Behind Ice Brady's slow start

Despite high expectations for Brady during the preseason, she's looked like a typical freshman through the first six games.

Author

Daniel Connolly
November 30, 2023

Photo: Ian Bethune

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Last week’s Weekly:

News nuggets:

  • UConn fell from No. 6 to No. 11 in the AP Poll with its loss to No. 2 UCLA. NC State is up to No. 5, so both of the Huskies’ losses have come to top-five teams.

  • KK Arnold repeated as Big East Freshman of the Week.

  • Katie Lou Samuelson is on USA Basketball’s 3×3 roster for the FIBA AmeriCup, held Dec. 1-3 in Puerto Rico. Jen Rizzotti will coach the squad.

Ice Brady’s slow start

Before the season, Geno Auriemma held high expectations on Ice Brady. He was adamant that she was someone UConn could count on, but noted that she had to out-perform her level of experience.

“We need her to play like a junior in order for us to look like one of [UConn’s best teams],” he said.

But…

“She hasn't played college basketball and there's some issues that are going to arise,” he mentioned at another point.

Through the first six games of her collegiate career, Brady seems to be in the issues portion of her development. She’s averaging 3.0 points and 2.3 rebounds in 14.3 minutes per game while shooting 24.1 percent from the field. Brady is yet to reach double-figures or hit the five-rebound mark in a game.

That shouldn’t be all that surprising, though. She missed all of last year after suffering a knee injury in the preseason, so she’s had to knock the rust off while simultaneously making the transition to the college game.

“I think she looks like a freshman,” associate head coach Chris Dailey said on the radio broadcast postgame. “Coming off not playing last year, the pace of the game is fast and I think that's something she's still adjusting to.”

The lack of production isn’t a problem for UConn at the moment. Brady is taking good shots, the ball just isn’t falling for her. It’s not as if she’s airballing everything or hitting the front rim. A lot of her attempts have rimmed out or don’t have the right touch — something that can be fixed with more time in the gym and on the floor.

Where the Huskies want Brady to emerge is in the areas that don’t necessarily show up on the stat sheet.

“She's got really good post moves and good footwork. We just need to get her in those positions and have her take advantage of that. She can obviously knock in threes,” Dailey said. “We need her to be a rebounder. We need to do some of the dirty work. She's a good screener, she's a willing screener.”

Brady has also struggled defensively. She has a +22.1 defensive rating (meaning opponents score 22.1 more points per 100 possessions when she’s on the floor), which is the second-worst mark on the team. While she’s more heralded for her offensive abilities than her defense, she isn’t making a difference on either end of the floor so far.

“Trying to put it all together, I think she's kind of a little overwhelmed at this point,” Dailey said.

It’s not like UConn has another choice, though. Amari DeBerry saw a more featured role during the Cayman Islands Classic and while she gave the Huskies some good minutes against UCLA, she struggled against Kansas. The production isn’t there either — DeBerry didn’t score or grab a rebound in either contest. That means Brady is the team’s best option behind Aaliyah Edwards down low — at least until Ayanna Patterson returns to provide some help.

So for now, UConn’s only way forward is to stick with Brady and hope she can work through her typical freshman struggles quickly because as the first few weeks of the season showed, it needs another presence in the paint.

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