Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Doggy's Doghouse 2/14/2023

 













 




GO UCONN!!!!!


                    

  UConn Huskies                                            Creighton Bluejays
22-4 (14-1)                                                           18-6 (12-4) 

Date: Wednesday, February 15th 2023
Time: 7:00 PM
Where: Gampel Pavilion
Storrs, Ct.
TV: SNY 


0
CREIGHTON | UCONN LEADS 6-0 
H: 3-0 | A: 3-0 | N: 0-0 

11/23/14 #1 UConn 96, Creighton 60 Storrs, Conn. 
12/17/20 #3 UConn 80, Creighton 47 Storrs, Conn. 
02/25/21 #1 UConn 81, Creighton 49 Omaha, Neb.
01/09/22 #9 UConn 63, Creighton 55 Storrs, Conn.
02/02/21 #10 UConn 76, Creighton 56 Omaha, Neb.
12/28/22 #8  UConn 72, Creighton 47 Omaha, Neb.

Creighton

Creighton comes into this game on a roll. They have their last six games, and nine of their last ten.

And since the last UConn game they are 10-2 only losing to Providence 79-75 and Villanova 73-57. 


 UCONN 

UCONN TEAM STATS




Creighton Coach
Jim Flanery


Creighton Starters

30 Morgan Maly
6'1" Junior Guard/Forward

15 Lauren Jensen
5'10" Junior Guard

31 Emma Ronsiek
6'1" Junior Forward

21 Molly Morensen
5'7"  Junior Guard

13 Rachael Saunders
5'9" Grad Student Guard

Creighton Bench

22 Carlie Bachelor
6' Senior Guard/Forward

 
12 Jayme Horan
5'10" Junior Guard

14 Mallory Brake
6' Junior Forward

Creighton Stats

Game Analysis

Last time these two teams met, Creighton was on a slide, losing 3 of their last 4 games. UConn dominated this game as the Blue Jays had their worse shooting game of the season. They were only 23.8% from the field, and 3-28 on threes. Can't score when you don't put the ball in the basket.   

Leading scorer 5'10" Lauren Jensen is averaging 16.3 PPG but last season she shot an amazing 43.4% on threes and this year only 34.0%. She scored 11 points on 4-11 shooting going 1-7 on threes in the first match up.

Second leading scorer 6'1" Junior Morgan Maly is averaging 15.7 PPG but last year she shot 37.4% on threes and was only at 32.1% before the first Uconn game. But she has been on fired since then raising her 3 point shooting percentage to 38.1%. She leads the team in rebounding at 6.0 per game. She had a horrible game against the Huskies in the first game. She was 1-11 from the field and 0-5 on threes scoring only 2 points.

These two by far take the most shots on the team and the most three pointers. Look for them to take 13+ three point shots in this game. Maybe closer to 20.    

Unlike last year's Creighton team, who  spread around the minutes and the points pretty evenly between their players, this year is really top heavy with Maley and Jenson. Last year their players lived by the mantra "Depth is our strength". That is really not true this year. 

Last season's leading scorer 6'1" Junior forward Emma Ronsiek is the only other double digit scorer on the season at 13.6 PPG. She scored 12 points in the first match up.  

And along with 5'7" Junior guard Molly Morensen (0-8 from the field, 0-5 on threes, 1 point) and 5'8" grad student guard Rachel Saunders (3 points 2 rebounds), they complete the starting lineup. 

Off the bench is Carly Bachelor, a 6' senior guard/forward, who started most of the season while Saunders was out with an injury. She is the second leading rebounder on the team. She had 8 points and 4 rebounds in the first game.

The other two players off the bench are 5'10" junior guard Jayme Horan and 6' junior forward Mallory Brake. Horan is the three point threat of the group shooting 14-38. They scored 1 point between them in the first match up.

On offense Creighton likes to pass the ball around the perimeter looking for an open three. They drive to the hoop, looking for the kickout for an open three as well. Players are also constantly running through the lane, screening and looking for open spaces. The Bluejays will occasionally make the pass into the lane if the cutting player is open.

Their other method of scoring is off the fast break and they do run well when they get the chance. Defensively I didn't see any pressing, even after a made basket. However, with the high turnover rate by the Huskies, I expect Creighton to press plenty if they can make a decent percentage of their shots. 

Creighton is strickly a man-man teams with plenty of switches. They will double in the post and they have to because of their lack of size. 

UConn has to take care of the ball in this game. If they come anywhere near 20 turnovers, it will be a battle to the end. They only had 15 in the first match up. But the Huskies have an advantage at every position, especially in the post. I would look for two double-doubles for Edwards and Juhasz. Creighton has not one to match Dorka who had 22 points and 18 rebounds in the first match up, and the size and speed combination of Edwards, who had 23 points and 20 rebounds in the first match up,  will give the Bluejays fits. Griffin will be just way too athletic for them. She sat out the first game with Covid.  

