Our Stolen Steals Mojo

[Barkin Out]

Lost amongst the angst created by Kevin McGuff’s pressing sweet sixteen defeat of our Huskies, was our own failure to generate more possessions through steals. Injuries to key ball handlers. foul trouble, and mental exhaustion set the Huskies up for failure against Ohio under the bright lights of the NCAA tourney. But these were season long challenges that were exposed. Challenges that contributed to last year’s defense being our least effective at generating steals in recent history.

I took a quick peek at UCONN's team steal’s since the last undefeated season, courtesy of the UCONN website. It was the only year I could find where UCONN's opponents stole the ball more than our Huskies did from their opponents. Most steals given up. And least steals obtained.

’22-’23: 256 vs 286

’21-’22: 321 vs 212

’20-'21: 287 vs 167

’19-’20: 292 vs 210

'18-’19: 304 vs 211

’17-’18: 369 vs 217

’16-’17: 370 vs 229

’15-’16: 447 vs 232



Obviously, we’ve had steady leadership over this period from the most accomplished coaching staff in Women’s basketball history. And we’ve heard the constant refrain from Nika, AE and others about “turning defense in offense” at most presser’s last year. This leads me to believe that the decline is not related to a drop in coaching emphasis. Though, as has been discussed in @sun 's pressing thread, Geno may be less apt to press given the improvement in ball handling and coaching compared with the early period of his career.

So was it personnel? And how will our newest pack of Huskies fare at stealing our opponents’ lunch? Historically speaking, our best thieves have been small forwards or guards blessed with quick hands and terrific court awareness. Think Nykesha, Maya, Rizotti, Moriah, and The Gabbulous One. This year’s Huskies may be relatively light in the front court, but we will be loaded with quick guards and athletic small forwards. Nika and Aubrey, who led the team last year with 50 steals each, will be back and should be able to play with more freedom and less fear given the deeper bench. Paige, who had 66 steals during her pandemic shortened freshman season and sees the floor with the clarity of a stadium cam, should make everyone around her better. KK looks like she’ll be a terror on the perimeter. She and Shade both averaged 3 steals per exhibition in Europe. And Q seems to have the length and athleticism to become disruptive force.

Of course, the Huskies greatest thieves have all had the benefit of being able to play a riskier style of aggressive defense due to the presence of all-time great shot blockers behind them. Think Stewie, Rebecca and Kara, Tina and Pheesa. Will the absence of an elite shot blocker prevent our talented smalls from achieving their pilfering potential? What strategies should Geno employ to accentuate his perimeter advantage?

I’ll inch out on limb and predict that this year’s huskies will fall short of the bar set by Moriah/Stewie/Morgan’s last season, but they will take more steals than any of our teams since then. I’m looking forward to watching them reach 400 steals for the season during the final in Cleveland with my older and wiser brother. Go Huskies!

 

[oldude]

The 2015-16 team rates as one of UConn’s very best, leading the nation in both offense and defense. The steal numbers presented in the OP are just one more metric that clearly illustrates just how good that team was.

 

[Blond D.]

the fact we had to conserve our energy due to a shortage of players, especially guards and so had to press less plus the fact we had less "ball handlers" probably greatly contributed to us having less steals and giving up more.

 

[and one]

There are a couple of ways steals come about. One is just stripping the ball handler, using quick hands and feet. This is usually a one on one situation where the defender gets their hand in (without fouling!) to deflect the ball. The other is more of a team steal, where the defence is so tight that the other team makes a lot of bad passes that are picked off or players get caught in double or triple teams and gets the ball pulled out of their hands.

For all the reasons we all know, UConn didn't have a stifling D last year. OK but not overwhelming. I suspect that the "team" steals suffered more last year than the one on one pickpocket steals.

 

[oldhusky]

The entire team was affected by injuries causing us to need to conserve energy for key players and for those same players to stay out of foul trouble. In particular Nika and Aubrey, they are both players that in a role of 20 minutes a game can be aggressive going for steals but when they are needed for over 30 minutes a game can't be.

KK and Ashlynn both seem like new players that will do well on that statistic, and on the other side of the ball the offense should have fewer turnovers as well. Nika is a little bit high risk/high reward with her passes and last year she did very well balancing those tradeoffs, but this year she can be slightly more conservative in her decision making with Paige and Azzi on the court much more.

Both of those players are low turnover players and Paige can share some of the playmaking role with Nika. Nika won't have to make things happen as much with difficult passes when there are so many inside and outside threats and two great players that can create their own shot.

For those reasons I think both numbers will improve, our steals will go up from more aggressive pressing defenses, not having to conserve energy, and not being so worried about foul trouble. At the same time the steals against us should go down from Nika being able to scale down the difficult passes and way more playing time from two relatively low turnover players in Paige and Azzi.

 

[Alydar]

To me it's a no-brainer. UConn played most of last season with two guards and one of them arrived late in the summer. That's why Muhl set the assist record, she had to play long minutes with the ball in her hands (plus Edwards/Senechal's insane efficiency). To her credit she stepped up. But her preferred style of defense was fine at 24min/game but at 32 min she had to take fewer chances to keep her fouls down.

UConn is going to post amazing team stats this season. They are loaded with talent at the 1/2 and the non-starters know that their defensive intensity will dictate their minutes. Geno has said as much. If defense is 90% effort UConn will lead the country in defense against top 100 teams. (yeah, that was for LSU)

 

[Next 12]

To me it's a no-brainer. UConn played most of last season with two guards and one of them arrived late in the summer. That's why Muhl set the assist record, she had to play long minutes with the ball in her hands (plus Edwards/Senechal's insane efficiency). To her credit she stepped up. But her preferred style of defense was fine at 24min/game but at 32 min she had to take fewer chances to keep her fouls down.

UConn is going to post amazing team stats this season. They are loaded with talent at the 1/2 and the non-starters know that their defensive intensity will dictate their minutes. Geno has said as much. If defense is 90% effort UConn will lead the country in defense against top 100 teams. (yeah, that was for LSU)

I agree with you 100% I will say for the umpteenth time that Uconn will run the BE and then will run the NC for their 12th NC. Defense will lead the way as we have quality players at all positions and then our shooters will take over and finish the game. Undefeated for the 7th time,most in BB history. One caveat, we have to stay healthy. GO HUSKIES!!!! THIS IS OUR YEAR!!