The UConn Huskies are undefeated. But at the heart of it, there are flaws that call for fixes.

The Huskies had an 83-69 victory over the Villanova Wildcats on February 19. But Guard Azzi Fudd pointed out one flaw.

At the postgame conference, Fudd was asked, “What's an aspect do you want to see UConn to improve on looking into March Madness?” The 23-year-old gave a short answer, which carried serious weight.

“Our half-court offense”, Fudd answered with a serious face. A face that makes you want to take a look at the stats. A 14-point win, where Fudd herself scored 25 points, 3 rebounds, and 4 assists. Sarah Strong grabbed 21 points and 12 rebounds while Ashlyn Shade added 13 points and 6 rebounds.

But there is the issue. Despite having a high FG (52.9) and 2-P percentage, the Huskies struggled against the Wildcats in half-court sets during the first half.

They started leading in the third quarter, after so many weak passes and 12 turnovers. With Fudd’s being 8.

UConn managed its game from the second half. But Villanova had Huskies under defensive pressure, breaking Geno Auriemma’s squad’s rhythm. And the coach previously spoke on this matter as well.

Geno Auriemma on Uconn’s Play Ahead of the March Madness

While the defense remains solid thanks to Strong’s two-way play, the HC needs intensity on the other end. After their last game against Marquette on February 15, the 42-29 outrebounding made Auriemma criticise his players’ mindset.

“We need to have a different level of intensity on the defensive end, and more pace on offense”, he said. “We’re under the impression that every shot we take is going to go in. Every shot we take, everybody just runs back on defense like ‘that’s going in,’ and that’s not the way you need to play.”

And that has to do with the team’s offensive rebounding, too. Against Villanova, Fudd, Shade and Strong all managed just 3 OREB combined. The Huskies rank 230th out of 363 teams in the country, managing only 1.0 OREB per game. And Auriemma knows that is no way to go about it.

While the team has been managing comfortable wins, there are times when Auriemma spots the lack of effort. With Bueckers long gone, the Huskies showed a lack of offensive aggression from time to time. And heading to the March Madness, this might cost even the no.1 team heavily.

Read more at She Got Game!

Written by

Deblina Roy

Edited by

Oajaswini Prabhu