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Message: [QUOTE="oldude, post: 5252943, member: 7511"] Several BY’ers have mentioned this, but it is worth repeating. UConn’s ability to switch on defense is almost flawless. Every team runs pick and rolls, back screens and numerous other actions to get shooters open. Every team has breakdowns on defense that result in wide open jumpers or easy layups. For UConn, those breakdowns are very few and far between. It starts with communication. UConn players are constantly talking and signaling to each other on defense. Then it’s all about awareness and reaction. A player has to make a split second decision whether to fight over a screen, go under a screen or switch, and their teammate has to know exactly what they are doing and react accordingly. When and if there’s a switch, it is often the case that a mismatch is created: a big on a quicker guard or a small on a big who’s trying to post them up. That situation necessitates a secondary switch to get guards on guards and bigs on bigs. Once again UConn executes these secondary switches flawlessly through communication, awareness and reaction. It takes many hours of practice and repetition to achieve the level of excellence that UConn has achieved on defense. UConn’s coaches have worked hard to ingrain this defensive mindset and the players have all bought in. The term that we’ve all heard is “Connected” and that is truly why UConn’s defense is the very best in WBB. [/QUOTE]