Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 1/16/19

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I'm back!!!!

Florida was great and between internet problems, late nights and just a lack of motivation from the good weather I just didn't feel it!!! But with Wednesday nights Tulane game, I'm ready to start again. But first......a few grandkid pics!!

Barrett at Targets again. He is a good shopper!!!

Logan decided to give Geno a call. I hope it helps with the Tulane game.

I think he told him to stay out of the French Quarter.

Noa enjoying some Ice Cream!!!

And so is Mya!!

And here is my new Granddog Tito!

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With the Tulane win, UConn has now won 4 straight since losing at Baylor. Just because I haven't been blogging doesn't mean I haven't read some of the comments on the UConn message boards. I have actually read that some fans are calling this the worst UConn team in 8 years. I can't imagine what they will say after Collier and Samuelson are gone next year. Well, the worst team in 8 years doesn't win every game except for the Baylor loss and doesn't beat Notre Dame in their house and do it easily. This is a very good to great team that has had some hiccups in their performances this season. How about we shot some positive reinforcement instead of such negativity!

The Baylor (68-57) game was tough to watch I have to admit. I can't remember a worse shooting game, and it's not like they didn't have many open shots. The good news in that game is they did hold Baylor to 68 points and you can wager your last dollar that they won't shoot 29.4% again if they meet in the NCAA tournament.

They followed that with two solid wins, 81-61 over Houston and 82-38 over Cincinnati. Then came the South Florida game. UConn had one of their worst starts in a long time and Geno was so exasperated he pulled all five starters and let the bench play the majority of the first quarter. The final was 63-46 but that doesn't show the uninspired play of the starting unit. I love how Geno uses the bench to get his point across. It's something he clearly learned from the legend John Wooden. While some of the starters still struggled for the rest of the game, the defensive intensity was where Geno wanted it and the team coasted to the win.

I wrote this earlier today. It ended up pretty accurate.

"They play an improved Tulane team on the road Wednesday night. The Green Wave is a small team with only one player over 6', with Harlyn Wyatt, a 6'2" senior. Their leading scorer is 6' sophomore forward Krystal Freeman. Their three guards, 6' sophomore Sierra Cheatham, 5'7" junior Kayla Manuirirangi from New Zeland and 5'5" sophomore Kaila Anderson are all three point threats as they shoot 39, 37 and 38 percent respectively. But scoring will be an issue for Tulane. They only average 66 points per game and they haven't played a team like UConn yet. Certainly not a motivated UConn team looking to get off to a quick start.

I think UConn jumps on Tulane early and it's never close in a 30+ point UConn win."

UConn just dominated Tulane Wednesday night with one of their best defensive efforts of the season. They held Tulane to 11-60 from the field for 18.3%, 2-22 on threes for 9.1% and they forced 22 turnovers. UConn also outrebounded Tulane 51-37. A remarkable job by the entire UConn team.

I totally agree with Geno's comments in the post game interview. They shot crappy, but they played great. He used a baseball analogy to relate to the bad shooting. Like baseball teams collectively go into a hitting slump, UConn is in a collective shooting slump. The good thing about slumps is they end and they usually end with a bang. I expect a 60% FG shooting game along with a 50% three point shooting game as well. And it will be soon.

The only player who wasn't in a slump in this game was Megan Walker, who showed all her No. 1 HS recruit skills for maybe the first time in her brief career. She had a career high 34 points on 11-16 shooting, 4-7 on threes and 8-10 on FTs. She had gone to the FT line only 14 times all season and in this game she was so aggressive she went 10 times. This bodes really well for UConn's future. She also added 10 rebounds for her first career double-double. The question remains until she does it...can she follow this up with more impressive performances. Let's hope so.

