Behind a triple-double from freshman Paige Bueckers and a career best 22 rebounds from Olivia Nelson-Ododa, UConn beat up on Baylor 110-66 in a game that wasn't as close as the final score shows.
The Huskies stormed into Waco and right off the bat showed that their long range shooting woes were in the past. As a team UConn was 15-22 on threes led by Anna Makurat's 5-6.
Bueckers showed early that DiDi Richards DPOY defense was no match for her ball handling skills. Consistently using those skills, Paige drove past Richards time after time finding an open shooter, garnering 6 assists in the first quarter. The main benefit of those passes was Makurat, who hit 3 three point shots from various spots on the court. Westbrook hit two and Williams hit her only three pointer. ONO used every move she has, Strong post up moves, fall away shot in the lane and and a foul line jumper.
The score was 35-20 after 1 quarter and Kim was totally depressed.
Geno then showed he was going to use a deep bench in this game. The starters in the second quarter were Westbrook, Muhl, Edwards, McClean and Griffin and they didn't let up. Muhl showed she was 100% healthy and ran the team with ease flashing the skills she showed in Europe. Breaking the Baylor pressure, she was able to find Edwards in the paint where the freshman dominated the Junior Smith. It was sweet revenge as Smith never found her rhythm and struggled to score and grab her offensive rebounds.
Mulkey must have had a flashback seeing the 5'11" Mir Mclean grab rebound after rebound on both ends of the court like former Baylor star 5'11" dynamo Nina Davis.
UConn stretched the lead to 20 at halftime, taking a 55-35 lead.
The second half was very similar with UConn just dominating from the git-go. Christyn Williams was the dominant factor in the 3rd quarter. With 3 steals and breakaway layups, she broke the back of the Bears pushing UConn to an 85-50 lead after three quarters.
Geno took it easy on Kim and cruised for a 25-16 4th quarter for the 110-66 final. The Huskies played the entire bench and everyone that played scored.
I'm going to push back against the conclusions drawn in the article. In short, they claimed this accomplishment “proved beyond dispute that the phenomenon [hot hand] is real.”
The Bloomberg article argument depends on one critical assumption that I think is flawed. The article states, “Let’s suppose Curry has an unworldly 80% chance of making every 3-point shot he takes in practice.” I grant that if you had access to all the practice sessions of all the NBA and good college teams, you would rarely find any player who consistently hit 80% of their three-pointers. However, there is practice and there is practice. Running around the floor, then spotting up and taking a three, even without a defender is not remotely the same as standing in one spot, being fed balls and taking shot after shot, especially if you are actually concentrating rather than zoning out and thinking that you’re working on muscle memory. 80% might be high for a player in traditional practice, but standing in one spot and being fed balls can result in a higher percentage.
I’m a terrible basketball player. I played in an industrial league decades ago, and my best guess is I made zero 3’s in my entire career. Yet, in high school, when I was manager of the team and had chances to take shots at one end of the court while the team was practicing at the other end, I could consistently hit 50% from beyond the three-point line. Switch to someone with actual basketball skills and 80% is not unworldly, but attainable. I know there are free-throw coaches that can get players into the high 90s at the free-throw line, I’m sure that a good coach could get a very good player into the low 90s from the three-point line.
Sure, you may be thinking 90% better than 80% but how much difference does that make? And that is the key point. While the article talked about making hundred and five consecutive shots out of 500, I’ll work with the simpler situation of just trying to hit 105 in a row.
If you are an 80% shooter, it’s not going to happen. The math is simple, raise 0.80 to the power 105 and you get a number that’s less than one in a billion. In other words, it’s not can happen randomly. That’s why the article reach the conclusion they reached, because it obviously did happen so they concluded that must mean there’s something to the hot hand theory.
