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Twenty-four days ago, Louisville beat us 81-48 in our regular season finale, marking the most lopsided loss I can remember in all my time watching UConn hoops. Napier and Boatright turned it over a combined nine times, while shooting 4 of 24 from the field. UConn scored 18 points in the first half, and surrendered 51 in the second. Kevin Ollie freely admitted after the game that he was outcoached and didn’t have his team ready to play. DeAndre Daniels conceded that they were outhustled, and that they didn’t fight back after taking the first punch. This is what Ollie had to say: “I told [the players], if we play like this, we have two games left and then they can go on spring break."
I’m regurgitating all the details here because of how remarkable it is that we’ve come this far in a time frame that amounts to less than four weeks. I’m generally a fairly optimistic person, but following that beat-down, I almost went into off-season mode. I figured our life expectancy in both postseason tournaments was small – if the team won one more game, I was happy. I still believed that they could make a deep run into the tournament if everything came together, but the more I watched, the more unforeseeable that became. Yes, 2011 happened, but that was completely different. The 2011 team lost a dog fight to a really good Notre Dame game on Kemba’s senior day, and although many had hit rock bottom at that point, that loss, in retrospect, signaled a talented, young team coming of age. I thought the 2014 finale represented a decent team playing brutal basketball at the worst possible time.
Since then, they’ve won six of seven, with five wins over ranked teams, and the one loss coming to a program that forces us into some bizarre mental blockade every time we see their jerseys. This is all an extremely round-about way of telling you that his program continues to one-up itself in ways that almost seem supernatural at this point, but through these three and a half weeks, we’ve learned some valuable lessons about this team, this program, and most importantly, the coach.
As some as you may have heard, I was fortunate enough to watch the evolution of this team manifest itself first-hand on Sunday afternoon. And by “first-hand”, I don’t mean watching from the nose-bleeds, I mean fourth row behind the UConn bench. For comparison sake, I was two rows in front of Jim Calhoun and Rip Hamilton, and in the section that, to my knowledge, is basically designated for family members of players and famous alumni. I don’t say this to brag (huge shout-out to Skinner, or huskies92, who is one of the coolest guys you could ever meet and the entire reason for me being there), but rather to emphasize the appreciation for the talent on the floor that is garnered from sitting that close to the action. The first possession of the game will be engraved in my mind forever, partially because of how surreal the whole experience was (I’m still in somewhat of a daze, 48+ hours later), and partially because of how representative it was of the identity of this team, and the remarkable levels of dominance they’ve reached on the defensive end of the floor in recent weeks.
As soon as Michigan State controls the opening tip, Boatright embarks on a game-long mission to hound Keith Appling (and whoever else had the dis-pleasure of running the point for Michigan State) into mistakes, an eerily reminiscent scene of the opening possession in Germany nearly 17 months ago. MSU then proceeds to run Gary Harris off a double screen, and Napier matches him step for step. This design progresses into a sharp Brandon Dawson cut to the rim, while Payne simultaneously flares out to the right wing. Philip Nolan, the undisputed MVP of the opening possession, provides help on Dawson before recovering out to Payne with time to spare. The Spartans then reverse the ball, before Gary Harris eventually briefly frees Payne on a cross screen, beating Nolan by a step. Within a split-second, Boatright, Nolan, Giffey, and Daniels all converge on Payne, nearly forcing a turnover before recovering back to their initial assignments in what seemed like a blink of an eye. The ball ultimately swung to the left wing, where Appling was able to feed Payne the ball about two feet beyond the left block, in optimal scoring position. But Nolan held his ground, and Daniels, Napier, and Boatright combined to form something like a triangle around Payne’s operating base, with Giffey sealing off Dawson. It wasn’t an immediate or conventional double team, but it blurred Payne’s line of vision to the extent that he seemed discombobulated, as he shuffled his feet in the face of fundamentally sound defense from Phil Nolan just seconds later.
