Friday, February 24, 2023

Doggy's Doghouse 2/23/2023

  









 




GO UCONN!!!!!

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  UConn Huskies                                         DePaul Blue Demons
24-5 (16-2)                                                           15-14 (8-10) 

 Saturday, February 25rd 2023
Time: 2:00 PM
 Wintrust Arena
Chicago, Ill.
TV: FOX

DEPAUL

Coach Doug Bruno

DePaul Starters

24 Aneesha Morrow
6'1" Freshman Forward


 Game Analysis

This season is very different from the usual UConn/DePaul matchups. It is just not the same DePaul team or the same UConn team lately. 

Scoring only 77.3 PPG and shooting only 42.1% from the field and  31.0% on threes, this team outside of their wonderful center Aneesah Morrow and sophomore guard Darione Rogers struggles to score. 

The lack of defense by the Blue Demons holds true again this season. I'm sure Coach Bruno realizes his teams only chance to make a game of it is to make a lot of threes. DePaul  takes a lot of threes, averaging 25 takes per game. And as I said this season they are hitting at a weak 31.0%. 

Usually DePaul is one of the best passing teams in the country. They always average 20+ assists per game. But this season is different only averaging 16.7 APG.  Coach Bruno is an excellent offensive coach and his players usually do a great job valuing the ball.  This season they have turned the ball over 14.0 times per game. Certainly better than UConn. The Assist/Turnover ratio is weaker than usual.

This team really misses both Sonya Morris and Lexi Held to take a lot of three point shots. They both averaged around 5 taken per game. That being said, every player on the court for DePaul will fire away.

The question for DePaul is twofold. Can they hit their three point shots at a high percentage against UConn? Can they find a way to play enough defense to keep UConn under 80? It's the same question I asked the last four years and DePaul failed in both aspects. 

Sophomore phenom 6'1" Aneesha Morrow is the star of the team and a candidate for Player of the Year in the Big East  AND the entire country.  She brings needed rebounding and paint scoring for the Blue Demons. Her stats are amazing. She is averaging 25.7 PPG and 12.3 RPG. She has had double digit rebounding against all comers. No reason to think that won't happen against UConn. Last season she had 30 points and 14 rebounds in their heartbreaking loss to the Huskies 80-78. And 20 points and 16 rebounds in their second matchup an easy 84-60 win for UConn. I was surprised to see how low her shooting percentages are. 42% from the field, 22% on threes and 61% from the FT line. However, she averages 24 shots per game. I'd have to say she really is a volume shooter. She will get hers. UConn did a great job in the first game holding her to 20 points and 12 rebounds.         

Darione Rogers, a 5'11" junior guard, is the second leading scorer at 18.5 PPG and by far, takes the second most shot each game at 15 per game. Early on she was one of their better three point shooters, but now she hits them at 31.8%. She also does most of the ball handling handing out 5 assists per game but turns the ball over 4 times per game. She had only 7 points in the first matchup on 3-14 shooting. 

Kendall Holmes, a 5'11" junior guard is averaging 9.4 PPG. By far the best three point shooter on the team, she hits them at a very good 37.5% and takes around 5 each game. She had 3 points in the first matchup.         

DePaul is able to create turnovers against most teams, and UConn can't afford to be sloppy with the ball. UConn has srtuggled with turnovers, so it could be an issue.  DePaul will press to try to disrupt the UConn offense. 

It almost goes with saying but UConn's defense will have to work hard in preventing open threes even if they aren't shooting as well as years past.. DePaul seems to find that open player with the extra pass. UConn is the best at closing in on the open shooter with their amazing switching defense and their advantage with their length. However, it's certain that DePaul will get some open looks. If they hit them at a high rate, DePaul can certainly make it tough on the Huskies but I don't see how they can slow down the UConn offense. 

UConn did exactly what they needed to do in the first matchup. They prevented easy open shots and made Morrow work hard for her shots. Holding the Blue Demons to 51 points was unexpected for sure.

UConn usually likes a fast pace, so it will be interesting to see if they still want to do that  again against a team that scores so quickly like DePaul and with UConn only going 6 deep. However, DePaul is short handed as well with maybe only 6-7 players in the rotation.

The Huskies have a size advantage and they will run off DePaul misses and I expect there to be enough of those to allow UConn so score plenty of points. And with the size advantage of  both Edwards and Juhasz, the Huskies will look to score inside.    
 