However, what if he’s a 90% shooter when not running around the court but standing in one spot and concentrating? How much difference does it make to increase his percentage from 80 to 90? Again, the math is simple, raise 0.90 to the 105th power and yes, it’s still a small number but it is 250,000 times more likely. Still not enough but simply increase 90% to 91% and now it’s a million times more likely. Increase it just a little bit more, and now such a streak merely becomes unlikely, not statistically impossible.
Does this mean I don’t believe in the hot hand? No ,it simply means that I think Bloomberg’s argument has holes. I do think hot hands exist, but I think they are much less common than many people realize.
I have to close with a personal anecdote. While in an actual game, no one in their right mind would feed me the ball to take a three point shot, I once happened to find myself with some lucky circumstances, on the basketball court in the Naismith Hall of Fame, with Mel Thomas. She fed me the ball at the top of the key and I nailed a three. I didn’t walk off the court, I floated.
I thought I would add this section to display cancelled games and other COVID-19 basketball related information.
UConn will not play Baylor Thursday and Xavier on 1/13. Both are due to issues with UConn's opponents and not with the UConn program.
The ACC announced Tuesday afternoon that No. 3 N.C. State’s next two games, versus Virginia Tech on Thursday and at Wake Forest on Sunday have been postponed. These are issues with the Wolfpack's program.
Central Connecticut has postponed games due to COVID issues within the programs. The games versus Bryant University on Jan. 7 and 8 and Sacred Heart on Jan. 15 have been postponed.
South Carolina's game against Georgia on Thursday has been postponed as well as all team activities being temporarily halted.
SU announced Sunday night that its game against visiting Virginia on Thursday has been postponed. The school said the decision was because of a positive coronavirus test within the Syracuse program on Dec. 27 and within the Virginia program on Dec. 30. This is the fourth Syracuse game impacted by the pandemic. SU previously canceled two non-conference games against Morgan State and Binghamton and postponed Thursday’s home game against Carolina. Syracuse last played on Dec. 20, an 83-70 win at Boston College.
No. 12 Maryland 93 No. 23 Michigan State 87 - Maryland used a big first half to take a 15 point lead and held a double digit lead for more of the game. They led by 11 with 5 minutes left in the game before Michigan State closed to 4 points with 2:30 remaining and then 2 points with a minute and a half left. Chloe Bibby made a huge shot and was fouled for the regulation three point play to push the lead back out to 5 points. Bibby went 4-4 on free throws to close out the game. Bibby and Owusu scored 20 points each to lead the Terps to another big win. Nia Clouden had 32 points for MSU to keep them in the game. Fun game to watch.
No. 14 Mississippi State 68 Florida 56 - MSU controlled this game from the beginning and took an easy 12 point win. Jessika Carter led the Bulldogs with 25 points and Lavender Briggs matched that for Florida. Tough stretch for the Gators losing their last three games to ranked teams.
No. 15 Michigan 64 Nebraska 62 - Michigan held on to beat Nebraska in a game that should not have been that close. Very unimpressive win for the Spartans. Nebraska is not a very good team. Naz Hillmon scored 35 points and 22 points in a spectacular effort to lead Michigan and Sam Halby had 27 points for the Cornhuskers.
No. 19 Indiana 85 Penn State 64 - The Hoosiers made Penn State look like the bottom of the Big Ten teams with this win. And PSU IS the bottom, so it makes sense. Indiana putt the game way out of reach with a 25-14 fourth quarter. Mackenzie Holmes led Indiana with 27 points and Johnasia Cash (named after the singing star?) had 19 points and 17 rebounds for Penn State
No. 13 Arkansas 73 Tennessee 88 - This was the one upset of the night. Tennessee shook off early blahs and handled the Razorbacks fairly easily. The Lady Vols have 3 really talented players and they led the way in this game. Rae Burrell and Rennia Davis each had 26 points to lead Tennessee. They hammered Arkansas on the boards and pretty much just dominated a top 13 team. And they play a weak sister in LSU on Sunday. They might move them into the Top 25 next week.
