20 Connecticut

Talk to Connecticut freshman Caron Butler about basketball, and he sounds appropriately modest—"I'm going to give 110 percent, bring what I can to the table, try to help the team." Ask him about playing cards, specifically who wins when he goes against roommate Taliek Brown, and he can't help but crack a confident smile. "Oh, I am the man at spades," he says.

By next spring Butler may well be the man, period. Though he arrives at UConn from Racine , Wis. , with less hype than the multitalented Brown (page 128), the 6' 7" swingman Butler is by no means less promising. Strong and athletic, he has good range on his jump shot and uncommon court vision. Moreover, after two years at a prep school in Maine , where he averaged 26.2 points and 13.3 rebounds last year, Butler already possesses a polished game, plenty of confidence and what coach Jim Calhoun calls "a presence."

That's good news for the Huskies because, with Khalid El-Amin having left early for the pros and Jake Voskuhl and Kevin Freeman having used up their eligibility, UConn is suddenly a young and inexperienced team. The only double-figure scorer back is shooting guard Albert Mouring ( Big East -leading .478 three-point-shooting percentage), a preseason Wooden Award nominee with a librarian's demeanor.

Fortunately for Calhoun , most of the other powers in the Big East are similarly green. This gives Calhoun time to tinker. "I don't usually say this, but I'm looking at it as if our season really starts on January 1," says Calhoun . By then he hopes that Butler, Brown, and the third starter from Connecticut 's heralded recruiting class, last season's junior college player of the year, Johnnie Selvie, will be gelling.

If that happens, come March the young Huskies could very well be playing with a stacked deck.

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