It’s rare that an entire game is encapsulated within one possession, but that is precisely what happened. UConn’s defense was smothering, disciplined, and well-coordinated on the inaugural State possession, and that’s the way it continued for the duration of the game. Individually, every UConn defender was exceptionally balanced, attentive, and committed to their primary assignment at all times. The swarming, scrambling defensive philosophy that Kevin Ollie has been preaching all year reached its pinnacle today, and as the ’99 team demonstrated better than any in their title bout with Duke and Elton Brand, impeccable schematic execution can render any individual favorability’s the opposition may possess irrelevant. With the lack of girth our front line possesses relative to players like Patrick Young and Julius Randle, there’s no doubt the talking heads will be lecturing us all week about how Florida’s about to annihilate us in the paint and end our season. But guess what, folks, there’s a little secret wandering around the locker-room in Storrs that nobody else in the media will ever understand. There’s no substitute for teams that recapitulate every last tendency of opposing players, anticipate the development of a play before anybody in the gym, operate in accordance with one another through every screen, back-cut, ball-reversal, post-up, and re-post, and master their footwork and economy of movement to the degree that the fundamentals of the game never betray them when it matters most.
There is a certain systematical brilliance to the way this team is defending right now that can only be replicated over the course of years. And when you scan the roster – and notice that this core group of players has been together for 2, 3 years now – it isn’t surprising that they’re able to consistently defeat their opponents before the game even starts. The recovery speed of the defense is what’s most impressive – they’re able to help multiple times within the same possession and still spring back out to shooters so they don’t get burned. The difference between a good defense and a great defense is this: a good defense forces you to make one good play within a possession, a great defense forces you to make four or five smart, decisive reads before the airways begin to open up. UConn’s layer-based defense is certainly the former, and the values of brotherhood and togetherness that Kevin Ollie has so emphatically preached are portrayed so vividly in the way this team defends. We’re not the most talented team in the country, but right now, there isn’t a team in the country that believes in the system, or each other, more than these Huskies. So, you can have Julius Randle or Frank Kaminsky or Patrick Young – I’ll take what we have, the type of unquantifiable cohesiveness and energy that very few teams have. I’ll say this: this team isn’t as talented as the 1999 team, but in terms of mental make-up, fearlessness, and continuity, they’re right on that level. That’s about as big a compliment as I can pay Kevin Ollie.
Obviously, another contributing factor to our elite defense is that we have some truly outstanding athletes on this team. They aren’t athletic in the same way guys like Stanley Robinson and Rudy Gay were athletic, their athleticism is more deceptive, a bit more easy and relaxed. Boatright and Napier, first and foremost, are two players that the TV screen does not do justice. They don’t exhilarate you with their ability to explode through traffic, absorb contact, and finish above the rim. But in terms of lateral quickness, accelerating from point A to point B, body control, timing, endurance, agility, and everything else that constitutes athleticism that doesn’t always translate as well on TV, their as electrifying a tandem as you’re ever going to see in college basketball. As much as I rave about Ollie’s ability to squeeze the most out of his personnel, and disguise weaknesses, Napier and Boatright make his job a hell of a lot easier. When UConn encounters a big man like Payne, or Young, or Harrell, Napier and Boatright are instrumental in containing them because their understanding of time and space. Truthfully, I’m not sure people understand how much energy this duo of guards has to exert on both ends of the court, especially against teams like Michigan State. From chasing Gary Harris off continuous screens, to coming out of nowhere to help on a driver, to sagging into the paint on post-ups and still being able to recover…I’m half-amazed that Boatright and Napier didn’t just collapse on the court by the time the game was over. You’d be amazed by how many baskets defenses give up just as a product of fatigue. Ollie has done a spectacular job with this group, but his game plan doesn’t work nearly as well yesterday if Napier and Boatright weren’t able to burden such ridiculous workloads.
Niels Giffey might be the best-rounded athlete on the team. His lateral quickness is just as impressive as Boatright and Napier’s – relative to his position – but the immense value he adds to the team lies in the fact that possesses the versatility to guard 3-4 positions. He doesn’t create nearly as many turnovers as Boatright or Napier, nor is he the off-ball savior those two are in times of chaos, but I think he’s the best on-ball defender on the team, and he’s cleaned up the over-helping tendencies that plagued him earlier in the year. For all the talk about the pro prospects on this team, Giffey’s name is the one that never seems to come up, and probably should. There is no doubt in my mind that he can defend at a high level, even in the NBA, and with the way he’s emerged as a deep threat this season, at the very least he’s a capable floor spacer. I imagine he’ll be satisfied with turning pro in Germany – and who could blame him – but I think if he went the Jeff Adrien route and played in the D-League for a while, he may eventually get a crack at the league. People who still consider him merely a role player aren’t paying very close attention.
