Kevin Freeman: The Ultimate Glue Guy
In every stage of his basketball journey, Kevin Freeman has never exactly been the clear-cut, go-to superstar.
Freeman currently serves as UConn’s Director of Basketball Operations. The Huskies are currently 20-5 overall and ranked 21st in the polls.
Freeman, UConn’s power forward on the 1999 national championship team and current Director of Basketball Operations for the Huskies, has been surrounded by elite, often superior talent from his days as a Springfield, Mass. youth until now.
Growing up in a tough Springfield neighborhood, Freeman quickly learned that basketball had become his escape—the court was his sanctuary, as it provided an outlet to go out, forget about life’s worries, and simply play. His childhood idol was Travis Best, a point guard who was drafted in the first round of the 1995 NBA Draft after a standout career at Georgia Tech.
“Travis Best was about six years older than me, and I always wanted to be just like him,” Freeman said. “I would follow him around at any community center he was at, watch him and dream of one day playing basketball at a high level.”
In high school, Freeman’s father was back-and-forth from Springfield to Paterson, New Jersey, for work. After playing AAU ball in Paterson and battling the locals in recreational leagues, Freeman knew he needed a step up from the Springfield competition.
Right before his senior season, he decided to live full-time in New Jersey and enroll at Paterson Catholic, a hoops powerhouse. There, Freeman would play second-fiddle to Tim Thomas, then the No. 1 overall player in the country.
“We had too much talent,” Freeman joked. “Probably around 7 Division-1 players that year.”
When it came time to pick which college he was going to play at, Freeman had his heart set on UMass. He loved John Calipari, the UMass coach, and believed he was destined to go there. He’ll never forget the day when news broke that UMass had gone a different direction by signing someone else at Freeman’s position.
“I was devastated that day,” he recalls. “I cried in class.”
At UConn, he played alongside the likes of Husky greats Richard “Rip” Hamilton, Ricky Moore, and Khalid El-Amin. Freeman was overlooked by theNBA. And now, even though he has aspirations to move on up the coaching ranks, Freeman stands at the bottom of the totem pole on the Huskies staff.
You get the idea. Freeman wasn’t handed the God-given talent that Thomas or Kobe Bryant, Freeman’s AAU teammate, had been blessed with. He wasn’t the star recruit, and Freeman even believes he was off UConn’s recruiting wish list until Ray Allen elected to suddenly leave college for the pros.
The 6’7” gentle giant has been forced to work his tail off for everything he’s achieved—and he has achieved quite a bit. The hypothetical chip on his shoulder drovehim to be the type of player every fan loves, and now the type of assistant that every head coach dreams of.
Kevin Freeman, the penultimate glue guy throughout his career. And what a career it’s been.
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As a high school small forward, Freeman was flying under-the-radar in the recruiting circles. That’s when he was scooped up by Connecticut Select, one of the local AAU squads.
“I played with [Connecticut Select] in a tournament at Central Connecticut, and every college was there because it was an open recruiting period,” Freeman said. “I played really well, like I dominated that tournament. All the schools jumped on me.”
Duke was high on the list, as was UCLA, Boston College, Seton Hall, and obviously UMass and UConn. While playing in a showcase in Germany, Freeman received a call from Huskies coach Jim Calhoun.
“UConn recruited me hard, but I didn’t have a connection with them yet,” Freeman said. “So when the call came, it wasn’t like I was elated. I was like ‘OK.’”
It wasn’t the typical “love at first sight” relationship between UConn and Freeman. After Calhoun called, Freeman still kept his options open—he went on visits to Boston College, Seton Hall, and Duke. The pieces eventually fell into place, though. The city kid, raised in the harsh metropolises of Springfield and Paterson, was headed to Storrs.
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The biggest transition from the urban to rural lifestyle was staying in one place for an extended period. Freeman was so accustomed to traveling from Springfield to Paterson and back, and the fact that he had no car at college took some time to get used to.
Not only did Freeman have to adjust to life in Storrs, but he also had to adapt to the ways of Coach Calhoun.
Coach Calhoun also took some time to get used to.
“He is a tough dude,” Freeman said of the now Hall of Fame coach. “He was on you—he rode you real hard but cared a lot. He wanted the best out of you, so you learned how to work.”
Look up the definition of “work” in the dictionary, and chances are a picture of Kevin Freeman will greet you. The guy was relentless, truly thought every rebound belonged to him, and was molded into the blue-collar type of player that both fans and coaches fall in love with.
“Probably the closest comparison to me would be a Jeff Adrien. Just worked hard, filled in the role, score when I was called upon to score, and always try to be a leader. I led not with my mouth, but with my actions.”
