DoggyDaddy's Dailies 4/10/15

 

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So, why did he get to keep his hair????

 

Check out my brother's blog. They only let him blog because he owns the company.

 

What Businesses can Learn from UConn Women's Basketball

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Well, the talk of the internet is Jewell Loyd declaring for the WNBA draft with one year of college eligibility remaining.

 

She shocked everyone with this decision, including her coach and sports information director.

 

"Irish coach Muffet McGraw said that Loyd initiated a meeting with her a few weeks ago to talk about her future. McGraw said that Loyd acknowledged her WNBA eligibility and assured McGraw she would be returning.""While she has until Wednesday to declare because she is in the national championship game, Notre Dame sports information director Chris Masters said Loyd is "100 percent staying".

 

What a turnaround in just a couple of days.

 

Incredibly, if she is selected in the first 4 picks,  it would make Notre Dame the first school in the 19-year history of the WNBA college draft to produce lottery (top-four) picks in four consecutive years (2012-Devereaux Peters to Minnesota; 2013-Skylar Diggins to Tulsa; 2014-Kayla McBride to San Antonio – all with the No. 3 overall selection). Even more incredibly, none of those Notre Dame teams have won the National Championship.

 

There is quite the brouhaha among the Notre Dame fans, UConn fans and fans of other top teams.

 

The ND fans are as expected, very upset with this decision. One of them posted this on the Notre Dame fan board, NDNation.Com. Click here to read the entire post, but here is a taste -

 

Without a doubt, it appears that Jewell Loyd is in the process of making a 40-year mistake. She is deserting the teammates and coaches who have worked so terribly hard to be in a position to win a National Championship......and now that they are clearly all aligned to do just that next season, she abandons her teammates. The chance to leave a SIGNIFICANT legacy at the University of Notre Dame was there......she would have been the most prolific scorer in the history of women's basketball for the Irish, and surely could have left with a wonderful National Championship to her credit. These are the things that will haunt her the rest of her life.....maybe not in her 20s, or even her 30s....but down the line as she ages and fully recognizes the total scope of what and how people were adversely affected by her decision. She simply didn't finished what she started.....she kinda just "crapped out" on them.  

 

What a total moron.

 

Then you have this fan, who says they have no team they root for - "And so the end begins for women's college basketball. Let's lower the basket so they can dunk more as they pass through the Motel 6 of college. Let's pay them salaries during their enslaved transient stays. Let's sue the WNBA under the antitrust laws to do away with all those unintelligible restrictions on WNBA draft eligibility. There are legal precedents for success.  I'm personally looking forward to Mo'ne Davis playing pro in some unpronounceable country next year." 

 

Another idiot!

 

And from a Tennessee fan - "Stupid move, IMO, but whatever. It won't be so easy to finish school once she's done the pro thing, and apparently she hasn't yet figured out the importance of a degree. But best of luck to her anyway."

 

Then you have former ND players chiming in -

 

 

Natalie Achonwa @NatAchon  - smh, people are so quick to criticize, ridicule, & judge when they only see half of the picture.

 

Devereaux Peters @MsPeters14  - So many thoughts man. So sad and misguided, but to each her own I guess....

 

And others -

 

Broadcaster LaChina Robinson ‏@Lives2Inspire  - Jewell Loyd has decided to leave early for the @WNBA. It's sad that she will never receive the college POY awards that she earned THIS year. 

 

RebeccaLobo@rebeccalobo - This draft was underwhelming a week ago. Now it's fascinating. Seattle has the first and third picks. Loyd, Zahui B and KML...

 

It's amazing how everyone thinks they are experts in running other peoples lives. At least Muffet McGraw was class with her remarks - “We appreciate all that Jewell has done for our program and the University of Notre Dame during her time here,” Fighting Irish head coach Muffet McGraw said. “We understand this was not an easy decision. We wish her nothing but happiness and success at the next level."

 

Thank you Coach McGraw and maybe, just maybe others can follow her fine example.   

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Here are some great thoughts from my friend Alex. He is a regular poster on a couple of UConn message boards. Mostly the best board - UConn Territory!!!  Come visit there if you want to read more great UConn ideas and join in!!!

 

 

Let's talk about The Golden Era of UConn WBB. As of last year, I posited UConn's Golden Era from 2007-08 on was even more golden than from 2000-04. Of course now, things are all the more more golden now. Consider this:

-From the 2007-08 through the 2014-15 seasons, UConn has gone 296-14. That's an average season of 37 wins and 1.75 losses.

-UConn's NCAA tournament record is 42-3, or a 93.33% winning percentage.

-The Huskies have been to eight consecutive Final Fours when the previous record in WCBB was five.

-Obviously, UConn has five NCs during this period. That's kind of a big deal, right? Even bigger? A three-peat and two consecutive championships, or THREE successful title defenses.

-This string of seasons has featured a 90-game winning streak, the longest in CBB history. Additionally, as of now, UConn has won 84 of its last 85 games.

-UConn's current NCAA tournament winning streak is 18. The current record is Tennessee's. The LVs won 21 games in a row before falling to Duke in the 1999 regional finals. Should UConn get back to the Final Four in 2016, that streak will have been broken.

