They are the team of would-be superstars who were crowned college champions of America in front of 44,000 fans.

The team whose two star players, Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon, headed to the NBA on salaries of nine million dollars for three-year stints.

The team whose coach Jim Calhoun is considered a legend in American basketball and who is reported to be worth about 900,000 dollars a year.

Now the University of Connecticut Huskies, or UConn as they are known, are heading to the Brighton Centre to take on the British League champions.

Brighton Bears are expecting a bumper attendance for their battle of champions tomorrow (7pm).

So how big a deal are UConn? Big enough for home games to be sold out for the season at their two venues, which have capacities of 15,000 and 10,000, for a start.

Big enough to employ four coaches, academic support staff, their own director of video services and even a cheerleading advisor.

Big enough to have produced NBA stars like current champion Richard Hamilton, Ray Allen, Donyell Marshall and Caron Butler.

And big enough for this team of hopefuls aged 22 or less to be covered by 23 newspapers, six television channels and 17 radio stations.

Matt Eagan follows UConn for the Hartford Courant newspaper.

He said: "We have no professional sport in Connecticut so, if you follow sports, you follow UConn.

"Many people think of college basketball as more attractive than the NBA and in some ways it is because of the rules and being more of a team game.

"There's the alma mater thing of people supporting their old colleges and also the fact that a lot of places in America don't have pro sports. Places like Kansas are hotbeds of college sports"

By way of contrast, Eagan cites New York, where the college team at St John's 'only' pull in 8,000 fans.

Four current Huskies stand out as future NBA idols. Rashad Anderson is a 6ft 5ins junior guard starting his third year at Connecticut and looking to enhance his 40 per cent success rate from three-point range.

Charlie Villanueva is an unmistakeable shaven-headed 6ft 11ins forward from Brooklyn.

Much is expected of freshman Rudy Gay, a 6ft 9ins forward widely regarded as the best high school player not to go into the NBA this year.

Then there is the strutting, grimacing Josh Boone, 6ft 10ins of attitude and athleticism at centre.

Boone had quite a first year at UConn last winter, going straight into the starting five and becoming arguably their top candidate to move into NBA.

A hectic schedule of training sessions and four games this week, interspersed with sightseeing trips and relaxation time at the Park Lane Hilton, is part of his basketball education.

Boone said: "It's really tough playing four games especially against this competition but it's good for team chemistry. It gives us a lot of time to bond as a team.

"It's a lot different playing against experienced guys. They are a lot smarter. They don't fall for things.

"They don't go for head fakes or do certain things college players might. It's good practice for us.

"I'm not even worried about the NBA right now. I've two more years left here at least and I'm just worried about that. Of course, I watch how Ben and Emeka do but I'm worried about myself and my career here."

And that means learning lessons from games like Tuesday's tour opener at London Towers, which saw Huskies come from behind to lead 85-73, then lose their way and slump 95-89.

You do not get to where Calhoun is by easily shrugging off defeats or blaming referees, though he pointed out a bizarre intentional foul call which helped Sullivan Phillips spark the Towers comeback.

Now Calhoun will insist on beating Brighton.

The UConn coach admitted: "I'm trying to think over the years and the number of times we had a 12-point lead with five minutes to go and lost it. It doesn't happen too many times, I don't care who we are playing.

"I'm thinking of the turnovers we had. Senseless turnovers and we threw a ton of them.

"It was the first time we played against older, smarter players and we came apart at the seams.

"I thought we outplayed them until the last four minutes but they did what an older team should do. They took charge of the game.

"We've got a lot of work to do and hopefully we shake some of this stuff out of us before we go to Brighton.

"We have lost Emeka and Ben from last season and also Taliek Brown, who was our all-time assist leader, so now they are making an adjustment to trying to do it themselves.

"They didn't do it very well on Tuesday but that's why we're over here, to learn."

Boone admitted: "We made a couple of costly turnovers and missed a couple of shots. We didn't come through when it mattered in the last three minutes."

They will learn their lessons though. Watching them do it tomorrow should be an enriching experience.