How UConn built the “most complex” — and most efficient — offense in college basketball

GLENDALE, Ariz. — In the summer of 2022, Connecticut coach Dan Hurley decided he would adopt a new offensive system and a new way of teaching set plays. Hurley chose to take a football approach. He came up with a glossary of terms for different alliances and actions.

He gives a make-up example: “14 degree jet zoom twin.”

Number 14 is for alignment — a low of one to four — and then the Huskies stack the actions on top of each other. In this case, plane, then zoom, then step, then twin.

“It's like learning a language,” Hurley says.

The new offense, featuring more intensity and off-ball movement, led the Huskies to a national title in 2023. Then last summer, Hurley basically tore up UConn's dictionary and came up with a new glossary of terms.

“We do it out of paranoia,” says assistant coach Luke Murray, who serves as the program's offensive coordinator.

Maybe it's not necessary, because UConn's choreographed combinations really leave opponents' heads spinning. Defending UConn is like trying to multitask inside a classroom full of screaming kids. Example from Saturday's semifinal against Alabama:

The play begins when Cam Spencer, UConn's best shooter, catches the ball and passes it to the wing, then gets a chin screen set for him by Donovan Clingan and drives toward the basket. Then he turns around and sets a back screen for Alex Karaban. This is where the confusion begins for Alabama's defense. Alabama's Aaron Estrada and Rylan Griffin nearly converted.

Grant Nelson, defending Clingan, stands in the middle of the lane, dangles from Clingan and tries to play air traffic controller. He turns his head right and left, watching what is happening behind him. With both Alabama guards confused on the switch, Spencer turns to his right and sets up the first of two stepped screens intended for Tristan Newton. Newton rejects the screen and cuts to the basket. This actually gives Griffen the opportunity to get back into position, but then comes another screen from Clingan. And Griffin is toast. Spencer creases and gets to the free throw line. Ideally, Nelson would provide assistance, but he was stuck in his control position in the paint and was afraid to completely abandon Clingan as he rolled to the rim.

It takes three or four viewings to figure out exactly what's going on. Now imagine trying to defend all of that in real time.

“I've studied the best offenses in the country in depth over the past five years, and UConn's combination of off-the-ball screening, ball movement within their sets and the number of sets they run makes it the most complex offense I've seen in that time,” says Jordan Sperber, video coordinator. The former New Mexico State standout who became college basketball's X's-and-O czar, and documents it all in his weekly Hoops Vision newsletter. Sperber made a UConn offense video last month called “Why This Offense Is Basketball Poetry.”

“Their half-court offense is great,” says Xavier coach Sean Miller.

Last week, Philadelphia 76ers wing Nicolas Batum tweeted that he's not familiar with watching college basketball, but “the way UConn plays is the way basketball should be taught and played. Especially at this age.”

Bob Hurley Sr., Dan's father and a coaching legend himself, says all his coaching buddies back east are raving to him about how fun this team is to watch.

Dan Hurley has long had a reputation for coaching strong teams that play hard. But an attack world? His defenses were usually always better than his attacks. Hurley did not have a top-50 offense until his 11th season as a college coach. Last season, when the Huskies finished third, it was Hurley's first time with a top-20 offense. This year's Huskies enter Monday night's national championship game against Purdue as the most efficient offense in college basketball. Looks like he's about to strain.

How did this happen?

When Hurley took over Connecticut in 2018, the Huskies were in the American Athletic Conference. The best teams in the league were Houston and Wichita State. Those teams had big, physical front lines, so Hurley tried to keep up. At Rhode Island, Hurley played a lot of four-and-one games with a heavy dose of ball attack. He carried the ball-screen idea to UConn, but now he has two jobs on the floor. Spacing was an issue.

Hurley wanted a more modern approach with four perimeter players, and brought in Murray to help him offensively. Murray was with Hurley in his first season as Wagner's varsity coach in 2010-11. Hurley tried to make up for the talent gap that season by milking the shot clock. If you study all of his teams, Wagner's first team is probably the most popular of his last two teams at UConn. The strength of that roster was shooting, and Hurley did a lot of fluid movement to free up shooters. Wagner finished 18th that season in assist rate. Hurley wouldn't have another team finish in the top 100 in assist rate until last year's team finished eighth. (This year's team is fifth.)

Murray rejoined Hurley in April 2021, but they couldn't put the plan together right away because Hurley felt loyal to senior forward Isaiah Whaley. Also, point guard RJ Cole operated better off ball screens, so UConn played a traditional two-big lineup and relied on the pick-and-roll.

But in the summer of 2022, the plan was put into action. The Huskies had an elite shooter in Jordan Hawkins, who was perfect as a shooter as they could escape screens and use his gravity to get others open. They then also had a perfect fourth in Karapan, a freshman who graduated early and appeared in the semester break during the 2021-22 season.

“It was really clear that we were going to move to an identity that was much more than just an off-ball identity,” Murray says.

Hurley and Murray studied European teams, stealing different concepts and packages they could use.

“It's not necessarily an exact copy,” Murray says. “It's just putting together what makes the most sense for the group we have.”

