NEW YORK -- Caron Butler led the parade of Connecticut players, weaving through the diehard Husky fans who had stayed to watch the Huskies cut down the Madison Square Garden nets.

"We're back!" Butler proclaimed as he slapped high fives with everyone he passed holding the Big East tournament MVP trophy which he got for scoring 23 points in Connecticut's 74-65 double overtime win over Pittsburgh in the Big East tournament title game Saturday night. "We're back!"

	Caron Butler is the latest in a long line of UConn sophomores who'll be asked to lead the Huskies deep into the NCAA Tournament.

Back atop the Big East -- one season removed from being an auspicious absentee from the NCAA Tournament. Back, possibly, as a top two seed -- a likely No. 2 seed -- in the NCAA Tournament after being in the NIT last season and flaming out two seasons ago in the NCAA second round.

Back with a star in Butler, the Huskies latest all-American who can carry the team to a conference title. And back to where Jim Calhoun expected this squad to be, even if no one else did at the beginning of the season.

"I didn't know about (a No. 2 seed)," said Calhoun, the intense and veteran Connecticut head coach. "But I always had a feeling we were really, really good."

It's hard to imagine the Huskies are this good considering where they've been. But they are.

Connecticut lost by 18 at home to an under-appreciated St. Bonaventure, but still the defeat was at home. The Huskies had their chances against the elite, losing to Maryland at the MCI Center early in the season and then to Oklahoma at home, once again at the beginning of January. But the Big East was different, and the Huskies kept getting better and better, emerging as the team to beat in the East Division.

They didn't get a chance to face the best team in the West Division because of the imbalanced Big East schedule. But the conference tournament set up Saturday night's matchup when both top seeds won their way to the title game.

Pittsburgh was on the verge of taking out the more offensively-gifted Huskies before co-Big East MVP Brandin Knight went down with a knee injury with the game tied with 32 seconds left in regulation. He nearly won the game with a buzzer-beater at the end of the first overtime, when he came back for 1.7 seconds. But it was the balance from the Huskies and Butler's will to win that seemed to carry this team.

Connecticut has made better decisions later in games, coming from behind to win at Georgetown, and beat Boston College at home when they were down 10 with just over two minutes remaining. It's all a part of their maturity and growth of a team that no one expected to be this good, this soon.

But who knew freshman Ben Gordon would be the shooter the team was missing; or that center Emeka Okafor would be such a dominating shot-blocker in his first season; or that Taliek Brown would become a better distributor and smarter player late in the game; or that Johnnie Selvie would play within his limitations.

The only expectation was that Butler would take games over and become the stud he was billed to be when the Huskies signed him two years ago.

"We've matured during the year and I've had some real sit downs with Taliek," Calhoun said. "He believes in himself, but that's also one of his greatest fallacies because when he takes someone (off the dribble) he has to find someone. But he's doing a much better job of that, and we've turned into a better basketball team."

But no one has grown more than Butler, who at 22 (23 on March 13) is older than most sophomores, let alone seniors, after spending a year at Maine Central Institute. The pressure to be a star at Connecticut is high. Look at the list Butler is joining: Donyell Marshall, Ray Allen, Richard Hamilton, and even a sophomore point guard named Khalid El-Amin, who willed the Huskies to their only national championship in1999.

"Caron bought into the old State U.," Calhoun said. "But it wasn't until we lost at Rutgers, and Ray Allen was there and he said, 'Let me tell you something, every one of us, Cliff (Robinson), Donyell (Marshall) and everyone of us is watching you.' Caron always wants to know where Ray and Richard were at this point.

"He wants to carry on the legacy and do what has been done the past decade," Calhoun said.

The chants of "One More Year!" echoed throughout the Garden as Butler took a curtain call, but convincing this sophomore stud to stick around for his junior season might be tough. He's a lock for the first round in the June draft. But Calhoun is going to work on Butler -- advising him that if he's not a lock for the lottery, possibly high in the lottery, he might be better served to return for a junior season.

"If he's in a great position, then he has to take advantage of it. But he could do what Ray and Richard did and be a real superstar and become the best player in America," Calhoun said.

Butler wasn't about to leave college without a taste of the NCAA Tournament. He'll get that and now he's got a few Big East trophies to go, too.

But the Huskies aren't finished after a season that started last spring when Calhoun took his name out of consideration for the South Carolina job, a move that would have seriously jolted Husky Nation.

"When you're not expected to do things, the pressure is off," Calhoun said of his young Huskies, who start just Selvie as a senior, and weren't picked to win the East Division, let alone the Big East tournament. Come to think of it, neither was that 1999 championship team in Florida, when they upset Duke in the title game.

"The fans have fallen in love with this team and when we clinched it the night of beating Seton Hall (on March 3) it was like 10 years ago," Calhoun said. "The fans thought we would be good, but this good? This is one of the more fun years I've had in a long time."

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.