One last player note before I wrap things up: I have severely under-estimated Phil Nolan. I’m not sure if he’s a guy whose skillset just translates better in person, or if he had a particularly strong game against the Spartans, but my God, the guy was a terror on defense all game, and was easily the key to slowing Payne. When Brimah struggled guarding the pick and roll, Nolan was able to step in and provide a steadying presence, operating perfectly within the schemes, defending Payne one on one about as well as you possibly can, and sliding over from the weak side to contest everything at the rim. One other thing I noticed: Phil didn’t attempt to take any charges. Count me as one who likes the Phil who is bodying up post players, not surrendering an inch on the perimeter, and looking to swat everything into the stands better than the Phil that is always a half-step late on the charge attempt. Can Phil defend guys like Harrell and Young one on one? No, but I think what we are beginning to see is that Phil is a natural four who was playing out of position due to necessity. At least defensively, he certainly has the lateral quickness to match up with stretch fours like Payne, whereas Brimah struggled.
I haven’t even mentioned guys like Samuel, Daniels, Kromah, and Brimah, all of whom are exceptional defenders in their own right. When you don’t have the one squeaky wheel on defense who others consistently have to cover for, it can make life a living hell for offenses. Sunday afternoon was exhibit A – Sparty shot 39% from the field, earned just eight free throw attempts, turned it over 16 times, and scored 54 points, yet I think even that output was more than they deserved. If they hadn’t shot 38% from the three point line – and some of those looks were generated by fluky caroms, and transition opportunities – their final point total may have registered somewhere in the mid-40’s. Over the last ten days, we held Villanova (#25 in adjusted offense) to 35% from the floor, Iowa State (#6 in adjusted offense) to 46% (a percentage which was boosted by baskets late in the game), and Michigan State (#12 in adjusted offense) to 39% from the field. What’s most encouraging of all, is that we didn’t even play that well on Sunday. Giffey missed five wide open threes (the chances of a 49% shooter missing five in a row are around 3%), and UConn as a team shot just 5 of 22 from deep. Who would have thought before the tournament that we could have beaten the tournament favorite with our B game? Definitely not me. But when you defend like a pack of wolves, you are able to stick around despite bad shooting performances.
Anyway, I’ll talk offense tomorrow, and analyze every player a bit more thoroughly. A lot of you probably think that I over-analyze this stuff, which is true, but it is fun taking the time to do it when they win.
I’m regurgitating all the details here because of how remarkable it is that we’ve come this far in a time frame that amounts to less than four weeks. I’m generally a fairly optimistic person, but following that beat-down, I almost went into off-season mode. I figured our life expectancy in both postseason tournaments was small – if the team won one more game, I was happy. I still believed that they could make a deep run into the tournament if everything came together, but the more I watched, the more unforeseeable that became. Yes, 2011 happened, but that was completely different. The 2011 team lost a dog fight to a really good Notre Dame game on Kemba’s senior day, and although many had hit rock bottom at that point, that loss, in retrospect, signaled a talented, young team coming of age. I thought the 2014 finale represented a decent team playing brutal basketball at the worst possible time.
Since then, they’ve won six of seven, with five wins over ranked teams, and the one loss coming to a program that forces us into some bizarre mental blockade every time we see their jerseys. This is all an extremely round-about way of telling you that his program continues to one-up itself in ways that almost seem supernatural at this point, but through these three and a half weeks, we’ve learned some valuable lessons about this team, this program, and most importantly, the coach.
As some as you may have heard, I was fortunate enough to watch the evolution of this team manifest itself first-hand on Sunday afternoon. And by “first-hand”, I don’t mean watching from the nose-bleeds, I mean fourth row behind the UConn bench. For comparison sake, I was two rows in front of Jim Calhoun and Rip Hamilton, and in the section that, to my knowledge, is basically designated for family members of players and famous alumni. I don’t say this to brag (huge shout-out to Skinner, or huskies92, who is one of the coolest guys you could ever meet and the entire reason for me being there), but rather to emphasize the appreciation for the talent on the floor that is garnered from sitting that close to the action. The first possession of the game will be engraved in my mind forever, partially because of how surreal the whole experience was (I’m still in somewhat of a daze, 48+ hours later), and partially because of how representative it was of the identity of this team, and the remarkable levels of dominance they’ve reached on the defensive end of the floor in recent weeks.
