Kemba On His Way To Boston!
The Story: Kemba Walker is coming back to New England, as the former UConn star will head to the Boston Celtics on a four-year, $141 million contract.
FREE KEMBA! We are rabid Celtics fans and UConn alums, so Kemba might be our favorite basketball player ever now. He steps into Kyrie Irving’s place and will be immediately better received in the locker room and in the city. Kemba never came close to being offered the supermax deal by Charlotte of five years and $220 million, and left the Hornets after eight years. This is a dream situation for Kemba, who gets to step into a starring role with a top-four team in the Eastern Conference in an area of the country that adores him.
HURLEY, GET ON THAT PHONE! Here is what we like about this: Walker is now a quick drive from UConn and we would expect that he will make frequent trips to UConn, if nothing else than to stare at his number in the Huskies of Honor. Kemba made his name in the Big East tournament — still more impressive than the NCAA title run! — and now that UConn is back in the Big East, maybe he can make a pit stop at Gampel during games over the years and rub some elbows with players and “potential recruits.” We know he can’t call them on the phone (??), but if he happens to be in Storrs when a top recruit comes, that would be incredibly lucky for UConn (??). Crossing our fingers that miraculously happens with Dan Hurley.
CALHOUN APPROVES: Leave it to Jim Calhoun to gush over Walker joining the Celtics and pull no punches. He compared Walker to Reggie Lewis and said he’ll be a much better leader in Boston than Kyrie Irving ever was.
“I’m just telling you, nothing against Kyrie,” Calhoun told the Boston Herald. “That’s not my issue. But I watched Toronto this year, and however their leader acted, that’s how they acted. I think people don’t understand what that leadership means. And as a coach, all the great teams I had always had a player like that, and Kemba was as good as any player I ever had like that. I think guys like [Jaylen] Brown, [Jayson] Tatum and Gordon Hayward coming back — which I think he still can — are going to like playing with Kemba. They could all be very special.”
LAMB, GAY GET PAID, TOO: Jeremy Lamb is on the move as well. He also is leaving Charlotte for a three-year, $31.5 million deal with the Indiana Pacers. Rudy Gay? He is back with the San Antonio Spurs for two years and $32 million.
And Shabazz Napier may be finding a new home too, with the Nets apparently sending him to the Warriors in the sign-and-trade deal involving D’Angelo Russell.
UCONN ALUMS GET THEIR MONEY: UConn players agreed to deals worth $202.5 million in about an hour of free agency. Let’s just say we know of a certain institution that could use some support on the donation side. Get it done, Dave Benedict!
Hurley Finally Likes What He Sees
The Story: Dan Hurley doubled down on his excitement over UConn returning to the Big East by finally signing his contract, leaving him tied to the Huskies through the 2024-25 season.
I’M YOURS: Hurley agreed in principle on a six-year, $18 million deal when he left Rhode Island and spent all of last season coaching UConn on a memorandum of understanding, which basically allowed him to reap the benefits of the proposed contract without actually signing it.
ONE MORE YEAR: Part of the reason for the delay was because the agreement included a clause that would have allowed Hurley to extend the deal by an additional season should UConn face sanctions over the recruiting infractions that influenced Kevin Ollie’s departure. With the Huskies self-imposing restrictions including the loss of a scholarship for next season and other limits on recruiting — a proposal that the NCAA has yet to accept — Hurley was able to exercise that one-year contract option.
INTO THE NUMBERS: According to The Hartford Courant, Hurley will owe UConn a buyout of $6 million if he were to leave before March 31, 2020, and that number decreases in each remaining year of the contract. But, yeah, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
Huskies Add Two to Football Schedules
The Story: Contracts for football games against Lafayette and Central Connecticut State have quietly been signed, with UConn set to play each school twice over the next eight seasons, according to FBSchedules.com.
CUE THE EXCITEMENT! The Huskies’ future remains uncertain following the decision to move practically all of its programs to the Big East, though the signing of the two series offers little in terms of a hint toward what UConn’s plans may be. All four games will open the season, with Central visiting in 2022 and 2025 and Lafayette traveling east in 2023 and 2026.
CURIOUS TIMING: UConn would like to remain in the AAC as a football-only member, but it seems more likely that it pursues a path as a Division I FBS independent. If that’s the case, scheduling the FCS games to open the season, and not later in the year when games against other programs will be harder to come by, seems like a strange move.
In either case, scheduling the FCS games in the last week of August or first week of September — essentially a preseason game and at least a winnable home opener — as the Huskies have done six of the last eight seasons (and will do so in 2019) still makes plenty of sense.
HOWDY, NEIGHBOR: The Huskies have faced (and beaten) Central three times, but not since they made the move to top-level football in 2000. UConn won 20-9 in 1986, 27-9 in 1989 and 54-9 in 1995, so if nothing else, Central should count on scoring just nine points. And, for some accounting fun, UConn will pay Central $275,000 for each game, meaning the state government will be paying the state government to play a game in a venue owned by the state government. Bureaucracy!
VISION OF THE FUTURE: Scheduling non-conference games against regional opponents has always been the preference of both UConn and coach Randy Edsall. According to The Athletic, should the Huskies blaze a trail as an independent, games against ACC teams and other Northeast programs will be a priority. Of course, that requires those opponents to buy in, but opponents such as Army, which the Huskies have played six times since Rentschler Field opened, would no doubt be interested.
Morning Read
GENO GETS A RECRUIT: Do you remember when Geno Auriemma couldn’t recruit? We don’t either. The Huskies added Mir McLean, the 32nd-ranked prospect in the Class of 2020, to the mix. McLean is a 5-foot-11 guard and the third player Geno has locked down for 2020. (Hearst Connecticut Media)
BIG EAST = NEW XL? This is a bit of a reach, but there is hope (prayers) that UConn moving to the Big East in hoops will help push a solution for the XL Center over the finish line. (Hartford Courant)
