How come we aren't running fast break offense more?

[Kitaman]

We have the horses, we have the depth and we have the ball handlers to play fast (at times). It would add a huge asset to our already high powered offense. I admit I am biased and love fastbreak teams and sure wish we could run more with all the parts at our disposal.

Any ideas/info on way Dan is holding back his horses?

 

[Magic32]

I think it is simply our offense is designed to wear teams out, must defend us the entire shot clock and that really wears a team down.

 

[GlastonTim]

If the fast break is there we’ll take it.

 

[noelle]

think early in the season they are trying to get the half court sets more reps because those are the hardest to be fluid with. the providence late game plays were a sample of the short and quick stuff they can use.

 

[metsfan2323]

because our half court sets are the best in the country.

 

[80shusky]

As GlastonTim indicates above UConn is an opportunistic fast break team. When it presents itself, they jump on it but don't go out of their way to manufacture it.
UConn runs efficient half court sets that take time to produce a good, open shot as we know. They also defend almost exclusively man to man.
I think to try to speed up your offense and manufacture more fast break points you need to speed up the other team on defense as well right? So you need to start pressing/trapping/going for steals more aggressively. It would be changing the staff's entire identity essentially.
It creates more turnovers and chaos for them AND you.
I do like to watch running teams but I'd rather see them run efficient offense and take the fast breaks when they present themselves.

 

[HuskyHawk]

We run a lot of fast break offense. We've been emphasizing it recently. You didn't see it against PC because our defense sucked. You run a fast break offense based on good defense, steals and misses with clean quick defensive rebounds. We had almost none of that against PC. We had a ton of it against Marquette.

 

[husky429]

Hurley has never been a fast coach. Here are his ranks in transition offense per KP while at UConn.

'26: 286
'25: 343
'24: 330
'23: 204
'22: 300
'21: 309
'20: 167
'19: 122

We played faster earlier in his tenure because we didn't have the talent to run the offense he really wanted to. Hurley's style is long, deliberate half-court offense rather than gambling on longer passes and transition offense. That doesn't mean we don't run the fast break, but we don't emphasize it nearly as much as some other teams.

 

[Umami Zen]

Opposing teams/coaches would love for us to get in a track meet with them and get us out of our offensive sets. It's their only shot at controlling pace -if they can. We have the speed and athletes to be opportunistic in transition D to O when we need to take advantage of those opportunities.

I would say Dan/Luke's offensive scheme(s) are working pretty well for us.

 

[blkknight1]

I think the question really is why should UConn play more fast break offense. Today’s game and coaches emphasize quick shots to get more possessions and playing offense at break neck speed with little attention paid to defense beyond making the opponent get into a track meet. The goal is more to outsprint and out score.

UConn on the other hand plays slow and deliberate making teams play defense 20-30 seconds per possession. Teams for the most part can’t play defense that long and you wind up with great looks a lot of the time. This has the added benefit later in the game as the other teams are exhausted physically and mentally. As playing defense take a lot of of teams. Playing defense that long giving up a basket going back up the floor even if you score quickly you are right back to playing a long defensive possession. Kinda like in football team marches down on a 15 play 8 min drive you then the other team goes 3 and out or scores quickly you are putting that tired defense right back on the field. You are just wearing the other team down which pays dividends later.

 

[Mets1432]

You saw why at the end of the Providence game.

Teams get tired chasing our shooters around screens for 30 seconds every single possession.

That leads to sloppy offensive play by the other team and turnovers, one of the reasons we were able to close the gap in the last 4 minutes of the Providence game.

If the fast break is wide open, we take it. If not, we pull it back out and run the set.

 

[Umami Zen]

Hurley has never been a fast coach. Here are his ranks in transition offense per KP while at UConn.

'26: 286
'25: 343
'24: 330
'23: 204
'22: 300
'21: 309
'20: 167
'19: 122

We played faster earlier in his tenure because we didn't have the talent to run the offense he really wanted to. Hurley's style is long, deliberate half-court offense rather than gambling on longer passes and transition offense. That doesn't mean we don't runk the fast break, but we don't emphasize it nearly as much as some other teams.

@husky429 -FWIW-At the time of typing my post- Yours was not "up' yet on my screen. Although not precisely the same language as yours-A similar theme. Your message/research was spot on-as it always is. Had I seen yours before my post- I probably would not have posted mine. Respect.