The Battle for Playing Time & a Spot on the Rotation

[CONN78SEJ]

Agreed. But if you want to win a championship, you better have both a strong offense and defense.

That’s why I like Ash over KK and Kaitlyn as a 3rd scorer, when she’s in the game and draining 3’s or hitting those short stop and poppers the opposing defense can’t double team Paige or Azzi.

 

[BBallF]

While I will acknowledge that high scoring offenses have become more prolific in sports, WBB is not the NBA, NFL or MLB. If you can’t stop teams from scoring, you can’t win championships, no matter how effective your offense is. Offensive execution can vacillate from game to game, but good defense is usually far more consistent. Furthermore, the strategy behind teams that press like tOSU, TN and yes, UConn, has as much to do with offense as it does with defense.

After the recent blowout win over Villanova, Geno talked about the need to force Villanova out of their slow and deliberate offensive game plan and get into a higher scoring game where Nova basically couldn’t keep up. Pressing a team does two things. It forces turnovers, usually resulting in easy transition baskets or it forces teams to use up possession time beating the press, leaving less time to run their offense, forcing rushed shots, that lead to defensive rebounds, fast breaks and easy transition baskets. Essentially, you press to speed up the game, create more offensive opportunities and score more points.

In previous seasons UConn did not have the roster depth to commit to a pressure defense all game long. This year they do. The TN game will be interesting. The LV’s press all game long, subbing in groups of players frequently like hockey. I expect UConn to press as well, because TN does turn the ball over a lot. We’ll see who comes out on top.

One last comment. We can disagree on the Boneyard without being disagreeable. There is no reason to disparage BBallf just because his opinion differs from yours.

Thanks oldude. I wasn't even going to dignify that comment with a response.

 

[DefenseBB]

There are few other peripheral items I want to point out: while I understand the 8-9 person rotation issue/stance, the simple fact is Geno and the team are in a new paradigm of rotation options. This is the first year in a long time that he has quality depth (albeit very young). The past two years, he had so many injuries, we lacked numbers and with Azzi and Aubrey now being cleared, we have 12 mostly healthy bodies able to play.

Roster overview:
This 12 person active roster (sans Caroline/Ayanna) are all highly ranked players coming out of High School. The least ranked player is Kaitlyn who was #66 and Q was #41. Technically, Jana was not ranked but my guess is she would fall in the high teens or low 20s had she been assessed. The point is twofold, Geno has a talented bench AND as he has stated many times, the players earn time in practice so the fact he uses 10 players regularly means all are working their tails off in practice to earn time. The games against the Big East offer our younger players opportunities to garner experience. The other P4 programs get to use their OOC for this experience but UConn does not have that luxury.

As such, to me, the assessment of who plays is wholly dependent on the type of team we are playing-Creighton offers a different skill set to defend than does Tennessee, than does South Carolina.

In all of D1 Basketball, there are really only 3-5 schools with elite front courts in terms of talent and depth (SC, Texas, UCLA to name 3). We play SC shortly so we shall see how Jana, Sarah, Morgan and Ice can manage.

While ND and SoCal have interior size, we either were missing Azzi or she was not fully healthy enough to play and we were able to keep the games close so that adds an interesting dynamic back if we play them again-a fully healthy and functioning Azzi.

Geno will use any of 11 players (assuming Aubrey can regain her game legs) to best match up as he deems fit so it will not be just an 8 or 9 set player rotation but the best 8-11 group he feels matches the opponent.

I also think there is a bit of over exuberance about Kaitlyn Chen's game vs. Villanova. Before I parse that, I want to point out a key factor in the last two games-Paige had 8 & 9 assists vs. just 2 turnovers as well as 18 and 21 points which also resulted in Blowout games against two usually steady programs. Paige handled the ball more often thus freeing Kaitlyn to play more "off guard" and still be effective as a passer. Geno addressed this in his post-game Villanova presser with Paige bringing the ball up in the middle of the court. This aspect is really the key to us evolving as no one sees the floor like Paige so we should have the ball in her hands more. Geno also alluded to using Chen and KK to produce different looks for the other teams to have to defend. I truly liked this comment and gives me hope on our other players development with Paige putting them in positions for success. This is not a knock-on Kaitlyn but she is not Paige.

