Q: Your thoughts on the teams lack of chemistry?  It seems to me that so so-called leader Shabazz is very much like Jerome Dyson was.  That team was pulled apart from within and it appears it is happening with this group.

Paul Ippedio

Saco, Me. (formerly of Manchester)

A: Hi  Paul. This comes up a lot, in fact Kevin Nathan and I talked a lot about chemistry on WTIC SportsTalk on Friday. I didn’t cover the Jerome Dyson teams so I can’t speak to that comparison.

I don’t think this team is being pulled apart from within, though, at least not from what I can see. There are different types of chemistry. One is working together, getting along, etc., and I think this team still has that. The other is the meshing of skill sets, and that’s where I think the problem is. Certain guys do certain things well, others not so well, and it doesn’t quite fit together. For instance, Alex Oriakhi is good at certain things that he may not be able to do with Andre Drummond also on the court. The team likes to run, but guys don’t take and make good shots in transition. Shabazz Napier likes to throw certain types of passes that guys can’t catch. … And so on. It’s a reason, I suppose, we have seen so many different combinations. This type of chemistry is much harder to fix, but it does happen sometimes. At some point things could just click, fall into place, and the chemistry on the court and bench will look a lot different. But 23 games into the season, it’s getting late to expect that to happen. At Syracuse today, we’ll see.

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Mailbag 2/11: What’s With UConn’s ‘Chemistry?’