Peter Burns, an Ansonia native currently working as a political science professor in New Orleans, had some time on his hands after Hurricane Katrina swept through the Southeast in 2005.
Displaced from his home, the UConn grad — and fervent basketball fan — began researching and writing a book about the school’s basketball program under former head coach Jim Calhoun.
The book, “Shock The World: UConn Basketball In The Calhoun Era,” was published last month. Burns will be making some appearances in the area to sign copies. The Valley Indy also sent Burns some questions about the book that he answered via e‑mail.
First, the appearances:
Derby Public Library
Tuesday, Nov. 20 at 6:30 p.m.
313 Elizabeth St.
(The author will give a short talk; books will be available for purchase)
Barnes and Noble, Milford, CT
Saturday, Nov. 24 at 2 p.m.
1375 Boston Post Road
Milford, CT 06460
Howard Whittemore Memorial Library
Dec. 18 at 6:30 p.m.
243 Church St.
Naugatuck, December 18 at 6:30.
(The author will give a short talk; books will be available for purchase)
The Valley Indy’s Q&A with Burns is below.
Valley Independent Sentinel: Tell me about your background. You’re from the Valley originally?
Peter Burns:I was born in New Haven and lived the first 25 years of my life in Ansonia. I grew up in Ansonia; I went to the Assumption School, and then the Ansonia High School. I served as an assistant baseball coach for the AHS freshmen team for three seasons and coached Babe Ruth baseball for three years as well.
I graduated from UConn with a BA in political science in 1992 and with an MA in political science in 1994. I received a PHD from the University of Maryland in 1999. After I taught at Trinity College in Hartford for two years, I moved to New Orleans to teach in the political science department at Loyola University New Orleans, where I am a professor now.
VIS: You went to UConn as a student during the basketball program’s rise to prominence. What was that like?
PB:I started at UConn in the fall of 1988, the year after the team won the NIT. With the return of Cliff Robinson and Phil Gamble and the addition of Bridgeport’s Chris Smith, I figured UConn was going to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament. That team didn’t make the NCAA tournament. Basketball wasn’t then, what it is now. The team had a group of hard core students fans like myself. We went to every game, followed recruiting, and supported the team no matter what. Other students either went to a game or two or shunned the team altogether. I remember one of the people who lived on my floor (Ellsworth 8th) saying that UConn basketball was for losers.
The Dream Season of 1989 – 1990 changed that.
UConn basketball hasn’t been the same since that season. Students supported UConn basketball in full force after that season and incoming students came to Storrs in part to follow the team.
After a big win on a Saturday night in that season, the campus was on fire. There was a big bonfire in the quad outside Gampel and students in their cars were honking their horns and screaming. One of the people who was cheering was the same student who told me that UConn basketball was for losers.
VIS: You write about the “Dream Season” allowing Calhoun to recruit from a lerger pool of players. Was that the watershed moment in his career that signified UConn’s rise?
PB: Tate George’s last-second shot against Clemson (click the play button on the video above to watch) was the most important play in the history of the Calhoun era. If Tate misses that shot, recruits like Kevin Ollie from LA, Brian Fair from Arizona, Donny Marshall from the state of Washington, and later Ray Allen from South Carolina don’t even know about UConn.
According to Donny Marshall, “When I told people I was going to UConn, they’d say, ‘Oh, UConn, that’s the place where they made the buzzer-beater.’ Before that, I don’t think they would have known anything about UConn. And I doubt I would have even considered it either.”
The Dream Season changed UConn basketball. It allowed Calhoun to get talent from across the country and Huskymania helped UConn land Donyell Marshall, Calhoun’s first McDonald’s All-American, which is reserved for the best high school players in the country.
VIS: What was Calhoun’s biggest single achievement during his tenure, do you think? Was there one national championship more impressive than the others?
PB: The win over Duke in the 1999 national championship game, hands down.
The media and Las Vegas thought UConn should fear Duke. One columnist wrote, “Take it to the bank: Pigs will do calculus before Connecticut beats Duke in tonight’s championship game.” Duke joined the 1985 Georgetown Hoyas as the heaviest favorites in the history of NCAA championship games, at 9.5 points.