The goal is to put pressure on the defence, and stack multiple actions that create hesitation in the defence. Most plays are choreographed. While the Huskies sometimes look plaid, their attack reads like a choose-your-own-adventure story.

“If you make the decision to reject the screen, that will now set off a chain of events with two or three other off-ball scenarios,” Murray explains. “That's something we work hard on, because a lot of times good defensive teams can do a good job of getting teams out of set pieces. But I think the randomness of the way we cut, the randomness of the way we screen, the versatility of our guys as passers and movers and screeners and shooters, Makes it really difficult.

Murray says the Huskies take great pride in their defense, which ranks fourth nationally, but he estimates practices are split 65-35 between offense and defense.

“You can have the greatest concepts in the world, but guys have to be able to execute them intelligently, with a knack for timing and spacing, and really have a great understanding of how to defend them,” Murray says. “That's one of the things we try to focus on a lot in preparing for the game. Most of the scouting is based on what the other team is doing. For us, we talk a lot about how the other team is guarding us.”

Because the Huskies set a large number of off-ball screens, a lot of teams switch frequently. Early in the season this switch created some issues for UConn. While injuries played a role in UConn's loss at Kansas, KU's shuffling defense also frustrated the Huskies in their first loss of the season.

They spent a lot of practice time early reiterating what to do against these keys. When Clingan was injured, they started to build more pieces into their combinations, especially when they went to a five-man attack with Karapan in the centre.

“They've gotten really good against anyone who converts with their slippage and foul play,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott says. “If you shoot under the screen, or make a mistake on a late switch, they will run away from it and try to make you pay.”

It is very difficult to stop when the ball is on top or in the corner at Clingan, pulling the rim protector away. Clingan is good at reading the defense and can easily get past the defense due to his length. This is when back cuts are deadly.

The endless cutting puts the defense into panic.

“If you snap the ball and don't get it, you open it up for someone else,” Karaban says.

The Huskies can also punish keys with drive. If a big man turns on Newton, which is what happens on the play below, he knows it's time to attack.

Clingan is also capable of performing evasion dodges, and his large size makes these moves nearly impossible to defend as he is difficult to get around. And if the Clingan guy decides to switch, the Huskies will send him to center and try to feed him the ball there.

Much of last year's offense was built around Hawkins running around endless screens and then making a late tackle for Adama Sanogo. The plan this year was to mostly repeat what worked last year except for more pick-and-rolls for Clingan and backup center Samson Johnson. Finding a replacement for Hawkins became a necessity. The Huskies landed Spencer, who shot 43.4 percent on 3s last season at Rutgers, but the Huskies have discovered he can be more than just a knockout shooter.

Defending last year's team was like trying to understand calculus. This season is like trying to solve trigonometry. Spencer can handle the ball in the pick-and-roll and then move great off the ball. He has the highest offensive rating in college basketball. Karaban can also fly off screens and is a great cutter. And they don't always come from the same locations.

“They can execute the same movement and choppy players, which I don't think is as common as everyone thinks,” Miller says.

“What the coaching staff does better than anyone else is put you in a position to succeed,” Spencer says. “They'll help you play to your strengths and help you develop your weaknesses. There are times to go off script, and Coach Hurley will tell you when those times are, but you don't have to do that with this team, honestly. We're very unselfish, and the ball will find you. And if it doesn't “This is too bad; it's not your night.”

This line of thinking is why UConn's shot selection is so good. It's also why the Huskies rank 328th in adjusted tempo, because so many half-court possessions can go deep into the shot clock.

“When they're in the half court, they're very patient and get the job done,” Miller says. “But when you talk about what makes them great, I think it's a combination of how elite they are in transition and managing their sets. I don't think there's anyone in college basketball more dangerous in the open court.”

This is another area in which Hurley wanted to become elite. He likes to quickly knock down missed shots, and doesn't want his players looking for a play call from the sideline, but instead moving it up the floor quickly and chasing down 3's. The Huskies are the seventh most efficient transition team in college basketball and rank fifth in Half-court efficiency, according to Synergy. They are the only team in the country to rank in the top 10 in both.

These numbers only reflect first-chance opportunities and do not estimate second- and third-chance opportunities, and UConn ranks 13th in offensive rebounding rate.

“Your job starts when they shoot, because they're getting close to the offensive glass,” McDermott says.

It's stressful because there's never a moment to relax against the Huskies. That's why they've now won 11 straight games by double digits in the NCAA Tournament. Alabama held out for 35 minutes Saturday, but then Spencer hit the free-throw line, then another complicated 20-second set up that set up a Karapan 3-pointer, then came a Clingan layup, then Spencer got around a Clingan screen, engaged his defender and made the pass to him. The ball to score another beautiful goal in play eliminated the assist.

The (crimson) tide broke, as the Huskies scored on seven of their final nine possessions.

Every game seems inevitable, and Miller says the scary part out loud to the rest of his college basketball players.

“(Hurley) has grown and evolved,” Miller says. “He has become more sophisticated, and certainly more confident.”

This advanced offensive approach put him on the verge of successive titles. Who knows how much more.

(Top image by Cam Spencer: Elsa/Getty Images)