No. 16 Ohio State 78 Illinois 55 - Not much to say about this game. Ohio State beat a terrible Illinois by 23 points. Aaliyah Perry led the Buckeyes with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
No. 2 Louisville 71 Virginia Tech 67 - Well, we almost had another upset and it would have been a BIG one. But alas, Louisville held on for the win. It was actually tied with 1 minutes left in the game on a shot by Dana Evan, a probable first team AA. After a VT turnover, Evans hit the go-ahead shot with 23 seconds left. Evans led Louisville with 22 points, even with going 0-5 on three point shots. Super freshman Haley Van Lith finished the scoring with two free throws with 4 seconds remaining. She added 15 points for the Cardinals. A win is a win.
No. 10 Kentucky 60 No. 8 Texas A&M 77 - I was really looking forward to this game and it didn't disappoint in competitiveness. The game was tied at the half 31-31 and 47-47 with 2 minutes left in the third quarter. At that point the Aggies ran off 6 points to end the quarter with Kentucky down 47-53. The Wildcats didn't score in the fourth quarter until there was 7 minutes left in the game and A&M pushed the lead to 12 points at that point. It never got closer than 10 points in the fourth quarter. Texas A&M had 4 players in double figures. And Rhyne Howard had 22 points to lead Kentucky.
Boston College 64 Notre Dame 61 - No, not a Top 25 game, but I just love when Notre Dame loses. And this one was especially satisfying. The Irish had a 14 point lead 58-44 with 5 minutes left in the game. Now, you'd normally say "hey, this one is over". The Eagles went on a ridiculous 20-3 run to close the game. Yes in the last 5 minutes of the game. Crazy. Muffet knew what she was doing when she slithered off into the sunset.
Congrats to Paige Bueckers for winning the Big East Freshman of the week and Olivia Nelson-Ododa for winning Big East player of the week.
It won't be the last one that Bueckers wins this year. And I hope it's not the last one that Nelson-Ododa wins this year.
Bueckers is everything that her High School career portended it would be. Talk about fitting in seamlessly. She took over the starting point guard position from Dangerfield and is playing like a seasoned veteran. I can only imagine how great her four (or five) years at UConn will be.
Nelson-Ododa looks like she has taken a big jump from her inconsistent sophomore season to this year. As a junior she looks to have added more maturity to her game. I think confidence is a big part of it. She has perfected her post moves, from her turn around fade away jumper, to her legal hook and spin to the basket to her face up jumper from the foul line and sometimes beyond. Time to face some size and see how she performs.
The next couple of days will be fairly quiet in regards to the Top 25 so I suspect I will take a couple of days off from Blogging. But I'll return to talk more about the upcoming UConn/Baylor game and the 10 other games involving Top 25 teams playing on Thursday. it's a full slate.
A couple of great games ahead.
No. 10 Kentucky visits No. 8 Texas A&M in a big SEC contest.
No. 12 Maryland takes on No. 23 Michigan State in a Big Ten clash.
And No. 13 Arkansas is at unranked Tennessee, who is coming back in their first game since shutting down because of COVID related issues. Can't wait to see the Razorbacks run the Lady Vols right out of Thompson Boiling Arena!!!
No. 5 South Carolina handled previously unbeaten Alabama 77-60. After a good competitive start where the Crimson Tide was even with the Gamecocks 15-15 and only down 20-17 after the 1st quarter, South Carolina slowly but surely build up a lead that would never get closer than 9 points. As good as Aliyah Boston was in her previous game, she was that bad in this one. She did grab 10 rebounds but was 2-10 from the field for only 5 points. And she had 4 fouls in this game. The dynamic backcourt of Zia Cooke and Destanni Henderson were terrific. They combined for 38 points, 11 rebound and 7 assists.
