Big East Tournament 2012: Why Connecticut Is the Ultimate Sleeper

Is it fair to call the defending national champions a sleeper pick?

When a team like Connecticut, which finished 18-12 in the regular season, hasn't played its best basketball all year and decides to show up for the Big East tournament—that's when it becomes acceptable.

Connecticut has so far started off the tournament 2-0, including an overtime win over West Virginia on Wednesday.

This seems like a similar team to one that finished off the 2011 season with 11 straight wins on the way to Jim Calhoun's third national title.

You would think that maybe people shouldn't have slept on this team for the second year in a row, but they have.

Connecticut was ranked in the top 10 at the start of the season after returning most of their team—aside from Kemba Walker—from last year's national champions, but somehow fell off the grid after a slow start.

They have underperformed given their talent, but maybe these Huskies are late bloomers, just like last year in the Big East tournament.

Coach Calhoun left the team for medical reasons for an extended amount of time earlier in the season, but is now back with his program trying to create some similar magic in this year's tournament. 

It may be a stretch saying this Connecticut team is as good as last year's: They finished 8-10 in conference play in 2011-2012, as opposed to 9-9 last season.

However, you can't count out a team that has been in a similar situation before.

Jeremy Lamb has been one of the better guard-forwards in the Big East this season, as Shabazz Napier has been a good fill in at point guard for Kemba Walker, even if he has struggled with consistency sometimes.

They make one of the more talented guard duos in the conference, and in the first two games of the tournament have so far averaged 39 points combined per game. 

The big reason why Connecticut should be feared from here on out in the Big East tournament is the amount of size they have on their roster, including fab freshman Andre Drummond, Alex Oriakhi, Tyler Olander and Roscoe Smith.

The only other team that has similar size and talent in the Big East would be Syracuse, but Jim Boheim has just been able to utilize them better.

There really isn't a logical explanation as to why the Huskies can't do it all again.

They have enough scoring talent and interior defense to make a run at another Big East championship, even though they let themselves be considered a "sleeper" by having a lackluster regular season. 

Don't be surprised are ready to pull off another entertaining run to a Big East tournament title.