Doggydaddy's Den: DoggyDaddy's Dailies 1/17/17

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Had a wonderful day today. Taught my granddaughter a song on her guitar, made a great shrimp dinner, spent a few minutes in the Jacuzzi.

Nice!!

Now golf Tuesday with my old friend from high school. It's been a great January.

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Congrats to Gabby Williams!!!!

Williams was named the AAC Player of the Week on Monday for the second time this season. Teammates Collier and Katie Lou Samuelson have also picked up the award twice marking the first time UConn has had three different players get the honor multiple times in a season.

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I won't have time for a full Pre Game Report for the Tulsa game so here is some information that you might find useful.

Last year UConn hammered Tulsa two times. In the first game UConn won 95-35 at home on January 6th. In the second matchup, UConn won 94-30. That's a 60 point and 64 point margin for the two games.

Tulsa was 12-19 last season. They had a few good games winning at Arkansas and playing USF to a close 72-67 outcome. They were also 8-10 in conference, but almost all of those wins were in games against Cincinnati, UCF and Houston, the bottom of the conference. They had only two players scoring double digits, Ashley Clark and Kelsee Grovey.

Tulsa only averaged 62 points per game and gave up 66.9. For the season the Golden Hurricane shot 39.2% from the field and 30% on threes. They had 375 assists and 457 turnovers. No matter how you spin it, last year was awful for Tulsa.

Will this year be better?

Well, let's see......the two top scorers that I mentioned are no longer on the team. Neither are scorers 4, 5 and 6. The only returning starter is Ericka Wakefield, the 5'4" junior guard. She is the leading scorer this season. The other 4 starters are sophomore, 5'6" guard Tatyana Perez, and three freshman. 5'8" guard Alexis Gaulden, 6'2" forward Kendrian Elliott and 5'9" guard Shug Dickson. They bring in 6'2" sophomore Crystal Polk and 6'1" junior Leisl Spoerl off the bench for some size.

Tulsa plays 11 players in double digit minutes so your guess is as good as mine what the Tulsa coach will do in regards to playing time for this game.

I guess the good news is you have 4 new starters on a really bad team. The bad news is that they are really really young and inexperienced. Their stats are almost identical so far this year to last season's numbers with the exception of three point shooting, which is up to 34.5%. But they haven't played UConn to drive those numbers down.

So, what can we expect this season when these two teams meet this year? Well, the first game is in Tulsa, so that home court advantage should make a big differ.......ah.....sorry.....just funnin' ya!!!

I can't imagine the shock of playing a great team like UConn when you are a freshman and they start three of them. It will be difficult for them to do any better again the Huskies than their prior roster did. This is one of those games where UConn increases the numbers on the season stat sheet.

Prediction? UConn over 90, Tulsa under 40.

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In a really strange game, No. 17 Virginia Tech defeated unranked Wake Forest 72-70 in an ACC matchup.

Wake Forest dominated the Hokies 15-7 in the first quarter before VT came back with a 26-15 second quarter advantage to take a 33-30 at the half. Virginia Tech continued their advantage with a big third quarter, 24-15 for a 57-45 lead going into the 4th quarter.

The Hokies were able to build the lead up to 14 points and still led by 13 with a little over 7 minutes left before Demon Deacons make their move. With the score 61-48 Wake went on a 12-2 run to make it 63-60 with 5 minutes remaining. They could only close to 2 points with four minutes left.

What was strange was the scoring in each quarter. Wake outscored VT 40-22 in the 1st and 4th quarters while VT outscored Wake 50-30 in the 2nd and 3rd quarters.

Weird

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No. 6 Notre Dame and Tennessee played Monday night in Thompson Boling Arena on "We Back Pat" night.

First let me say that the Pat Summitt Foundation has done a remarkable job raising money to find a cure for Alzheimer's. There were several large checks donated before the game. A great legacy for a pioneer in WCBB.

Now, to the game.

Tennessee ran out to a 11-2 lead in the first three minutes. Deshields was hot, hitting 2-3 and her only three pointer. The Lady Vols were able to get the ball inside to Russell for two easy baskets and even their point guard, Jordan Reynolds hit a shot. They were 4-5 while ND was 1-4 and in a blink it was a nine point lead. McGraw called a timely timeout and the Irish regrouped. They went on their own 11-2 run to tie it at 13. After a few back and forth baskets, Notre Dame took a lead and expanded it to nine points before settling on a 25-18 first quarter lead.

