UConn basketball coach has cancer

STORRS, Conn. -- Connecticut men's coach Jim Calhoun has prostate cancer and is leaving the team for up to a month for surgery and treatment.\n"I want to attack this thing," Calhoun said Monday at practice. "I want to get it out of my system, and I want to fight this like I've fought everything else in my life. I'll win this battle, and with my family and the love and prayers of everybody, be back on the sidelines soon."\nThe 60-year-old coach will take a three- to four-week medical leave, with assistant George Blaney taking over on an interim basis. Surgery was scheduled for Thursday.\nCalhoun's doctor, UConn Health Center urologist Peter Albertsen, said the cancer was detected early and was "relatively low-grade."\n"Coach Calhoun's condition appears to be very treatable, and we anticipate his return to normal job-related activities within three or four weeks," said Albertsen, who will perform the operation.\nNow in his 17th season at Connecticut, Calhoun has led the Huskies to national prominence, peaking with the 1999 NCAA title. With a career record of 637-290, including 14 seasons at Northeastern, Calhoun is eighth among active Division I coaches.\nThe 18th-ranked Huskies (13-4, 4-2 Big East) play Wednesday night at Virginia Tech. They're coming off a 95-71 loss to Boston College on Saturday, their worst loss ever at Gampel Pavilion.\n"We can handle what we have to handle," Blaney said. "He's one of the strongest guys I ever met. I know that he will fight it -- that's not been a question."\nBefore coming to UConn, he was coach at Seton Hall for three years, until 1997.\nCalhoun learned he had cancer Friday and told the team shortly before meeting with reporters Monday.\n"My mouth just dropped," said guard Taliek Brown. "All my prayers are with him. Everybody will just play his hardest for him."\n"He said he just wanted us to play hard," guard Tony Robertson said. "He said he has enough people praying for him to get better. Basketball is the least thing he should be worrying about right now."\nFormer UConn star Donyell Marshall, who played for Calhoun from 1991-94 and now is with the Chicago Bulls, said his ex-coach has "always been a fighter."\n"I'm just glad he caught it early. It's not going to take years or whatever," he said before Monday night's game in Phoenix.\nCalhoun said he spoke by phone Sunday with Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, who was treated for an enlarged prostate last season. Boeheim also lost both his parents to cancer.\n"He was great," Calhoun said.\nCalhoun said his cancer was detected through routine prostate screening, and he praised the benefits of the procedure.\n"Do your family, do your loved ones a favor, and make sure you get yourself screened," he said.\nCalhoun said his family was the most important reason for moving ahead quickly with treatment. He has three grandchildren. "I want to see them grow," he said.