so he can coach, which would be great, but so that he's not dealing with daily, constant pain.

ThePublisher
02-04-2012, 12:48 PM
Then retires. I doubt we ever see him coaching again.

uh_no
02-04-2012, 12:50 PM
Then retires. I doubt we ever see him coaching again.

Don't underestimate a guy who's been back from cancer, exhaustion, dehydration....and is the kind of person who would value passing the guys who are 9 and 12 wins ahead of him all time.

Steven43
02-04-2012, 01:13 PM
I have a feeling that we have not seen the last of Jim Calhoun, unfortunately. Guys like him (and John Calipari) just do not go away. He's a shady character who runs the UConn program in an underhanded manner. I don't want harm to come to him. I just wish that he and his program would get exposed and properly sanctioned, but that will never happen.

hurleyfor3
02-04-2012, 02:02 PM
Don't underestimate a guy who's been back from cancer, exhaustion, dehydration....and is the kind of person who would value passing the guys who are 9 and 12 wins ahead of him all time.

I agree with this. As I implied above, he's not a whole lot different from Eddie Sutton. He may not stay at Uconn much longer, but he'll keep coaching until forced out of the business by health or by his own actions. Who would want him... he'd stay in the northeast, at some place that isn't terribly academically-oriented, isn't looking for a long-term coach and has had flashes of basketball notoriety in the past. URI, maybe. Siena. George Washington. LaSalle. Some place like those.

53n206
02-05-2012, 12:24 AM
Passing the guys ahead of him? He ain't gonna make it.

uh_no
02-05-2012, 01:20 AM
Passing the guys ahead of him? He ain't gonna make it.

Assuming he gets credit for the wins he has now (which he has for his previous short stints of medical leave) he will most assuredly pass rupp....given uconn is having trouble beating middle school teams of late...so