It’s hard to fathom that this UConn team, one that will have monumental expectations of competing for a national title, was basically the same one that flopped two years ago.

When A.J. Price, Hasheem Thabeet and Jeff Adrien took the court for UConn’s version of Midnight Madness on Friday night, it was as the core of a team projected by many to advance to the Final Four this season.

No one would have believed it if you’d said this group would be as highly regarded as any team in the land other than North Carolina.

The cast of characters was basically the same in 2006-07, when the Huskies won just a half-dozen Big East games and went through a January stretch in which they dropped seven of eight.

“It was so frustrating, ” said Thabeet, then a freshman. “Everyone expected us to be a great team, but we had eight freshmen and too much inexperience. ”

“They never got any better, ” UConn coach Jim Calhoun said. “They couldn’t stand up to the fight. ”

Now Adrien is a senior and doesn’t feel the weight of the world on his shoulders. Thabeet looks like a completely different player with two years and a legitimate offensive game under his belt. Price, despite suffering a torn ACL early in the first-round NCAA tournament setback to San Diego last March, is quicker, stronger and more explosive.

Calhoun and the staff said that Price has come back in the best shape of his life.

“He’s never worked on his game. He’s just played the game, ” Calhoun said. “He looks so much quicker and stronger, but he still has to be tested. He’s the key for us. ”

Optimism hasn’t been at this level in Storrs since the 2005-06 campaign, when the team full of NBA stars was shell-shocked by George Mason in the Elite Eight.

Price said this is the best he’s felt entering a season since he came to UConn. He missed his entire freshman campaign due to a brain aneurism, sat out the following season after being suspended for stealing laptops and struggled after the two-year layoff in 2006-07.

“Every year it’s been something different, ” Price said. “People probably question my knee, but I feel great. ”

Price even proved it to himself when he converted his first dunk attempt since the injury on Friday afternoon.

“I put it down no problem, ” he said.

Now Calhoun is expecting Price to be the de facto leader of the team.

“I couldn’t really do it at the start of last season because I hadn’t proven myself, ” Price said. “But after last year, everyone knows what I can do. ”

Price went out and averaged 14.5 points and had nearly 200 assists on the season.

A couple faces didn’t make it on Friday night. Nate Miles, one of the most talented freshman in the country, was already kicked out of school after allegations that he assaulted a female student. It’s highly unlikely he’ll return to Storrs.

Stanley Robinson, an enigmatic forward from Alabama, is working a full-time job and is expected to rejoin the team in mid-December.

Ater Makoj, a 6-foot-10 big man who Calhoun says is one class away from qualifying, could also provide a huge boost in December.

“He’s a Kevin Garnett-type player, ” Calhoun said. “He’s a long ways from Kevin Garnett, but he can shoot, has a jump shot, blocks shots and can score around the basket. ”

This is a kid who was offered scholarships by the likes of Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky shortly after they saw him for the first time this past summer.

With a healthy Price and an improved Thabeet, there’s no reason to question whether the Huskies can contend with just about anyone in the country.

“We shouldn’t have any excuses, ” Thabeet said. “We’ve got all our guys back and everybody’s healthy. “