Basketball gave Kentan Facey a path off the Island of Jamaica, where he grew up on his family’s farm. It got him to UConn, changing the trajectory of his life, and on to see the world as a professional.
He helped blaze that trail, and now he’s working to open it wider.
“Back then, it was cricket, then track and field, then soccer, now basketball is making a huge impact in how kids are viewing sports on the island,” Facey said. “It’s an option for them and they’ve seen really good examples of guys who have made it out. It allowed me to achieve a higher education.
“We can help these kids be attractive to high schools and colleges and open up doors for them, broaden their horizons.”
UConn Men: Kentan Facey Has Grown Up Quickly
Facey, 31, was back in Jamaica this week, running a clinic for kids at Knox College, where he attended school. He frequently has gone back with gear to distribute and support to offer; now he has assembled eight instructors to teach about 30 kids, with an emphasis on the mental aspects of sport. He’s running the camp through the Kenneth Facey Foundation, which he began to honor his father, who died from heart disease just after Kentan’s sophomore year at UConn.
“This is just the start of the plans I have,” he said. “I always wanted to give back in some sense and this is a way for me to impact a lot of lives. I was given the opportunity when I was younger and I want to provide the same opportunities. For me it was the beginning of what it looks like now, the premium we put on players going to play at universities. There were a few guys who understood the game because they’d traveled to the U.S., but we were never exposed to that high level.”
Indeed, Facey, 6 feet 10 and now 31 years old, has been talking about this since his UConn days, where he played from 2013-17. He was part of the 2014 championship team, developing into a starting big man by his senior year and graduating with a degree in communications. He has played professionally in Greece, Cyprus, Qatar and, for the past several years, in France.
“It’s basketball, and you get to do what you love for a living,” he said. “So it’s all good.
And he looks forward to wearing his country across his jersey in the international arena. Veteran NBA coach and executive Rick Turner took over Jamaica’s national program in 2019 and quickly got Facey involved. Scottie Barnes, Amen and Ausar Thompson, Nick Richards, Josh Minott, and Roy Hibbert are among the NBA players with Jamaican roots expected to join the team, with the FIBA World Cup prequalifiers coming up this summer.
“There’s a lot of excitement,” Facey said. “We’re building a lot of momentum with big-time NBA players coming back and trying to help the sport on the island move forward. This is giving us the push we need to have tryouts and trying to field a team that can put us on he map as far as basketball goes.
“Coach Rick Turner has been working tirelessly to make this a reality, and he’s secured the backing to take steps necessary that can make us competitive on the international stage.”
Facey was a tall, raw talent when he left Jamaica to play for Long Island Lutheran. He was the last player to commit to UConn before Jim Calhoun retired and turned the program over to Kevin Ollie.
“My time at UConn, throughout those four years I’ve learned countless lessons I still take to this day,” Facey said. “On the mental side of things, the psychological development I had to go through, that’s what I’m focusing on and what I’d like to transition into, and it will be the focal point of my clinic here. The main thing is to bring awareness to how we approach that aspect. The physical part takes care of itself if you are committed enough. The mental part is where I struggled the most and needed some attention.”
While at UConn, Facey met his future wife, Bianca, now a public relations professional in New York, and he is still in the area, often working out at the University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford. To represent Jamaica, where it used to be a struggle just for kids to find places to play, in the next Olympics would be the ultimate.
“Given my journey it would be an honor,” Facey said. “I started out, not as a basketball player, but I gradually fell in love with the game as I saw progress. For me to be able to represent the country on that level, it would be an honor for me. That would be amazing.”
More for your Sunday Read:
Dom Amore’s Sunday Read: ‘Big Fish’ in UConn waters; Will Levis’ future, golf integrity and more
Rumb-ling off into the sunset
Bob Rumbold, a local presence on TV in the Springfield- Hartford-New Haven area since 1984, can still light up a room, but our living rooms will be a little less lit from now on.
Nothing wrong with the volume on your set, folks, it’s just that Rumbold, 72, has thrown it back to the anchors for the last time at WTNH-TV, where he’d worked since 2018. He’s retired, and beginning the adjustment.
“I knew, it was time,” Rumbold said. “I liked meeting the people out in the field, being live, I loved the adrenaline of the people in the room. Being live was the best part, you never know what’s coming next. I always had an adrenaline rush, it’s like being an athlete in some way. Stuff would happen, but my concept was always, ‘Just roll with it.’ Who needs a script?”
Rumbold was part of the team from Windsor Locks that won the 1965 Little League World Series, getting to Williamsport after game-ending triple play in the regional finals. Got to meet Mickey Mantle, which still makes long-time Fox 61 colleague Rich Coppola envious. Sportscasting entered and never left Rumbold’s blood, and he launched his career in radio in the 1970s.