Kaitlyn Chen: There is the very good, the good and the not so good.
The very good:
Kaitlyn is an experienced guard who knows how to pick her spots on what she can do well and what she can't. She is good against smaller and the mid-major teams. She has a great back board shot and knows when to drive to the basket.
The good:
Kaitlyn has improved her Assist to turnover ratio with 2.03 (75-37) over her Princeton days (1.46) and her normal FG% has improved to 51.1% vs, her career of 46.5%. Her 3 pt shooting is about the same with 32.4% this year and 32.8% last year and 29.3% for her career. In short, she knows she is not a 3 point shooter and only reluctantly shoots them. Against the 4 better teams on our schedule this year (UNC, Ole Miss, ND and SoCal) she shot 10/20 so she can pick her spots and I would encourage her to shoot more as 5 shots a game is not a lot.
The not so good:
Her A/TO stats against those 4 teams point out her issues with ball handling and decision making as she had 10 assists/11 Turnovers.
I also question her quickness and ability to defend against elite guards like Hidalgo, Miles, Watkins, Spear or Johnson to name a few. How will she handle the Tennessee press is another concern I have where I feel KK's speed and her quickness is better for us.

That said, keeping her as the starter makes sense with KK providing energy and tenacity off the bench but it is NOT a lock that Kaitlyn has earned all the time due to ONE GAME. We have to admit that this 7/8 FG and 2/3 3-pt FG was the aberration of her career as she never had a game like that at Princeton.

As a pre-emptive strike on the common Oldude refrain of "Kaitlyn killed Columbia", Ms. Chen was 6-2 in her career against Columbia with her last two years being 3-2. Her stats were good, not great with 17.6 pts per game for all 8 and only 15.6 for the last two years. Her A/TO line was 35/22 for all 3 years with 8 games but only 25/19 for the last 5 games-again, good but not great. I would not qualify that as "killing Columbia". In her sophomore year, Kaitlyn was the 3rd option on the Tiger team behind Abby Myers and Julia Cunningham. If Kaitlyn can find a way to contribute on a nightly basis with 10 pts per game (up from her 6 right now) I would be ecstatic.

The other observation is with Paige as the primary ball distributer the dynamic process with Sarah is remindful of IonescuHebard duo with Sarah being a much better all around player than Ruthy ever was. Against Villanova, with Paige as the primary ball handler, she and Sarah had 8 assists to each other!

This team will only go as far as Paige, Sarah and Azzi can carry them with key contributions from Jana, Chen, KK and others and it will be a rotating cast of contributions.

 

[Cornell Lt]

We don’t have a ton of evidence. And we don’t have evidence against good teams yet. But based on what we have. I think ice has responded well to being benched. She has played a little better the last couple of weeks.

I definitely see us shortening the rotation during the tournament. Geno proved that he will do that during Caroline and azzi’s freshman season.

The ncaa tournament rotation against good teams will be imo:

1. Paige
2. Sarah
3. Azzi
4. Jana
5. Kaitlyn
6. KK
7. Ash
8. Aubrey
9. Ice

I don’t see us going 10 or deeper. I just don’t.

Morgan Cheli will definitely be in the rotation, somewhere between 5-7 on your list

 

[Bigboote]

When Morgan and Chloe Kitts match up, we may need to put our floor on injured reserve

I love watching both of them. When I first saw Kitts, she seemed so out of control, and I marveled ar how she got the job done. Now, she just sometimes seems at the edge of being out of control. So much fun to watch.

 

[The deacon]

10 deep is hard when you’re playing in a tight game. If you assume that the Big 3 average around 35 minutes each, Kaitlyn and KK split the pg duties and Jana gets at least 20 minutes, that leaves you with only 35 minutes of PT to split among 4 players: Ash, Ice, Morgan & Aubrey.

During last night’s postgame presser, Geno talked about the need to get his “primary players” more minutes. Unless you go into OT, there are only 200 minutes of PT to dole out each game.

Lots of wisdom in your post, Oldude, but I'll mention again, Dawn Staley has been doing pretty darned well using 10, 11 or even 12 players, even in big games, and it's hard to differentiate which players will be playing when....

The point is, if Aubrey asserts herself in Aubreyish style, the Huskies go at least 10 deep in quality players, and 11 if you want to give Allie a few shots...

 

[Just.A.Fan]

I’ve been reflecting on this same thing all season. In October, I simply assumed Geno would get Jana as much playing time as possible, with the only limit being her stamina. I also assumed Ice would play next to her at the 4 much of the time. I was really wrong about both assumptions.

Now having watched half the season unfold, I think it’s clear that Geno has a different vision of the team than I expected. He wants to play small-ball for significant parts of games and he is busy developing the talent he has on this roster in that direction. This requires playing time.

