Last couple years KO teams in a nutshell

[August_West]

1) Defense - too easy to get clean looks against us from the outside. even teams that are "lesser" athletically seem to get good looks all day

2)Offense - Unable to get clean looks or shots in rhythm even from the outside against teams that are "lesser" athletically. Against teams that are equal to or have greater collections of talent, forget it. Its bad.

Recipe for disaster.

Needs to be fixed. If Jalen and Alterique can be 1/2 as disruptive as Bazz and Boat it would go a long way to righting this ship.

As for the offense, I wholeheartedly endorse @Chin Diesel shortening of the rotation early season. If KO goes through the early part of the schedule playing musical chairs again, we are screwed.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I accept your endorsement.

Spot on with you points regarding easy looks.

As for the rotation, here's the way I look at it. Team ability is a combination of the five players and cohesion.

Mathematically I'd explain like this- (Player 1+ Player 2 + .......Player 5) (Cohesion)= Team

In my opinion Adams and Vital are given for two of the five players. I'm pretty sure Gilbert is too but I can't go all in until I see him go a full season. Anywho, my point on shortening the bench early is the sum ability of the five players doesn't change that much as you mix and match them. I believe the roster is filled up with several similarly sized and skilled players, especially at the 4 and 5. It isn't as important to use practice to find the small difference in talent as compared to finding a team that can mesh and learn with each other. From the other thread on this, some agree, some disagree.

 

[david]

Here is some defensive data from Kenpom for those interested:

Past 5 years (since 2013) - our 3P FG% defense ranks 81st out of 351. We've held opponents to a 32.66 3P FG% in that time.

 

[Excalibur]

Here is some defensive data from Kenpom for those interested:

Past 5 years (since 2013) - our 3P FG% defense ranks 81st out of 351. We've held opponents to a 32.66 3P FG% in that time.

And what does it look like since Giffey and Boatright left? Giffey was a superior perimeter and pick and roll/pop defender at his size, and Boatright was very disruptive on the perimeter.

 

[david]

And what does it look like since Giffey and Boatright left? Giffey was a superior perimeter and pick and roll/pop defender at his size, and Boatright was very disruptive on the perimeter.

Since 2015 (No Giffey) - Average rank is 84. Average 3P FG% of opponent is 32.93%
Since 2016 (No Boat) - Average rank is 69. Average 3P FG% of opponents is 32.80%

Here's all years.

2013: Rank is 58. 3P FG% of opponent is 31.50%
2014: Rank is 95. 3P FG% of opponent is 33.00%
2015: Rank is 113. 3P FG% of opponent is 33.20%
2016: Rank is 66. 3P FG% of opponent is 32.60%
2017: Rank is 72. 3P FG% of opponent is 33.00%

 

[BlueMAB]

Since 2015 (No Giffey) - Average rank is 84. Average 3P FG% of opponent is 32.93%
Since 2016 (No Boat) - Average rank is 69. Average 3P FG% of opponents is 32.80%

Here's all years.

2013: Rank is 58. 3P FG% of opponent is 31.50%
2014: Rank is 95. 3P FG% of opponent is 33.00%
2015: Rank is 113. 3P FG% of opponent is 33.20%
2016: Rank is 66. 3P FG% of opponent is 32.60%
2017: Rank is 72. 3P FG% of opponent is 33.00%

I appreciate this data, but how important is it? The difference between being ranked 58th in 2013, and 113th in 2015 was less than 2%. Putting this into context means for every 100 three pointers attempted, only 1.7 more was made. We gave up 2 more threes every 5-7 games, I don't know if that's as important as some made it out to be.

It was terrible last week, Providence had open looks all night, they shot around 50% from three. I'd bet that would be worth last place. But I think the importance of our perimeter defense overall might be somewhat overstated.

What do the top 15 teams look like? Are they under 30%?

 

[The Funster]

The offense is my big issue. What's our philosophy? What set plays will we run? I don't want KO to leave it up to the players and then have that pained expression on his face when we don't function as a unit. He has to coach. He has to teach.

 

[zls44]

Since 2016 (No Boat) - Average rank is 69. Average 3P FG% of opponents is 32.80%

Nice.

 

[david]

I appreciate this data, but how important is it? The difference between being ranked 58th in 2013, and 113th in 2015 was less than 2%. Putting this into context means for every 100 three pointers attempted, only 1.7 more was made. We gave up 2 more threes every 5-7 games, I don't know if that's as important as some made it out to be.

It was terrible last week, Providence had open looks all night, they shot around 50% from three. I'd bet that would be worth last place. But I think the importance of our perimeter defense overall might be somewhat overstated.

What do the top 15 teams look like? Are they under 30%?

I agree with you that I don't think the variance is too important. The original post just said 'it's too easy to get clean looks against us from the outside' so I wanted to provide some data so people can draw their own conclusions.

The top 6 teams last year were under 30%. The cutoff for top 15 was 31%.

 

[Jumpman62114]

General uninspiring offense isn't the only issue. Our out of bounds plays have been unimaginative to put it lightly. We're basically making the long pass to a big every time, and this continued in the Providence game. Where are the set plays coming out of timeouts to provided some structure and confidence? We seemed to do a much better job of this in 2012-2014.