“I used to get in trouble for being too loud,” Rumbold said. “I guess that came from radio. They used to get a kick out of watching me watch a game, I guess I’m still a little loud. … I was always there to entertain, that’s the key. If I’m not having fun, you’re not having fun.”
And a fun run it was. Rumbold remembers standing on his tippy toes to interview 7-6 Manute Bol, the Whalers trials and travails, the UConn championships, high school highlights and the state’s later Little League champs among the many favorite stories.
Now, no more late nights, he’ll be spending time with his family, including his wife, Cathy, daughters Diane, a teacher, and Julie, an opera singer, and grandsons Sean and Ethan, who have inherited grandpa’s high-energy delivery. “They’re good talkers,” he said. “They can speak.”
Paige out of history … for $800
On Jeopardy! this week under “Sporty Stuff for $800,” the following answer: “This UConn star had an intense spring in 2025, playing on her first national championship team and being picked first in the WNBA Draft. …”
One contestant immediate buzzed in with “Who is Caitlin Clark?” Then, crickets. Paige Bueckers? Never heard of her.
So apparently, anybody can look like a genius on that show so long as they stick to minutiae like physics or Roman mythology, but heaven forbid they ask something important.
MLB Draft: Local names to watch
Hearing that Cam Maldonado, from Wolcott and Hamden Hall, could get the first call among Connecticut players in the MLB Draft maybe as early as the third round. Maldonado hit .329 with 36 homers and 89 steals during three seasons at Northeastern.
The annual amateur draft begins Sunday night with the first three rounds and continues on Monday with rounds 4-20.
UConn slugger Ryan Daniels could go between the fifth and 10th rounds. Pitcher Matt Scott from Redding, who’s been at Stanford, is highly regarded. Easton Masse, from Westminster School, son of longtime scout Bill Masse, could be picked in that area, depending on sign-ability, which drives the draft. Masse’s an incoming freshman at Boston College.
Cam Righi, Gatorade Player of the Year from Wethersfield, a UConn recruit, could also get a call and have a decision to make. Keep an eye on Cole Raymond, a hard thrower from Bristol who played for Avon Old Farms, pitcher Daniel Margolies and pitcher/infielder Tyler Stone, both at Cheshire Academy, are names to watch, all high-major college commits.
Sunday short takes
*The next from UConn to perform in the NFL? The next Yard Goat summoned to the big leagues? That would be “Game Day Connor” Geary, who has signed on to be game day host at Patriots home games in 2025. The Pats’ offense is now on notice; nobody sits until they score.
*A good way to discover how much you didn’t know about baseball, or about teaching young people, was to sit and talk with the legend, Bob DeMayo, who coached at North Haven from 1958 to 2022 and won a record 938 baseball games. We lost him this week at 92. Rest in power, Coach. Teach ’em how to bunt up there.
*Lot of talk last winter about the Blue Jays trying to move UConn’s George Springer, but being unable to find a taker for his contract. Old baseball adage: The best trades are the ones you don’t make.
*More and more I see this narrative that the Yankees’ front office is wasting Aaron Judge’s prime years. I’d quibble on that, and I bet Don Mattingly and Mike Trout would, too. The Yankees have gotten to the playoffs in seven of Judge’s eight seasons. That’s seven opportunities, to date, Judge has had to carry them to the top and, though he has hit 16 homers in 58 postseason games, he hasn’t had that monster October long anticipated. Much of this is beyond any one player’s control, or the Yankees’ control, but Judge’s career has not been “wasted” by the teams that have surrounded him. That’s balderdash.
*The CIAC released its alignments for football in 2025 and there are the usual eyebrow raisers here and there, such as Hand-Madison, a perennial powerhouse, moving to Class SS. There’s no flawless way to do it; enrollment numbers can’t really account for a sport’s tradition in a town or school. But I would submit that it would be worth trying a setup where private schools and tech schools are in their own divisions, with three divisions for the rest. It might make for more equitable and meaningful championships.
Dom Amore: This UConn baseball slugger is swinging for the stars
Last word
Now that an MLB pitcher, Cleveland’s Luis Ortiz, has been placed on leave for suspect pitches, it should call attention to the absurdity of modern on-line sports betting. For pro leagues to be affiliated with gambling enterprises is a slippery slope to begin with. Affiliated or not, the proliferation of asinine “prop bets” on things like a ball or strike on the first pitch of an inning just greases the skids right down to the abyss.
A pitcher can throw a random ball in the dirt while his associates have a bet on it any time. And if betting on a single pitch isn’t large enough to raise red flags, as was the case here, how do you prevent it? Leagues should try using their leverage to demand an end to these kinds of within-game wagers, which seem like a shameless come-on for those who are addiction-prone..
Originally Published: July 12, 2025 at 11:14 AM EDT
