Caron Butler is the classic case of a kid who overcame a bad childhood...Gangs, Drugs, arrested 13x by the time he was 15, did solitary and witnessed shootings in Racine, Wisconsin....But he also found god while at a juvenile institution..and he took basketball more seriously...Moving from Racine to Pittsfield, Maine to play at Maine Central Institute...here Jim Calhoun took a chance on changing the life of a troubled teen...and turning him into a man in convincing Caron to play college ball at UConn...
Caron was 20 when he arrived to a program that was two years removed from it's first National Championship. There were a few players left from the 1999 Title like Albert Mouring and Edmund Saunders to lead the way...They also featured a freshman point guard from New York in Taliek Brown...After a 13-2 start that featured wins over Louisville, #5 Arizona and a narrow win over St John's in Storrs, UConn dropped five straight, including nail biters at #23 Texas and at St. John's, where Butler was averaging double figure points, but the shooting percentage wasn't exactly impressive. Caron did have an ability to get to and produce from the foul line...Following the 5 game slide that took the Huskies out of the National Rankings, the Huskies went 7-5, lost to Syracuse in the Big East Tournament and sent UConn to the NIT...where after a home win over South Carolina, Detroit Mercy shocked the Huskies in the 2nd round, to end the season 20-12 ...and just 8-8 in Big East play. Caron Butler led the Huskies in four categories in his freshman season...points per game (15.3), rebounds per game (7.6) , free throw percentage (78%) and steals (63) That included the programs' third triple-double ever..a 14p, 12r, 11a effort on December 26, 2000 against URI in Hartford...
The 2001-02 season brought promise and new talent to the Huskies...As freshmen Ben Gordon and Emeka Okafor joined the Huskies...to compliment Butler, Brown, Johnnie Selvie and Tony Robertson...And Butler stepping up into a leadership role..26 against Vanderbilt, 20 in a loss to #2 Maryland in DC, 25 against Oklahoma, 19 at Villanova, 21p-9r at Providence, 29 on 12/18 shooting vs North Carolina, 12p-7r-6a-5s in an OT win at Arizona in what was Okafor's coming out party on National TV...UConn went 13-3 in the Big East and with Pitt, shared the Big East Regular Season Title...Butler and his mates took center stage in the Big East Tournament...14p-11r v Villanova, 20p-7r v Notre Dame....Then in the epic Final against Pitt, in which UConn won in double OT, he hit the shot that put the Huskies up for good. En route to a 23pt, 9 reb effort that earned him the Dave Gavitt Award as Tournament MVP. As the two seend in the East, UConn disposed of Hampton and NC State in Washington, DC...the later Butler scored 34 on 10/13 shooting and 12/12 from the line...after scoring 19 against Southern Illinois in the Sweet 16, Top Seeded Maryland awaited the Huskies in the Carrier Dome with a Final Four berth on the line...Butler plagued by foul trouble and just 6 points in the first half, came back with a vengeance. He scored 26 in the second half enroute to a game high 32...But the Terps were just a little bit better in a 90-82 win that sent Maryland to the Final Four and eventually a National Championship. Butler scored 691 points that season (20.3ppg), made 253 field goals and averaged 36 minutes per game. Scored 20+ points 15x that season where he led UConn in scoring 20 times...Caron Butler was named Big East Player of the Year and a second team Sporting News All American..He finished with 1,136 points (18.0 per game) 7.8 boards per game and a 77% free throw shooter. Following the season, Butler, with Jim Calhoun's blessing, opted for the NBA Draft...
The 10th overall selection by Miami in the 2002 draft, Caron Butler would go on to play 14 seasons in the NBA. Over 900 games with 9 different teams where he would score over 12,000 points...His most productive years with Washington between 2005-10, where he averaged 20+ ppg twice and was named an All Star in 2007 and 2008....With Dallas, he did get a ring with the Mavs in 2011, but he didn't to play in the postseason after a patella tendon rupture ended his season. In February 2016, Butler retired after a short stint with Sacramento.
Later that Month, not only did Butler join the Huskies of Honor at UConn, with his old Coach, Jim Calhoun there to present him with his plaque, but Caron and his wife Andrea made a donation towards the construction of the Werth Champions Center. Today, Butler not only is a husband, he's a father of five, a businessman as he owns 6 Burger King's across the country. A place he worked at as a teen...He's taken business courses at Duke..and has even toyed with the TV Business as an analyst on ESPN and FS1...
His two season stint in Storrs was short, but very productive. Imagine what the chemistry would have been like in 2003 and 2004 if he had stayed ?? We'll never know..Caron Butler, a young man, who with the help of many, including a straight shooting Jim Calhoun, became the best Caron Butler he could ever hope to be...And yes, he left a UCon Legend