Final Prediction

After a loss in their first meeting ever in 1983, UConn has won the last 22 games in a rivalry that started in 2006. In their first 4 meeting since 2006 UConn won by an average of 8 PPG with one really close game won in the last second by the Huskies. Since then UConn has won the last 16 games by an average of 30 PPG. They did have a close game in the first matchup last year.

DePaul has had their share of injuries this season. Before the first match up it was starter Jorie Allen and that limited her minutes. 

If there is a game that UConn can get the offense going again, this is it. It's also doubtful that UConn can hold DePaul to 51 points again. I expect a much closer game. 
  
UConn by 15+. 

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PREGAME PRESSERS

GENO

Lou Lopez Senechal

Dorka Juhasz

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It's hard to say exactly what those two tweets mean. On the surface it seeems like good news. A good practice with Coach Valley? She looked the best she has since the injury? It's looking like she is getting closer. 

Her comments "I'll be ready when I'm ready" is not the most encouraging comments. But maybe Senior Night is when she will be ready? Six days until the BE Tournament. Twenty days until the NCAA Tournament. Times a-wasting!! 

It does sound like she is planning on coming back. It can't be soon enough for this team. 


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GAMES

Upset noted with red **

No. 7 Maryland 76 No. 16 Ohio State 74
No. 15 Villanova 67 Providence 50

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Straight from the Dog

  
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Utah State? Just a terrible team in the Mountain West Conference. No. 24 UNLV hammered them on Thusday night and in looking at the box score, I can smell an UGGY!

What did the Aggies do to deserve this honor? Well, at 4-23 and 1-15 in their conference, these stats are not a surprise.

Against UNLV they scored 32 points. Blech!

They only shot 11-61 from the field for 18%. 
They were 6-33 on threes. 18%

Now that is some UGGY shooting!!!

Savor the award Utah State. It's the best thing that has happened to you all season. 

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

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Thursday, February 23, 2023

Doggy's Doghouse 2/23/2023

 









 




GO UCONN!!!!!

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


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Straight from the Dog

Whew. If this is the way the final seedings go, UConn will have a tough time getting back to the final four. 

They would have to beat Notre Dame, who already beat them, and a very good Indiana team. Not sure if it's the toughest bracket, but the way the Huskies have been playing, any bracket would be a tough bracket.

"The way the  Huskies are playing".  There is no denying that over the last 8 games, where UConn has gone 5-3, the Huskies are really struggling. They did play an inspired game against South Carolina, losing by only four points, but in the other games they haven't scored over 67 points once. A combination of bad shooting and way to many turnovers seem to be the issue. David has some great stats in his write up about this exact thing.

So, while it's the way they have been playing NOW, does that mean it will be how they play the rest of the season? If so, every game will be a struggle including DePaul and even Xavier. The Big East Tournament? No longer a lock to even get to the final game. The NCAA tournament? The Elite Eight might be the max we will see.

But as usual, I'm the eternal optomist. I just can't believe that this is the way they will continue to play. This is the same starting five that looked so good, even without Azzi Fudd for so much of the season. Is it fatigue? Both mentally and phiyically? It sure seems like it. 

Having Carolina back helps with the minutes. The three days before the DePaul game helps. The last game against a weak Xavier teams helps. Hopefully the No. 1 seed in the Big East Tournament  gives them a weak opponent in the first round with four days rest before that game. 

And of course the 11 or 12 days rest before their first NCAA tournament. That will be huge.

The last two games of the regular season and hopefully the three games in the Big East tournament will give Ducharme more court time to get back into game shape and form. 

And last, the wild card is Azzi Fudd. No one knows when she will be back but if she can come back and bring some offense to a team that is struggling to score, who knows? Maybe the final four will be back in play.

I know Geno said he doesn't think it's fixable. That's Geno being Geno. All I can say is I'm staying optimistic until the final buzzer sounds on their final game. Hey, that's just me.           
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While I was pissed of with how South Carolina stayed undefeated in their overtime win over Ole Miss, I was certainly rooting for them to kick some Tennessee butt. And for the most part that is what happened. 

Tennessee ran out to a 26-16 lead after a Jordan Walker three pointer with 6:38 left in the second quarter. From that point until a Karoline Striplin three points with 10 seconds left in the first half, South Carolina went on a 17-0 run. It coincided with "not long for the job" Coach Harper taking out their best player Rickea Jackson with two fouls and not calling a timeout to stop the run until it was 15-0.