As soon as Michigan State controls the opening tip, Boatright embarks on a game-long mission to hound Keith Appling (and whoever else had the dis-pleasure of running the point for Michigan State) into mistakes, an eerily reminiscent scene of the opening possession in Germany nearly 17 months ago. MSU then proceeds to run Gary Harris off a double screen, and Napier matches him step for step. This design progresses into a sharp Brandon Dawson cut to the rim, while Payne simultaneously flares out to the right wing. Philip Nolan, the undisputed MVP of the opening possession, provides help on Dawson before recovering out to Payne with time to spare. The Spartans then reverse the ball, before Gary Harris eventually briefly frees Payne on a cross screen, beating Nolan by a step. Within a split-second, Boatright, Nolan, Giffey, and Daniels all converge on Payne, nearly forcing a turnover before recovering back to their initial assignments in what seemed like a blink of an eye. The ball ultimately swung to the left wing, where Appling was able to feed Payne the ball about two feet beyond the left block, in optimal scoring position. But Nolan held his ground, and Daniels, Napier, and Boatright combined to form something like a triangle around Payne’s operating base, with Giffey sealing off Dawson. It wasn’t an immediate or conventional double team, but it blurred Payne’s line of vision to the extent that he seemed discombobulated, as he shuffled his feet in the face of fundamentally sound defense from Phil Nolan just seconds later.
It’s rare that an entire game is encapsulated within one possession, but that is precisely what happened. UConn’s defense was smothering, disciplined, and well-coordinated on the inaugural State possession, and that’s the way it continued for the duration of the game. Individually, every UConn defender was exceptionally balanced, attentive, and committed to their primary assignment at all times. The swarming, scrambling defensive philosophy that Kevin Ollie has been preaching all year reached its pinnacle today, and as the ’99 team demonstrated better than any in their title bout with Duke and Elton Brand, impeccable schematic execution can render any individual favorability’s the opposition may possess irrelevant. With the lack of girth our front line possesses relative to players like Patrick Young and Julius Randle, there’s no doubt the talking heads will be lecturing us all week about how Florida’s about to annihilate us in the paint and end our season. But guess what, folks, there’s a little secret wandering around the locker-room in Storrs that nobody else in the media will ever understand. There’s no substitute for teams that recapitulate every last tendency of opposing players, anticipate the development of a play before anybody in the gym, operate in accordance with one another through every screen, back-cut, ball-reversal, post-up, and re-post, and master their footwork and economy of movement to the degree that the fundamentals of the game never betray them when it matters most.
There is a certain systematical brilliance to the way this team is defending right now that can only be replicated over the course of years. And when you scan the roster – and notice that this core group of players has been together for 2, 3 years now – it isn’t surprising that they’re able to consistently defeat their opponents before the game even starts. The recovery speed of the defense is what’s most impressive – they’re able to help multiple times within the same possession and still spring back out to shooters so they don’t get burned. The difference between a good defense and a great defense is this: a good defense forces you to make one good play within a possession, a great defense forces you to make four or five smart, decisive reads before the airways begin to open up. UConn’s layer-based defense is certainly the former, and the values of brotherhood and togetherness that Kevin Ollie has so emphatically preached are portrayed so vividly in the way this team defends. We’re not the most talented team in the country, but right now, there isn’t a team in the country that believes in the system, or each other, more than these Huskies. So, you can have Julius Randle or Frank Kaminsky or Patrick Young – I’ll take what we have, the type of unquantifiable cohesiveness and energy that very few teams have. I’ll say this: this team isn’t as talented as the 1999 team, but in terms of mental make-up, fearlessness, and continuity, they’re right on that level. That’s about as big a compliment as I can pay Kevin Ollie.
