Big East Tournament 2012: UConn Needs More Magic to Reach March Madness

It'll be deja vu all over again for Connecticut at the 2012 Big East Tournament this week.

Turn back the clock to early March of 2011, and you'll find a Huskies squad that was just 9-9 in the league, leaving them on the NCAA Tournament bubble despite a resume that included non-conference wins over Kentucky, Michigan State and Texas.

That team tipped off its week at Madison Square Garden as the ninth seed with a win over lowly DePaul, followed by four more wins in four more days to earn the Big East's automatic berth into March Madness.

Six wins later, and the Huskies were national champions for the third time under Jim Calhoun.

Back to the future, UConn will be back at the Garden to take on the Blue Demons as the 10th seed in the Big East tourney, this time on account of an 8-10 record in the Big East—this time needing to run the table more than ever after notching "signature" out-of-league wins against Harvard and Florida State.

This time without the help of All-American guard Kemba Walker, who's currently wasting away with Michael Jordan's Charlotte Bobcats in the NBA.

There will be no title defense for the folks in Storrs to enjoy unless the Huskies make some serious noise in the Big Apple. They're currently 18-12 overall, with just six wins in their last 17 games and four wins combined against the nine teams ahead of them in the Big East standings (none against Syracuse, Marquette, Georgetown and Louisville).

There will be no title defense unless Calhoun's collection of precocious talent—including returnees Jeremy Lamb, Shabazz Napier, Alex Oriakhi and "Diaper Dandies" Andre Drummond and Ryan Boatright—gets its act together in a hurry.

That's not to say there will be no title defense, though. Calhoun is back on the sidelines after missing more than a month with back problems.

And if there's any team that knows how to put a disappointing season behind it, that knows how to win five games in five days against one of the deepest conference fields in college basketball, it's UConn.

After all, the Huskies did it last year.

They'll have to hope talent and relevant experience will be enough to get them over the hump this time around against what's likely to be a "Murderer's Row" of opponents on the rocky road back to March Madness.

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