After UConn beat Ohio State but before the second national semifinal game, reporters asked point guard Khalid El-Amin about Duke. He finished his extra large nachos and a big Coke from the concession stand at Tropicana Field and then talked about the Blue Devils, who were about to play and beat Michigan State in the second national semifinal. To him, Duke was another team in UConn’s way of a national championship. “I think we bring a different challenge to Duke, and I think it’s going to be difficult for them to match up with us,” he said. Duke hadn’t heard this kind of rhetoric from any of its previous victims, er opponents. What’s more, the UConn players believed El-Amin.
“We feel we’re capable of beating Duke. Why wouldn’t we feel that way?” El-Amin said. When he was told that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar thought Duke would win in a blowout, El-Amin said, “I think his opinion was a wrong one.” Maybe it was Roger Murdock, the pilot from Airplane, who made that prediction.
The other part of the Dynamic Duo believed too. “The one thing that St. John’s did was play them like they were any other team. They didn’t look at it like, ‘This is Duke, the No. 1 team in the country.’ They played them like they would anyone else.” That’s how Calhoun approached the game – Duke is just another team.
“We all knew we were going to win that game. Both teams were number one team in the country … and we weren’t getting a whole lot of credit for it because of the players that Duke had,” Hamilton said.
“We knew we were going to win. We had been down so many times by five or six points, and came back to win. We were the Chicago Bulls of college basketball. Confident, but not cocky,” said Kevin Freeman.
The Huskies believed they were invincible.
VIS: Most underrated player of the Calhoun era (please say Nadav Henefeld)?
PB: Here is My Most Underrated Team from the Calhoun Era. I don’t include Nadav Henefeld because I think he got the attention he deserved. Calhoun calls Chris Smith the most important player in program history, but Nadav Henefeld can also make a serious claim to that title.
If I had to pick one person from this team as the most underrated, I would pick Ricky Moore. In four years at UConn, Ricky’s teams advanced to the Sweet 16 (1996), the Elite Eight (1998), and won the Final Four (1999). In 1997, UConn made it to the NIT Final Four. Ricky Moore’s teams won three Big East regular season titles and three Big East tournament titles in his four years. Most of the players from the 1996 team believe that UConn would have advanced to the Final Four in 1996 if Moore didn’t
separate his shoulder in the first round of that year’s NCAA tournament.
Calhoun told his players to “Push it!” against Mississippi State in the 1996 Sweet 16, but UConn’s attack was hurt by Moore’s absence. Without him, Doron Sheffer and Ray Allen played extra minutes and struggled for open shots. Calhoun said that UConn lost some zip and never were the same after Moore got hurt. According to Knight, the team didn’t know how to adjust without its speed and sparkplug.
Moore also shut down Allen Iverson at the end of the 1996 Big East Tournament and he was a defensive weapon in 1999. In the 1998 – 1999 season, preseason All-American point guard Mateen Cleaves shot 13% from the field and 14.3% from three-point range against UConn. Moore guarded Cleaves from Bradley International Airport on Friday afternoon until the Spartans left Connecticut after the game. Michigan State’s coach Tom Izzo said that Moore defended Cleaves better than anyone else. Moore’s defense became a weapon in the 1998 – 1999 season. Calhoun disagreed with Moore when he heard his guard say that his defense was worth a 40-point
scoring night. More like 50, Calhoun said.
Moore also scored 13 points in the first half against Duke that enabled UConn to stay in the game.
All-Calhoun Era, Most Underrated Team
John Gwynn, 1988 – 1991
Donny Marshall, 1991 – 1995
Travis Knight, 1992 – 1996
Ricky Moore, 1995 – 1999
Jeff Adrien, 2005 – 2009
VIS: Overrated?
PB: The first person to come mind was Marcus Williams, point guard on the 2005 and 2006 teams. Williams was a very good college point guard but his involvement in the theft of laptops distracted the 2006 team and made anti-heroes of the Huskies. He also didn’t have a solid pro career.
