The 2015-16 is firmly in the rearview mirror. The Huskies finished sixth in the American Athletic Conference, but won the conference tournament. They beat Colorado in the NCAA Tournament before falling to Kansas. It was an eventful, up-and-down season that we recapped in our latest podcast.
The Huskies will be losing two starters (Sterling Gibbs and Shonn Miller), two veteran bench players (Phil Nolan and Omar Calhoun) and Bunkey’s friend (Sam Cassell Jr.). A talented freshman class will help make up for that lost productivity, but we’re going to provide some additional offseason homework for the players and coaches. Let’s begin.
Get a guard
Cassell’s transfer could actually be a blessing for the Huskies. Sure, they were projected to be thin in the backcourt even before losing a guard, but with two free roster spots, they can now get creative in how to provide some relief to the trio of Jalen Adams, Rodney Purvis and Alterique Gilbert.
They very obviously need someone who can play eight or more minutes per game right away. As Peter touched on in a recent Mailbag, that player could be a fifth-year senior like Canyon Berry, or a true freshman like Christian Vital. The extra roster spot now gives coach Kevin Ollie the flexibility to take both, increase front court depth as well, or add a transfer like Arizona’s Justin Simon. While options abound, the need is clear.
Hit the weight room
While UConn managed to hold its own on the glass for much of the season, the Huskies were beaten senseless against their two toughest opponents: Kansas and Maryland. Historically, UConn teams have played a bruising, physical style in the post – especially on the defensive glass. This year’s team lacked that trait. The team’s best rebounder – Daniel Hamilton – weighs 190 pounds.
Next year’s team will likely employ some small lineups, with Hamilton or Terry Larrier manning the power forward position. They are going to have to get stronger this offseason in order to handle that role. Additionally, Kentan Facey and Steve Enoch will be counted on for increased contributions. Facey especially will need to hit the weights this summer to prepare himself for the year ahead.
Big man camp
There’s no delicate way to say this, UConn’s big men need to get better. The arrival of Miller this past season helped hide the fact that no other member of the Husky front court took much of a step forward from the year before – including Nolan.
Without the crutch of Miller at the power forward spot, Brimah, Facey and Enoch need to improve this offseason to a point where they can contribute more on offense. If he can maximize his talents, Brimah is an NBA player and this will be his last season to prove that.
Bring in an offensive coach
Every time we bring up the Huskies’ offensive shortcomings, we get accused of attacking Ollie, so let’s get some of the good stuff out of the way now.
Ollie is one of the best defensive coaches in America. His teams have shown an aptitude and a level of effort on the defensive end of the court that is inspiring and welcomed. Ollie has also proved to be an effective and creative recruiter, pulling key guys from states as disparate as California and Georgia and landing two critical fifth-year seniors and highly-touted transfers (Purvis and Larrier). Ollie’s players are committed to academics, excelling in the classroom during his tenure. The players on his teams genuinely seem to enjoy being around each other, leading to good locker room chemistry and a buy-in to the “UConn Brotherhood” mantra. Also, he won a national championship.
But…
UConn’s offense has been hard to watch the last few years. They averaged 73.1 points this year, shooting 45.4 percent from the field. They were 296th in the nation in KenPom’s adjusted tempo. They used an average of 18 seconds per offensive possession. If you’re going to be inefficient, at least do it quickly.
Given all that Ollie does well, it seems only fair that the responsibilities for the UConn offense be delegated to an assistant coach who can focus only on the offensive side of the ball. With Karl Hobbs off to Rutgers, Ollie has a great opportunity to bring in a helping hand. We discussed some possible candidates here. My personal preference is Oakland associate coach Saddi Washington.
In 1994, a young point guard named Kevin Ollie guided UConn’s offense to 84.9 points per game on 49.5 percent shooting. Let’s do that again.
Learn from the Draft experience
Daniel Hamilton, Amida Brimah and Rodney Purvis have already declared for the NBA Draft. It’s possible that Jalen Adams or others will join them. We’ve discussed in the past how the new NCAA timelines are beneficial for the players. They get to participate in NBA workouts, and possibly the NBA Combine, without losing their amateur status. They allow players to gain access to their college coaches for additional guidance.
This is a great opportunity to collect insight. If an NBA general manager is telling you to improve your jump shot, you should. If two dozen players are outperforming you at the Combine, it should be obvious what to focus on when returning to college. I expect all of the early-entrant Huskies to return to Storrs next season. Hopefully they can put their Draft experience to good use.
Put shots up
Three-point shooting looks to be a problem area for next year’s team. Rodney Purvis shot a respectable 38.5 percent on the year. Only two other returning players even ATTEMPTED a three-pointer this season, and neither shot particularly well.
Daniel Hamilton (33.1 percent) and Jalen Adams (27.3 percent) need to get those percentages up to increase the dynamism of the back court. Incoming freshman Vance Jackson should provide some shooting touch off the bench, and one or both of the remaining roster spots could be filled by a shooter, but Hamilton and Adams will need to shoot better to get the most of out their own abilities and the UConn offense.
Schedule real opponents
UConn ranked 71st in Sports-Reference’s strength-of-schedule this season, and 69th on KenPom. They were 35th in RPI. All of that could have been improved with modest scheduling improvements to upgrade the early parts of the schedule.
There’s nothing the Huskies can do (yet) to eliminate the dreggs of their conference schedule (USF, UCF, Tulane, ECU) but they can choose not to play garbage teams like Maine (334th, KenPom), Sacred Heart (292) and Central (351, literally the worst team in America). Smarter decisions when filling the schedule could pay big dividends at the end of the year.
The sample size is small, but from the Cincinnati loss on 2/20 on, Jalen shot 7 of 11 from 3. Prior to that, he was a woeful 5 for 33.
Just as with Rodney’s FT shooting improving from pitiful to pretty damned good following a turning point (in his case, the change seemed to occur over the exam break, but really started to bear fruit after the first of the year) the National Flag Blue lenses of my Husky glasses sees this as a turning point and a harbinger of good shit to come!
Not unreasonable. Purvis shot well from the stripe for the last 2+ months. And it’s not like Adams has a bad looking shot. He’s not Taliek. Three-point shooting is usually the last kink to work out for young guards at the college level.
Thanks for the well constructed overview. In the last 10-12 games the UConn offense looked best when they pushed tempo. The day after the OT AAC Tourney game the commentators all felt UConn would be at a disadvantage in terms of stamina in the second game. By the second half of that game UConn was clearly the team with the physical edge. The Huskies were able to rebound effectively against a tired opponent. UConn should continue to emphasize conditioning. It is an asset use it.
Good insights and analysis. Will be interesting to watch things unfold.