The second quarter had way more missed shots as either team would want. This seemed to happen as the pace picked up. Both teams seemed rushed in their offense. Notre Dame's big advantage seemed to be on the offensive boards. Notre Dame settled in again with Lindsay Allen running the show and Marina Mabrey and the freshman Jackie Young doing the scoring. In the last of the half Tennessee showed a little life and with a little help of the referee missing a clear traveling call on a fast break, they cut the lead to 10. But on their last possession Allen found another freshman Erin Boley wide open for a three and the score was 44-31 at the half.

After that fast Tennessee start, Notre Dame manhandled Tennessee, outscoring them 42-19 over the last 17 minutes.

For Tennessee, the first half was more of the same problems they have had all season. They struggle running any kind of offense and then they let down on defense. Deshields is the worst offender. But it's clear they have no plan when they have the ball in the half court offense.

The third quarter was pretty evenly played. Deshields was more under control, Jackson hit a big three and Tennessee was able to close the gap. Notre Dame seemed to coast some in this quarter and it showed in the results. Too many turnovers for the Irish. Tennessee showed their athleticism and when they do that under control it makes a big difference in their efficiency. Tennessee was as close as five 49-44 with 5 minutes left in the quarter before the Irish were able to pull away again to a 14 point lead. The Lady Vols scored on two Russell free throws to cut the lead to ten points after three, 62-52.

The fourth quarter started all Tennessee. Behind some great plays by Deshields and a nice backdoor pass from Russell, Tennessee was able to score the first eight points in the first two minutes of the quarter to close to two points, 62-60. They had several chances to tie, but Deshields again was trying to do it all herself and when she doesn't hit her shot, the team falters. Mabrey hit a big three to restore a five point lead. But Tennessee was in no mood to back down and scored the next two baskets to close to one point. Then it got interesting.

With the score 67-66 and 1:05 left, Jackson hit a HUGE three to put Tennessee up 2 points. Lindsay Allen made a great move in the lane to hit a layup and tie the game up with around 50 seconds left. Tennessee's Reynolds missed a driving layup off the rim and it went off a ND player giving Tennessee possession with 35 second left and a new 30 second clock.

Holly furiously set up a play on her marker board. Boy, she held onto that board for dear life as the Lady Vols inbounded the ball under their basket. Nared used a terrific screen from Russell and hit a jumper in the paint to give Tennessee a 2 point lead with 10 seconds left.

With three fouls to give Tennessee played smart and fouled with 8.6 left, 7.6 left and then 4.2 left. It gave Notre Dame little time to get a good shot and a desperation three by Allen was short and Tennessee won this tight and exciting game 71-69.

The unsung hero of the game was Nunn, who played some terrific minutes at the power forward for Tennessee, going 4-5 from the field and helping get Turner in foul trouble.

Congrats to Tennessee. A huge confidence builder for this team. Let's see if they can carry that forward. And a big blow to the confidence of Notre Dame. As many have noted, they are just not the same Notre Dame team we are used to seeing in the past.

Will this game impact Tuesday's Coaches Poll? Tennessee had 11 votes and were sitting at No. 30. Can they jump a few teams to make the top 25? Probably not. But the respect this program gets might make me wrong on that one.

No. 6 Notre Dame should drop a few more places but how many? The 5 teams right under them all won. I'm guessing they stay in the top ten and come in at No. 9 one place ahead of Stanford, who also lost to Tennessee this season.

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By David in Naples!!!!!

This year's UConn team has improved by leaps and bounds. (Some would say, Gabby's leaps and Pheesa's re-bounds.) 😎 Anyway, no where is that more evident than in their scoring. Starting with the Texas game and running until USF, a total of nine games, the Huskies scored 72, 72, 75, 82, 84, 87, 84, 90 and 102 points. Other than the 84 against Nebraska, that is progress in numerical black and white.

Defensively, a similar pattern emerges. Other than the 81 points given up against Maryland, no opponent in the last 12 games has scored more than 63 points. The last four have only managed 48, 45, 37 and 48. The reality of an improving offense combined with a tighter defense should scare the stuffing out of future opponents.

The season average for points scored is now 83.2 per game. The defensive average has now fallen to 55.0 per game. Those averages should only get better through the AAC schedule.

Go Huskies..!!

And here is a Fun with Numbers quiz from David. No cheating!!!!

Which UConn players have more steals than turnovers?
A. Katie Lou
B. Napheesa
C. Gabby
D. Kia
E. Saniya
F. Crystal

Of those players, which have more steals, assists AND blocked shots than turnovers?

Answers: There are three Huskies with more steals than turnovers. Saniya (15 vs 13), Gabby (46 vs 43) and Pheesa (33 vs 21).

Only Napheesa has more steals (33), more assists (32) AND more blocked shots (28) than turnovers (21).

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