South Carolina poured it on to start the third quarter, starting with a 13-4 run to take a 46-33 lead half way through the quarter. Tennessee closed the gap to 10 points with 2:39 left in the quarter but the Gamecocks went on 9-0 run to take a 59-40 lead entering the fourth quarter.

Only a calf cramp by Boston let Tennessee get back into the game, closing to 8 points 65-57 with 5 minutes left in the game. But Boston came back and South Carolina closed the game on an 8-3 run for the final 73-60 win.

I'm sure that the Tennessee fans will find some silver lining. It ain't there.     

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There were only two Top 25 games on Tuesday that I didn't have a chance to write about. One in particular 
caught my eye. No. 25 Illinois lost to unranked Nebraska 90-57 at home no less. As usual, I linked an article about the game for you to look at. I don't always read them but the headline caught my eye. 

"Nebraska beats short handed Illinois".

Being a fan of a team that has been short handed all year, I had sympathy for them. And in the article it said -  

"The Illini were without two frequent starters because of injury, the team announced shortly before tipoff. Sophomores Jayla Oden (hand) and Brynn Shoup-Hill (foot) have combined to start 40 games for Illinois this season." 

So I looked up the stats. Only Shoup-Hill started every game. Oden They only play 40 minutes between them, and average 10 points and 7 rebounds TOTAL. 

So, cry me a river Illini. You don't lose be 33 points AT HOME against an unranked team because you were missing two low contributing starters.   

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I just wrote about the unimpressive win that Stanford had over UCLA the other day and then they get lucky to beat No. 21 Colorado in double overtime. Talk about struggling to score, they only had 48 points after  regulation and it took 25 points in the two overtimes to win.

Haley Jones was the star in this game with 23 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals. She also played all 50 minutes. Iron woman!! Brink had one of those games that tells me Stanford might not get to the Final Four this year. She fouled out in 21 minutes scoring only 8 points. That is possible any game. Sometimes for an extremely bright young woman, she plays like a dummy. 

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By David in Naples 

With Tuesday night's 64-69 loss to St. John's, the Huskies have now failed to score 70 points in 5 straight games. That is the first time since 1962 that UConn has not reached that mark for 5 consecutive games. What is the reason for the scoring drought? I examined the last 10 games, the last 5 w/ not reaching 70 pts and then the previous 5 before those games. Here's what I found.

1. Points scored - In the last 5 games, UConn has scored 64, 60, 62, 67 and 52 points. (most recent to five games ago). That totals 305 pts or 61.0 per game. In the prior 5 games to those games, they scored 77, 64, 63, 84 and 94 points. That totals 382 or 76.4 per game. So, clearly the scoring is way off, almost 15 pts per game. But why?

2. Scoring chances - How many shots and free throws did UConn get per game? The most recent 5 games they had a total of 359 shots + free throws for an average of 71.8 per game. The prior 5 games, the Huskies had 369 total scoring chances or 73.8 per game. So the problem appears NOT to be scoring chances. It must be shooting %...

3. Shooting % - Tuesday night, UConn shot 35.5% from the field. In the prior 4 games the shooting % was 42.6%, 37.9%, 44% and 40.4%. The 5 games before those five the shooting % was 51.9%, 50.9%, 42.9%, 55% and 54.4%. There is the problem..!!

Conclusion - The Huskies are getting chances to score at about the same rate over the last 10 games. However, the shooting % for the last 5 games is down dramatically. Hence, a five game streak of not scoring 70 points. In fact, the high for points in the last five games was 67 vs Georgetown. I looked quickly at individual players shooting stats and let's just say the blame can be spread around. I'll post more on individual stats later...

Look for the non-70 point streak to end Saturday vs DePaul.

Go Huskies..!!

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UCONN Information



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Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Doggy's Doghouse 2/21/2023










 




GO UCONN!!!!!

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 UConn Huskies                                         St. John's Storm
                64                                                                       69

Well, it was a shock but not a surprise. They way they have been playing lately, this was bound to happen. 

Fortunately for me, we were out tonight and I didn't get to watch the game. But following the internet on occasion and peeking at some UConn message board threads, I got a feel for the game. Even when UConn went on that 13-0 run to start the second half, they just didn't look right. 