-New names have adorned the Huskies of Honor wall: Renee Montgomery, Tina Charles, Maya Moore, Bria Hartley, Stefanie Dolson, and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis. Next year, Breanna Stewart and Moriah Jefferson will follow suit.

-UConn has had the NPOY winner in the 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014, and 2015 seasons.

-Meanwhile, the WNBA championships and Team USA gold medals have had an obvious UConn penumbra cast upon it.

-On top of all of that, as hard as it is to bid adieu to KML and Kiah, I can't wait to say bonjour to Katie Lou, Napheesa, Dajanae, and Natalie. Add that quartet to the kids from this season who will be back for another year, and it's clear UConn will be an overwhelming favorite to four-peat.

Folks, if you can think of a way it gets any better than this, I'd like to know what it is. When Maya and Tina were on campus, they broke new ground. As Maya was departing, we knew KML was arriving soon, that Bria and Stef were only freshmen, that Stewie and Mo had already committed, and that Morgan was recovering very nicely from her ACL injury in 2009. We knew the wave of success Maya and Tina caused was going to become a tsunami. Everything has transpired as predicted. Everything is perfect.

Everything is golden.

 

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Final Coaches Poll

TOP 25 TEAMS, WEEK 20

RANK	TEAM	RECORD	POINTS	1st Place Votes	Prev	CHANGE	Hi/Low
1	Connecticut	38-1	800	32	1	0	1/4
2	Notre Dame	36-3	768	0	2	0	1/7
3	South Carolina	34-3	726	0	4	1	1/4
4	Maryland	34-3	714	0	3	-1	3/11
5	Baylor	33-4	641	0	6	1	3/13
6	Tennessee	30-6	637	0	5	-1	4/14
7	Florida State	32-5	635	0	7	0	6/NR
8	Arizona State	29-6	533	0	9	1	8/NR
9	North Carolina	26-9	516	0	12	3	6/14
10	Louisville	27-7	504	0	8	-2	4/11
11	Iowa	26-8	388	0	15	4	11/24
12	Duke	23-11	382	0	16	4	7/17
13	Oregon State	27-5	371	0	10	-3	7/21
14	Stanford	26-10	346	0	17	3	1/20
15	Princeton	31-1	334	0	13	-2	13/NR
16	Kentucky	24-10	328	0	11	-5	8/15
17	Dayton	28-7	318	0	NR	0	22/NR
18	Mississippi State	27-7	256	0	14	-4	13/NR
19	Gonzaga	26-8	190	0	NR	0	–
20	Ohio State	24-11	152	0	23	3	23/NR
21	Florida Gulf Coast	31-3	147	0	21	0	21/NR
22	Texas	24-11	133	0	29	7	3/NR
23	Rutgers	23-10	120	0	22	-1	17/NR
24	South Florida	27-8	83	0	25	1	25/NR
25	George Washington	29-4	77	0	19	-6	19/NR

 

Here are a few thoughts from my friend David in Naples. He would like all the folks complaining about UConn's "weak" schedule to shut up. I agree!!!

1. UConn played 13 games against the top 25 teams.
2. UConn played the #2, #3 and #4 teams a total of four times. (ND twice)
3. UConn won those four games by a combined 76 points. That's an average of 19 pts/game.
4. Dayton finished #17 and USF was #24.
5. UConn's only loss, in overtime, was to #14, Stanford.
6. Notre Dame (#2), South Carolina (#3) and Maryland (#4) had a combined 9 losses.
7. Baylor (#5), Tennessee (#6) and Florida State (#7) had 15 combined losses.

 

UConn schedules anyone and everyone they can fit in, given the conference schedule they MUST play.
It would not have mattered if UConn had played every one of the other 24 teams in the poll. The results would have been the same. UConn #1....!!

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Auriemma And Wooden: Relentlessly Chasing Perfection Hartford Courant
Geno Auriemma: Bill Belichick is ‘only coach worth (expletive)' Yardbarker
NCAA champs to parade through Hartford on Sunday CT Post
Husky Victory Parade Set for Sunday, April 12 in Hartford UConnhuskies
Parade to celebrate UConn women’s national title slated for Sunday NH Register
UConn women will be favorites to win 11th title next year Brunswick News
Huskies Receive Warm Welcome; 'It Never Gets Old,' Says Geno Hartford Courant
Celebrations erupt on UConn campus after national championship victory Sportzedge
Stokes found a niche at UConn, and earned 3 titles thegazette.com
Cleaveland: UConn's 3rd straight title not as easy as it looked Roger Cleaveland
Tampa earns high marks after hosting second Women’s Final Four Tampa Tribune
Michael Arace: Auriemma worthy of comparisons to Wooden Buckeye Extra
Obama congratulates Duke, UConn ESPN
Better memories at this Final Four in Tampa for UConn great Maya Moore Jim Fuller
Rest, Team Canada in Nurse’s future  Carl Adamac
GEICO SportsNite: UConn women celebrated after claiming third consecutive championship

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