Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 1/27/19

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My friend Danny (with the UConn ball wig) got this autograph.

SO COOL!!!!

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So, I was texting with David from Naples just before tip off for the UConn/UCF game and I told him I was a little worried about the game. Geno kinda spooked me with his negative comments about his team and the positive comments about Central Florida. My original prediction was 20 and I was thinking 10 when I wrote my blog Saturday. Now I'm thinking it could be even closer as I texted with David. I mentioned the Notre Dame and Stanford upsets and those had me worried. He said "UConn wins fairly easily, 25 points." After the UConn quick start he texted me "still worried?" with one of those 😂. Yeah Yeah....I was so wrong.

UConn finally had one of those great shooting games, well great shooting halves anyway and just obliterated Central Florida out of the gates. The UCF coach did her best to stem the tide with time outs but nothing was going to stop UConn, who was shooting 75% late in the first half. UConn really rattled the play by play announcer Beth Mowins, who called Crystal Dangerfield "Moriah Jefferson", "Crystal Jefferson", and maybe a few other combination of names for the two players. Sheeesh...what an idiot!!! UCF had a decent offensive effort in the first half but was down by 25 points, 61-36.

It was a tail of two halves as UConn was as cold as they were hot in the first half. They missed eleven consecutive shots at one points and only scored 13 points for the third quarter. But UConn had turned on the defensive effort and held UCF to only 10 points to take a 74-46 lead going to the final 10 minutes. The defense continued into fourth quarter and UConn held UCF to only 11 points. The bench did a nice job in scoring 19 points for the final 93-57 score.

UConn was led by Napheesa Collier with 23 points, 9 rebounds and 4 steals. Megan Walker with 21 points and a team leading 11 rebounds. She was just terrific in this game. Katie Lou Samuelson had 15 points and the best point guard in the country, Crystal Moriah Jefferson Dangerfield had 17 points, 9 assists and ZERO turnovers.

I was really happy with how Geno used his bench to keep the starter minutes down. Kyla Irwin and Olivia Nelson-Ododa had 16 and 14 minutes each and both had 5 points, 3 rebounds and an assist.

Next up is Louisville. It should be a great game!

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It was an interesting day in the top 25. Usually there are tons of upsets in the bottom of the poll, but not Sunday. Teams 7, 8 , 9 , 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 22, 23, and 25 all won their games against unranked conference opponents. The upsets were in the top 6.

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No. 6 Stanford lost to No. 21 Utah in the battle of the 17-1 teams. It was a big surprise, even if it was on the Utes home court. Stanford had never lost to Utah going 22-0 over that timeframe. Utah was led by Eirka Bean, who had 23 points and hit the big three pointer to give Utah their final lead with one minute left in the game. A big part of this loss was the foul trouble Stanford was in for much of the game. Their best player Alaina Smith was held to 19 points in playing only 25 minutes before fouling out. Another starter Alyssa Jerome only played 21 minutes in garnering 4 fouls. Ten more minutes from those two players would have made a difference. In a PAC Ten sideline, Oregon still leads at 8-0 with these two teams at 7-1 along with Oregon State. It could be a great finish for the regular season title!!

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In the other Top 25 upset, the biggest upset of the season occurred. No. 1 Notre Dame lost to unranked North Carolina 78-73. Is it bad that I smiled the entire time I typed that??? Too bad!

This game was a shocker but as the folks that cry about the lack of bench for UConn, this game showed that the Irish bench is more of a problem than the UConn bench. Unfortunately for Notre Dame, Jackie Young was out with an ankle sprain. Hopefully not for long. But clearly this had an impact on the Irish. They really only played five players and one of those was freshman Nixon, who played 33 minutes. Her contributions were minimal and that really hurt Notre Dame.

Still, you have to give North Carolina credit. They did what they had to do to win this game. Paris Kea had an incredible game to lead the Tar Heels. She had 30 points and 10 assists, shooting 5-8 on threes. Stephanie Watts added 19 points going 5-10 on threes in 40 excellent minutes. They also held high scoring Notre Dame to 73 points.

