Skills Breakdown - Connecticut's Breanna Stewart

Skills Breakdown - Connecticut's Breanna Stewart

By Dane Carbaugh Breanna Stewart is going to go down as one of the all-time greats in Connecticut basketball history, and her senior season has so far been

Jan 13, 2016 by Brett Pickert
Skills Breakdown - Connecticut's Breanna Stewart
By Dane Carbaugh

Breanna Stewart is going to go down as one of the all-time greats in Connecticut basketball history, and her senior season has so far been a shining example of her time in Storrs. 

The senior from Syracuse, NY is two-time AP Player of the Year and USA Basketball Athlete of the Year, three-time NCAA champion and has notched career highs in points, blocks, assists, rebounds and 3-point percentage per-game in 2016.

Coach Geno Auriemma has described Stewart as “Durant-esque” for her ability to score from anywhere on the floor; from deceptive post moves to 3-point daggers, Stewart does it all.

UConn is once again unbeaten this season, and Stewart is a large factor in the No. 1 ranking for the Huskies.

So what does she do well, and how might that translate at the next level as WNBA GMs ready their draft boards for April?

Let’s take a look at Stewart’s strengths and weaknesses.

3-point shooting

At 6-foot-4, Stewart possesses the necessary height to power through her opponents down low. That also means she’s nearly impossible to stop by smaller players on the 3-point line.

Stewart has no qualms about letting it fly from deep. She’s shooting 45 percent from beyond the arc this season, a career best and a marked improvement from her first three seasons at UConn. 

That’s also come with an overall increase in her threes taken per-game, which is a sight for sore eyes come time to play in the WNBA. 

She doesn’t have the quickest load up, but it is very much at her forehead and not at all in front of her face. That means it’s going to be really hard to block, even for player 5-foot-10 and above.

Stewart has become so adept at the 3-point line this season that Auriemma has taken to running sets for her specifically to get threes.

In the example above, you see UConn take advantage of USF trying to jump their high post offense by setting a down screen for a Stewart jumper.



The set starts with a common action you see from the Huskies, with a dribble handoff to one side.



UConn then looks to reverse the floor by swinging the ball around to the other side of the arc.

At this juncture, you’d often see Stewart run to the right high post as the ball moves to the right corner. 



However, there’s a miscommunication by USF as Stewart instead pops back out to her left. Two players get caught in a screen at the free-throw line, and it’s an easy bucket for Stewart.

Another thing to mention about Stewart’s 3-point acumen is just how dynamic it makes her already advanced offensive skill set. Players have to fly out to her at the arc this year, leaving her open to put the ball on the floor and create.

While she’s not a flashy passer, Stewart does feel negative space extremely well and can either dish off passes to cutters or take easy, short jumpers when the Huskies have the advantage.

Post abilities

Stewart is an obvious candidate to highlight for her moves down low. She uses her head and dribble fakes well in the low- and mid-post, and her height and shot form lends her an advantage over opponents.

But perhaps more interesting is her ability to combine her natural talent with Auriemma’s high post system at UConn, where Stewart plays both up top and down low with ease.






In the play above, we start with the same dribble handoff action we saw on the 3-pointer above, but this time Stewart cuts to follow the ball on the right high post.



Stewart’s defender overplays to the strong side, which opens up Maryland to the reversal by the Huskies. Sending the pending pass, Stewart seals off her defender from the inside of the lane.

As Stewart pushes farther to the low post, Morgan Tuck goes from left to right high post for the high-low play. The ball is swung, and thanks to a good pass and soft hands on the part of Stewart, it’s a bucket down low.

This play highlights Stewart’s importance in a team aspect for her future in the WNBA. Having individual prowess is great, but being able to create as part of a system is what makes stars. 

Stewart didn’t get caught sealing her defender too low, and gave herself a chance at an easy bucket with a designed set.

There’s something else worth mentioning about Stewart here, and that’s her rebounding. She’s not the type of rebounder that runs in and grabs boards like Kevin Love, but she is adept at turning and boxing out. When a shot goes up, she has her legs into an opponent most of the time.

That lends her a lot of second chance opportunities that I think serves her well as both a traditional skill needed from your post and as an offensive weapon.

Passing acumen

Watching tape of Stewart this season, she probably doesn’t get enough recognition from advanced scouts for her skills as a passing threat.

While she’s not going to dish out double-digit assists a game, Stewart’s court vision is advanced for someone regarded as a scorer.

This shows up most noticeably in her long distance passes. Stewart is strong, and with two hands on the ball she can wing it across the court with speed. 

In these two examples, you can see where her height and strength -- combined with her play recognition -- allow her an unconventional method of moving the ball. In both cases, you can see Stewart adjust from her preferred option to the cross-court pass when she sees a defender turn their heads.

She’s not always going to be taller than her opponents in the WNBA, but these are examples of Stewart’s vision. You can see her with her head up in these situations, whether off in the corner, inbounding from the baseline, or dribbling past an opponent into the wing to get a teammate a better look.

Defensive limitations

Something that comes up again and again in scouting reports for Stewart is her deficiencies on defense. This can largely be explained as factors of two separate items.

First, Stewart plays anywhere from the small forward to the center position. In women’s basketball, that means she’s guarding players with a 10-inch variance in their height on any given night.

Put simply, her own positional flexibility sort of lends her to get burned by smaller players when she has to play on the arc.

Second, despite being a competently quick on the offensive end of the floor, Stewart’s foot speed defensively is still a bit lacking. This is obviously an issue on the wing against smaller players, but shows up even against extremely quick players in the mid- and high-post spots.

That’s not to say she’s not useful on defense. Stewart’s per 40-minute stats show she’s not particularly prone to fouling, which is a good place to start. And as a center, she’s more than tall enough to act as a help defender.

Stewart’s best contributions come on that side of the ball when she’s patrolling the lane and tracking penetrating guards.

She racked up four blocks in the first half alone against USF, and is Top 40 in the country in total blocks. 

That being said, she’s got some work to do on that end of the floor. The best thing for her as a rookie in the WNBA would be to get her position, at least on defense, defined early so she can work out the kinks.