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Author's Debut on UConn Beat – in Court

Ken Davis talks about the program's many highs and some lows at Whittemore Library.

Ken Davis’ debut on the UConn basketball beat could have been deemed memorable, since the story pertained to the school’s marquee player – and, indeed, the Huskies’ leading scorer for four straight seasons.

But, no, that wasn’t the case on this early autumn day in 1985.

“Earl Kelley had been arrested on campus for brandishing a gun, and I went to Rockville Superior Court, where Earl had to make an appearance,” the former Hartford Courant sportswriter told a gathering Wednesday evening at the Whittemore Library in Naugatuck. Davis came to the Borough to promote his new book, University of Connecticut Basketball Vault (Whitman Publishing, $49.95).

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In court, Kelley, a 6-foot-2 guard from New Haven’s Wilbur Cross High School, was to plead no contest to a disorderly conduct charge stemming from threats against two fellow students in April. The judge sentenced Kelley to a three-month suspended jail term and placed him on a year’s probation.

Kelley, Davis went on to say, also put a damper “on my first Christmas in Connecticut. I covered a disciplinary hearing (on campus) that went on to after midnight. It ruined my Christmas eve.”

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The outcome: The school placed Kelley on disciplinary probation for the remainder of the academic year, and he was barred from university housing and dining facilities.

“In the second week of February, Kelley flunked out,” said Davis. The Huskies, who had a winning record with Kelley in the lineup, proceeded to lose their final eight games and finished 12-16.  “I don’t  think Earl was a bad guy. He grew up in a rough neighborhood,” the author added.

Jim Calhoun replaced Dom Perno as coach the following season, and the rest is history, with Davis on hand to chronicle most of it, including the three NCAA national championship seasons. His book was published last October, prior to the start of the 2010-11 season that culminated with UConn’s remarkable 11-game winning streak through the Big East and NCAA tournaments and its third national title.

“This was an amazing job (Calhoun) did with these freshmen and Kemba (Walker),” Davis said. “It was a weird year. Some of the favored teams – like my alma mater (Kansas) – felt by the way.”

The national championships notwithstanding, Davis considers “1990 my favorite season."

"This was the Dream Team that did a totally unexpected thing” by coming within one final-second shot (by Duke’s Christian Laettner in the Eastern Regional finals) to advance to the school’s first Final Four. “This was the defining year…taking the program from a regional power to a national power. You’re not supposed to root for a team, but the 1990 team…” The words end, but the meaning was clear.

Davis, who took a buyout from the Courant in 2005 and now earns his livelihood as a freelancer for NBCSports.com, ESPN the Magazine and a myriad of other publications and online sites, says he received considerable help in his research from Calhoun and three of his coaching predecessors, Perno, Dee Rowe and Fred Shabel.

The latter, who had resigned following the 1966-67 season to accept an administrative position at the University of Pennsylvania, stayed on to help with the selection of his successor. According to Davis, three of the men he interviewed – but who turned down the job – became prominent coaching names elsewhere: the late Chuck Daly, Larry Brown and Hubie Brown. Imagine what might have happened if any of this threesome had been hired, the author said.

Howie Dickenman, an assistant coach under both Perno and Calhoun and now the head coach at Central Connecticut State, was an invaluable resource, too. The author recalled a visit to Dickenman’s office in New Britain where he asked if the coach had retained any of the material he collected during his days as UConn’s principal recruiter. Yeah, the file cards.

“He pulled them out of his desk and threw them across the desk,’ Davis explained. And then, imitating Dickenman’s gravel voice, he said,  ‘Pick a card and we’ll talk about him.’”

Two facsimiles of the file cards – for Ray Allen and Donyell Marshall – are among more than two dozen inserts in Davis’ book.

Allen, the wonderful shooter who was a first-team All-American in 1995-96 and who, as a member of the Boston Celtics, broke the NBA career record for three-pointers this season, wrote the Afterword in the book. “For the pure joy of watching a guy play,” Davis said, Ray Allen was his choice.

His favorite players, though, were Steve Pikiell, Kevin Ollie and John Gwynn. Davis called Pikiell, who just completed his sixth season as head coach at Stony Brook, “one of the best people I’ve ever met. He’s just too good. He doesn’t cheat. He’s really a bright coach” who may have to remain at the mid-level in Division I because he is unwilling to compromise his values.

Ollie, the 6-foot-4 guard who returned to his alma mater last year as an assistant coach following 13 seasons in the NBA, “is a smart guy. I think he’ll be a successful coach,” Davis said.

During the question-and-answer period following his presentation, somebody asked whether Calhoun would return as head coach next season, considering his health issues and the NCAA sanctions that will cause him to sit out the first three Big East games. Davis thought for a moment before responding in the affirmative.

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