It's now several games in a row that the team is just struggling. Too many turnovers, too many missed shots and in this game they allowed too many offensive rebounds by St. John's. This is not a game I'm going to go back and watch. You don't need to hear from me about how bad they looked. I can tell from the gamecast and box score. The only good news is that this win might get St. John's back in the tournament with their 20th win. Geno gave them a ton of credit in his post game interview. Watch it to get some perspective on the loss.  

UConn needs someone to spark this team. If not, it just feels like the final four streak is in jeopardy.

Villanova barely got by DePaul 67-64. The Blue Demons at home are going to be a handful. 
   
Geno Postgame Interivew


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Gonna miss Maria. She has been a breath of fresh air and I just loved her halftime and postgame interviews. And she is adorable!!  

 

KK Arnold
UConn Incoming Class of 23
GAMES

Upset noted with red **


Monday

No. 3 Stanford 71 No. 17 UCLA 66 
No. 12 Michigan 61 No. 16 Ohio State 74 **

Tuesday

No. 6 Iowa 68 No. 7 Maryland 96 **
No. 15 Villanova 67 DePaul 64

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Straight from the Dog

I watched the Stanford/UCLA game Monday night and while the Cardinal won 71-66, I don't believe they are better than Indiana, UConn, and even Iowa. 

While Brink is a handful (she scored 25 points and went 15-15 from the line), she does get away with carving out space in the lane after the entry pass. 

Stanford does play 8-9 players in their rotation. Aren't you jealous?? However, it's Brink and Jones and occasionally Jump that does most of their damage. Before tonight I thought a rematch from the Final Four game between Stanford and UConn would be a great game to watch. Now I'm not so sure.   

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Lots of fans complaining about the officiating recently. But it's really not recently. It's been going on forever. It's what fans do.

I try to not do that if you read my post game reports. I focus on the players. But every once in a while a ref makes or doesn't make a call that just blows my mind and I have to comment.

Overall, the refs are doing the best they can. It's a fast moving game and you can't see everything. And I have met people that actually officiated games so I'm not going to bash the entire profession. Like any job, there are good ones and bad ones and even the good ones have bad games. 

I wish they were perfect or at least perfect for UConn...lol.   

However,  I wrote this before the UConn/St. John's game. Intentional foul on Edwards? Refs Suck.

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What a great game between DePaul and Villanova. The Wildcats pulled out to a 14 point lead but behind Morrow, the Blue Demons were able to close to 2 points late in the game before closing it out. 

Maddy Siegrist continues her march to Big East POY with 28 points, 16 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks. It did take her 27 shots, so once again she was not efficient. 

DePaul's Morrow had a great game as well with 29 points, 19 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 blocks. 

These two players show what UConn is missing with Fudd (and Bueckers) not available. Teams need a superstar.    

DePaul can be a tough out and expect them to give UConn all they can handle on Saturday.

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Which is worse, losing to a decent St. John's team by 5 points or Iowa getting hammered by a top ten team like Maryland.

Iowa was beaten up losing 96-68 in a game that was a blowout from the start. The old bad defensive team Iowa showed up. And Clark really struggled in this outing. She only had 18 points on 5-13 shooting going 4-10 on threes. And she only had 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Great job by the Terps in holding her down.     

Edwards as All-American

As the season winds down, the discussion of postseason honors will heat up. One of those discussion topics is whether Aaliyah Edwards deserves consideration as a first-team All-American.

I will start by confessing I haven’t followed this discussion closely. There are quite a few candidates for All-American and while Edwards is having an incredible season. I don’t think anyone thinks it’s a slam-dunk that she will earn this honor.

Clark is close to a shoo-in for NPOY, but even if she doesn’t learn that specific honor, I don’t think there is an individual think she wore the one of the All-American honorees. We all know that Reese’s name comes up in these discussions and will have nothing against her personally other than her over-the-top attention seeking antics, I hope the voters will recognize that stellar stats against cupcakes ought not to be rewarded. I see that Reese broke Sylvia Fowles record of consecutive double doubles. I don’t know whether Sylvia reached out to congratulate Angel, but if she did so I can figure her for doing it through gritted teeth. I haven’t looked up Sylvia’s opponents, but I bet there were some ranked teams on the list. When LSU finally played a ranked team, the streak ended. Why am I focusing on this? Because it helps illustrate that stats against quality teams to be worth more than stats against weaker teams.

