By David Borges, New Haven Register
As he sat in the interview room moments after his No. 3 was unveiled in the UConn Huskies of Honor, Caron Butler was emotional. His reddened eyes gave it away.
“I didn’t think (Jim) Calhoun was gonna be here,” Butler said, referring to his former UConn coach and the man who took a chance on a kid with a “checkered background” from Racine, Wisconsin. “They told me he was trying to get back, but they didn’t know if he could make it or not. I saw him out the corner of my eye, it just made the whole moment emotional.”
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Butler became the 25th representative of the UConn men’s program to have his uniform raised to the rafters at Gampel Pavilion on Saturday night. His flight was a bit late, but he and his wife, Andrea, and five children made it with a few minutes to spare for the halftime ceremony.
His drive to the airport made him nostalgic.
“Time goes by so fast,” said Butler. “You just reflect on all the special moments – from walking to the 7/11 to going to your dorm room, late-night shooting, the preparation, your first moments on this campus. You see your big brother, Ray Allen – Jesus Shuttleworth, in the summer in the off-season, coming in like he’s walking on water. It’s like, man, that’s what I want to be, to be able to carry that legacy. All those moments are real vivid in my mind.”
Butler said this was the first time he had returned to Storrs in about three years, since he and his wife rented a house in New Haven and drove up to take a tour of the campus – where the two met as students.
Butler, who turns 36 next month, said he keeps tabs on all his fellow UConn teammates and alums. Rudy Gay is currently his teammate with Sacramento; Andre Drummond was his teammate last season in Detroit.
“I’m O.G. (original gangster) now,” he said with a smile. “It’s crazy. It happens so fast.”
Asked if it feels like 14 years since he left UConn after his sophomore year, Butler said, “It only feels like that when I drive to the basket. I’ll be like, I probably should’ve settled for the jump shot. That’s when I get a little clarity.”
He said his favorite moment as a Husky was winning the Big East championship in 2002.
“The night before, me, Taliek (Brown), Johnnie (Selvie), all of us – we just couldn’t sleep,” he recalled. “It was crazy. No one could sleep at night. We stayed up until 4-5 a.m. Guys were coming in each other’s rooms. We had curfew, but we just couldn’t sleep. We were like, ‘This is gonna be huge for us.’ It was a great opportunity. We just kinda gathered together, kept talking. We were like, ‘This is what I’m gonna do with the trophy, I’m gonna run around.’ I was just like, ‘Man, I hope Coach lets me go to the NBA.’”
“It actually happened,” he continued. “Everything we talked about that night, to a ‘T’, happened. It was special.”
Let’s go surfin’ now: During a timeout midway through the second half, UConn was presented with an eight-foot, hand-crafted, custom-made surfboard to celebrate the team’s upcoming appearance in the 2016 Maui Invitational. It will be UConn’s fourth appearance in the tournament, which will be held Thanksgiving week and also feature Georgetown, North Carolina, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Tennessee, Wisconsin and host Chaminade. The Huskies are 8-1 all-time at the tourney and won the championship their last two trips (2005, 2010).
Happy birthday: Rodney Purvis scored the 1,000th point of his collegiate career on a 3-pointer a little over three minutes into the game. He also turns 22 on Sunday.