Jim Calhoun, who won three national titles at UConn, then built a program at Division III St. Joseph from the ground up, will receive the Best Coach award at next month's ESPYS.

ESPYS Auction Want the chance to win an incredible experience? Want to help the V Foundation fight cancer? Here's your chance with the ESPYS Auction. Bid to win

• More ESPYS

• Donate to the V Foundation

"I'm honored by it. They have a lot of people they could choose," Calhoun, 77, told the Hartford Courant on Monday. "This is like looking back and saying, 'That guy Calhoun, he yelled and screamed a lot and was tough and fought like crazy, but there might have been a method to his madness to some degree that he really cares about the kids.' "

Calhoun arrived as basketball coach at Storrs in 1986, when the school had four total wins in NCAA play. Since then, the Huskies have won four national titles -- with Calhoun coaching for three of them.

In 26 years at the university, he helped transform UConn from a regional school into one of the nation's top public universities. When he retired in 2012, his 873 wins ranked sixth all-time in Division I men's basketball.

UConn great Jim Calhoun led the St. Joseph Blue Jays to 16 wins in their inaugural season. AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb

But in 2017, with the itch for the game still there, he announced that he was putting together a men's basketball program at Division III St. Joseph in West Hartford, Connecticut, to begin play in the 2018-19 season. Calhoun was officially named coach in 2018.

As he was trying to get St. Joseph's program off the ground, Calhoun was also fighting Stage 4 stomach cancer. Just before the inaugural season began, he had a procedure that removed the cancer. He returned to the team before the first regular-season men's basketball game in St. Joe's history on Nov. 9. He says he's now cancer-free.

St. Joe's won 16 games in its first season, and those wins helped push Calhoun past Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith for career coaching victories on the all-division list.

The ESPYS will air July 10 (ABC, p.m. ET).