Next for UConn is at Temple on Sunday. With a big snow forecast, it should be an interesting travel day. Maybe they will go down to Philadelphia on Saturday to beat the storm! Temple is not a very good team this season. The last four games they played were losses to teams that UConn already beat this season. They lost to Tulane 66-57 (UConn won 75-33), South Florida 63-53 (UConn won 63-46), Houston 78-65 (UConn won 81-61) and Wednesday night they lost to Cincinnati 72-52 (UConn won 82-38). I don't usually like comparative scores, but in this case, I think UConn will win really really big.

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So, lets talk about a team that really is in trouble, not the silly talk about the UConn team. My favorite punching bag, the Lady Vols of Tennessee, has really struggled since the last time I posted my blog.

They lost THREE consecutive games for the first time since 1986.
They also lost two straight home games for the first time.

Prior to that they lost for the first time in the round-of-32 and did that two times. And they had their first home loss in the NCAA tournament.

Because of the three losses they dropped SEVEN spots in the Top 25 poll to No. 20, tied with Rutgers. Yes, Rutgers.

Holly has really embarrassed the Lady Vol legacy.

The three losses were to Missouri 66-64, No. 16 Kentucky 73-71 and Georgia 66-62. Tennessee ran some horrible offense in these games and just couldn't find a way to pull out these close games.

In these game, they shot 35%, 38% and 37%. They were 11-37 on threes, and 46-75 on free throws. That's 29.7% on threes and 61.3% on free throws. Horrible.

It should be interesting to see if these young players can turn it around. But with Holly Warlick as the coach, it's hard to believe they can.

They are 12-4 with 13 more games left in the regular season. Of those 13 games, they play No. 1 Notre Dame, No. 7 Mississippi State and No. 15 South Carolina and those look like losses. And maybe they can split the other 10 games? That would give them a 17-12 record and 6-10 SEC record.

They might have to win the SEC tournament to get into the NCAAs. It could get really ugly for the Lady Vols.

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While I love to pick on Tennessee, I also love to pick on the SEC.

Right now they have No. 7 Mississippi State, No. 15 South Carolina, No. 16 Kentucky and No. 20 Tennessee in the Top 25. This is the best conference (as their fans like to think)?

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Only 7 Top 25 games Wednesday night, but there were three upsets.

Unranked Kansas State easily beat No. 11 Texas 87-69, unranked West Virginia pulled away from No. 18 Iowa State in the fourth quarter to win 73-64 and unranked Northwestern got by No. 25 Indiana 75-69.

Just more proof that there is true parity outside of the top few teams.

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By David in Naples!!!!!

I'm also catching up with David's great numbers. He just keeps them coming!!!

Part I

There are no Fun Numbers in the loss to Baylor. Consider:

1. When you miss 48 shots and make only 20, you lose. Simple as that...

2. The three best UConn players went 4-16, 4-18 and 6-18. That is 38 of the 48 misses.

3. Baylor scored 52 points in the paint, UConn 10.

4. Katei Lou and Crystal went 5-20 from three-point range. That's 25%.

The only good news is the AAC schedule starts Sunday at Houston.

Part II

What a difference a game makes..! After the loss at Baylor, UConn bounced back in a big way, defeating Houston 81-61. The stats were better all around. Consider:

1. Shooting % went up from a decades low 29% to 56%.

2. Points in the paint from 10 to 42.

3. Opponents rebounds down from 46 to 30.

4. The Big 3, KLS, Pheesa and Crystal, missed only 12 shots vs 38 misses at Baylor.

5. Scoring 81 points versus only 57.

Some fans have criticized the Huskies because the margin of victory was 20 points. With 3 minutes remaining in the Houston game, the score was 77-49. That is a 28 point lead. Geno had the substitute playerss in the game, while Houston played starters. The last basket for Houston was a 3 point basket, by a starter, with 18 seconds on the clock. I have no problem with Houston going for threes despite the reality they were going to lose. But, Uconn fans/critics can't point to a 20 poiont win and call it a lousy effort.

After 14 games, UConn is 13-1 and many of their stats are what fans expect. Here are 5 that are surprising.

