STORRS – Coming into this UConn men’s basketball season, offense and 3-point shooting wasn’t supposed to be a concern.
Not with Alex Karaban and Solo Ball, who’ve both had seasons shooting over 40% from beyond the arc, coming back. Silas Demary Jr. shot 37.4% from 3 last year at Georgia, Malachi Smith shot 38.4% at Dayton, and Braylon Mullins was touted as one of the best shooters in his high school class coming in. Not to mention Jaylin Stewart, who was over 36% last season, and Jayden Ross, who hadn’t had many opportunities in games, but had proven he was a capable marksman in the practice gym.
Yet the Huskies enter March Madness, albeit as a No. 2 seed, as the 105th-best 3-point shooting team in the country. They are No. 30 in offensive efficiency on KenPom – worst since the 2019-20 campaign – with their 16.8% turnover rate (No. 189) also being a contributing factor.
Both issues have made coach Dan Hurley put his head in his hands.
In its two biggest games this year, UConn went 3-for-24 (12.5%) with a share of the Big East regular season title on the line at Marquette, and 3-for-19 (15.8%) in Saturday’s championship game of the Big East Tournament.
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And most of the looks have been relatively clean.
“Am I concerned that guys are pressing on the perimeter right now that are getting really good looks at 3s? And the ball security? Those are the things that are very worrisome,” Hurley said Saturday night outside the team’s locker room at Madison Square Garden. “If we can’t take care of the ball and we can’t make shots, then obviously we’ve got problems. But I think they’re fixable things. And then sometimes it’s matchups.”
How can the shooting be fixed?
“That’s something you can’t watch. You try to avoid showing the players their misses. We had the possession (against St. John’s) where you get two open 3s and two layups down 10, you’re not going to replay that,” Hurley said Sunday. “You’re just going to try to make sure these guys are getting enough shots, making sure they get enough practice reps, but enough rest. And you have enough conversations with these guys, let them know that you believe they’re about to light it up, that they’re about to have a big March.”
Hurley wants more player-to-player accountability
It was also the case last year when the Huskies were struggling that Hurley said he’d love to see players hold each other accountable more often. He’d love to see some fire and passion in the locker room, potentially even a fight between teammates.
But Cam Spencer isn’t walking through the door.
“I don’t know if young people lead each other that way anymore,” Hurley said. “I asked them this a couple weeks ago, ‘How many players meetings have you had this year without coaches around?’ And I think it was at zero. This might’ve been coming out of the Creighton loss, or maybe it was the Marquette loss. Just, I don’t think it’s something that these guys are necessarily comfortable with. I would love that. I’d love a fight, I’d love to see these guys so mad at each other, so frustrated with each other, but I don’t know if it’s like that anymore.”
Karaban, still growing as a vocal leader, said there was a conversation amongst the team after Saturday’s loss.
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“We have to (hold each other accountable), we have no other choice. We lose, our season’s over. So you might as well say everything that’s on your chest and really get every point across that you want,” he said. “Throughout moments of the season we definitely could have done a better job of that, but I think right now we’ve really found that turning page and have started doing that a lot more with each other.”
UConn drops to No. 7 in last AP Poll before the madness
UConn slid just one spot in Monday’s AP Poll to No. 7 after its run to the Big East Tournament title game, where it was punished by St. John’s. The top five remained the same with Duke at No. 1, followed by Arizona, Michigan, Florida and Houston. Iowa State jumped the Huskies to No. 6 and Purdue moved up 10 spots to No. 8, followed by Virginia.
St. John’s, winning dual championships in the Big East for the second year in a row, moved up to No. 10.
