I didn't see anything about AO and AD not performing well together in that article. The only two points the article made is that JC is experimenting with different lineups and that the best lineup in the last three games was the line up of SN, RB, JL, TO and AO. The author indicates these were the players on the floor at the end of those games. I'm not sure he was accurate.
He did point out that the data can be skewed because end of game situations are different than the rest of the game and he is correct. He pointed out that Harvard took a lot of shots that was not part of their normal offense in trying to make up the deficit at the end of the game.
And that makes sense. Furthermore JC has the team tighten up on defense during this interval. He almost plays the entire game to win it in the last five minutes which why he is a stickler on players foul numbers. It can be exacerbating to the fan watching teams catching up to UConn and UConn never putting them away, but that is offset by his having the best combo of players on the floor at the end of each game. This is not to under emphasize that he is experiment with lineups and development of plays which also impacts the point spread.
As the team develops over the season, they learn how to play defense better. They cover players better without fouling, learn to switch better and know where their players are on the floor and what their players do in various situations. Currently there are many plays in which UConn players are losing rebounds because two UConn players are doing the same thing, or they lose loose balls by two Uconn players going after the ball.
