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Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah
to the wonderful viewers of this blog
11 games into my third season of blogging about this amazing basketball program and the views just keep on growing.
By sometime tomorrow (Yes, folks read my blog even on Christmas day!) my total views will exceed
300,000. That number is mind boggling to me.
What started out as an outlet for my interest in UConn women's basketball when my access to the UConn message board was removed (don't ask) is now many hours every week that I know people count on for a lot of their information regarding the UConn women's basketball team and WCBB.
My first few days blogging were only being viewed by maybe 100 people and it has grown day after day, week after week, month after.....well, you get the idea. On a typical day I get between 1000-1500 views.
So, thanks for reading and making me part of your daily routine. I can't tell you how many folks have contacted me to tell me that they read me with their morning coffee. I'm just glad they didn't tell me they read my blog at their "morning constitutional".
I get to really look at the UConn stats while preparing for a Pre Game Report. Some numbers just jump out at you.
Look at the top three scorers on the team. Samuelson, Collier and Nurse. They are shooting 82.9%, 81.8% and 90% from the free throw line for the season. That is the good news. The even BETTER news is that they are also taking the most free throws. 34-41, 36-44 and 36-40. Fantastic!
Yesterday I posted about the UConn message board and pre-season predictions of how UConn would do this year. It was pretty interesting. So, today I was reading Volnation, the Tennessee message board. I found a thread about Diamond Deshields and wow, did I read one crazy comment.
It started after a poster said that "Diamond is not nearly as gifted as Maya Moore".
A poster named Coach Jumper had something to say about that. This poster is an actual AAU coach that has tried to push his way on the Tennessee staff. It's comical. He believes he has the answer to all of Tennessee's problems. Hire him! He has this theory about the "alpha dog" that Deshields is. Oy. What a joke. Anyway, this was his response.
"I won't argue with you as to the heart and drive of Moore being way ahead of DD....But DD is actually more versatile in skills and she has a more defined athletic body."
More versatile in skills? Is he kidding me? Moore can shoot the three with accuracy, drive to the basket, hit the pull up jumper, actually play defense. And she did that at the highest level in WCBB. Deshields? Can't hit the outside shot regularly, and let me tell you. Watch her play the game and you will know very quickly that she doesn't work hard on defense.
I'll be kind and not bring up the fact that Moore is the best player in the world right now and Deshields is barely the best player on her team.
I'll list comparable stats when I have more time, but when you see them you will wonder how a lesser skilled person can play so much better than someone so greatly skilled like Deshields. Yes, that was sarcastic.
Lastly, here are pictures of the two players. You can decide for yourself who is has a more athletically defined body.
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This information was posted by my good friend Phil on a message board. I'm sure he won't mind me sharing it. It's a great look at this year's team. I should probably save this tomorrow so I don't have to come up with more info for you all. Oh well. Here it is in his own words.
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Okay, I admit it, I'm a little spoiled. Last year, when I would go to the NCAA stat site, it wasn't so much to see what position UConn held in the categories, I often just counted to see how many in which UConn was in first place. There were several:
- Scoring Offense
- Field-goal percentage
- Won-loss percentage
- Scoring defense
- Assist turnover ratio
- Scoring margin
- Free-throw percentage
12 categories, UConn was the nation's leader in seven of them.
I know this team isn't last just team but after all, they are undefeated, so my initial thought was they look pretty good in the NCAA stats perhaps not as dominant as last year but pretty good.
I wasn't thinking clearly and should have known better.
While this team is very good probably better than most of us expected, they have played one of the most brutal schedule so far in history. We are obviously tied for the lead in won loss percentage, but in many the other categories we are not the top, mostly because of the strength of the competition.
Scoring offense
We had 27th averaging 80 points a game while Baylor's first averaging 95. I suspect they won't be able to keep that up when they actually play some real teams.
Scoring defense
We are not in the top 50 while Campbell leads the nation giving up 47.1 points per game West Virginia second at 48.3 and Baylor third at 49.8. I don't know that Campbell will slip as they go into conference play but West Virginia and Baylor will slip well UConn will move up. We have a long way to go so I don't know whether we will end up leading this category at the end of the year
Field-goal percentage
UConn is in sixth place hitting 49% of the shots, behind Maryland at 51.5 and Baylor at 51.3. Six place isn't a bad position to be in; we may go up when we start playing AAC opponents although we will probably have more bench play so it may not be a large jump up.
Field-goal percentage defense
We are 63rd in this category holding our opponents to 36% shooting. West Virginia and Baylor are the two leaders at 28.3 and 29.2 respectively. I expect both of them to move down in us to move up quite a bit.
Free-throw percentage
This is the one category where quality of opposition plays almost no role. We are 14th which isn't bad. UConn has not been among the nations leaders in this category for years until very recently so I'm happy with 14th. This is more likely to go down the not because of Mmore opportunities from bench players are not likely to be as good free-throw shooter's is the starters, but it could go either way
Rebound margin
Uconn is in 79th place. I expect this to go up materially in AAC play
Three point field-goal per game
We are 49th. I won't be surprised if this goes up a little bit but perhaps not much
Three point field-goal percentage
We are fourth at 41.8 which is definitely not bad. I don't have a good sense whether this will go up or down I won't be surprised either direction. We should have slightly more open threes which will move it up but I suspect will have more threes taken by some of our bench players which might move it down.
Assist to turnover ratio
We are fourth at 1.5 behind Baylor at 1.74 and Depaul at 1.53
I expect this to improve as we go into AAC play and won't be surprised if we end up with the top spot. Baylor is quite a ways ahead of us but they will have more challenging games upcoming. Depaul may be the winner of this category as their upcoming opponents will be as tough as Baylor's.
Turnover margin
UConn's 54th at 3.91 with Lamar University leading the nation at 10.33. Syracuse is second at 9.69. This is another category where we are down the list because of the strength of our opponents so I expect us to materially improve. Syracuse is likely to slip about but maybe Lamar University will not.
By David in Naples!!!!!
Napheesa Collier has led UConn in scoring five of the eleven games. That is one more than Katie Lou. She has also led the Huskies in rebounding four times. Gabby has done it six times. Pheesa is kind of a cross between KLS in scoring & Gabby in rebounding.
For the season, Collier is 1st in made baskets (87), made free throws (36) and blocked shots (19). She is 2nd in points (216 vs 227), rebounding (89 vs 90), and steals (23 vs 30). Her shooting percentage is 62.6% from the field. No one else is even in the 50% range. Napheesa is averaging 31.7 minutes per game and rarely looks tired.
If Geno had a laboratory and could build a player to complement his other stars, it would be Napheesa.
Go Huskies..!!
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For the season, Collier is 1st in made baskets (87), made free throws (36) and blocked shots (19). She is 2nd in points (216 vs 227), rebounding (89 vs 90), and steals (23 vs 30). Her shooting percentage is 62.6% from the field. No one else is even in the 50% range. Napheesa is averaging 31.7 minutes per game and rarely looks tired.
If Geno had a laboratory and could build a player to complement his other stars, it would be Napheesa.
Go Huskies..!!
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Late games in Green
NO TOP 25 GAMES UNTIL 12/27
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NO TOP 25 GAMES UNTIL 12/27
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Message Boards
UConn Territory - The best UConn women's message board ever!!!
College Fans Only - WCBB board where no holds are barred
Vol Nation - Tennessee women's basketball board
CockyTalk - The upstart South Carolina women's basketball board
CockyTalk - The upstart South Carolina women's basketball board
ND Nation - Notre Dame women's basketball board
UCONN Information
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