After thinking about it, Rudy Gay came to mind. RUDY GAY? How could one of the best players be overrated? Gay is a terrific pro and was a first-rate player for UConn but he didn’t dominate like Donyell Marshall, Rip Hamilton, Caron Butler, Emeka Okafor, and Ben Gordon did before him.
VIS: You interviewed Kevin Ollie, who has now replaced Calhoun, for the book. When? What were your impressions?
PB: Kevin Ollie is comfortable in his skin. He impressed me as the kind of person who is the same in front of the camera as he is behind closed doors. I interviewed Kevin in 2010, which meant I had been writing my book for five years. He confirmed everything I had learned about Calhoun. Ollie said that he owed his success to Coach Calhoun, who taught Ollie to work his way to the top. Ollie regards Calhoun as a second father and most players feel the same way.
Kevin Ollie was very likable. We talked about how much he loves football and the Dallas Cowboys. Ollie likes football more than basketball. I also met Ollie in the Oklahoma Thunder locker-room in the 2010 season and I remember thinking that James Harden looked like he was paying attention to every word that Ollie said. Ollie was known in the NBA as a great mentor and teammate.
Like Tate George before him, Ollie learned to accept the responsibility that comes with playing point guard for Jim Calhoun. Before an NCAA tournament game, Calhoun knew that UConn’s opponent would win if the Huskies committed turnovers. “Don’t turn the ball over; that’s your responsibility,” Calhoun said to his point guard. Following the UConn-win, Ollie, who scored 13 points, dished out nine assists, and committed one turnover, said, “The pressure was on me. I knew. Coach told me that.”
“Coach is demanding, which made me a better person and basketball player,” Ollie said. A Calhoun-coached point guard needs resiliency and a tough skin. Ollie couldn’t slack off one day while he ran Calhoun’s team. Ten years after Ollie left UConn, Calhoun noted that his former point guard “puts the onus on himself. What an unusual, unusual philosophy.” Calhoun helped instill this attitude in Ollie.
Calhoun put a demand on Ollie’s potential. The coach didn’t turn over the team to Ollie until the point guard proved himself. “He was always bringing in guys to take my spot,” Ollie said of his coach. “So I had to continue to raise my level and continue to compete to the best of my abilities.” This kind of challenge enabled Calhoun to develop Ollie into an elite college player and an NBA regular.
VIS: What would you want Ollie to come away with if he read your book?
PB: Throughout the book, I developed what I called Calhoun Rules, strategies and practices that Calhoun used. These Calhoun Rules of Effective Leadership include Set the Tone on Day One, Make and Keep Bold Promises, Coach to Perfection, The Leader Takes the Blame, A Team Is a Family, Everything must be Earned, and Control the Environment, among other things. I would hope that Coach Ollie would read these rules and say, “you know, I haven’t thought about it that way, let me try this.”
VIS: What’s in your book readers won’t find anywhere else?
PB: I interviewed more than 30 players and coaches for the book including Kemba Walker, Rudy Gay, Ray Allen, Emeka Okafor, Rip Hamilton, Ben Gordon, Donyell Marshall, and Caron Butler. The stories that the players and coaches told me cannot be found elsewhere. These stories include the first practice in the Calhoun Era, the time Calhoun practiced the team at 6 AM the morning after it beat Syracuse and bussed back from Syracuse, Ray Allen’s impressions of Calhoun the first time he met him, Kevin Freeman telling me that he wore his jersey to bed the night before the championship game, how Caron Butler sends father’s day cards to Calhoun, who he has called dad, what Emeka Okafor thought as he sat on the bench in the national semifinal against Duke, and Kemba Walker’s recollection of the players’ only meeting before the team left for the 2011 Big East Tournament.
The book also puts Calhoun’s achievements into a national perspective and it shows the effects college basketball can have on a state and university.
VIS: What’s Calhoun’s legacy?
PB: In 26 years at UConn, Calhoun changed a basketball program, a university, a state, and college basketball. My degree is worth more because of what Calhoun did. Calhoun is the best program-builder of all-time and the best coach of his generation.