Court Vision: The Athletic -- what’s going on with UConn?

[Mazhude]

The Athletic

"Will Warren wrote a fascinating piece this week about 3-point regression — "How Long Can You Avoid the Regression Monster?"

— in which he makes the probable argument that UConn is a victim of bad 3-point shooting variance. The Huskies, per KenPom, are 339th nationally in 3-point defense, allowing opponents to make 37.9 percent of their 3s. Considering UConn was top 40 in that respect the past two seasons, is it more likely that Hurley suddenly doesn’t know how to defend the perimeter or that opponents are making shots at an unsustainable rate? Warren makes the longer analytical argument, but the TLDR is the latter, and I buy it. That said, two other things about UConn do worry me right now..." In short, re-introducing an alpha offensive player this late... and fouling.​

 

[jibsey]

He lost me when he said UConn was good on the boards. They are just ok and nowhere near last year.

 

[alphasigko]

Good article that tells it like it is.

 

[Chin Diesel]

While UConn gives up a very high percentage, the actual number of 3pt FG made defense is around top 40. UConn's opponents make very few 3 pointers a game. And UConn is 2nd in the country for 3pt FG attempts on defense.

Bigger concern is every opponents has 2 or 3 players who can just take their UConn defender to the rim at will.

UConn is around 125th in FG% defense.

That leads to the negative FT's made for the year.

2024-25 Men's College Basketball Team Opponent Stat Leaders - ESPN

ESPN is the place for NCAAM stats! Find a list of the Opponent team stat leaders for the 2024-25 NCAAM Regular Season.

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[CTBasketball]

A nice way to candy coat that we aren’t good at defending off ball screens.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

I can’t wait for the St. John’s game. If we play our usual 3pt-limiting D, I expect them to go 9/11 from beyond the arc, with a bunch of late clock miracle chucks that find the bottom of the net.

If we sell out on stopping drives and penetration and dare them to shoot a bunch of 3’s, I bet they have their best game of the season and go 17/25.

It is what it is this season. Just win the GD game at this point.

 

[giddyup]

I have this novel thought called adjusting to reality. Perhaps try mixing in some zone. At minimum it puts our 5 in an area to help stop penetration and give our forwards opposite ball shot position on corner 3s. Im perplexed by the obsessive desire to make guys do things they can’t.

 

[Chin Diesel]

A nice way to candy coat that we aren’t good at defending off ball screens.

Except the team is good enough at doing that task to prevent a bunch of attempts.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Bigger concern is every opponents has 2 or 3 players who can just take their UConn defender to the rim at will.

Have to imagine this makes making threes easier due to looser defense out there. I haven’t seen tons of obvious examples of that, like Aidan keeping two steps back from his guy out of fear of being beat… but man… when you don’t have DC waiting behind you, you’re in a totally different defensive world

 

[EROCK CONN]

I can’t wait for the St. John’s game. If we play our usual 3pt-limiting D, I expect them to go 9/11 from beyond the arc, with a bunch of late clock miracle chucks that find the bottom of the net.

If we sell out on stopping drives and penetration and dare them to shoot a bunch of 3’s, I bet they have their best game of the season and go 17/25.

It is what it is this season. Just win the GD game at this point.

it’s tough being King

 

[Hurleyman216]

A nice way to candy coat that we aren’t good at defending off ball screens.

Right, except the data shows the opposite