Part III

Katie Lou Samuelson and Napheesa Collier are moving up in the UConn career scoring list. Lou is now 12th all-time with 1,987 points. She is, however, only 7 points from tying Bria Hartley for 10th place. Two threes and a layup put her alone in the 10th spot.

Napheesa is moving up on several UConn all-time lists. She is right behind her best friend in 14th place in scoring with 1,862 points. That puts her just 3 points away from Svetlana and 13th place. Renee Montgomery is 28 points away in 11th place. Here is the order:

10. Bria Hartley 1,994 pts
11. Renee Montgomery 1, 990 pts
12. Katie Lou 1,987 pts
13. Svetlana 1,865 pts
14. Napheesa 1,862 pts

In addition to scoring, Collier is just 2 blocked shots away from tying Maya for 7th place all-time. Pheesa has 202, Moore 204. Most amazing of all, Napheesa is now 8th all-time in rebounding with 950 boards. Gabby and 7th place is just 57 rebounds away. Scoring, rebounding and blocking shots shows Napheesa can do it all..!! :cool:

Congrats to these two Huskies on career stats that are great and getting better each game. Keep moving on up..!

Part IV

1. Crystal is shooting 95.8% from the charity stripe. She is 23-24. Freshman year she made 59.3%...
2. Last season Katie Lou had 145 rebounds. This year she has 116 in 14 games. :cool:

3. Christyn leads the team in minutes played with 480. She has a better % from three than Lou (43.8% vs 39.6%), more blocked shots than Megan and fewer turnovers than any starter.

4. Pheesa is averaging a double-double in points and rebounds. Stewie never averaged a double-double.
5. Crystal and Christyn each have more rebounds than Olivia Nelson-Ododa. (52, 54 versus 37)

Go Huskies..!!

P.S. - Bonus shocking stat. Notre Dame was awarded 39 free throws against L'ville. UConn had 36 tries, in the last three games, combined. :rolleyes:

Part V

I think we can all agree the USF game was the definition of an "ugly win." But you don't have to look far for the silver lining.
1. Molly's coming out party - Molly played a career high 20+ minutes and stuffed the stat sheet. Two 3 point shots, 3 assists, 2 rebounds, 2 steals and 6 points. She looked extremely comfortable playing with the starters.

2. Bench matched USF - Geno put the whole bench in for his starters halfway thru the 1st period and they matched USF in points 8 to 8. USF isn't Notre Dame, but they have a decent squad.

3. Lou scored her 2,000th point. - Katie Lou scored 19 points to join the exclusive 2,000 point club at UConn. She sits at 2,006 points and is one of 10 players in that club.

4. Bench contribution - For all the fans who argue Geno doesn't play the subs enough, they played 53 minutes, scored 16 points, grabbed 5 rebounds, handed out 8 assists and nabbed 3 steals.

5. Defense - After returning to the game in the 2nd period, the starters' defense held USF to 16 points in the 20 minutes of the 2nd and 3rd periods. The defense also forced 23 turnovers and held USF to 34% shooting.

Congrats to Katie Lou..!!

Part VI

With Katie Lou Samuelson entering the exclusive 2,000 point club at UConn, a debate ensued about the Huskies "Best Scoring Duo." Here is the list of the total points scored by two classmates. The list was totally stolen from meyers7, who posted in my thread. He did all the research, I get the credit. As it should be...

1. Stewie/Mojeff 4,208 points

2. Katei Lou/ Pheesa 3,880 pts

3. Hartley/Dolson 3,791 pts

4. Wolters/Berube 3,522 pts

5. Moore/Dixon 3,391 pts

6. Strother/Turner 3,328 pts

7. Cash/Jones 3,085 pts

8. Bird/Cash 2,961 pts

First, notice KLS and Pheesa are already 2nd on the list. Also, notice there is no Taurasi on the list. She comes in lower with Taurasi/Conlon 2,870 pts. It takes two great scorers to become a top Duo...