He also is prepared to rely on Sarah much more than I anticipated. She seems to have arrived in Storrs D1-ready and appears to be developing on an All-American trajectory. She seems able to play almost any position on the court, rather like Paige. That sort of versatility seems to catch Geno’s eye and he knows how to use it. And to maximize its value means getting all the rotation players used to playing the game she makes possible, not just the starters.

I expect Geno is starting Jana because he also wants to be able to play a more traditional game, with her at the 5 next to Sarah at the 4. With Ice ready to sub for Jana in a similar lineup, the team isn’t as vulnerable to foul trouble. Last season, he was forced to play small-ball most of the time and the team was constantly vulnerable to foul trouble. This current roster gives him an opportunity to address this.

In the end, I think Geno wants to develop Jana as much as he can. But he has other things he wants to develop as well, and this leads him to use the available minutes in several ways. A lesser coach might simply develop his best players and shorten the rotation earlier in the season, and hope that’s enough. But Geno seems to recognize both the new level of competition in D1, and the special possibilities this roster gives him. It may be a gamble with a very young team, to try to develop such a long rotation, but it also may be his only path to an NC.

I agree with your assessment 100%.

 

[Just.A.Fan]

That’s why I like Ash over KK and Kaitlyn as a 3rd scorer, when she’s in the game and draining 3’s or hitting those short stop and poppers the opposing defense can’t double team Paige or Azzi.

Wouldn't that make her the 4th scorer behind Paige, Azzi and Sarah?

 

[The deacon]

Get your head out of the sand, look at the NBA, NFL and MLB, defense has it’s role but all they care about is scoring runs or putting points on the board. Defense died with Bill Russell, Ray Nitschke, and Casey Stengel. Caitlin Clarke, LeBron James, and Patrick Mahomes are the new stars now.

Casey Stengel?

 

[oldude]

Lots of wisdom in your post, Oldude, but I'll mention again, Dawn Staley has been doing pretty darned well using 10, 11 or even 12 players, even in big games, and it's hard to differentiate which players will be playing when....

The point is, if Aubrey asserts herself in Aubreyish style, the Huskies go at least 10 deep in quality players, and 11 if you want to give Allie a few shots...

Close. During the 1st half of a top-5 battle at home with LSU, Dawn has used 9 players, although Dauda hardly played. LSU has used 8 players.

 

[oldude]

Wouldn't that make her the 4th scorer behind Paige, Azzi and Sarah?

Based on her breakout game vs Villanova, Kaitlyn is UConn’s 4th scorer.

 

[Just.A.Fan]

There are few other peripheral items I want to point out: while I understand the 8-9 person rotation issue/stance, the simple fact is Geno and the team are in a new paradigm of rotation options. This is the first year in a long time that he has quality depth (albeit very young). The past two years, he had so many injuries, we lacked numbers and with Azzi and Aubrey now being cleared, we have 12 mostly healthy bodies able to play.

Roster overview:
This 12 person active roster (sans Caroline/Ayanna) are all highly ranked players coming out of High School. The least ranked player is Kaitlyn who was #66 and Q was #41. Technically, Jana was not ranked but my guess is she would fall in the high teens or low 20s had she been assessed. The point is twofold, Geno has a talented bench AND as he has stated many times, the players earn time in practice so the fact he uses 10 players regularly means all are working their tails off in practice to earn time. The games against the Big East offer our younger players opportunities to garner experience. The other P4 programs get to use their OOC for this experience but UConn does not have that luxury.

As such, to me, the assessment of who plays is wholly dependent on the type of team we are playing-Creighton offers a different skill set to defend than does Tennessee, than does South Carolina.

In all of D1 Basketball, there are really only 3-5 schools with elite front courts in terms of talent and depth (SC, Texas, UCLA to name 3). We play SC shortly so we shall see how Jana, Sarah, Morgan and Ice can manage.

While ND and SoCal have interior size, we either were missing Azzi or she was not fully healthy enough to play and we were able to keep the games close so that adds an interesting dynamic back if we play them again-a fully healthy and functioning Azzi.

Geno will use any of 11 players (assuming Aubrey can regain her game legs) to best match up as he deems fit so it will not be just an 8 or 9 set player rotation but the best 8-11 group he feels matches the opponent.

I also think there is a bit of over exuberance about Kaitlyn Chen's game vs. Villanova. Before I parse that, I want to point out a key factor in the last two games-Paige had 8 & 9 assists vs. just 2 turnovers as well as 18 and 21 points which also resulted in Blowout games against two usually steady programs. Paige handled the ball more often thus freeing Kaitlyn to play more "off guard" and still be effective as a passer. Geno addressed this in his post-game Villanova presser with Paige bringing the ball up in the middle of the court. This aspect is really the key to us evolving as no one sees the floor like Paige so we should have the ball in her hands more. Geno also alluded to using Chen and KK to produce different looks for the other teams to have to defend. I truly liked this comment and gives me hope on our other players development with Paige putting them in positions for success. This is not a knock-on Kaitlyn but she is not Paige.

Kaitlyn Chen: There is the very good, the good and the not so good.
The very good:
Kaitlyn is an experienced guard who knows how to pick her spots on what she can do well and what she can't. She is good against smaller and the mid-major teams. She has a great back board shot and knows when to drive to the basket.
The good:
Kaitlyn has improved her Assist to turnover ratio with 2.03 (75-37) over her Princeton days (1.46) and her normal FG% has improved to 51.1% vs, her career of 46.5%. Her 3 pt shooting is about the same with 32.4% this year and 32.8% last year and 29.3% for her career. In short, she knows she is not a 3 point shooter and only reluctantly shoots them. Against the 4 better teams on our schedule this year (UNC, Ole Miss, ND and SoCal) she shot 10/20 so she can pick her spots and I would encourage her to shoot more as 5 shots a game is not a lot.
The not so good:
Her A/TO stats against those 4 teams point out her issues with ball handling and decision making as she had 10 assists/11 Turnovers.
I also question her quickness and ability to defend against elite guards like Hidalgo, Miles, Watkins, Spear or Johnson to name a few. How will she handle the Tennessee press is another concern I have where I feel KK's speed and her quickness is better for us.

That said, keeping her as the starter makes sense with KK providing energy and tenacity off the bench but it is NOT a lock that Kaitlyn has earned all the time due to ONE GAME. We have to admit that this 7/8 FG and 2/3 3-pt FG was the aberration of her career as she never had a game like that at Princeton.

As a pre-emptive strike on the common Oldude refrain of "Kaitlyn killed Columbia", Ms. Chen was 6-2 in her career against Columbia with her last two years being 3-2. Her stats were good, not great with 17.6 pts per game for all 8 and only 15.6 for the last two years. Her A/TO line was 35/22 for all 3 years with 8 games but only 25/19 for the last 5 games-again, good but not great. I would not qualify that as "killing Columbia". In her sophomore year, Kaitlyn was the 3rd option on the Tiger team behind Abby Myers and Julia Cunningham. If Kaitlyn can find a way to contribute on a nightly basis with 10 pts per game (up from her 6 right now) I would be ecstatic.

The other observation is with Paige as the primary ball distributer the dynamic process with Sarah is remindful of IonescuHebard duo with Sarah being a much better all around player than Ruthy ever was. Against Villanova, with Paige as the primary ball handler, she and Sarah had 8 assists to each other!

This team will only go as far as Paige, Sarah and Azzi can carry them with key contributions from Jana, Chen, KK and others and it will be a rotating cast of contributions.

I like everything you've said here, with the exception of the harsh treatment of Chen. This young woman has a great attitude, and it wasn't easy coming onto this team, being referred to as an insulting "rent a player" by several here in the BY, and not really knowing exactly what her role should be. Least we forget that she came her from Princeton where she was the go to player on the team. For that reason she made numerous mistakes early in the season while trying to adjust, but has begun to correct them and simply adapt her game as the season has progressed. I consider her an asset and the change of styles by exchanging roles with KK has added a very interesting dynamic to this team structure. It would be nice if Chen were shown some love on occasion.

 

[Just.A.Fan]

Based on her breakout game vs Villanova, Kaitlyn is UConn’s 4th scorer.

I was correcting the statement made, not who IS the 4th scorer.

 

[HuskyNan]

We don’t have a ton of evidence. And we don’t have evidence against good teams yet. But based on what we have. I think ice has responded well to being benched. She has played a little better the last couple of weeks.

I definitely see us shortening the rotation during the tournament. Geno proved that he will do that during Caroline and azzi’s freshman season.

The ncaa tournament rotation against good teams will be imo:

1. Paige
2. Sarah
3. Azzi
4. Jana
5. Kaitlyn
6. KK
7. Ash
8. Aubrey
9. Ice

I don’t see us going 10 or deeper. I just don’t.

No Morgan?

 

[JoePgh]

The minutes distribution by both South Carolina and LSU in their game today is instructive.

LSU played 9 players, and two of them (Poa and Sheppard) got 3 and 2 minutes respectively. Their "Big 3" (Morrow, Williams, and Flaujae) got 38, 37, and 33 minutes respectively (Flaujae was in foul trouble early), and Day-Wilson got 34. Kailyn Gilbert (who has received a lot of publicity touting LSU's bench depth) got 15 minutes, shot 1-7 for 2 points and 1 rebound. Her 2 points were LSU's only bench points in the game.

South Carolina played 9 players in the game, but Dauda got only 1 minute and had no stats, so really they played only 8. Sonia Feagin was their only player to log more than 30 minutes (she had 36, reflecting the absence of Watkins). The other starters were all in the mid to high 20's in their minutes. Their top three bench players (Edwards, Fulwiley, and Tessa Johnson) had 14, 8, and 9 minutes respectively. I thought that Edwards (with 14 points on 5-11 shooting and 4 rebounds) and especially Tessa (9 points on 4-9 shooting) were really good -- Tessa seemed like she would fit on the UConn roster more than any other SC player with her intelligent decision making. Interestingly, Feagin and Edwards were the only SC players in double figures for scoring, and no one had more more than 7 rebounds -- unlike 6-1 Morrow of LSU, who had 16 rebounds. Despite SC's victory in the game, LSU dominated the offensive boards by a margin of 28-15, and took 14 more shots than SC. Too bad they only shot 30% compared to SC's none-too-great 37%.

Bottom line: I think UConn's bench is as deep as either of these teams, and I would expect that when UConn plays SC in February, the two team's bench minutes will be similar. Will their scoring and rebounding be similar? That is the question.

 

[packwrap]

Nice analytics!

Being provocative, I can even imagine a game against SC where we play:

Paige, Azzi, Chen, KK and Ash in backcourt.

and only Sarah, Aubrey and Morgan in front court.

That's 8 players with 0 minutes for Jana and Ice.

The small frontcourt can better defend the quick SC bigs, and will minimize turnovers.

 

[Ron and Vida]

During each of the past 3 seasons, UConn suffered a series of devastating injuries to key players which effectively hamstrung their efforts to win Championship #12. Last year was the worst by far as the Huskies finished the season with only 7 healthy players, an effective rotation of 6; and yet UConn came within 1 play of making the national championship game in what was both a heroic and tragic season.

Last season, when it came to decisions about who would play and how long, Geno had it easy. As he said several times about his players, “They don’t have to worry about making mistakes, because I have no one to replace them with.”

Fast forward to the 2024-25 season. What a difference a year makes. UConn fields one of its deepest and most talented rosters ever, with 12 healthy players currently vying for PT and spots in the regular rotation. Geno will earn his pay this year, and while he has indicated that he knows what his rotation will look like once we get to March, he has resisted all requests from the media to tell us what that rotation will be. Personally, I think he knows mostly what that rotation will look like. But I also think he is still puzzling over a couple of decisions on the final rotation spots.

To the credit of the players, they are making it very difficult for Geno and his coaches to finalize the rotation, with both their play in games as well as their efforts in practice. In past years, we have gotten used to seeing the wheels come off once UConn starts to sub in for the starters. Not so this year. UConn’s execution is pretty darn good throughout the game, even during mop-up time.

There is a reason why UConn continues to cut, screen, pass and score effectively, regardless of who is on the court. The Huskies roster includes no less than 7 HS PG’s: Paige, Kaitlyn, KK, Azzi, Ash, Morgan & Allie. In addition, both Aubrey & Sarah were the primary ball handlers for their teams while leading their respective HS’s in both scoring and assists. That’s a hell of a lot of basketball IQ for a single roster.

During the next month or so, Geno has to make some decisions. In past seasons, when he had some depth, Geno has typically capped his tournament rotation at 7-8 players. Whether he goes beyond that total will be dependent somewhat on the opponent and the situation encountered. I will give you my take on the factors that I believe will impact those decisions, with a couple of assumptions: 1) I assume that everyone remains healthy & 2) Neither Ayanna or Caroline will factor into the lineup decisions.

STARTERS

• Paige, Azzi & Sarah – With the possible exception of ND, I don’t believe there is another team in the country that can field 3 G/W’s with the ability to score, pass and defend like UConn’s 3-headed monster. These players will be the core of UConn’s title run this year, and their PT will ramp up once we get into March.
• Jana – Geno has made the clear decision that to win #12, he will need a post player with the size and ability to battle the likes of UCLA, USC, SC, etc. Jana is on a crash course to be ready by March, and she continues to get a little better each and every game.
• Kaitlyn – Up until the Villanova game at Gampel, I felt that the starting pg job was still up for grabs, with both KK & Ash still in the running to be the 5th starter. But after Kaitlyn’s break out performance against the Wildcats, Kaitlyn has locked up the job, imo.

GUARDS – RESERVES

• KK - While Kaitlyn is PG 1, KK is clearly PG 1A and will share the pg duties for the rest of the season. KK brings a change of pace off the bench as a fierce on-ball defender, and she has ramped up her ability to attack the basket and score. In addition, KK has one of the best A/TO ratios in the nation.
• Ash – Ash is not only UConn’s best scorer off the bench, but she has dramatically improved her on-ball defense this season and she is second only to Paige as a rebounding guard, on a team that needs all the help it can get on the boards.
• Allie – Under most circumstances, Allie wouldn’t really figure into this year’s rotation. But you just can’t rule out someone who can shoot the basketball like Allie. It was suggested that Allie releases the ball faster than Azzi and just as accurately. In a tight game, there just might be an opportunity for Geno to slide Allie onto the court to drop a couple of 3-pt bombs.

FORWARDS – RESERVES

• Morgan – More than any other player, Morgan has forced her way into this conversation. She is currently the 1st forward off the bench, typically subbing in for Jana. Morgan plays defense, rebounds, passes like a pg, scores a little and hits the floor more often than a WWE wrestler. With that said, for Morgan to lock up a spot in the rotation, I believe she must become a more consistent scorer. If Morgan can start knocking down 3’s, she gives UConn a 5th scorer on their small lineup, which would create nightmares for opposing teams.
• Ice – Ice has lost PT to both Jana and Morgan. To her enormous credit, she has not sulked or accepted the possibility of getting buried on the bench. In the last few games her play has improved significantly at both ends of the court. In March, when UConn faces opponents with big frontlines, I believe that Ice must be part of the rotation.
• Aubrey – When healthy, Aubrey is UConn’s best defender and rebounder, and no one runs the court in transition like she does. She is the X factor. Geno is bringing Aubrey along slowly. But she is yet another Husky who must figure into a championship run.
• Q – Q is the one player that does not project to be in the rotation, at this time. But you never know. Just last year she came into a key situation during the Elite 8 game vs USC and splashed a BIG 3.

We should get a pretty good sense of where Geno is going with his rotation in the upcoming games with TN & SC, although that may not be the final determination. IMO, UConn’s postseason rotation will be 8-9 players deep and will include: Paige, Azzi, Sarah, Jana, Kaitlyn, KK, Ash, Ice (+Aubrey if we go 9 deep). Leaving Morgan out of my rotation was really hard, and I have no doubt that I will receive a lot of grief for that decision. What do you think? Tell me how deep the rotation will be and who will be part of it?

Great analysis (as usual)
I think most of us love Morgan’s game and hope she can find her sooner than later

 

[mainerhuski]

While I will acknowledge that high scoring offenses have become more prolific in sports, WBB is not the NBA, NFL or MLB. If you can’t stop teams from scoring, you can’t win championships, no matter how effective your offense is. Offensive execution can vacillate from game to game, but good defense is usually far more consistent. Furthermore, the strategy behind teams that press like tOSU, TN and yes, UConn, has as much to do with offense as it does with defense.

After the recent blowout win over Villanova, Geno talked about the need to force Villanova out of their slow and deliberate offensive game plan and get into a higher scoring game where Nova basically couldn’t keep up. Pressing a team does two things. It forces turnovers, usually resulting in easy transition baskets or it forces teams to use up possession time beating the press, leaving less time to run their offense, forcing rushed shots, that lead to defensive rebounds, fast breaks and easy transition baskets. Essentially, you press to speed up the game, create more offensive opportunities and score more points.

In previous seasons UConn did not have the roster depth to commit to a pressure defense all game long. This year they do. The TN game will be interesting. The LV’s press all game long, subbing in groups of players frequently like hockey. I expect UConn to press as well, because TN does turn the ball over a lot. We’ll see who comes out on top.

One last comment. We can disagree on the Boneyard without being disagreeable. There is no reason to disparage BBallf just because his opinion differs from yours.

Thanks for your “one last comment,” Oldude. I was about to post something similar.