Jim Calhoun retires as head coach at D-III Saint Joseph

Former UConn head coach Jim Calhoun, who came out of retirement in 2018 to lead the new men’s basketball program at D-III Saint Joseph (CT), announced on Thursday that he was stepping down from that position. The Blue Jays, who are currently 3-0, will be lead for the rest of the season by Calhoun’s longtime associate head coach Glen Miller.

“It’s just the right time,” Calhoun said in a statement. “I’m healthy, my wife (Pat) is healthy, and the USJ men’s basketball program is healthy. We built this program starting from scratch about five years ago, and now the team is in a good place. We’ve got a great new facility and accomplished a lot on the court the past few seasons. I plan to be involved with the University, but there are a lot of things that I would like to do, and it’s time to spend more time with my wife and family.”

Calhoun coached the Connecticut Huskies from 1986-2012, winning 645 games, ten Big East titles and three National Championships during that time. His 2012 retirement stuck for six years, before he took the job at Saint Joseph, a D-III school in West Hartford, Connecticut that hosted basketball competition for the first time in 2018. He was an impressive 47-17 during his tenure, winning the GNAC Tournament in 2020 to reach the (eventually cancelled) D-III NCAA Tournament.

“Coach Calhoun has stayed longer and done more for USJ than I could ever have hoped when we first talked to him about launching our men’s basketball team and with it, the transition to coeducation almost five years ago,” said University President Dr. Rhona Free. “No student-athlete could have a better coach and advocate—he monitors and cares about their performance and success in every aspect of their lives. While nobody can replace Coach Calhoun, we’re fortunate that Glen Miller has been here throughout and can continue to build the program and lead this team to another successful season.”

Miller has worked under Calhoun for a total of 12 years, starting with the former’s first coaching staff at UConn in 1986. In between stints with the Huskies, Miller was the head coach at Penn (2006-09), Brown (1999-2006) and D-III Connecticut College (1993-99). He took the Quakers to the NCAA Tournament in his first season there, continuing a streak of three-straight Ivy League titles for the program. He takes over the Blue Jays with a career head coaching record of 233-209 across both D-I and D-III competition.

credit to Richard Messina/ESPN for the photo