Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said he felt relieved, tired and ready to take a break after finishing the final round of his skin cancer radiation treatment Friday.

Looking thinner as he said he had lost 21 pounds, Calhoun was upbeat as he hosted his annual charity golf tournament Monday in Avon, Conn.

Calhoun was diagnosed with skin cancer in April and had surgery on May 6 to remove a lump and lymph nodes around his salivary gland.

Calhoun said he was done with the radiation treatment, although his sense of taste still hasn’t returned. Calhoun said he will take the next two weeks to relax before school starts. His treatment was made easier, he said, by knowing that he was coming back to a team that is expected to challenge for the Big East title and a Final Four berth. A rebuilding situation wouldn’t have been the carrot needed to get him through the grueling early-morning trips to his radiation procedures.

While he has endured a restless summer, his team has been cruising along. Guard A.J. Price continues to recover from his ACL surgery last March. Center Hasheem Thabeet gained experience in the post through workouts with NBA center and former Husky Emeka Okafor. Incoming freshman point Kemba Walker was the Most Valuable Player of the FIBA Under 18 tournament in Argentina (the U.S. won silver), and incoming 20-year-old freshman Nate Miles is finally ready to be a major contributor for the Huskies. It took Miles nearly two seasons to be eligible at UConn but Calhoun said it will be worth the exhausting process of him getting eligible. Miles went to four different high schools before finishing at the Patterson School (N.C.). He was close to joining the Huskies last December but Calhoun said he still needed to finish one more class. Calhoun said having Miles come to summer school and getting adjusted to college was a much better situation than if he had come to school last December. Calhoun compared the 6-foot-7 Miles, from Toledo, Ohio, to Richard Hamilton.

“When you get a guy at small forward/big guard who could be a point guard-type, you’re just so much better, ” Calhoun said of Miles. “Jeff [Adrien] won’t have to move out to get the ball and Hasheem will be so much better because of him. ”

Calhoun envisions a highly productive offensive team with Price, Walker, Miles, Thabeet and Adrien.

“We could be pretty interesting, ” Calhoun said. “I just think we could be one of those teams that come together with old and young. I think we’ll be a real interesting team. We’ll have just about everything you’ll need. ”

The more I talked to coaches at Calhoun’s event and on the phone the past two weeks, the more I realized how good the top of the Big East will be next season. Connecticut, Pitt, Notre Dame and Louisville could all win the league and end up challenging North Carolina for the national title.

-Andy Katz, ESPN