UConn Basketball: Why the Huskies Can Repeat in 2011-12

The UConn Huskies pulled it off. In one of the maddest Marches in recent history, the young team with the old coach was able to bring a third National Championship to Storrs.

And they will bring back a fourth next year.

Jim Calhoun is 68 years old. Questions have circulated concerning his future on the sidelines. But with the weight of time threatening to drain the air from his wildly successful coaching career, believe that Calhoun will be just as, if not more, hungry to repeat, than his players.

The return of a Hall of Fame coach, however, (in a sport where coaches are glorified) will be a small piece to Huskie success next year.

More important is the fact that 10 of the 13 Champions from this past year's team will be returning.

Of those 10, the key players will be Jeremy Lamb, Shabazz Napier, Roscoe Smith and Tyler Olander.

All four will be sophomore's next season, and it is a bit of college basketball common knowledge, as any coach will agree, that players make their biggest leap in improvement in their sophomore season.

Lamb will be considered the player to watch, but Shabazz Napier and Roscoe Smith could emerge as key players for UConn.

Napier will have the unfortunate role of filling in for Kemba Walker, one of the greatest players to come out of UConn, male or female. Napier is as good a ball handler as Walker was, and once he learns to use the dribble as a tool to attack the basket, instead of a dancing partner, he will carve up opposing defenses.

Though Napier didn't show it much, he has deep range on his jump shot, and an ability to really heat up and he knows it.

And while Napier may not be as good as Walker, he plays like he thinks he is, and will bring that confidence to the point guard spot.

Roscoe Smith may have the most potential of any Huskie. At 6'8", Smith is long, athletic and hits the glass hard. He averaged just over five rebounds a game.

Like Napier, Smith did not get a chance to show is offensive ability his freshman year, but he was a knock down shooter at Oak Hill Academy.

Next year his offensive production will surely increase.

The question mark for the Huskies, as of now, is the low block.

Charles Okwandu is lost to graduation, and without his 7' frame to carry some of the rebounding load, more responsibility will rest on Alex Oriakhi's large, if sometimes inconsistent, shoulders.

Tyler Olander did show some potential late in the year, but he played only small bursts, allowing him to really go all out when on the floor. One has to wonder if he can bring that same energy with increased playing time.

An easy answer to the big man question would be the signing of high school phenom Andre Drummond.

Drummond is already being called the best thing to happen to the college post game since the reinstating of the dunk.

There are still questions though about where Drummond will end up. But considering he is from Connecticut, UConn is surely in the running.

Calhoun missed out on Andrew Bynum. There is no way he wants to miss out on Drummond.

If this kid chooses to be a Huskie next year, they will have hands down, the most balanced, even complete, team in the country.

Without him UConn has a dangerous perimeter game and, that's right, the heart of a champion.

They might as well buy plane tickets to the Final Four now and safe some money on the air fare.