UConn will look to run off any Creighton misses as I don't see the Bluejays getting many offensive boards other than those annoying long rebounds off three point misses. 

Creighton can stay in the game if they turn over UConn, defend the post, hit their threes at a high rate and UConn hits a low percentage of their three pointers. Unlikely for all of that to happen. And it didn't in the first game.  

Prediction

Creighton is on a roll. But that won't matter in this game. For sure they won't shoot as poorly as last time against UConn. 

The Huskies, even without Fudd and Ducharme, has too much talent for the Bluejays to handle. 

The Bluejays are not shooting as well as last year, but will they finally have a hot game? Certainly possible. They can't shoot as poorly. See the recurring theme?

On the other hand, UConn could finally have a game where they value the ball, and if they shoot well and Creighton doesn't, it could get ugly.

UConn still has a really short bench, and Creighton won't play as poorly but UConn still has Edwards and Juhasz, so I'm guessing UConn by 15+.      

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"While the redshirt junior was mum on the topic, Geno Auriemma seemed to think she’ll be back at UConn next year. “Aubrey had said pretty much, ‘No senior day for me. I think I need to be back here another year,’” the coach relayed.  ...  — and he made it clear she’d be welcomed back."

Good news, bad news and good news.

It sounds like Caroline will see some minutes against Creighton on Wednesday night. I've predicted her return a couple of times,  but this time seems likely. What a great addtion to help UConn lower the minutes of the starters.

It's too bad that there isn't a return date for Fudd. I don't like the sound of that. But it certainly doesn't mean she won't be back.

And finally, it's great news if Griffin comes back. She has been great this year and will only be better next season. Not participating in Senior Day is a good sign.

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

  

 

 

GAMES

Upset noted with red **

NO TOP 25 GAMES TUESDAY

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Straight from the Dog


Charlie SECreme has his latest Bracketology and it must be killing him to have to use the NCAA's Top 16 reveal as his 1-4 seeds. They have UConn as a No. 1 seed. So does Charlie. 

Even with the back to back losses, UConn is still No. 2 in the .NET and a Top seed. Amazing. 

I really like the bracket he has for UConn. No. 4 seed in their bracket is Texas, No. 3 seed is Virginia Tech, and No. 2 seed is Utah. I like UConn's chances against any of these teams, as long as they have at least Caroline back. And I'm still hopeful about Azzi.
   
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Maybe Tennessee hired the wrong former Lady Vol to be their head coach?


She has Duke up to No. 9 in the latest AP Poll. Where is Tennessee? They got ONE vote. Must have been a Tennessee writer. 

I didn't like her when she was at Tennessee, but I love her competative spirit and she is SO smart.

Charlie SECreme has Duke and Tennessee in the same bracket playing in the second round. How much fun will that be?

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

By David in Naples 

UConn seems to be struggling with turnovers more this year, than in the past. So far this season, the Huskies have had 441 turnovers in 26 games. That is an average of 17 per game. Over the last few years, the average has been closer to 14. Stewie's senior year, the team averaged 12 turnovers per game. There are many theories about the cause of the rise in turnovers, but upon examination, no clear pattern emerges. For example, two of the worst games for turnovers happened in the 8th and 9th games of the season (27 and 22 TO's). That hardly supports the theory that so much playing time has made players tired and careless.

Consider:

1. UConn has had as few as 10 turnovers twice and as many as 27 turnovers once. Those are the best and worse numbers.
2. The Huskies have had 20 or more turnovers nine times. They have had under 20 TO's 17 times.
3. UConn has kept turnovers below 15 on twelve occasions. Six of those games were in the 1st half of the season and 6 in the 2nd half.
4. In the four loses, UConn had 15, 22, 13 and 19 turnovers. (The South Carolina loss was the 13 TO game.)
5. If you divide the season in half (13 games in each half), the turnover average in the 1st half was 17.38 per game & in the 2nd half it was 16.53 per game.
6. Of the nine 20 or more TO games, 4 happened in the 1st half of the year and 5 in the 2nd half.
7. The three best games for fewest turnovers (10,10,11) all happened in the 2nd half of the season.
8. Nika has the most turnovers with 88, Aaliyah is next with 78, Lou is third at 54 and Aubrey 4th with 49. But, everyone has contributed to this negative stat.
9. The three current bench players (Ines, Ayanna and Amari) have a combined 66 turnovers.
10. Opponents have had 376 turnovers vs UConn's 441.

The Huskies need to bring the number of turnovers down. Turnovers are empty possessions. At least a bad shot has a chance to go in.

Thoughts?

Go Huskies..!!

** Doggydaddy here - Let me add that when UConn has another ballhandler (Fudd) they only average 14 per game. Huge difference. UConn doesn't miss just Azzi's shooting. 


UCONN LINKS

Several links are pay sites. Sorry!


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UCONN Information



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