The UConn men’s basketball team was starving for perimeter defense at this time last year.
The Huskies were 350th of 364 Division I teams in guarding the 3-point line and hovering around No. 100 in overall defensive efficiency after the calendar turned to 2025. Now, Dan Hurley and his staff are seeing their offseason work pay off. And it starts in the backcourt, where they brought in Silas Demary Jr. to fix problems at point guard and developed Solo Ball into an all-around playmaker who’s made significant strides on the defensive end.
Through 15 games, UConn is No. 3 nationally in opponent 3-point percentage (25.5%) and No. 2 in overall defensive efficiency, according to KenPom.
As evidenced by the performance in Sunday’s 73-57 win over Marquette, when Alex Karaban and Braylon Mullins combined to shoot just 5-for-21 from the field and the team only made 5 of 24 from beyond the arc, the Huskies are capable of winning games with their defense – a foreign concept a year ago.
“Last year was kind of a head case,” Ball said. “I feel like that was our Achilles heel as a team and I feel like it affected us all, because of my defense and because of just the team defense, it just wasn’t there. That was a big emphasis going into this year and we work on defense tirelessly every single day in practice, so you’ve just got to trust your preparation.”
“He’s surrounded by better defensive players and he’s raised his level,” Hurley said of Ball, who had a block and a steal while recording a season-high eight rebounds against the Golden Eagles.
Demary is rated as the second-best defensive player in the Big East so far, according to EvanMiya.com metrics, behind only UConn center Tarris Reed Jr. The Huskies have three of the five best defenders in the league, according to those metrics, with Alex Karaban also making a sizeable leap on that end.
Hurley will be the first to say it all starts at the point of attack with Demary, their top target in the transfer portal who’s ball-hawking ability came into play early on Sunday as he forced a number of Marquette turnovers and capitalized with an aggressive offensive approach. The former Georgia guard is still learning where to find his shots in the Huskies’ offense, but he was confident with his 3-point stroke and scored nine points on three shots in the first half until he got a bit too handsy.
“He’s addicted to foul trouble, Silas. And he likes it. It’s sick. I don’t know why he likes it, but he likes it. It’s a strange thing to like,” Hurley said, half-joking.
Demary sat the final four minutes of the first half after picking up his second foul and was whistled for his fourth with 9:27 left to play in the second, finishing the game having only played 21 minutes. He has only reached the 30-minute mark three times this season.
“Sometimes like, you’re one-on-one in transition, just make the guy make a hard layup, wall-up at the rim. I think sometimes he allows the ball to get too deep against him, but he is a ball hawk,” Hurley said. “But we need him to play 30-plus minutes. He can’t do that to himself.”
“I think I’ve just got to be smarter,” Demary said. “I feel like I’m a tough defender and at times it’s gonna happen that somebody’s going to get by me and I think I’ve just got to live with the result of, sometimes people are gonna score on me… I’m a bigger guard and a lot of the times I get in trouble with smaller guards, they get up underneath me so I’ve kinda just got to be smart and not swipe down and just make them finish over my length.”
Shaka Smart’s assessment of the Huskies so far
Marquette coach Shaka Smart, who has built up a high level of mutual respect with Hurley, provided his thoughts on this version of the UConn men’s basketball team after Sunday’s game.
“Still evolving,” he said. “I really like the pieces that they have. I like the role definition that they have. I love Mullins. I think getting (Jayden) Ross back is a big key for them because he just gives them a really, really strong, solid, plus defender coming off the bench. But yeah, I think they’ve got a chance to have a heck of a season, obviously they’re off to a great start. And the way that they play offensively is as hard to deal with as anybody.”