No. 12 Maryland took on No. 19 Indiana in a clash of two of the top teams in the Big 10. It looked like it was going to be a blowout, with Maryland running out to a 23-9 first quarter lead. But after two evenly matched 2nd and 3rd quarters, the Hoosiers made a run in the 4th quarter to close to 2 points before Maryland was able to hold on to win 84-80. The Terps have several offensive options and 4 of their starters were in double figures. They were led by last seasons Big 10 Freshman of the Year Ashley Owusu. At 6 ' tall and a very solid body, she is a difficult match up for any guard in the country. She had 20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. Maryland is now 10-1 and 3-0 in the conference.
No. 16 Ohio State, probably the second best Big 10 team, beat Purdue 82-69 to barely cover the spread. The Buckeyes stayed undefeated at 5-0. And this was their first conference game. It appears they have been victims of Covid protocol this year.
In a Big East contest, No. 20 DePaul bounced back from their loss to UConn with a 94-82 win over a game Villanova team. The Blue Demons used a big second quarter to take an 11 point lead at the half and did a great job hold off the Wildcats from getting close enough to make them nervous. Sonya Morris once again led DePaul with 22 points while Maddy Siegrist showed why she should end up on the Big East post season team by scoring 31 points, grabbing 9 rebounds and handing out 5 assists.
My good friend Phil commented on the UCLA/Oregon game and broke down the last minute of the game with his usual insight. I thought I would share it with you. It's long, but worth it.
On the one hand, this was an exciting game, not just because it was close but because the two teams can usually play basketball. If you have a choice between a PAC 12 game and an SEC game, go for the pac 12 gain, it will be more enjoyable. That said, the final minute of play, while nailbiting, didn't showcase women's basketball at the best. UCLA was up by 11 with three or four minutes to go, but Oregon managed to score 11 straight to tie the game. That part was exciting but then the level of play deteriorated. with about 27 seconds left in the game, and UCLA up by two, Oregon shot and missed and it looks like the ball went out of bounds to UCLA. A long time elapsed until the play resumed. I still don't know whether a timeout was called does anyone know how to check? The officials decided they needed to check the monitor to confirm who had possession of the ball, and both teams were able to huddle to draw up their respective place. That took a long time, longer than it usually does for an official review which is why I wonder if there actually was a timeout called. At the time I thought Close was being too clever, because the situation called for a timeout to talk through strategy but maybe she thought she could get her timeout in while the official review was taking place. Or maybe she called a timeout.
Here is why it matters— if she had called a timeout could advance the ball to the other end of the court, but if she didn't call a timeout she didn't have that option. In any event, the officials decided it was UCLA's ball but they took it out at Oregon's end. It just occurred to me that they took it out on the sideline not the end line. if it was simply an out of bounds call, wouldn't have been taken out at the end line? Does the fact they took it out on the sideline mean that there was a timeout called? If so, what's the rationale for not advancing the ball? I think a coach always has the option to advance the ball if the time is under one minute and a timeout is taken but I'll confess I haven't memorized that rule and maybe I'm missing something
Sorry, back to the point, UCLA inbound of the ball to Onyenwere, arguably their best player, and she traveled turning over the ball and giving it to Oregon at their end of the court. They have the ball on a chance to tie it up or take the lead but instead they turned it over. Now UCLA takes the timeout and manages to remember to take it to their end of the court, but the inbound to Osborne and she steps out of bounds. If you watched this play, , you'll see that she got bumped and she tried to argue that the bump is why she went out of bounds but if you watch the replay you'll see that she stepped out of bounds before being touched. It was a good call, and meant that two supposedly quality teams managed to turn the ball over three times in less than 30 seconds. Not impressive.
Oregon got the ball but failed to score, giving UCLA a rare upset over Oregon. I think the announcers mentioned that they are fiftysomething and 2 in their home arena in recent years, so this was a very rare event.
So, I was watching the Baylor game on Saturday against TCU. A little scouting for my Pre Game report that will be out sometime on Monday.
I've probably said this before but I really appreciate how Geno lets the air of the ball when he has a big lead. He puts the brakes on the fastbrakes, and he doesn't pressure the ball. I like that he doesn't rub it into the opponents face.