 

[Excalibur]

Since 2015 (No Giffey) - Average rank is 84. Average 3P FG% of opponent is 32.93%
Since 2016 (No Boat) - Average rank is 69. Average 3P FG% of opponents is 32.80%

Here's all years.

2013: Rank is 58. 3P FG% of opponent is 31.50%
2014: Rank is 95. 3P FG% of opponent is 33.00%
2015: Rank is 113. 3P FG% of opponent is 33.20%
2016: Rank is 66. 3P FG% of opponent is 32.60%
2017: Rank is 72. 3P FG% of opponent is 33.00%

Thanks.

 

[August_West]

Since 2015 (No Giffey) - Average rank is 84. Average 3P FG% of opponent is 32.93%
Since 2016 (No Boat) - Average rank is 69. Average 3P FG% of opponents is 32.80%

Here's all years.

2013: Rank is 58. 3P FG% of opponent is 31.50%
2014: Rank is 95. 3P FG% of opponent is 33.00%
2015: Rank is 113. 3P FG% of opponent is 33.20%
2016: Rank is 66. 3P FG% of opponent is 32.60%
2017: Rank is 72. 3P FG% of opponent is 33.00%

None of that is UConn defense

 

[cohenzone]

1) Defense - too easy to get clean looks against us from the outside. even teams that are "lesser" athletically seem to get good looks all day

2)Offense - Unable to get clean looks or shots in rhythm even from the outside against teams that are "lesser" athletically. Against teams that are equal to or have greater collections of talent, forget it. Its bad.

Recipe for disaster.

Needs to be fixed. If Jalen and Alterique can be 1/2 as disruptive as Bazz and Boat it would go a long way to righting this ship.

As for the offense, I wholeheartedly endorse @Chin Diesel shortening of the rotation early season. If KO goes through the early part of the schedule playing musical chairs again, we are screwed.

What’s really the hallmark is inconsistency on both sides of the ball within games and from gamecto game. Intensity comes and goes. Very hard to understand why that should regularly be the case on D.

Even the NC year was the same and, I’ll give KO credit, came together in the last 5 games after Brimah bailed out the team in game 1. I’m not sold. I want him to succeed, but the general level of play has to be better on a regular basis. I think he needs to settle on a rotation, but I’m not against him using exhibitions to tinker.

I don’t think the offense will ever look good if we don’t go through the post a lot more often. Ball sharing and not a guy getting blinders when he has the ball would help, too.

 

[gtcam]

Easy looks are given to kids/teams that can't hit the broad side of a barn

 

[bballgrda]

I am no expert, but it seems that most NBA people that I follow and respect for their analytics do not value 3P FG% of opponents. They'd rather look at 3P attempts/rate (I think). A defending team cannot control if an open shot goes in or not. They can control if the other team is getting open looks or not.

 

[BUConn10]

The offense is my big issue. What's our philosophy? What set plays will we run? I don't want KO to leave it up to the players and then have that pained expression on his face when we don't function as a unit. He has to coach. He has to teach.

The common thread we hear from newly committed recruits is "KO just lets his guys play".

Maybe that isn't proving to be ideal.

 

[Huskybass]

General uninspiring offense isn't the only issue. Our out of bounds plays have been unimaginative to put it lightly. We're basically making the long pass to a big every time, and this continued in the Providence game. Where are the set plays coming out of timeouts to provided some structure and confidence? We seemed to do a much better job of this in 2012-2014.

Gotta agree. When inbounding the ball is usually an adventure, you gotta think that something is a little off.

 

[BlueMAB]

I agree with you that I don't think the variance is too important. The original post just said 'it's too easy to get clean looks against us from the outside' so I wanted to provide some data so people can draw their own conclusions.

The top 6 teams last year were under 30%. The cutoff for top 15 was 31%.

Thanks for the added info. I wasn’t trying to argue with you, didn’t make that clear enough. I was just responding to the overall conversation.

 

[nomar]

The common thread we hear from newly committed recruits is "KO just lets his guys play".

Maybe that isn't proving to be ideal.

Insert Bob McNair quote

 

[UConn_Top_Dog]

We need to make shots... period.

 

[boog204]

The offense is my big issue. What's our philosophy? What set plays will we run? I don't want KO to leave it up to the players and then have that pained expression on his face when we don't function as a unit. He has to coach. He has to teach.

It is painful and it has been for a long time. We ran some pretty neat stuff in 2013 and 2014, but we also had the two most talented players on the court most games in Boat and Napier and a match-up nightmare in DD. Guys who could make plays at any and all points. Jalen could be like that; but is that what we want? The offense shouldn't have to rely on one guy trying to bail us out.

I have absolutely no idea what our philosophy is. I have absolutely no idea what our coaching staff is telling them to run in the half court. It is so painfully obvious for any "couch coach" to see; why can't our staff? I find it absolutely baffling and i'm certain if it continues to stagnate, that we will struggle through another underwhelming season.