Doggydaddy's Den: DoggyDaddy's Dailies 1/20/17

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Well, my son and I took that long drive across the state of Florida to see my younger brother Steve and his son Ben play in the Yankee Fantasy Camp game and have dinner with some of the old time Yankees. Boy, was it worth the drive!!!

Here are a few pictures to commemorate the day!!!

From left to right

Gil Patterson, Jessie Barfield, Ron Bloomberg, Marcus Thames, Jim Leyritz, El Duque, Mickey Rivers and John Wettland. Not all stars but boy, could they tell stories!!!!

From left to right

My son Jay, my brother Steve, me and my nephew Ben

Me and El Duque (Orlando Hernandez)

And his autograph!!!

It was a lot of fun! And if anyone wants to contribute to the "send doggydaddy to fantasy camp" fund, contact me at my email address. I only need $5000!!!!!

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Several top 25 games Thursday night. No upsets, but I really wasn't impressed with the performances of some of the "top" teams against much weaker opponents. Mostly on the defensive end.

- No. 6 Notre Dame continues to underperform with a mediocre effort against a terrible Boston College team winning 80-69. A team of ND's caliber should never give up 69 points to a team like BC. They allowed them to shoot 50% from the field and 38% on threes. Good thing for the Irish that they had their offense playing well shooting 54% from the field and 7-12 on threes.

- No. 5 South Carolina beat Ole Miss 65-46 in a game where neither team could shoot. A'ja Wilson was back for this game but looked a little rusty. Wilson is a little bit too much of "look at me" for my takes. With her rolled up sleeves and shorter length shorts....it just turns me off. Coates is a load but the Gamecocks will have to turn up their game a couple of notches to have a chance at beating UConn.

- No. 16 Ohio State struggled with 5-14 Wisconsin winning 70-61. In no way should this game have been that close. And no way should Wisconsin outscore Ohio State 20-12 and 22-12 in two of the quarters.

- No. 15 Duke sloberknocked No. 17 Virginia Tech 84-59. This was only VT's second loss but I'm not surprised with this result. I have felt most of this season that they are overrated and overranked. that will change soon. They play Florida State next and I would guess they would lose that one and that would be two straight and three out of four. Look for them to possibly drop out of the top 25.

- Speaking of No. 7 Florida State, they jumped all over Syracuse in the first quarter, taking a 26-7 lead after one. The game was even the rest of the way but it was clear that FSU was a much better team. So good, in fact, that they could be a final four team.

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I gave Tennessee some props for their win over Notre Dame in their last outing even though much of Notre Dame's problems were self inflicted.

Thursday night, the Lady Vols looked to continue the momentum when they visited unranked Auburn. This is the Auburn team that lost by 26 to South Carolina. But they also lost to ranked West Virginia, Virginia Tech and Kansas State. That's four ranked teams. They did have one bad lose by two to the Tulane team that UConn is playing on Sunday. But they have zero good wins. Not one.

Tennessee jumped out to an early lead, looking like they would make this a runaway with a 14-0 run to start the game. They pushed the lead to 24-8 and settled on a 25-10 lead at the end of one quarter.

I'm sure the Tennessee fans were now talking about final fours again. The rebirth of a dynasty. Ahhh......no. It didn't happen. Talk about a collapse. Auburn outscored Tennessee 49-17 over the next 20 minutes, turning a 15 point deficit into a 17 points lead 59-42 going into the fourth quarter. The lead got as big as 23 points, 69-46 before Tennessee was able to close the gap to 18 for the final of 79-61.

For the Lady Vols, it was all about turnovers. They had 22 for the game. In a bizarre state sheet, DDD came close to a quadruple double with 17 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, and NINE turnovers. DDD giveth and DDD taketh away.

Credit to Mercedes Russell, who keeps improving her position in the 2017 WNBA draft. She had 26 points and 11 rebounds. No way she comes back next year.

I've had some debate on Holly Warlick's recruiting skills. Until this latest top class, the results have been underwhelming. Just look at Jackson, Dunbar and Middleton. Middleton has really struggled in the SEC and this game was no exception. She was 0-7 from the field, 0-4 on threes. She just can't play against any teams that have even the slightest quickness in the backcourt.

So, now Tennessee is 11-7, 2-3 in the conference. They play Vanderbilt and Florida, two teams that Tennessee should handle, before playing South Carolina.

Time to visit Vol Nation!!!

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Just for a loyal reader Mike, here is a throwback Thursday version of the UGGY award!!

There were a few candidates but one effort stood out to me.

Virginia beat Clemson 69-37 and that looked like the winner to me. I mean, they shot only 32% from the field and 2-11 on threes. They also had 18 turnovers. Anything under 40 is a good benchmark for a possible UGGY award. And when I looked at the linescore, it showed that Clemson only scored 2 points in the fourth quarter. TWO points?? They started the quarter with 3 turnovers, then 2 missed free throws. Then two more turnovers, and five missed jumpers. Finally with 2:30 left, they hit two free throws. They finished the quarter with 3 more missed shots and then a turnover to end the agony. That's 0-8 from the field, 2-4 on free throws and 6 turnovers. Now THAT is ugly!.

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By David in Naples!!!!!

The leading scorer for the Huskies this season is Katie Lou Samuelson with 363 points. Fellow sophomore Napheesa Collier is right behind her with 329 points. Juniors Kia Nurse and Gabby Williams are 3rd and 4th with 217 and 204 points this year. But who has the highest career point total on the team? Here's the answer:

1. Kia Nurse = 970 points
2. Gabby Williams = 856 points
3. Katie Lou = 771 points
4. Saniya Chong = 622 points
5. Napheesa = 587 points

How about for career assists?
1. Kia = 280
2. Saniya = 222
3. Gabby = 187
4. KLS = 127
5. Pheesa = 68

Career rebounds is not even close...

1. Gabby = 574
2. Pheesa = 338
3. Kia = 236
4. Saniya = 216
5. Katie Lou = 195

Obviously, Juniors have the advantage of three years of stats that get added together. Still, Kia and Gabby are 1st, 2nd or 3rd in all three statistical categories. Definitely carrying their weight during UConn's record run..!!

Go Huskies..!!

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