I also mentioned how Baylor tends to be the polar opposite in this regard. They have absolutely destroy two teams and both times they had their highest scoring quarter in the 4th. They actually scored 40 points in the 4th quarter of a 90 point win. Really Kim??
Well, the players certainly learn from their coach. Baylor was up 22 points with around 34 seconds left. It looked like they were going to run the clock down and then maybe take a shot. I was happy they weren't real aggressive at that time. They lost the ball out of bounds with 1 second left on the shot clock.
I watched as Moon Ursin signaled to Didi Richards something. Ursin set up at the far left corner, 25 feet from the basket and when the ref gave the ball to Richard to inbound, Ursin ran hard along the baseline to get the pass near the basket and made the layup. I'm sure they practiced this play often and wanted to use it.
No. 1 Stanford held off a game Arizona State team, winning 68-60. The Cardinal ran out to a 19-4 lead after one quarter and it was Arizona State that was able to outscore Stanford 56-49 the rest of the way. While it was a very impressive performance by Fran Belibi with 23 points and 12 rebounds, it was not an impressive performance by Stanford. They had a very un-Stanford-like 17 turnovers and only 15 assists.
No. 3 North Carolina State continued it's easy run through the ACC with a 76-57 win over Boston College. They are now 10-0 and 5-0 in the ACC. That win over South Carolina is going to loom large in the seedings. Looking forward to the game against Louisville on 1/17. That should be for the ACC title. The Wolfpack should run through the rest of their conference schedule with the final challenge against Syracuse in the last game of the regular season.
No. 6 Arizona put a world of hurting in their 66-33 win over California. I didn't think that the Golden Bears would even break 30. You can find out more about California's fultility below in the UGGY section.
In one of two great Top 25 games, No. 11 UCLA upset No. 8 Oregon on the road 73-71, The Bruins tried to give this game away by turning the ball over twice in the last 20 seconds. Oregon was kind enough to give it back with a turnover with 9 seconds left, losing their chance to tie it up. UCLA's Onyenwere was terrific in this game with 33 points and 10 rebounds.
No. 9 Texas A&M beat Florida 91-67 behind 6 players in double figures. I think the Aggies are overachieving and a better team than I thought they would be this season. Florida gave South Carolina a much tougher game than they did in this one.
No. 10 Arkansas squeaked by unranked Missouri 91-88 in a game that should not have been that close. Arkansas sure can score, but they struggle to defend.
In the second great Top 25 game No. 13 Kentucky defeated No. 12 Mississippi State 92-86 in overtime. The Wildcats were led by Rhyne Howard with 33 points. She is just a fantastic player and most likely National POY. MSU's Richea Jackson was having a sophomore slump with all her shooting percentages down from her spectacular freshman season but she was great in this game with 23 points.
If you remember from my last blog, I said "I think Northwestern was a little overrated. Look for more losses and a trip out of the Top 25 in the next few weeks". Well, it didn't take long. No. 15 Northwestern lost to No. 16 Michigan 84-63 in a game that really wasn't even that close. They might hang on to a Top 25 spot, but maybe not!
No. 19 Texas ended Iowa State's four game winning streak with a 74-59 win over the Cyclones. All five starters were in double digit scoring for the Longhorns. They are the only threat to Baylor in the Big 12 Conference.
In last Top 25 game of the night, No. 25 Michigan State defeated Purdue 71-64. I got nothing here. They played.
As I mentioned in my game blurb California did it's best to win this UGGY award. Scoring 33 points in a game certainly puts you in contention. You know I have to break it down statistically.
They shot 30% from the field.
1-6 on threes. Probably smart they didn't take more.
6-15 from the foul line. Yes, a sparkling 40%.
And they had a whopping 31 turnovers. Ungodly.
So, congrats to the Golden Bears. Better to have Golden Slumbers.
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