UL isn't a great comparison though. UL also has a top 5-10 defense. ULs offense is predicated on its defense turning you over first and then using their small/quick guards to get around the defense. ISU has fantastic guards but more in the strong/big mold than small and quick. I'm not saying they aren't quick but there is quick and there is Russ Smith. He's just freak quick. He's one of the few guards that is (much) quicker than Boat and Napier. They also used an aggressive matchup zone against UConn.
It's a very unique game UConn has 8 losses. 3 to UL who plays great offense but also top 5-10 defense. 2 to SMU which plays top 12 defense. 1 to Cinci which plays top 10 defense (and UConn didn't have Daniels). (All by KenPom). They also lost a fluke game to Houston (I wouldn't read anything into this game) and to fellow sweet sixteen team Stanford. Stanford was probably the first team to employ a good zone defense this year and UConn had a tough time adjusting. The best way to beat UConn so far this season is by playing stellar (and a lot of zone) defense. Now ISU does have the best offense UConn has seen this year, so it will be a unique challenge, and ISU is more than capable of beating UConn without playing great defense. Basically just pointing out what has worked the best this year against UConn.
ISU is also in an interesting situation bc ISU hasn't played a top defensive unit (Kenpom #11) like UConn is. The best was UNC/KSU at around 20. UConn gives up .96 points per possession, ISU scores at 1.14 points per possession. Inversely ISU gives up about 1.03 and UConn scores at 1.09. So the first question is when an elite offense meets an elite defense, what happens?
Next interesting aspect of this is # of possessions. ISU averages almost 10 more possessions per game, than UConn does. So the next question is can ISU speed up UConn or does UConn slow down ISU? If UConn can slow ISU down, does that frustrate ISU? If UConn is sped up, does that mean they are taking bad shots or does that mean they are also scoring? I should note that UConn usually slows it down in two ways: first they have no problem using all of the shot clock to work for an open shot (though they will also take any good shot, and Bazz will take a few bad ones). Secondly they really try to slow the other team down on defense. They employ a light 2-2-1 press at times that is focused on slowing down the game and making the other team initiate offense later (say at 23 secs instead of 29) in the shot clock moreso than looking for steals. They don't always use this though. They also just try to use a tough man defense that forces shot clock violations, I think they have forced 1-2 a game the past few games. I have no clue what Ollie will try to do this game, but that's what they have tried to do so far this year.
UConn averages 7 steals, 6 blocks, holds offenses to 39% shooting and 33% from three and under 65 PPG. ISU scores 85 per game, shoots nearly 50% but only 35-36 from 3.
UConn shoots only 44% from the field, but 39% from 3. Both Giffey and Daniels are near 50% on the season. Boat and Napier are near 38-39%. Kromah is the weakest three point shooter (who will take them) at 35-36%, he's streaky.
UConn has a big weakness on defense, which is defensive rebounding. They have been better in some games and worse in others. That said, it's been an issue for two years and they have own games against good teams when they were destroyed on the boards. Still could be a huge advantage for ISU.
I will guarantee only one thing, both Ollie and Hoiberg will have a healthy respect for each other.