As a freshman, Freeman came off the bench at the onset. Senior Kirk King, a starter, was suspended for life for receiving free airline tickets from an agent. From there on out, Freeman started every game for the rest of his career.
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In the fall of 1998, UConn was coming off an Elite-8 loss to a North Carolina Tarheels squad featuring Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison.
“We felt like we had an unfair advantage, because we played North Carolina in North Carolina. It was in Greensboro, so the crowd made it feel like they were at home.”
Based on the UNC game, Freeman and UConn knew they had to get a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament to avoid feeling like the road team again.
Freeman doesn’t remember a ton of buzz surrounding the program before the 1998-1999 season, but he did know that UConn had something special brewing. The Huskies went on a trip to Israel that summer and were handily beating professional teams.
“I thought we were good,” he said. “I didn’t know we were going to be national champions. We had confidence, but it was weird—we didn’t think we were actually going to win a national championship.”
After not making the All Big-East First Team, Freeman felt a bit slighted. He never cared for personal glory, but he made sure to prove the voters wrong during the Big East Tournament.
“God works in mysterious ways,” Freeman said. “I ended up getting Big East Tournament MVP, and I just remember going to the hotel, turning on the TV, and seeing myself. It was an awesome time for me, really incredible.”
To do it in Madison Square Garden, just a stone’s throw away from Paterson, made the experience even sweeter. Still, with the NCAA Tournament looming, Freeman and the Huskies were still hungry.
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It wasn’t referred to as the NCAA Tournament back then. It was simply “the Duke Invitational.”
“They were predicted to win,” Freeman said. “This was supposed to be the best team in Duke history, and the hype was ridiculous.”
After gritty wins over Cinderella-minded Gonzaga in the Elite 8 and Ohio State in the Final 4, Duke was the lone force blocking the path to UConn’s first-ever national championship.
UConn beat the almighty Blue Devils, 77-74. Freeman had 6 points and 8 rebounds in the shocker, while the do-it-all Hamilton led the Huskies with 27 points. Alas, UConn stood atop the college basketball world.
As the final buzzer sounded, Freeman immediately sprinted to the stands to embrace his parents. He was happy for himself and hisbrothers, butmost-of-all for the guy that went to bat for his players everyday.
“For Coach Calhoun, it was just awesome. For the younger group now, they see Coach Calhoun as an icon, this figure. But when we were playing for him he was Coach Calhoun, he wasn’t the three-time national champion. He was getting killed in the media everyday that he can’t make it to the Final Four, he can’t get over the hump, he keeps losing in big games. So just to see the smile on his face was overwhelming.”
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Freeman officially gave up the NBA dream at age 25. He had a couple solid summer league performances for the New Jersey Nets, but his undersized frame for his position did him in at the end.
The 1999 Big East Tournament MVP
While franchises shot down Freeman’s NBA dreams, they could not affect his overall love for the game. He chose to play overseas, making appearances in Italy, Spain, Greece and China.
Throughout Europe, the overall favoritism is toward European-born players rather than American outsiders. In fact, some teams only take two Americans maximum on their roster.
“It varies from league to league, but they are much more flexible about having foreign players on their rosters,” said Fran Fraschilla, an ESPN college basketball analyst.
That burden, along with the mindset that someone was always trying to take his spot, made Freeman a better overall player.
“You have to produce every night,” Freeman said about the overseas lifestyle. “It was just tough from a basketball standpoint because you always have to be on top of your game. It made me a way better basketball player, as we had to produce under pressure.”
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Freeman always knew he wanted to coach once his playing days were over. He coached the New England Playaz AAU squad for a few summers before Calhoun contacted him, asking if Freeman wanted to return to Storrs and join the Huskies staff.
Freeman coaches just like he plays: He is the jack-of-all-trades assistant, doing anything it takes to give his team a better chance of winning. As Director of Basketball Operations, he is in charge of behind-the-scenes work. That includes academics, travel, and the administration. He makes sure the program runs smoothly and efficiently, serving as a liaison of sorts between all aspects of the program.
“I have to make sure Omar Calhoun is at class,” Freeman said, using the Huskies’ small forward as an example. “I also have to make sure Omar’s staying in the correct dorm. I have to make sure Omar is scheduled to be here for media. I kind of take care of everybody on a daily basis.”
Ricky Moore, Freeman’s former teammate at UConn and now fellow assistant coach, calls his good friend a “players’ coach”—someone the guys can come to, joke around with, and forget about the daily stresses like classes and exams.
Moore knows that Freeman plans to work his way up in the coaching ranks and become the headman someday, be it at UConn or somewhere else.
“That’s what he wants to do,” Moore said. “He loves the game and he studies the game.”
Mr. Ball Is Life 