Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 2/13/2023

GO UCONN!!!!!

************************************************

A quick video with Paige's recovery

***********************************************

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by UConn Women's Basketball (@uconnwbb)

***********************************************

One of my favorite plays so far this season!!!

BLOCKED BY GRIFFIN!!! pic.twitter.com/30gHsswtHm
— UConn on SNY (@SNYUConn) February 12, 2023

************************************************

GAMES

Upset noted with red **

No. 2 Indiana 83 No. 13 Ohio State 59

No. 17 Texas 61 No. 22 Iowa State 66 **

**********************************

Straight from the Dog

Quoting my friend Link - "I'm seeing this year like a heroic novel. The Hero, in this case UConn, always faces a seemingly insurmountable series of trials and always is on the brink of defeat with they find new life and defeat the "evil-doers" (the rest of D1). J. Campbell wrote about the heroic myth and it's importance to humanity and any Chinese Kung Foo movie from the 70's follows that script. It's sure a lot more fun than worrying about things I have no control over."

-----------------------------------------------------------------

And in another thing we have no control over, UConn is rated 4th, 2nd & 2nd respectively in these Massey, Realtime RPI, and .NET. These are all based on a formula not an opinion of sportwriters, some that probably never watch a game.

I had an argument with someone on FaceBook that thought that the power rankings (ESPN) and the AP Poll would impact UConn's seedings. They don't. More opinon.

UConn is in great shape for a one seed if they can hold on to win the remaining Big East games.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

I found this on a UConn message board. I don't always agree with this person but I thought it was a great take on the Huskies late in games.

"In recent years past, the fourth quarter of a game was often problematic with opponents out scoring the Huskies. Sometimes this was the result of playing the benchies but not always, especially the last couple of years. This season, noticeably in the last dozen games or so, the team has been strong in the fourth quarter with Aubrey, Dorka, and Nika are usually the Q4 heroes. My observation is that Aaliyah and Lou have been worn out by being ping-ponged around for three quarters so that their teammates need to step up for them and they have in a big way. This has been huge for the team.

A physical defense like the ones the Huskies are seeing is a double-edged sword. It’s as fatiguing for the defender as it is for UConn. A team with a deep quality bench, like South Carolina, can play tough d for 40 minutes and maintain their scoring output while others can’t.

The conditioning of the Huskies is fantastic. Those that maligned Andrea Hudy earlier in the year probably owe her an apology. The fourth quarter runs wouldn’t be happening if the Huskies weren’t so well conditioned."

**************************************************

One of my favorite Big East Players

who still looks 12 years old

Lauren Park-Lane tonight:

39 PTS | 4 REB | 9 AST | 11-19 FG

Seton Hall defeats DePaul 89-82! #NCAAW | @SHUWBB pic.twitter.com/xZn0XxhUUP
— Women’s Hoopz (@WBBWorldWide) February 14, 2023

**************************************************

By PHIL

How good is LSU?

How good is LSU? Let me emphasize, my thesis is not to argue that LSU is bad, they aren't. They almost certainly are one of the top 10 teams in the country now.

Before specifically talking about LSU, it’s talk in general about what we expect of top-ranked teams. I think, at a minimum, we think they ought to be able to beat some top-ranked teams.

What do the following 44 teams have in common?

1. Arizona
2. BC
3. Clemson
4. Colorado
5. DePaul
6. Duke
7. FL State
8. Florida State
9. Illinois
10. Indiana
11. Iowa
12. Iowa State
13. Kansas
14. Kansas St
15. Louisville
16. Marquette
17. Maryland
18. Mercer
19. Miami
20. Michigan
21. Michigan St
22. NC State
23. Nebraska
24. North Carolina
25. Notre Dame
26. Ohio State
27. OK St
28. Oklahoma
29. Or State
30. Purdue
31. South Carolina
32. South Florida
33. Stanford
34. Texas Tech
35. Texas
36. Texas
37. Toledo
38. UConn
39. USC
40. USF
41. Utah
42. Villanova
43. Virginia Tech
44. Wash State

Every single one of them has beaten at least one of the current top 25 ranked teams. This means we cannot simply say that beating one of the top-ranked teams qualifies for admission to the list of top-ranked teams, because there are 44 of them, and there isn’t room in the top 25 for all 44 of them.

This suggests (although it does not prove) that the criteria for being our top-ranked team ought to be a little stronger than the ability to be one of the current top 25 teams.

Note that LSU is not on this list. That’s right, they do not have a single victory over any of the top 25 teams. (They beat Arkansas when Arkansas was ranked but that ranking has gone away). As an aside, I see that UCLA and Gonzaga are in the same boat. Each of them is ranked, each of them beat a team that was ranked at some time, but the current list of victories does not include any of the current top 25. Does that mean UCLA and Gonzaga do not deserve being in the top 25? Not necessarily, but at least those two teams are ranked number 18 and number 23, not number 3.

