Months before bringing home national title No. 5 last season, the UConn men’s basketball team had an eight-game stretch in the regular season where they went 2-6 and did not win a single contest outside of the Nutmeg State. Five out of those six losses came in the month of January (the other came on Dec. 31, 2022); half of them were against unranked opponents.
After starting the 2022-23 campaign 14-0 with 13 double-digit wins and a Phil Knight Invitational Championship, the Huskies suddenly slowed down and got outplayed in several facets of their game. UConn’s opponents went from having two contests where they shot better than exactly 43% from the field to four in an eight-game window, all of which involved the opposition converting over half of their attempts.
By the end of the month, fans questioned if head coach Dan Hurley was the right hire and believed they would miss the NCAA Tournament altogether. Yet the Huskies turned their season around. Across their final 17 games, regular season and postseason, Connecticut was outshot just three times and outrebounded every opponent by at least six.
So, with a January slate that includes road trips to the hostile Wells Fargo Center and Cintas Center, how do the Huskies overcome the rut they experienced during the first month of the calendar year last season?
Every team experiences ups and downs throughout the college basketball season, but for the Huskies to grab one of the top seeds in March Madness, they will need to play almost perfect basketball in January. Looking at the current roster, which features a top five recruiting class, UConn has the pieces in place to make it through the first month of 2024 without experiencing significant turbulence for one key reason.
The Big East has historically been a physical conference since its inception in 1979. From the days of Basketball Hall of Famers Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullin duking it out to the time the conference had 16 teams, Big East basketball has required aggression day in and day out. That vicious style of play can lead to several fouls being called throughout the game, and when that happens, the teams with the strongest depth are the ones who start breaking away from the pack.
Donovan Clingan rotated at the five with Adama Sanogo last season, but with the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player now playing in the Chicago Bulls organization, junior Samson Johnson has become the No. 2 center on the depth chart. Johnson has stepped up significantly, throwing down the hammer often while flying across the court with the speed that made him a Top 100 recruit in the Class of 2021. Both Hassan Diarra and Solomon Ball serve as the first guards off the bench (when Top 10 recruit Stephon Castle is healthy) and bring a style of play that might cause opposing head coaches to quickly adjust their rotation.
Cam Spencer is Jordan Hawkins and Joey Calcaterra combined into one person, continuing a trend of strong additions from the transfer portal. A graduate student who previously played at Loyola Maryland and Rutgers, Spencer can be a leading scorer that no one can prepare for because of how lethal he is from beyond the arc at a 42% clip. While that compares to Hawkins in several ways, the graduate guard’s experience and spirited passion for the game make him nearly a clone copy of Calcaterra.
The Huskies as a team need to continue shooting the ball efficiently, something that they struggled with during their January rut. Through their first nine games this season, Connecticut has made 50.4% of their shots from the field with 8.4 triples per game. While they lead the conference in scoring offense, letting the ball fly will go a long way against teams that post a field goal defense under 40%, such as the Providence Friars and Xavier Musketeers.
Secondly, the team needs to improve their free-throw shooting. I understand the impact a hostile crowd can have at the charity stripe — see Friday’s loss at Kansas as an example — but the key to improving the team’s 72.3% free throw rate requires remaining calm amidst the noise. It is hard to imagine this not being a point of emphasis for Hurley in practice going forward.
Above all else, defense wins championships. The Huskies do a remarkable job of swatting shots and grabbing defensive rebounds (both top two in the conference). With Clingan not yet back at full strength, Johnson has picked up some of the slack and been a disruptor against other bigs such as UNC’s Armando Bacot. Getting to where Hurley wants the team to be when March rolls around, however, requires protecting the area beyond the arc.
Opponents are shooting 36.9% from downtown versus UConn this season, and only the Rick Pitino-led St. John’s Red Storm have allowed teams to shoot better from those spots on the court. Perhaps this is luck. A nine-game sample size leaves ample room for error, but it is an important issue to address whether it is a blip or not.
College basketball teams consistently find a way to improve, even if it occurs months after winning a national title. What I have suggested is not meant to knock the Huskies down in any regard but to serve as a way of highlighting some critical areas that other Big East foes could capitalize on if they are not addressed. Connecticut has the pieces to win consecutive national titles. Their double-digit win over the No. 9 North Carolina Tar Heels at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday further proved that.
I cannot predict that the Huskies will go undefeated in January, let alone conference play, given the chaos the Big East Conference consistently brings. That being said, if the team meets all of these requirements and continues playing at a high level, UConn will not struggle in January like they did last season.