This week in New York City, we witnessed the best- and worst-case scenarios for this year’s UConn team. On Thursday, the Huskies outplayed, out-coached and outworked Syracuse en route to a signature win. On Friday, they collapsed at the feet of an Iowa team that was picked to finish near the bottom of the Big Ten.
While the two performances could not have been more different, there are plenty of things we learned about this UConn team and what it will take for them to achieve some level of success this season.
It’s All About the Defense, Stupid
Against Syracuse, UConn’s defense was phenomenal. The Orange shot only 39 percent from the floor — missing approximately 430 three-pointers — and got absolutely owned by UConn on the glass as the Huskies grabbed over 60 percent of available rebounds.
The result of all those missed shots and rebounds was a plethora of transition opportunities for the Huskies, who are infinitely more willing to get out and run this year. All that speed kept Syracuse from setting up their dumb but problematic zone defense and UConn was able to take advantage by getting rhythm shots outside of its halfcourt sets, which have been… not great.
Against Iowa, the defense was horrific (probably in part because of all the energy exuded on that end of the court the night before). The Huskies couldn’t get into their transition game and couldn’t keep Iowa from scoring each time it looked like momentum was starting to shift.
The takeaway here is that UConn can’t take any nights off on the defensive end. The team is incapable of scoring enough points against a good team to make up for a poor defensive performance. The newfound transition offense has proven to be an effective weapon early this season, but that’s only usable if UConn is forcing turnovers or missed shots and rebounding well. If the Huskies are going to cobble together a 20-win season and make a run at a tournament berth, they’re going to have to do it by relying on their defense and winning some games against good teams (and AAC opponents) with scores in the 50s when their shots aren’t falling.
Jalen Adams Needs to be a Superstar
This is probably an unfair thing to say but Jalen Adams needs to be really goddamn awesome every game against good teams. He played well (but not great) against Syracuse — good enough to win because of the insane team shooting performance. But he no-showed the first half against Iowa and by the time he showed up, the game was long over.
Unlike last year, there seems to be enough talent on the roster to steal a few games against mid-tier AAC teams even if Adams is ineffective, but any hopes of the team reaching its ceiling (let’s call it a top-3 finish in the conference) depend on Adams setting the world on fire and emerging as the best player in the league.
It’s too early to draw any conclusions about the type of season Adams will have — or in which ways he’s improved over the offseason — but it’s already obvious that UConn’s hopes for success this season rest squarely on his shoulders.
University of Cobbeticut
Is Eric Cobb good? His performance in New York was both eyeopening and critical, as Josh Carlton struggled in both games. If Cobb is for real, UConn’s lineup just got a lot deeper. A lack of consistent frontcourt play has haunted recent Husky teams and I don’t think anyone predicted much of a contribution from the group coming into this year. Some of us even predicted guard Christian Vital to lead the team in rebounding… again.
The emergence of Cobb (who should absolutely start at center until the magic wears off) could be a gigantic pleasant surprise for Dan Hurley and his team, opening up more opportunities for the guards and keeping opposing defenses honest. Or it could be a flash in the pan, in which case the Huskies are back where they started to open the season. Let’s hope for option one.
Cut Out the Turnovers
Turnovers are going to come with playing fast. That’s a tradeoff Hurley is surely cool with. But after 19 turnovers against Syracuse and 16 in a low-tempo affair against Iowa, the Huskies might have a turnover problem. Some of that is aberrational — if Kassoum Yakwe is turning the ball over four times per game, it’s probably time to make some changes — but the trio of Adams, Alterique Gilbert and Vital need to get better at taking care of the ball. Especially Vital, who is on pace for the most turnovers by a UConn player since Jerome Dyson in 2010.
Among major conference schools (plus UConn), the Huskies have the fourth-most turnovers through four games (Iowa has more). UConn just plain doesn’t score or rebound well enough to give away so many possessions. The guards will have to take better care of the ball going forward.
Can They Shoot or Nah?
It’s hard to believe the same team that shot 12-21 from three against Syracuse went 4-18 (missing its first 12 attempts) 24 hours later against Iowa. So which is the real UConn? Probably somewhere just south of in the middle. Vital should bump his 33.3 percent up and Gilbert’s 45.5 percent should come down a fair amount. Adams’ current 40 percent might be sustainable (please?). Adding the transition element to the offense will hide some of UConn’s shooting struggles but it will continue to face zone defenses in the half court until the guards (and Tyler Polley) prove they can make shots.
We’ll evaluate Cobb’s three-point shooting on a game-by-game basis.
Energy & Effort
While all of the above bullets come with some level of uncertainty, the one thing that seems guaranteed after four games is that Hurley’s team will play hard. Even in the blowout loss to Iowa where they looked completely out of gas, they competed hard and went on a late run where UConn teams of the last few seasons would’ve rolled over and died. There are going to be some bad losses this year. That’s just the reality of where the talent level is right now. But for the first time in a while, UConn fans can feel good that the team will take the court with a level of preparedness, competitiveness and consciousness missing the last two seasons. That can’t completely make up for bad rebounding or bad shooting but it can cover up a lot of mistakes and, at the very least, give viewers a reason to keep tuning in to see how fast Hurley can return the program to relevance.
