UConn will accept NIT bid

Coach Jim Calhoun is fighting mad.

He's mad about the way his UConn basketball team performed down the stretch with an NCAA Tournament bid on the line.

He's mad the Huskies went out with a whimper in the Big East Conference Tournament, suffering a brutal first-round loss to St. John's Tuesday.

He's mad he's unable to motivate the Huskies to meet his high standards.

And he can't be happy about his team being bashed like a piñata by media, fans and others in the college basketball world in recent weeks.

So he's responding the way he has countless times during his hall of fame career. He's jumping back into the fight, welcoming an NIT bid if offered when the 32-team field is announced Sunday night. Two internet sites projecting the NIT list the Huskies as a top four seed.

"If we are (invited), I'd accept," Calhoun said. "We've never run away from a fight and I'm not going to do it now. I just can't.

"… Am I upset? Yeah, I'm really upset. But that doesn't do me any good and it doesn't do them any good. Let's get involved in the tournament and let's try to win it. That's the only thing you can think of and that's what you've got to try to do."

Calhoun will deliver that message to his team during practice today at Gampel Pavilion following three days off. Since returning from New York, he contemplated the team's next step, deciding the best course of action is for the Huskies (17-15 overall) to play again.

"I truly believe we played awful on Tuesday and we've got a chance — certainly not to make that up because I think you don't make those kinds of things up — to get back in the fight and maybe end the season on a positive note," Calhoun said.

Now he has to sell that to his Huskies who played with little passion, emotion and effort while losing their last four games.

Calhoun admits he's unsure if his players will embrace the idea of playing in the NIT. But he's not concerned about it.

"I really don't care how they approach it," Calhoun said. "There's only one way I can approach it. I know there's enough guys that I can find five that will play hard."

If UConn receives a bid, his plan is to stick with his regular rotation, using seniors Jerome Dyson, Gavin Edwards and Stanley Robinson. But he'll have a quick hook if they don't play well, as he's done in the last two games.

Watching tape of Tuesday's loss, Calhoun discovered the Huskies played harder than he thought they did while watching from the sidelines.

"We were just working hard at being bad," Calhoun said. "... We were over-trying."

Calhoun used the same explanation for Dyson who played his worst game as a Husky. Dyson committed nine turnovers and tied a season low with four points.

"I'm not trying to be overprotective of Jerome, but he got into a state where he didn't know what the hell to do," Calhoun said." He made great hustle plays that we just forget because he threw the ball away."

There has been some good news. Calhoun is on the verge of signing a four-year contract extension. Now the coaching staff can sell the program without having to battle rumors about Calhoun's future.

"It helps everybody," Calhoun said. "It helps all of us understand what we're trying to do and what we need to do."

The coaching staff is accelerating its recruiting efforts to land one or two prized recruits during the spring recruiting period to join three others already committed.

Landing a top-flight recruit would help ease the pain of a disappointing season and increase optimism about next year's team.

"We're frantically trying to close some deals in recruiting," Calhoun said. "Some of the top kids who we're involved with haven't committed to anybody, which is very unusual. (Dominos) can fall quick so we want get ourselves in as best shape as we possibly can so we can hopefully have those dominos fall our way."