5 things we’ve learned about the No. 2 Huskies team so far
Entering the season, the UConn men’s basketball team was clouded by unknowns. After losing four key pieces: R.J. Cole, Tyrese Martin, Tyler Polley and Isaiah Whaley, Dan Hurley had to turn to the transfer portal, yielding four, and then to his two incoming freshmen, to build this 2022 roster around Andre Jackson, Adama Sanogo and Jordan Hawkins.
The doubt surrounding potential early season success was a result of uncertainty. The Huskies came into the season unranked
in the AP Top 25, second in the “others receiving votes” distinction, and fourth in the Big East preseason poll.
Once the season began, with Jackson on the bench with a broken pinky finger and Hawkins nursing a potential concussion after the first 10 minutes of the opening game, a puzzle was put together quickly.
Hurley believes he’s built a UConn roster that can make deeper run in March.
The Huskies won, and won big. Thirteen in a row by double-digits, a scoring margin of 25 points (third-best in the nation), and now sit at No. 2 in the AP Poll, No. 1 in the NCAA’s NET rankings and are far and away the top team in the Big East right now.
It took 13 games for Hurley’s team to face a second-half deficit, and when that challenge came against Georgetown Tuesday those new additions stepped up to snuff out the potential upset.
“It was time for us to decide how we wanted to feel going into the Holidays,” Hurley said after that game.
It’s fair to say now that the Huskies, and UConn nation, should feel great going into the Holidays.
Here are five things we’ve learned about the team so far:
Relying on more players
Heading into the season, Hurley expected the number of different players playing extensive minutes to dwindle to seven or eight. But he’s also always said that he won’t take minutes away from anyone who is playing well, and so far, there’s been nine guys who’ve shown they can provide valuable minutes and those numbers haven’t dwindled.
In his last season at Rhode Island he did have a roster where he played 10 consistently.
“So I’ve been in this spot before where there was a lot of quality, a lot of depth and we’ve been able to get deep into our rotation. And as long as the quality is there and the production is there, we’ll find a way to get everybody enough minutes,” he said. “Obviously it’s a good problem to have.”
Selflessly moving without the ball
Every time down the court, UConn’s sets are mesmerizing. The off-ball screens, the high screens, the pick-and-roll, backdoor cuts, the high post — Hurley and staff have drawn up a multioption offense that simultaneously drains the energy of the defense and allows for open shots.
Against Georgetown, the Huskies assisted on 24 of their 30 made field goals and turned the ball over just seven times. The constant movement allows for the offensive rebounds as well, making it difficult for opponents to box out and getting secondchances that make up for a potential lack of shot making.
An identity that may be impossible to beat
The Georgetown game was the first time UConn has averted from its identity predicated on defense and rebounding. During the Hoyas’ run to start the second half, it seemed as if every shot was going in. UConn was outrebounded, 40-28, for the third time this season (others against Alabama and Oklahoma State).
“It was good to be in some huddles where there was a little soul-searching and some character, reach-down-deep stuff there,” Hurley said of the second-half against Georgetown.
That identity has been the saving grace of the Huskies when shots aren’t falling. The team shot under 40% against Butler but outrebounded the Bulldogs by 24 to remain in the game and take as many as 71 shot attempts. UConn is capable of playing shut-down defense with Jackson one of the best perimeter defenders in the nation and Sanogo or Donovan Clingan in the paint, everyone else with fresher legs than the opponent is able to hustle to spots.
Size, shooting, veteran leadership a lasting formula
The Huskies’ offseason search was for shooters. At too many times last season Sanogo wasn’t allowed space to move inside as opponents packed the paint and flocked to the ball in his hands. Now, with volume shooters in Hawkins and Alex Karaban, as well as Nahiem Alleyne and Joey Calcaterra off the bench and the sparing deep balls from Jackson and Sanogo, the offense is much more balanced and is built to last.
As was proven with Calcaterra in the Georgetown game, when those shots aren’t falling from those on the court, Hurley can change things up, go to the bench and bring in reinforcements to get the job done. The Huskies’ second team has been able to come in and go on scoring runs to break the game open.
While the shooting percentage from 3 has only improved two percentage points, 35% to 37% this season, the Huskies are comfortable shooting as many as five more threes per game on average.
Only weakness is human nature
There have been a few times this season where after games, Hurley will mention “human nature” and “complacency” in the same sentence. But it took the Georgetown reality check for the Huskies to snap back into focus.
The team veered from its identity, picked up a technical foul for taunting, before being faced with its largest deficit of the season (seven points). As Hurley said, that gave him “ammunition” for practice that otherwise may not have been there if the team continued rolling over opponents.
“We’ve set such a standard of how we’ve just kind of obliterated people that (Georgetown performance) just allows me to get to that messaging of if we slip even a tick off of our identity, the domination on the backboard, the elite defense, things unravel,” he said.