Doggydaddy's Den: DoggyDaddy's Dailies 12/7/16

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Finally finished my UConn/Notre Dame game Pre Game Report. Enjoy!

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Notre Dame held on to the No. 1 spot in the USA Today Coaches poll. The three 1st place votes that South Carolina had went to UConn after the Gamecocks loss to Duke.

Other than that the top ten is the same as in the AP poll.

Tennessee is out of this poll as well. In fact, they are barely in "others receiving votes" sitting at 35th.

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HBO is working on a special about UConn's quest for a 5th straight championship. It starts airing in March. I have a few links to the details in the UConn section. Pretty cool!!!

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It's always fun to take a peek at the message boards of UConn's next opponent to see what their fans think. It's even more interesting when it's the Notre Dame fans at NdNation.

There is certainly a unique history between the two programs.

1996-2000 UConn 11 Notre Dame 0
2001-2005 UConn 5 Notre Dame 4
2005-2011 UConn 12 Notre Dame 0
2011-2014 Notre Dame 7 UConn 1
2014-Curr UConn 5 Notre Dame 0

34-11 UConn. It's not really close. But the Notre Dame fans like to think that because of that one 8 game stretch where Notre Dame was dominant, there is a parity between the two programs.

In fact, in the game preview from the Notre Dame team site, the writer said this - "UConn leads the series, 34-11, but that ratio belies the recent success enjoyed by the Irish. Notre Dame is 7-6 over the last 13 meetings between the sides"

Yeah, but like I said 7-1 in an eight game stretch but 0-5 the last five. Recent success? Only of 2011-2014 is recent. Too funny.

Notre Dame better win this one, because with the players coming in next year and the year after, it will be a few more games before they even have a shot.

I guess all the questions, at least at this point in time, will be answered on Wednesday night.

The UConn winning streak will be on the line but guess what? So will the Notre Dame 35 game home winning streak with the last loss coming to UConn in 2014. That UConn win broke the last home winning streak of Notre Dame at 34.

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I borrowed this from one of the UConn message boards. UConn, for the time that Butler players, goes pretty big and makes it miserable for the opposing guards to get their outside shots off.

6’ 5” Butler at Center
6’ 3” Samuelson at wing
6’ 1” Collier at power forward
6’ 0” Nurse at point
5’ 11” Gabby at shooting guard

Geno played this lineup for 26 minutes in the last game. I'm not sure how effective Butler will be against the quicker Turner, but I love the guard matchups. Make it difficult for Ogunbowale and Mabrey to get open for jumpers.

We might see this a lot against South Carolina too in the February game.

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By David in Naples!!!!!

UConn has played in 22 games where the two teams were ranked #1 and #2. The Huskies record is 19-3 in those match ups. In case you want to know, Tennessee also has been in 22 #1 versus #2 games, but their record is only 10-12.

The last loss in this type of game was in 2011 vs #1 Baylor on their home court. Since then, UConn has played and beaten #1 Stanford, #2 Duke, #2 Notre Dame, #1 South Carolina, #2 Notre Dame and #2 South Carolina. In the last 15 match ups of #1 vs #2, the Huskies are 14-1.

Notre Dame has played 5 times where they were in a #1 vs #2. Their record is 1-4, with that lone victory coming against UConn in 2000. They were #2 and beat #1 UConn 90-75. The last two times the Huskies and the Irish met while #1 and #2 was in the Final Four. Both games were UConn victories.

In all games played between Notre Dame and UConn, Geno is 33-11 or 75%. His winning streak is now 5 games against the Golden Domers.

Go Huskies..!!

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