PHILADELPHIA — Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun was back cracking jokes on Friday, feeling fine after being hospitalized overnight due to dehydration, he said. After a complete physical in which he received a "high rating," he will be back on the bench for the top-seeded Huskies game against No. 9 Texas A&M here Saturday.

He said with a laugh that no psychiatrist was present for the physical.

After feeling "lousy" Thursday morning, Calhoun said team doctor Jeff Anderson suggested the Hall of Fame coach go to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania before the game for some tests.

Calhoun said he expected to be in the hospital for an hour and then head to the Wachovia Center to watch the Texas A&M-BYU game. "Next thing I know, they put a bracelet on, I was admitted. I was the most shocked guy in the world."

Calhoun watched parts of the Huskies' 103-47 win over No. 16 Chattanooga from the hospital and spoke to his players via speaker phone afterwards. Associate coach George Blaney, Calhoun's friend of 40 years, coached the team in his absence.

"I want to say how proud I was of our kids, the way they just played, quite frankly, terrific basketball, kept their composure early," Calhoun said.

Calhoun has had serious health issues in the past which is why there was considerable reason for concern. He missed all or part of 21 games since 1990 due to illness, including five games while on leave following surgery for prostate cancer in 2003. This was the third NCAA tournament game he missed. In 2004, he left a second-round game against DePaul early. He missed the 1999 first-round game against Texas-San Antonio. Both seasons, the Huskies won the national title.

Calhoun, 66, has successfully battled prostate cancer and skin cancer in 2007 and then again last summer.

"I had no doubt in my mind Coach would be back Saturday," said forward Jeff Adrien. "He's just fought through so many things in his life. A little sickness would not prevent him from coaching Saturday."

Guard A.J. Price said Calhoun's resiliency carries over to the team. "It definitely does rub off on us. If you're not tough, you couldn't play under Coach Calhoun. It translates from practice to game time."

Last night at the hospital, Calhoun watched tape from the Chattanooga game as well as some tape on Texas A&M and then "bribed" his way out of the hospital early Friday morning.

"I started bargaining, using tickets, anything I possibly could, to get out of there as quick as I possibly could, T-shirts being sent to their children, their next of kin, anything I could think of to get out of there as early as I can," he said. "I was chomping at the bit after watching my team play so well, so proud of them. I probably slept two hours last night and feel regenerated this morning. My team helped make me feel an awful lot better. It's one of those kind of things."

Calhoun said those games he missed in the past were due to stress and exhaustion, dehydration and gastric issues. So, this wasn't unusual, simply part of his make-up. When someone asked if he were a Type A personality, he said, "What's beyond that? That's a trick question, I know."

Calhoun mentioned that he's coached in 1,142 games and been nervous before those games 1,142 times. "I've always probably been stressed in every single game," he said. In terms of managing that stress, he doesn't know of any tips he could follow. "Except maybe not coach basketball, not doing something competitive," he said. "But whatever it is, I'll find a reason to make it competitive. Reading a book, I'd see if I could do it the fastest of anybody who's ever read a book. Point being, that's kind of my nature."