Gary Parrish

Jim Calhoun has cancer.

That's bad news.

But the good news is that when he realized something wasn't right he immediately got it checked out, discovered the problem and addressed it in the best possible way, which is the one thing Calhoun seemed eager to mention over and over again during his Friday press conference, that though some men try to push through when bothered it isn't all that smart to ignore reality.

Calhoun knew he felt ill.

He knew something was wrong.

And he knew it wasn't going away.

So he asked for help and got it quickly.

"When something's going wrong you just don't think it's going to go away," Calhoun said. "You have to face it."

Calhoun is now facing it, and with any luck everything will turn out OK. The next few weeks will be tough, and anybody suggesting otherwise is lying to themselves. But the good thing about Calhoun is that he doesn't seem willing to lie to himself, not about his health. And it's that quality that'll give him a shot to coach at UConn again this November despite being dealt a setback that at this point seems obviously serious yet relatively small, at least compared to what it could've been if Calhoun would not have sought help so quickly.