The Huskies might be an even better scoring team than they were last year.
Two months into the 2024-25 season, and UConn men’s basketball has already lost three straight, endured a host of injuries, and set off the national media’s hot-take machine with faux outrage over their coach’s behavior.
Through it all, their offense and its deadly efficiency seem to have gone overlooked.
Don’t expect that to last. During the Huskies’ 81-68 win at DePaul on New Year’s Day, CBS Sports’ Steve Lappas went as far as to say UConn’s half-court offense is the best in the country.
It’s hard to argue against him. Through 14 games, UConn is scoring 83.7 points over 69.1 possessions per game. That helps them rank second in the country in offensive efficiency, per KenPom, with an adjusted offensive efficiency rating of 124.8.
For context, last year’s National Champion UConn team led the nation in that category with a rating of 127.5.
While this team has clear deficiencies compared to last year’s, like a superstar 6’5 “point guard or one of the best big men in the game, the 2024-25 Huskies have gone from a work in progress to deadly on offense.
They rank 12th in college basketball in two-point percentage (59.6%), which is actually better than they shot last year. They’re also shooting 36.9% from three and 78.5% from the line, also both improvements from last season.
It’s been a process to get there. When the season began, even in the four buy games that UConn won in dominant fashion before Maui, it was clear that Hurley and his staff pared the playbook down from last year. The Huskies’ 2023-24 offense was intricate and entrancing, with constant movement from all five players and option after option that kept defenses scrambling.
We haven’t seen that yet this year, but we’re getting there. Hassan Diarra is running the offense and has the innate ability to know where every one of his teammates needs to be in a given moment.
“Him going into that lineup and really being a quarterback out there, I think is what the group needs,” head coach Dan Hurley said.
Hurley added that Diarra is helped by the knowledge that he has so much three-point firepower on the wings. Solo Ball is shooting 45% from three, fresh off his 7-9 performance at DePaul, and Alex Karaban is shooting 43%.
“He’s an incredible connective piece that solves so many problems and makes the people around him better,” Hurley said of Karaban after the Huskies’ Big East-opening win over Xavier. “And he’s such an excellent offensive player, passer, defender, communicator. He’s a winner. He’s tough.”
Liam McNeeley, meanwhile, is the one who can create offense for himself. His shot has been inconsistent, but he can get to the rim and is shooting 85% from the stripe.
While Samson Johnson is far less reliable offensively than his frontcourt partner, Tarris Reed Jr., his chemistry with Diarra is invaluable, as the two have set the tone in countless games with early lobs and easy buckets. As for Reed off the bench, he is beginning to show a certain polish in the post that fans may have been unaware of before he got to Storrs.
And while Hurley has begun figuring out his rotations over the past month or so, the offense has slowly rounded into form. It might not ever become the dizzying masterpiece it was a year ago, but at least Hurley knows which players to put his faith into now. Compared to the start of the season, there’s less standing around, less one-on-one and less reliance on players to pull a shot out of thin air when they’re not good enough to do so.
The offense looks like a championship team’s offense. Of course, to three-peat, the Huskies will need to be great on both sides of the ball.
“Right now, we’re a national championship contender and a Big East championship contender offensively,” Hurley said before the Huskies faced DePaul. “Defensively, we’re not contenders. We’re defending like pretenders.”