Doggydaddy's Den: DoggyDaddy's Dailies 12/21/16

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Well, all the talk on the message boards, new articles and water coolers is all the minutes UConn starters have had to play so far this season. The message board denizens are all up in arms with Geno. He needs to play the bench more, even if it hurts the team so save these players. That they are playing 38-40 minutes and it will lead to fatigue and worse yet, injury!!

And no doubt about it, they have had to log more than usual minutes since Chong has been injured. But as usual, I will take the contrary position and try to use some real stats to prove that it is no issue at all.

The problem with minutes is the accumulation over the season. Sure, you might have a few games where the players are overextended. But overall, it's really not a problem overall to date and as soon as the AAC schedule starts, the numbers will come down from a high after the Maryland game.

Let's take a closer look. We are really only taking about 4 players.

Collier 32.3 mpg
Samuelson 33 mpg
Nurse 35.3 mpg
Williams 29.2 mpg

Well, will you look at that. Only one player over 33 mpg.

While the minutes per game are higher than in the past, I just don't see these numbers as a problem. And for sure, the minutes will be significantly lower during the AAC season.

So, Husky fans, have no fears. I believe that the HOF coach knows what he's doing. The bench will get minutes and even if they aren't ready to contribute in the tougher games. That alone will help the Huskies get to their final destination in great shape. And speaking of great shape, the fact that UConn is the best conditioned team in WCBB makes a big difference.

OK...off the soapbox.

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Here is my UConn/Ohio State Post Game Report.

In regards to the Nebraska game, I'm just not going to have time to do a full blown Pre Game Report.

I will tell you what I know about this team.

The good news for Nebraska is they bring back their starting center in 6'5" Allie Havers and their best player 6'4" forward Jessica Shepard. The bad news is that they lost their starting backcourt in Natalie Romero and Rachel Theriot. Because of that they went from a team with a 1.2 Assist/TO ration to a .8. If you know anything about that stat, you know how bad that is.

Shepard is a stud. She is averaging 19.4 ppg, 11.1 rpg. Excellent numbers. She has also taken her game outside the arc this season. Last year she was 0-2 on threes. This year she is 13-32, shooting them at a 40.6% clip.

The rest of the team? New to starting, new to playing together. They just haven't played well in putting together their 4-7 record.

Their wins have not come against any good teams. They beat UT Rio Grande Valley 71-53, Colorado State 62-59, Omaha 66-58 and San Jose State 83-61. They lost to only a couple of good teams and have had a few bad losses. They lost to Missouri (ranked 25 at the time) 55-35, Washington State 79-65, Virginia 73-51, Virginia Tech 76-67, California 86-65, Drake 84-70 and in their last game Creighton 80-64. This should tell you plenty about the level of competition Nebraska will bring to this game.

UConn destroyed the Cornhuskers last year, beating them 88-46 and it wasn't pretty. You could see Shepard visibly tire as the game went on. Her coach admitted that Shepard was not in basketball shape in that game. Will she fare better in this outing? Doubtful. She will match up with either Collier or Williams. Either one will run her off the court.

The leading scores in last years outing were the aforementioned starting guards that are no longer there. I remember how spectacular they were, even in a 42 point loss with 11 assists between them. But that is no longer available to the Nebraska coach and I'm while I can't see it being worse than last years final, it certainly won't be better.

I can see Geno giving Bent and Irwin along with Butler some good minutes in this one. Not just late in the game but with some of the starters to see if they can contribute. I know Geno really wants to give them some time. This will be a good game to do that. He won't against Maryland.

I'm guessing a 50+ point win unless the back of the bench plays so poorly that UConn's scoring evaporates late in the game.

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By David in Naples!!!!!

Who played a better game in the UConn vs Ohio State match, Kelsey Mitchell who scored 23 points, or Gabby Williams, who scored 7?

The correct answer is that more information is needed to decide who impacted the game more. Mitchell is a great scorer who kept OSU close with 19 points in the 1st half. But, UConn kept her to 4 points in the 2nd half and opened up a 22 point lead. Her stats for the game were 23 points, but only 1 assist, 2 rebounds and 3 steals. Those positives are partially offset by 3 turnovers and 3 personal fouls. In other words, her contribution was mainly points (23) on 24 shots, and when those stopped in the 2nd half, she did little else.

Gabby scored "only" 7 points on 3-5 shooting. However, she added 12 rebounds, 7 assists, 6 steals and 2 blocks. She had 3 first half turnovers, but only 1 in the whole 2nd half. While she scored fewer points than Mitchell, she impacted the game far more with her defense, rebounding, assists and steals.