Uconn defense AKF as in after Kelly Faris

[UcMiami]

Posted elsewhere about how the bodies inside the uniforms change but the team remains eerily similar year after year. So I thought I would look at defensive stats from Kelly's senior season vs this year to date. Kelly was one of the best shut down defenders ever to play for Uconn and one would expect her absence to be reflected in the team stats. This was also a fairly big point of concern leading into the year - how do we replace Kelis Fisher. Stats:

Points Allowed: 2013 - 49.8, 2014 - 48.1
Scoring Margin: 2013 - 32.7, 2014 - 36.9
FG % Defense: 2013 - .316, 2014 - .311
3FG % Defense: 2013 - .286, 2014 - .262
Fouls per game: 2013 - 12.9, 2014 - 12.2
FT allowed/gm: 2013 - 12.2, 2014 - 9.2
Steals/Game: 2013 - 6.3, 2014 - 10
Turnovers forced/gm: 2013 - 19.8, 2014 - 18.1
Opponent A/TO: 2013 - 0.54, 2014 - 0.55
Assists/Gm: 2013 - 20.5, 2014 - 22.5
A/TO: 2013 - 1.43, 2014 - 1.96
Rebounding Mgn: 2013 - 11.1, 2014 - 8.5
Blocks/gm: 2013 - 6.2, 2014 - 8.6

Each year is different and the opposition changes but it is clear that the team is still playing stifling defense. I think stats at this level of dominance can be misleading in that they probably depend more on what happens in the last 10 minutes of blow outs than they do on the first half of games or in competitive games. But this year's team is certainly carrying on the tradition of Uconn teams of the past, even with significant players missing large numbers of games.

 

[itsasport]

Kelly's special contribution was individual defense against the opponents leading scorer. Last year, that person disappeared offensively when they played against Kelly. This year, the team defense has been excellent, but there have been some games in which the opponents big gun was able to score well against UConn.

Kelly was taller and stronger than any of our guards this year . It will be interesting to see what next year's incredible crop of big, and fast guard/forwards will bring to the defense.

 

[chrissaran]

You forget we're not playing Notre Dame, four times last year. That's a major part of the reason the ppg against is lower.

 

[alexrgct]

I think the biggest difference is, notwithstanding the numbers, you can put Kelly on anyone at pretty much any position. That Swiss Army knife in your back pocket sure is a security blanket...and a bunch of mixed metaphors on my part.

But seriously, I do like the idea of the having different opposing offensive weapons to neutralize as the season draws to a close.

Oh, and more thing (because I miss it):

KEL-LY FAR-IS (CLAP, CLAP, CLAPCLAPCLAP)!!!

KEL-LY FAR-IS (CLAP, CLAP, CLAPCLAPCLAP)!!!