Obviously, another contributing factor to our elite defense is that we have some truly outstanding athletes on this team. They aren’t athletic in the same way guys like Stanley Robinson and Rudy Gay were athletic, their athleticism is more deceptive, a bit more easy and relaxed. Boatright and Napier, first and foremost, are two players that the TV screen does not do justice. They don’t exhilarate you with their ability to explode through traffic, absorb contact, and finish above the rim. But in terms of lateral quickness, accelerating from point A to point B, body control, timing, endurance, agility, and everything else that constitutes athleticism that doesn’t always translate as well on TV, their as electrifying a tandem as you’re ever going to see in college basketball. As much as I rave about Ollie’s ability to squeeze the most out of his personnel, and disguise weaknesses, Napier and Boatright make his job a hell of a lot easier. When UConn encounters a big man like Payne, or Young, or Harrell, Napier and Boatright are instrumental in containing them because their understanding of time and space. Truthfully, I’m not sure people understand how much energy this duo of guards has to exert on both ends of the court, especially against teams like Michigan State. From chasing Gary Harris off continuous screens, to coming out of nowhere to help on a driver, to sagging into the paint on post-ups and still being able to recover…I’m half-amazed that Boatright and Napier didn’t just collapse on the court by the time the game was over. You’d be amazed by how many baskets defenses give up just as a product of fatigue. Ollie has done a spectacular job with this group, but his game plan doesn’t work nearly as well yesterday if Napier and Boatright weren’t able to burden such ridiculous workloads.
Niels Giffey might be the best-rounded athlete on the team. His lateral quickness is just as impressive as Boatright and Napier’s – relative to his position – but the immense value he adds to the team lies in the fact that possesses the versatility to guard 3-4 positions. He doesn’t create nearly as many turnovers as Boatright or Napier, nor is he the off-ball savior those two are in times of chaos, but I think he’s the best on-ball defender on the team, and he’s cleaned up the over-helping tendencies that plagued him earlier in the year. For all the talk about the pro prospects on this team, Giffey’s name is the one that never seems to come up, and probably should. There is no doubt in my mind that he can defend at a high level, even in the NBA, and with the way he’s emerged as a deep threat this season, at the very least he’s a capable floor spacer. I imagine he’ll be satisfied with turning pro in Germany – and who could blame him – but I think if he went the Jeff Adrien route and played in the D-League for a while, he may eventually get a crack at the league. People who still consider him merely a role player aren’t paying very close attention.
One last player note before I wrap things up: I have severely under-estimated Phil Nolan. I’m not sure if he’s a guy whose skillset just translates better in person, or if he had a particularly strong game against the Spartans, but my God, the guy was a terror on defense all game, and was easily the key to slowing Payne. When Brimah struggled guarding the pick and roll, Nolan was able to step in and provide a steadying presence, operating perfectly within the schemes, defending Payne one on one about as well as you possibly can, and sliding over from the weak side to contest everything at the rim. One other thing I noticed: Phil didn’t attempt to take any charges. Count me as one who likes the Phil who is bodying up post players, not surrendering an inch on the perimeter, and looking to swat everything into the stands better than the Phil that is always a half-step late on the charge attempt. Can Phil defend guys like Harrell and Young one on one? No, but I think what we are beginning to see is that Phil is a natural four who was playing out of position due to necessity. At least defensively, he certainly has the lateral quickness to match up with stretch fours like Payne, whereas Brimah struggled.
I haven’t even mentioned guys like Samuel, Daniels, Kromah, and Brimah, all of whom are exceptional defenders in their own right. When you don’t have the one squeaky wheel on defense who others consistently have to cover for, it can make life a living hell for offenses. Sunday afternoon was exhibit A – Sparty shot 39% from the field, earned just eight free throw attempts, turned it over 16 times, and scored 54 points, yet I think even that output was more than they deserved. If they hadn’t shot 38% from the three point line – and some of those looks were generated by fluky caroms, and transition opportunities – their final point total may have registered somewhere in the mid-40’s. Over the last ten days, we held Villanova (#25 in adjusted offense) to 35% from the floor, Iowa State (#6 in adjusted offense) to 46% (a percentage which was boosted by baskets late in the game), and Michigan State (#12 in adjusted offense) to 39% from the field. What’s most encouraging of all, is that we didn’t even play that well on Sunday. Giffey missed five wide open threes (the chances of a 49% shooter missing five in a row are around 3%), and UConn as a team shot just 5 of 22 from deep. Who would have thought before the tournament that we could have beaten the tournament favorite with our B game? Definitely not me. But when you defend like a pack of wolves, you are able to stick around despite bad shooting performances.
Anyway, I’ll talk offense tomorrow, and analyze every player a bit more thoroughly. A lot of you probably think that I over-analyze this stuff, which is true, but it is fun taking the time to do it when they win.
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