The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
UConn’s defense often overlooked
Mississippi State coach impressed with Huskies on that end of floor
DALLAS >> Mississippi State coach Vic Schaefer did not earn the “secretary of defense” moniker by accident and it certainly wasn’t bestowed on him after winning a raffle at a church in the Starkville, Mississippi area.
Schaefer’s brilliant work while serving on Gary Blair’s staff at Texas A&M, which culminated in winning the 2011 national title, helped Schaefer earn a reputation as one of the best defensive coaching minds in the world of women’s basketball. So it seems to be a fairly safe assumption to state that Schaefer knows a fearsome defensive squad when he sees one. There is no question that he puts this year’s UConn in that category.
“I have a true, real appreciation for them defensively,” said Schaefer, whose Mississippi State team was held to 38 points in a meeting with UConn in the 2016 NCAA tournament. “They score so many points, their defense gets overlooked. They made Oregon miserable. Defensively, they were just in passing lanes, refusing to let them make passes. They took the threepoint line, chased them off of that.”
There was a span of 4:05 in the first quarter when the Huskies came up with five steals against Oregon. By game’s end, the Huskies had 16 steals, one of the top totals in program history in the NCAA tournament. That number is all the more impressive since the Huskies rarely unleash full-court trapping pressure defense on its opponents simply because they can’t risk getting one of their starters in foul trouble by having them commit a foul 60-70 feet away from the basket the Huskies are defending.
Still, that one stretch harkened back to a time when the Huskies
were one of the most aggressive defensive teams in the country. The Huskies had recorded at least 400 steals on nine occasions highlighted by a sixyear stretch when that feat was accomplished every season by Nykesha Sales and Rita Williams establishing the tone and piling up steals. Svetlana Abrosimova moved into that role when she arrived from her native Russia.
Now a new generation of Huskies are displaying a gift of grab.
“You want your defense to translate to your offense and that is exactly what we did,” UConn junior guard Kia Nurse said. “I think we did a great job, that was our way to get into transition.”
With 366 steals, the Huskies likely won’t hit 400 this season but considering how few of the steals have taken place in the backcourt, it is an impressive number. The Huskies also don’t have somebody like Breanna Stewart, Kiah Stokes or Stefanie Dolson to provide the threat of a dominant shot blocker, which has resulted in the perimeter players jumping into the passing lane less frequently than in the past few years. Napheesa Collier and Gabby Williams have combined for 123 blocks but many of them have come in 1 on 1 defensive assignments.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma has played zone at times, especially earlier in the season when undersized post players Williams and Collier got into early foul trouble on multiple occasions. Lately, he has been encouraging his players to be more aggressive in going after the steals.
“The advantage with us is we can all switch and we are all interchangeable like that and when you have players like that, it is easy to jump into the passing lanes,” said Williams, who leads the Huskies with 98 steals this season.
Mississippi State went for a long stretch with only one turnover in the Elite Eight win over Baylor so it seems less likely that the Bulldogs will turn the ball over as much as Oregon did. For the Ducks, it wasn’t just that they failed in the ball security department but that they committed liveball turnovers resulting in the athletic UConn players getting out in transition. In last year’s game, 18 Mississippi State resulted in 24 points of turnovers for the Huskies. That is a recipe for basketball disaster.
“I think we’re a year older, a year wiser,” Schaefer said. “I think from that standpoint, our kids believe we’re different.
“UConn may not have the same personnel, but they’re still the same dominating UConn program. They’re a well-oiled machine. They have tremendous chemistry.”