Long Day A Coach's Torment

April 3, 2000 / 4:33 PM EDT / CBS/AP

A year ago, Jim Calhoun woke up on the biggest morning of his professional life.

His Connecticut Huskies would be playing that night for the national championship against Duke.

Like kids on Christmas, no alarm clock was necessary.

"I got up right at 5 o'clock and thought, `Just 16 hours to kill before tip-off'," Calhoun said Monday.

This year, first-time championship game coaches Billy Donovan of Florida and Tom Izzo of Michigan State caught a break. They had one less hour to wait - the game was to start at 8:18 p.m. local time (9:18 p.m. EDT).

"It is a really long day and you have to find ways to shorten it," Calhoun said, a smile creasing his face as he reminisced to the day the Huskies won the championship in St. Petersburg, Fla., with a 77-74 victory over Duke.

"Luckily for us our hotel was a long way from the arena. So on the way to the shootaround I told the driver `Oh, take us over to see that' or `What's that? Let's take a look.' That helped kill some more time.

"After the shootaround we took them to a place where they could get something light to eat and pretty soon it was 3 o'clock and we were getting near the regular time for team meal before a game."

There were places Calhoun didn't want the team as it got ready for its biggest game.

"We wanted to keep them out of the hotel because kids love to take naps and we didn't want to let them sleep," he said. "Most of the kids were just fine. But it was a long day because, especially in the previous rounds of the tournament and big games during the season, you're playing afternoon games and that's a whole different way of getting ready."

The day of the championship game is different from the rest of Final Four weekend.

"On Saturday, the games are earlier. And then Sunday, if you're lucky enough to win, is spent meeting with the media and having a full practice, so it's more normal, more of the usual routine," he said. "Routine is important. When you're winning you don't change a thing. Then you find a way to break it if you're losing.

"We were the first game on Saturday, and then we watched the Duke-Michigan State game. We had about 35 minutes of discussion about Duke when we got back to the hotel and then had Sunday. When Monday came around I backed off about Duke. I told them, `They're not getting any faster or more experienced.' And that gave the kids a bit of a break, too."

The coach also has to take care of himself.

"Our hotel had a pool and then there was a smaller, more private pool," Calhoun said. "I went over there by myself and just read. I read newspapers, magazines, stat sheets, media guides, anything. I know people were saying things to make small talk and I was good at nodding and saying `Yeah. Uh-uh.' But there was a lot to think about."

Calhoun's approach on a coach's longest day worked. And he got a chance to end it around midnight by cutting down the nets and celebrating the moment everyone who has ever blown a whistle and held a clipboard dreams of.

Billy Donovan and Tom Izzo can only hope their longest day ends just the way Calhoun's did.