Perhaps a good showing against a top team is worthy of consideration? Maybe, but we are on shaky ground. Georgetown lost UConn by single digits, but with a Massey rank of 116, I don’t think anyone is running around thinking that Georgetown qualifies as a top team. Georgia took LSU to OT. Georgia is far better than Georgetown with a Massey rank of 41. They qualify as a decent team but not in the top tier. Still, let’s persevere and look at LSU’s showing against top teams.

So many options. Wait a minute, there aren’t that many options. In fact, LSU has played exactly one team currently ranked in the top 25. They played South Carolina and lost 88-64.

What do these eight teams have in common? (The number after the team’s name is the Massey ranking)

1. UConn 4
2. Kentucky 70
3. Alabama 31
4. Mississippi State 37
5. Georgia 41
6. S Dakota State 38
7. UCLA 16
8. Stanford 2

The answer is that every single one of these teams played South Carolina, lost, of course, but lost by less than 24 points. Every single one of them had a better showing against South Carolina then did LSU.

That’s only one data point, and you can’t really slot a team based on how they did in one particular game, but you can be forgiven for thinking that you are truly one of the top four teams in the nation, you ought to have a better showing against South Carolina then did say, Kentucky.

And yes, I’ll reemphasize that a single data point is not enough data points but that’s the problem. Why aren’t we looking at half a dozen examples at least of games by LSU against top teams? The answer is because LSU decided not to play anybody.

Kim has argued that she had a lot of new players on LSU, did not know how well they would come together as a team, and felt it was important to play a schedule weaker than is typically played by top teams. I respect that argument. I can understand that pulling together a team with a lot of new players leads one to want to play some weaker teams to have the chance to play together without worrying that the win is on the line. I can even accept the argument if she were playing teams ranked 60 or so, not 300 or so. She might’ve honestly felt they weren’t likely to be ranked in the top 10, and so a schedule full of ranked teams might result in losses, loss of confidence and a dismal showing. But even if she thought they were going to be ranked in the 20s, you can play teams ranked in the 60s and be comfortable you are going to win almost all and have some decent challenges to help by getting better. Instead, she chose to play one of the weakest schedules ever, and the chickens are coming home to roost.

They weren’t prepared to play South Carolina. The Gamecocks are a very solid team this year and may be no one can truly be prepared, but I feel comfortable saying that playing teams like Creighton, Oregon or South Dakota State would have better prepared you to play South Carolina.

While I didn’t hear Kim say this, I can imagine some diehard SEC fans are saying she had to schedule a very weak out of conference schedule, because once the conference schedule started, they had to play in the mighty SEC. Well, “mighty” is a term that used to apply to the SEC, but not so much in 2023.

The AP originally ranked the top 20 and switch to the top 25 in 1990, so this is the 24th year of AP top 25 rankings. In those 24 years, the SEC can boast 158 instances where one of the SEC teams was ranked in the final ranking. That’s an average of 4.6 per year. They’ve had five or more teams in 17 of those 24 years. Only once in the span (2011) did they have is few as two teams in the top 25. This year isn’t over, but it looks like it’s going to tie 2011 for the fewest teams ranked in the AP top 25. Of course, LSU is one of them, so this means when Kim is looking at the SEC conference schedule, she isn’t looking at two ranked teams on a schedule, she is only looking at a single one. Due to the vagaries of the schedules over time, 2023 happened to be the year in which LSU only played South Carolina once.

How good is LSU? Frankly they are good but how good, I don’t have a clue, and that’s on Kim.

********************************************************

By David in Naples

With 26 games in the books, UConn sports a 22-4 record and some odd individual and team stats.

Consider:

1. Nika, known for her assists, is 4th on the team in rebounding. (102)
2. Amari has appeared in 21 games, the same number as Azzi & Caroline combined !
3. Opponents have missed 1,043 shots or 65% of the 1,609 taken. UConn has missed 729.
4. Lou has more blocked shots (10) than Aubrey (8).
5. Amari is 5-12 from the 3 pt line AND 5-12 from the free throw line.
6. Ayanna is the only player who has not tried a three pt shot. Ines is the only player without a blocked shot.
7. Nika took 9 free throws all last year. This year, she has taken 41. She has made 29 for 71%.
8. UConn's free throw shooting % of 75.6% is the best since the 2017-18 season.
9. Aaliyah and Lou are the only players to start all 26 games.
10. The turnovers per game for the last 3 years was 13.8, 14.1 and 14. This year the average is 17.

It has been a tough season with many injuries and limited substitutions. What has never been missing is heart and effort.

Go Huskies..!!