Notre Dame did their usual balanced scoring attack from their better players, but they sorely missed the double digit scoring and overall play of Young. And when ND gets in trouble, you know that Ogunbowale will try to shoot the Irish out of it. Sometimes it works, and like in this game, sometimes it doesn't. She was 5-21 from the field and 1-7 on threes. Twenty-one shots? Not good. That and the fact that in 50 minutes, everyone but the big four players scored 2 points doomed Notre Dame.

This was only the fourth loss for Notre Dame in the ACC. They have dominant in that league. But you would imagine they will come back to earth some when Mabrey, Turner, Shepard and Ogunbowale all graduate. The bench has shown little and Young can't do it all!

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No. 2 Baylor was underwhelming in their win over Oklahoma. Yeah, not as underwhelming as UConn was but still, I was not impressed. They didn't shoot very well, at 40% and 21% on threes. But as always, they dominated the boards and played very good defense. They could be No. 1 on Monday in the AP poll depending on how UConn does Thursday at No. 4 Louisville. If the Huskies win, I would think they could slide by the Bears and of UConn loses Baylor will jump to No. 1.

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UConn's next opponent, No. 4 Louisville had an easy time with a terrible Pittsburgh team, winning 70-42. Coach Walz decided to give his star player, Asia Durr the game off and it reflected in the "off" play of Louisville's offense. Dana Evans got the start in play of Durr and scored a team high 16 points. The Cardinals used their advantage on the boards and their speed on defense to hold Pittsburgh to 28% shooting and 42 points. Hopefully I'll find time to write up a full Pre Game Report for the Thursday night game at the Yum!

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Well, well, well....Tennessee broke their losing streak. Hey, all good things must come to an end. I haven't visited the Tennessee message board Volnation.Com but I'm sure they are excited about the win. "On a roll now!!", I can here it now. The fact is they beat a mediocre LSU team while shooting only 42% from the field and going 0-13 on threes. They also had 17 turnovers and committed 23 fouls. They would lose most games doing that but LSU decided to play like a they forgot that the idea is to pass the ball to your teammates, not your opponents. They had 25 turnovers. That is a lot!

Tennessee could go on a mini-roll with a terrible Florida team next and another mediocre Vanderbilt team after that. Then they run into a buzz saw at No. 8 Mississippi State, an Auburn team they struggled with in their first matchup and then at No. 24 Missouri and at No. 25 Texas A&M. They could easily go on another losing streak. Am I smiling again?

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By David in Naples!!!!!

Full disclosure, my son graduated from UCF and they have lots of my money. Despite the family connection, I don’t like their basketball team or their coach. Their 17 wins are a illusion. UCF schedules worse than Maryland. They have wins against major basketball powerhouses Mercer, Stetson, Pacific and Our Lady of Perpetual Forgiveness. All hat and no cattle...! 😎

Here are some Fun Numbers.
1. UCF had 3 starters take a combined 2 shots. Both in the 4th period. Why are they starting?
2. In the 1st half, UConn’s shot dispersion was 8, 8, 6, 5 and 3. They all scored. If you’re from Duke, that’s like everyone getting separate checks.
3. The UCF coach rotates players furiously to press full court and tire the other team. UConn hung 61 points on you in the first 20 minutes. Is there a Plan B?
4. UCF has more turnovers in the first half than baskets, 15-14.
5. Wright, their big scorer played 33 minutes and scored 8 points.
6. Napheesa shot 90% from the free throw line. 9-10....
7. UCF played 10 players. Four were scoreless and three others combined for 9 points. Way to limit your offense coach.
8. UConn’s bench was awesome. Early minutes, 13 points, 6 boards and good defense.
9. UConn won the 4th period. (That matters to some people.)
10. The Huskies scored 93 points in 40 minutes. Too bad it wasn’t 100.

Go Huskies..!!