I saw a tweet recently that I forgot to bookmark, so I will just summarize my recollection — the discussion was about whether Edwards deserved All-American status and someone was pointing out all of the more worthy candidates, and closed with a mention of Boston as if no one but no one could even consider viewing Edwards as more accomplished than Boston.

I’m not about to pretend that Edwards career is in the same ballpark as Boston’s, but the owner is an annual honor, so the question is how well the two players had done this season.

Boston is having a great season and deserves kudos for helping South Carolina to its number one ranking. It is very common for layers to get better over the course of their career. Edwards did not improve her scoring from her freshman to sophomore year, but she is more than made up for that this year. In contrast, while Boston started impressively as a freshman averaging 12.5 points per game, then improved that as a sophomore to 13.7, and made another leap up as a junior to 16.8 points per game helping her win multiple player of the year honors, points per game are 13.0 this year. Not exactly chopped liver, several hundred coaches would give their left arm for a player of that caliber, but a decided drop off from an impressive junior year.

Edwards is averaging 16.3 points per game. Someone is sure to point out that Edwards is playing 32 minutes per game while Boston is playing 25. While some people like to adjust stats to a 40-minute game, I think this can be misleading. (That adjustment does have some value, but I think it makes more sense when comparing 8 minute game player to a 14 minute a game player. Boston is playing 25 minutes a game because she can; it’s a wonderful luxury when you have 6’ 8” options. However, it does mean that the seven extra minutes played by Edwards ae played when she is close to exhausted, not fresh, and that’s likely to mean a reduction in effectiveness. If you want to see an example of what happens when you play tired, look at the recent game between South Carolina and Mississippi where Boston had to play 34 minutes. As regulation came to a close and the game was on the line, Boston went to the free-throw line twice in the final minute and missed three consecutive free throws. She made the fourth, which sent the game into overtime. I don’t want to make too much of a single incident, we know where things can happen in short stretches, but Boston going five for 10 from the free-throw line and only four for 14 from the field hope make that game close. Yes, she recorded a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds, but I don’t think the junior Boston would have let the game become that close.

There’s more to All-American honors then scoring. Boston does have more rebounds than Edwards (9.9 vs 9.0). Boston has more blocks (1.9 versus 1.1), while Edwards has more assists (2.5 versus 1.7) and four steals (1.1 versus 0.5). In doing this it has a slightly better field-goal percentage (58% versus 57%), and a better free-throw percentage (78% versus 75%).

Finally, while South Carolina’s strength of schedule is not remotely as bad as LSU’s, according to Massey they have the fourth strongest SOS in the country, I think it is interesting to note that South Carolina has played only five ranked teams this season. UConn has played nine ranked teams this season and has a Massey SOS rank of #1. In my opinion, that makes Edwards’ performance all the more impressive.

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By David in Naples 

Some stats before the St. John's Game!

1. After 28 games and over 900 minutes of playing time, Aaliyah and Lou have both scored exactly 457 points to lead the team.

2. Aaliyah and Lou have reached their point totals in very different ways. Aaliyah has 1 three point basket and Lou has 61.

3. Lou has 73 defensive rebounds, while Liya has 73 offensive rebounds. (Liya has 251 total boards)

4. In the 4th quarter of the last two victories over Creighton & Villanova, UConn's defense held both teams to 30.7% combined shooting. At the same the time, the Huskies shot 60% from the field and 71% from the charity stripe.

5. Aubrey is 3rd on he team in scoring with 347 points. Dorka is 4th at 302 points.

6. The Huskies free throw % of 75.3% is the best since the 2017-18 season.

7. Against Creighton and Villanova, UConn took 40 free throws (made 29) and 105 shots from the field. That is 145 scoring chances in those 2 games.

8. Opponents took 118 shots vs 105 for UConn, but only 18 free throws. So those two teams had 136 scoring chances.

Note - If a player is fouled while shooting, the shot attempt only counts if the shot is made. The player would get a free throw as well. But if the shot misses (due to the foul) the player doesn't get the missed shot attempt, just two free throws. Keep this in mind when lamenting the total shot attempts comparisons.

Go Huskies..!!

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UConn Territory - The best UConn women's message board ever!!! 
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Rebkell - WCBB for everyone that thinks they are smarter than everyone else

UCONN Information



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