David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
The Connecticut Huskies may have not made the 2013 NCAA Tournament, but their backcourt sure was great this season.
Between Omar Calhoun, Ryan Boatright and Shabazz Napier, 43.6 points were scored on average per game. Napier led the three–and the entire team for that matter–with 17.1 points per game. Keep in mind, the team only averaged 69.9 points per game, so these three players made up a large part of the Connecticut offense.
Calhoun impressed in his first season with the Huskies, averaging 11.1 points per game.
Both Boatright (15. PPG) and Napier played much better this season than they did the previous season. Boatright scored five more points per game and Napier put up two more points per game. However, Napier became a much more accurate shooter, going from 38.9 percent shooting to 44.1 percent shooting from the field.
Whether the case, all three of these players were great this season and helped make up a very strong backcourt. Assuming that all three players return for the 2013-14 college basketball season, Connecticut could have one of the top backcourts in the nation.
The Huskies had 20 wins on the season, but it is the three straight losses down the stretch that doomed this team’s chances of making the Big Dance.
These three players accounted for 154 of Connecticut’s three-point shots made this season, which is basically most of them, considering that the Huskies had 191 made threes on the year.
Boatright is talented enough to make a case for Player of the Year next season, although he will have to step up his game even more for those kind of honors.
Although Michigan’s backcourt was talked up quite a bit this season, among many others, Connecticut had one of the best backcourts in college basketball and that will be the case once again next year.
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