Bench depth, turnovers plague UConn in loss to St. John’s

UConn men’s basketball saw its 18-game win streak snapped at the hands of Rick Pitino and St. John’s on Friday night, as the Huskies struggled against the Red Storm’s defensive pressure in an 81-72 loss. While one loss in February isn’t going to torpedo UConn’s season, it did point out some key areas the Huskies can improve on as they prepare for March.

Bench Scoring

The starters had a lot on their plate Friday, as the Red Storm swarmed their way into UConn’s playbook. Hurley understandably tends to shorten his leash when things are getting hectic like that. But it risks overloading a starting unit that may be analytically elite, but shouldn’t have to play at that frenetic pace for 35+ minutes. 

So how does UConn proceed moving forward? Let’s look at the bench.

Malachi Smith is a more-than capable backup point guard that becomes a little overmatched when facing elite athletes. Jayden Ross is your prototypical 3-and-D guy. Jaylin Stewart can do a little bit of everything. Reibe has been a revelation but you can’t run a second-unit offense around him yet.

Overall, to go nine deep is a luxury reserved for the bluest of bloods; all four of those guys would start on most high major teams.

However, the one missing link is scoring prowess, a microwave guy that can create his own shot. Usually, UConn has enough offensive firepower that such a luxury isn’t needed. But against St. John’s pressure, it stuck out like a sore thumb; they sorely needed a guy who could deprogram the playbook and just go get a bucket. It couldn’t be Silas every single time down. 

Stewey has shown glimpses of being that fill-it-up scorer, but he’s also being asked to do every other little thing that if you start giving him some sets, you miss his nose for the ball and connectivity.

If the staff can tinker with the rotation and find a way to get more scoring out of the bench, the rest of its elite attributes would shine through. Maybe that’s redistributing sets so Ball, Mullins, and Karaban aren’t overlapping the same looks. There’s a solution in there somewhere; the 2023 and 2024 teams didn’t have a microwave guy, they just staggered their starters so there was always a playmaker around.

Are turnovers UConn’s kryptonite?

Silas Demary Jr did everything he could Friday to keep UConn in the game. No other guard was beating the Pitino ball pressure, attacking the paint effectively and consistently. Yet those nine turnovers, which were the most by one player of the team’s 15, weigh like a scarlet letter.

If you go back and watch them, a chunk were Silas sped up trying to handle the ball pressure. But they were also UConn’s shooters not getting open effectively. Some of that can be pinned on the officials, but its also on the general lack of physicality UConn sometimes plays with on offense.

Physicality is a two-way street. The Huskies are fine on the defensive end, but their beautiful sets predicated on movement get bogged down when teams push the physicality threshold to the max.

St. John’s scoring 20 points off 15 turnovers is the same metric Seton Hall managed earlier this year. The difference was the Johnnies hit their threes. The good news is there aren’t many teams equipped to score off turnovers like St. John’s. UConn’s set defense held the Red Storm in check, its in transition where the Johnnies thrived.

UConn could see two teams that can replicate what St. Johns and Seton Hall do March — Houston and Iowa State. Per the tweet above, that’s the one style UConn would want to avoid in March. And if they get matched up with it, look for the coaching staff to scheme up ways that gets shooters open more effectively.

Fell For It Again Award

This is the Slick Rick Special. He has always had an incredibly talented team, per the preseason accolades. This was supposed to be a series UConn would be happy to split. The disappointment about Friday stems from thinking St. John’s is a fringe top 25 team, when in reality they are top 15, maybe 10. 

But then the Johnnies stumbled a little in November and didn’t get off the bus for a few games. Everyone wrings their hands: ‘what’s wrong with St. Johns?!,’ the pundits muse. Pitino fans the flames with comments about point guards or other thinly-veiled criticisms that suggest ‘Red Storm in disarray.’

It’s all part of the plan. Pitinos teams always figure it out, they’re never as bad as anyone says, and the aw shucks attitude from their head coach during the rough stretch is the classic under-promise, over-deliver tactic. 

The man is a master tactician and tinkerer. It was very clear from the jump that Dillon Mitchell was the straw that stirs the drink in their top lineups. The early-season lineup shuffling was probably done to find what else worked, trying to see what else he can get out of his already stacked roster. Rick knows that a little experimentation in December or January will pay off in February and March. The problem is the rockiness it initially creates gets gobbled up by the media, who Rick has eating out of the palm of his hand.

Then when his teams figure it out, it’s all “whoa, look at St. Johns!” 

Rick Pitino’s big-ball lineup (with Mitchell, Bryce Hopkins and Zuby Ejiofor) is outscoring opponents by 27.8 points per 100 possessions during this winning streak by dominating the offensive glass, getting back 42 percent of its misses, and winning the turnover battle, a 9.8 turnover rate while forcing opponents over on 20.2 percent of their possessions, per CBB Analytics.

All of this is to say that a road loss to a Top 15 team that plays a style that appears to be UConn’s kryptonite is not the end of the world. Keep monitoring those Indy flights.