Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 1/19/18

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UConn beat Tulsa 78-60. Geno was in rare form. At the end of the game, when asked what he would take away from this game he answered "I'd like to take away their uniforms". Then he dropped the mic.

Maybe as unhappy as I've seen Geno when talking about his team's performance. It doesn't help when he plays the entire bench for the second quarter. And it doesn't help when Katie Lou rolls her ankle, Gabby hurts her hip flexor and Dangerfield sits to rest her shin splints. Right now UConn is a mess.

When I see Geno do what he did in regards to the rotation I believe he hears what the fans are saying about playing the bench. I think he knew they weren't ready to produce, even against a mediocre Tulsa team. And he wanted to prove a point. Now maybe he could have done what he did in the second half, incorporate some of the bench players with some starters, but he didn't do that.

The fact is, the bench, outside of Stevens is just not ready to make plays. They get lost on defense and have no confidence on offense.

Thankfully they have another weak AAC opponent up next. I'm keep my eyes and ears open in regards to injury updates. As Geno said, the trainers will be busy.

No post game report on this one! I'm sure you understand.

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No. 5 Notre Dame set a team record in coming back from 23 points down to beat No. 6 Tennessee 84-70.

Tennessee did exactly what I said they would do against better teams....turn the ball over. The Lady Vols had 28 turnovers with led to countless Notre Dame points.

This contest was a game of runs. Tennessee ran out to a 17 point first quarter lead using a 23-6 run to end the quarter. They opened the second quarter with a 10-4 run making that a 33-10 advantage that spanned the 1st and 2nd quarter over 10 minutes.

Notre Dame slowly got themselves back in the game, and over the last seven minutes the Irish outscored Tennessee 13-2 to close to 39-27.

The third quarter started with an exchange of a few baskets to keep the lead at 12. With a Davis free throw, Tennessee took a 17 point lead with 4 minutes remaining in the third quarter. At this point, the earth tiled on it's axis, the leprechaun showed up, Holly Warlick did her usual bad job of coaching and the entire game changed. Notre Dame closed the gap to 8 with just 1:30 left in the quarter. Freshman Davis his a big three to expand the lead to 11, Notre Dame hit two baskets and then with just a second left in the quarter, precocious freshman, Westbrook hit a three to expand the lead back to 10 points going into the fourth quarter. I thought the game was still in hand for the Lady Vols. Boy, was I wrong.

Tennessee had just an awful fourth quarter and Notre Dame took advantage of every Lady Vol mistake.

In the quarter Tennessee was 2-8 from the foul line. They had 7 turnovers, 4 by the senior Nared. They were 4-12 from the field. They allowed Notre Dame to score 34 points in the quarter while only scoring 10 points.

A bigtime win for Notre Dame. After getting blown out by Louisville last week, it looked like another huge loss was in the works when they got down 23 points. But it wasn't to be and that credit goes to one matchup McGraw vs Warlick. And it wasn't even close.

One coach actually coaches.

Warlick can whistle at her team until her head explodes. They don't listen, she doesn't say anything anyway.

Now Mississippi State comes into Tennessee for another big matchup for the Lady Vols. Can they recover mentally from such a bad loss? Doubtful.

As much as the UConn game made me crazy, this game was enough to make me smile. I hate Notre Dame. I hate Tennessee even more.

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By David in Naples!!!!!

The Texas win was the best victory for UConn this season, better than Notre Dame. Both were great victories, but the Texas game will pay BIG dividends during the NCAA tournament. Here is why the Texas victory was such a great lesson for the Huskies:

1. Texas was not just an away game, but the 2nd road game in a row. The Huskies had not slept in their own beds for 4 days.
2. There were 11,877 rabid fans at the game and Texas was very fired up.
3. Texas took a 10 point early lead at 20-10. UConn didn't fold or panic.
4. Gabby and Pheesa scored a combined 16 points and had 9 turnovers. The rest of the Huskies picked up the slack.
5. Texas shot 43.3% for the game and were red hot early, firing up the team and crowd.
6. Texas has a rare combination of big posts and fast, athletic guards and wings.
7. UConn lost the 1st and 4th periods but still won the game.

So UConn beat a big, fast & athletic team, that shot the ball well, on the road, in a hostile arena, falling behind early, with several players not up to par. Yeah, that lesson will come in handy at tournament time..!!

Go Huskies..!!

And one more -

One interesting statistic from last night's victory is UConn's runs to close out each of the four quarters. For example, in the final three minutes of the 1st period, UConn made a 9-2 run to cut the Texas lead to 3 points. Their push in the last 2 minutes, to close out the first half, was even better at 10-1. From down 8 points, the Huskies took a 1 point lead.

The end of the 3rd period saw the same push, with UConn outscoring the Longhorns 7-4 to raise the lead to 6 pts. The game ended in similar fashion with a UConn mini-run of 6-3 to stretch the final margin to 4 points.

Taken together, UConn's edge in the final 3-4 minutes of each period adds up to a 32-10 advantage. To be sure, Texas had their runs as well, but a Huskies' trademark is conditioning and tenacity. It really shows in final moments of each period. :cool: