I don’t follow college basketball (people, I went to Georgia!) so I missed this story when it broke over the weekend. I heard the tail end of an ESPN radio show in the car that alluded to a dust-up between the University of Connecticut’s men’s basketball coach, Jim Calhoun, and freelance reporter Ken Krayeske. The topic was Calhoun’s $1.6 million salary as a state employee. Check it out:

Most of the callers on the radio show were defending Calhoun. One caller stated that while he didn’t have a problem with Calhoun’s salary, he had a huge problem with the arrogant and insolent way that he addressed the question. I’m guessing this may not be the first time those two adjectives have been used to describe Calhoun.

Krayeske is apparently a bit of a rabbel-rouser and his “freelance journalism” has gotten him in trouble in the past. To be fair to Calhoun, I don’t think the press conference was an appropriate place to ambush him. But to tell a reporter to shut-up and call him stupid? Hello? That even trumps OSU’s Mike Gundy (“I’m a MAN! I’m 40!”).

Organizations have a responsibility to media train anyone who might step in front of a camera and represent them. For universities with big-time athletic programs, that means coaches and sometimes their star players. I don’t know if UConn has put Calhoun through media training. I’d like to think that with as high-profile a basketball program as the school has, it would have done so. But Calhoun was clearly ruffled and reacted in about the worst way possible. He was rude and insulting. He started throwing out numbers to back up his point, and they didn’t quite add up. He and the university are now going to have to backtrack, apologize, and commence serious damage control.

Media training can’t be a one-time event: people get better, more comfortable, and more able to think on their feet by practicing over and over again. The more comfortable they are, the calmer they’ll remain when the tough questions come out or the awkward situations arise. Put them in front of a camera a few times a year and toss mock interview questions at them. Watch it back with them and critique their answers. Anticipate tricky questions that might come up in certain situations and equip the person with some points to remember so they don’t get flustered. And repeat.

Calhoun should have stayed calm. He should have let the reporter know that he was there to talk about the team’s performance in the game that had just been played and not his salary or contract. He could have offered to sit down with the reporter at a later time in a more appropriate venue and discussed the topic.

This is basic blocking and tackling, guys. Or whatever you basketball fans call it.

More coverage from:
The Hartford Courant’s Jeff Jacobs
The Hartford Courant’s Colin McEnroe