Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 11/4/2023

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Even my daughter (mother to Logan and Barrett) is looking for my Blog!!!

GO UCONN!!!!!

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Lots of good vibes out there!!

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Katie Lou!!! One of my favorite players! I'm sure she is as good a mom as she is a three point shooter.

Well, hopefully a higher percentage mom!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Katie Lou Samuelson (@katielou33)

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ESPN has an article on impact freshmen. Here is what they have to say about KK Arnold!!

Arnold is a high energy confident guard who is a sponge on the floor. She is confident on both ends and is resilient, competing with accomplished teammates every day. She pressures the ball very well and is active off the ball. On offense, Arnold pushes the ball up the court with a purpose and creates opportunities for others. The staff said she is shooting 3-pointers better than many expected despite the longer line at the Division I level. In order to make this jump and make an impact early at a program that has had so much success, a player must have a spirit of competitiveness and be able to lock in. They have to decide to stack days of improvement, and also into the off the court preparation and have a thirst for improvement. Arnold always exemplified that in her prep career and it looks to be serving her as a player in college as well as she translates that aggressiveness into early opportunities at UConn.

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The first exhibition game is Saturday at 1:00. It will be available, for free, on UCONN+.

There are several ways to watch:

Download the UConn app
Watch on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, or Roku
Go to UConnPlus.tv on your laptop, tablet, or phone. It’s possible to connect your laptop to your TV or, if your TV is new enough, link via Bluetooth with your tablet or phone. Techies, correct me if I’m wrong
Go to UConnHuskies.com, the official site, and click on UCONN+ (see below)

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Monday, 11/6

Opening Day

No. 1 LSU vs No. 20 Colorado

No. 3 Iowa vs Fairleigh Dickinson

No. 4 UCLA vs Purdue

No. 5 Utah vs Mississippi Valley State

No. 6 South Carolina vs No. 10 Notre Dame (Paris, France)

No. 7 Ohio State vs No. 21 USC (HOF game)

No. 8 Virginia tech vs High Point

No. 12 Ole Miss vs Queens University

No. 14 Maryland vs Harvard

No. 17 Louisville vs Cincinnati

No. 18 Florida State ve Charleston Southern

No. 19 Baylor vs Southern

No. 22 Creighton vs North Dakota State

No. 24 Washington State vs Cal Poly (HOF game)

No. 25 Mississippi State vs Alcorn State

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Big dates coming up!!

Gotta love the two UConn recruits!

UConn Coach Morgan Valley is following

this young lady from France!

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Straight from the Dog

South Carolina is a real mystery to me. I mean, they lost all 5 starters and 2 subs to graduation. That is a lot of replacing to do. That include Aliyah Boston, who went on to play great in the WNBA and win the ROY trophy. They lost their leading scorer in Zia Cooke who was also their best three point shooter. Brea Beal was their defensive wizard. Victoria Saxton, a four year starter and big game player graduated as well. And more.

They do get back Kamilla Cardosa, the 6'7" offensive rebounding machine. And their back up point guard moves into the starting spot, Raven Johnson. And it looks like freshman guard Milaysia Fulwiley will be expected to pick up the scoring slack. Oregon transfer Te-Hina Pao Pao should help with depth at the guard spot.

Chloe Kitts returns as a sophomore who got some good experience last year. And Sanyia Fegin might just finally break out.

I think South Carolina will be a very good team. Coach Staley is really talking them up. But call me not convinced. We will know more when they play a very good Notre Dame team on Monday. I'm lookg forward to watching that game. Monday at 1:00 on ESPN. It's good to be retired. I'll watch it after golf!!

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By PHIL

More on the Award Nominees

It won’t surprise anyone that:

• the seven shortest players on the lists are point guards

• the six tallest players are centers

but it might be interesting to note:

• the tallest point guard, Sara Scalia is not just taller than all of the shooting guards, but more than half of the small forwards, six of the power forwards, and one of the centers. Sorry the graph came out a little blurry.

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Angel Reese said during LSU's media day in early October. "I don't want to play with people I can just walk over in practice. I want people that can compete.

Two questions:

1. How's that going to play with teammates? Even if it's true, even if they admit it's true, it's kind of a harsh way to put it. Surely there are other ways to make the point without putting down her teammates.

2. Why does the desire to play tough competition in practice not apply to games? I'm fully on board with the notion that you want to challenge yourself in practice — arguably this is one of the keys to the success of UConn, but how does that square with playing cupcakes in the regular-season?