The new college basketball season is just around the corner, and we have a handful of writers here that follow some of the best college programs in the country.  In fact, most of them are being figured to make deep runs into the Tournament of 64 in March.  So we thought we would tell you why those teams will be the eventual National Champion. There is no reason to preview individual teams unless we thought they would be the National Champ, also because anything else would greatly disappoint each of us.  Don’t worry, we will be previewing each conference over the next month as well.

Now let’s take a look at your 2009 National Champion UCONN Huskies.

Last Year: 24-9, 13-5 Big East, lost in 1st round of NCAA tourney to San Diego

2008 Final Rankings: AP 13, Coaches: unranked

Key Losses: Doug Wiggins, transfer

Key Returnees: PF Jeff Adrien (1st team all Big East), PG A.J. Price (1st team all Big East), C Hasheem Thabeet (National defensive player of the year), SG Jerome Dyson, G Craig Austrie, F Stanley Robinson (January)

Key Additions: PG Kemba Walker, G Scottie Haralson, C/PF Ator Majok (January)

Coach: Jim Calhoun 36 Seasons (774-337, 9th all time), 22 at Uconn (526-200), 10 Big East regular season titles, 6 Big East Tourney Titles, 1988 NIT Title, 1999 & 2004 National TItles, 2005 Hall of Fame inductee, 2-0 vs Coach K in the final 4.

UCONN is back. After losing in the 2006 elite eight with what many considered the best collection of talent this decade, a year of reloading (we don’t rebuild) and a overtime first round loss last year, the Huskies are about to stand atop the hoops world for the 3rd time in a decade.

Unlike other teams that will be previewed here, Uconn doesn’t play in a conference full of NIT talent, we play in the best conference in the country, The Big East. And it isn’t close this year. Consider this gem from a coach that has taken 3 different programs to the final 4:

“I’ve been a coach for 33 some-odd years, and I think this is the strongest league in the history of college basketball in terms of depth, in terms of returning players coming back,” said Louisville’s Rick Pitino.

And Uconn is the best of the bunch. The Huskies won a title in 1999 behind the exceptional guard play of Rip Hamilton and Khalid El-Amin. In 2004, it was the defense of Omeka Okafor and clutch shooting of Ben Gordon. This edition features the best of both worlds: the defense offered by 7′3″ Thabeet, the floor skills of 5th year senior A.J. Price, the leadership of Jeff Adrien. And the depth is staggering.

The Breakdown

For the second year in a row, UConn’s most important recruiting victory was Hasheem Thabeet’s decision to return. Thabeet was the national defensive player of the year last season as a sophomore.

Me tall, you not so tall.

“Hasheem has improved more in three years than any player I’ve ever coached in 36 years,” Calhoun said. “I really want to see if Hasheem can be one of the best players [in the nation]. Can he be the No.1 player taken in the draft? I think he can.”

Point guard A.J. Price expects not only to be fully recovered from ACL surgery — he was cleared for full workouts last month — but also to be stronger and quicker. Price, a first-team All Big East selection last season while averaging 14.5 points and 5.8 assists, says his whole body has benefited from a rigorous rehabilitation process. It will be interesting to see how long it takes him to recover from an offseason without basketball, however. Expect him to peak just before Big East play.

Seniors Jeff Adrien and Craig Austrie, the only players entering their fourth season, have been versatile and reliable. Adrien, first-team All Big East last season, is a strong rebounder and scorer and the perfect fit for a front court anchored by Thabeet’s shot-blocking. Austrie has done whatever’s asked of him during his first three years. He is in tremendous shape after working with a personal trainer over the summer and figures to log plenty of minutes in a three-guard lineup.

Jerome Dyson: He missed nine games while suspended last season, and UConn played its best basketball during his time away. Dyson remains one of the team’s most talented players, but he must play smarter and function better as part of the lineup.

At one point, it looked like the Huskies would have five new players in uniform this year, but they will only have three. Freshman Nate Miles was expelled. While he is appealing, a decision isn’t expected for quite some time and the odds of him rejoining the team this season, if ever, are slim. Also, 6-foot-10 forward Ater Majok remains in Australia and will not join the team until after Christmas break as his grades and transcript could not be approved in time. Still, in Scottie Haralson (guard/forward) and Charles Okwandu (center), UConn has addressed needs in play-making, shooting and size.

Which bring us to…………………this:

Kemba Walker: Bitches, he is the wildcard. He led Rice HS in Harlem NY to back to back state championships. He was MVP of the FIBA U18 team this past summer. He is an unbelievable talent. Word out of Storrs is that he has been sensational so far, and is a good student and shows no signs of being a thug. Although the Huskies have a potentional lottery pick playing the point in Price, some believe Walker is actually already a better player and come March he will be the floor general. It happened in 1999 when Khalid El-Amin took over from 3 year starter Ricky Moore and led the Huskies to the promised land. Here’s a little clip of him posterizing supposed #1 point guard and UCLA frosh Jrue Holiday:

In Connecticut, we are basically nothing more than a really expensive place to live between New York and Boston. It has always been a minor league state with minor league teams. We had the Whale, but they were perenial doormats and played in a mall. The Huskies are all we got. The fan base is as rabid as any SEC football program and as knowledgable as any fan in North Carolina thinks they are. I’ll leave with a quote that is framed on the wall of my office, from everyone’s favorite blogger Dan Shanoff:

“No one owns Coach K., except Uconn’s Jim Calhoun”

Special thanks to Mike Anthony, Uconn beat writer at The Hartford Courant

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