UConn’s struggles on offense have been well-documented this season — at least on this particular website — but its defense has been phenomenal. The Huskies currently rank ninth on the advanced statistics site KenPom.com in adjusted defensive efficiency and are holding opponents to 37.7 percent shooting, the third lowest mark in the nation.
A quick glance at the box scores and you get the general idea; only six teams have topped 70 points against the Huskies.
There are a couple of things that are notable about the Huskies’ defensive success. The most obvious of which is that they managed to do so without the reigning AAC Defensive Player of the Year for over a month. With Amida Brimah sidelined with a finger injury, UConn actually improved on the defensive end. The other interesting part of the Huskies’ success is that to watch them, there is no one standout defender on the roster. Typically, a team with UConn’s defensive reputation will feature at least one player known for their lock-down powers. Think Shabazz Napier in 2011, Ryan Boatright in 2014, or the gold-standard, Ricky Moore in 1999. Instead, this year’s team features a bunch of quality defenders that seem to play very well as a group.
“We just play for each other, that’s the main thing,” forward Daniel Hamilton said. “We help each other out if somebody gets beat on the dribble, we recover from it.”
Hamilton is statistically the team’s best defender, buoyed by some incredible defensive rebounding numbers. He has secured over 28 percent of all available defensive rebounds when he is on the court in conference play. Hamilton ranks sixth in the nation in defensive win shares (essentially what it sounds like: the amount of wins attributable to Hamilton’s defense versus a replacement-level player).
The guards surrounding Hamilton have also been exceedingly productive. Rodney Purvis has emerged as the best on-ball defender on the team, and Sterling Gibbs and Jalen Adams have been adept at switching off screens and denying opponents unobstructed paths to the rim. Omar Calhoun has also proven himself a tough and capable defender off the bench.
To a man, the players credit coach Kevin Ollie for their defensive focus.
“The start of the season, that’s all we worked on in practice. Defense, defense, defense. We used to get tired of it but now we’re one of the top teams in the country defensively,” Adams said. “It’s paying off for us. We’re letting our defense create our offense and we just know everyday going into the game that we’re going to shut the other team down.”
The one knock on the Huskies’ defense is their proclivity to foul. Shonn Miller is averaging three fouls per game. UConn’s other three front court regulars, Brimah, Phil Nolan and Kentan Facey are all over two. Yet opponents are making just 64.9 percent of their free throw attempts. That seems like tempting fate, especially as the team readies for tournament season and much better opponents.
“We want to get a stop every time on defense,” Miller said. “We just want to be tough.”
The Huskies still have a lot of room for improvement on the other end of the court. The corresponding metric that declares them a top-10 defensive team places their offense 80th in the country. They have struggled against zone defense and lack a general level of consistency from their best players. That will need to change. Yet by now it’s clear: UConn’s best chance at postseason success rests on their championship-caliber defense.
