Ryan Boatright: A Man on an Island

Make no mistake: Ryan Boatright doesn’t have enough help. If that sentence looks familiar, it’s because Peter used it three days ago in summarizing UConn’s embarrassing loss to Cincinnati. Unsatisfied with their own ineptitude, the Huskies doubled-down on the terrible by losing to Houston on Sunday, 70-68.

The play of Boatright was the lone silver lining for UConn. Their captain scored a career-high 31 points, single-handedly keeping the Huskies from being run out of the gym by a Houston team that hadn’t beaten a conference opponent all season. Throughout the season, Boatright has been a man on an island. No one has been able to step up and provide assistance in sharing the scoring load, or in running the offense. On Sunday, the duo of Omar Calhoun and Rodney Purvis combined for only five points on 2-11 shooting. Daniel Hamilton had another poor shooting night (3-12) and scored only seven points — though he did secure a team-high 14 rebounds and did not commit a turnover.

Boatright’s main help on offense has come from Amida Brimah, who had 11 points (right around his season average) and nine rebounds on Sunday. While Boatright’s impressive output this season is most likely a product of greater opportunity with Shabazz Napier now in the NBA, Brimah has shown a demonstrable improvement over last season in skill — especially in his ability to stay on the floor and out of foul trouble (though he did foul out on a bullshit call against Houston).

While Brimah improved over the offseason, it’s disconcerting that no one on UConn’s roster has improved since the 2014-2015 season began. In fact, in many areas, they appear to have regressed.

As a team, the Huskies are incredibly poor shooters. This isn’t news. But at a certain point — and we’ll pick right now — you have to question why they have not been able to achieve even a modicum of improvement. Calhoun’s return from injury gave the Huskies an immediate boost, but he has now fallen into a slump and is shooting 17.6 percent (1-8 from three) over the last three games.

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Their team defense is also regressing. They allowed 70 points in consecutive games for the first time this season, and they appear lost in basic man-to-man sets, resulting in many open looks for opponents. Houston shot only 36.9 percent on Sunday, mostly because they are bad.

UConn’s main deficiency this season is that they can’t help Boatright. Purvis and Terrence Samuel have struggled mightily with ball-handling, forcing Boatright to play with the ball in his hands almost exclusively. Opposing defenses have caught on to this, pressuring Boatright far from the basket, well aware that his teammates struggle to create shots.

After Sunday’s loss, Boatright told the Hartford Courant “I feel how Shabazz (Napier) felt last year in some games. I can honestly see what he was going through sometimes.”

It’s a noteworthy quote in that it’s the first Boatright has acknowledged the ineffectiveness of his supporting cast, but is still a rosier outlook than reality — mainly because Napier had Boatright.

Last season, Napier’s teammates provided 53.8 points per game, compared to 47.9 this season. Some more comparisons:

2013-14: 45.7 FG% | 73.9 FT% | 53.8 PPG | 8.6 TOG* | 7.3 APG

2014-15: 45.4 FG% | 62.3 FT% | 47.9 PPG | 10.2 TOG | 7.7 APG

*turnovers per game

The Huskies will return to Gampel on Wednesday night to take on ECU — who is apparently in UConn’s conference. The Pirates are terrible, but did beat Cincinnati on Sunday, so buckle up. Tip is 7 p.m. and the game can be seen on ESPNU.