Saturday, January 15, 2022

Doggy's Doghouse 1/15/2022

 






 








                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
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GO UCONN!!!!!

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A great night out celebrating our 50 year anniversary of our first date!!

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                   No. 10 UConn Huskies                 Xavier Musketeers                                        78                                     41   

I did pretty good with my prediction of a 35+ point win. The Huskies were in control the entire game. Other than a few sloppy passes, UConn looked great in this game. 

This stat was an old time UConn stat. 24 assists on 30 baskets. Excellent passing and decision making. These last two games were exactly what UConn needed to build some confidence going cross country to take on a tall Oregon team. More on that game in Sunday's blog.

Let's talk about some player performances.


POG - Olivia Nelson-Ododa. She was just great in this game on both sides of the ball. Her stat line was complete. 11 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 5 steals and 8 blocks. Wow!!! Yeah, against a weak Xavier team, but you can have bad games against bad teams. She didn't. Two career highs, in blocks and steals. Nice job!


Carolina Ducharme was a little off with her shot, if you can call 4-10 on threes off. She was 6-17 overall. But as usual, she was the leading scorer for UConn with 20 points.  But she also added 7 rebounds,  5 assists and 4 steals. Hmm...maybe Co-POG???


Christyn Williams continues her excellent senior year with another great game. She scored 19 points on 7-13 shooting and 3-7 on threes. Geno will take that every game. She also had 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. Another Co-POG??


Dorka Juhasz played tough in this game with not a lot to show for it on the scoreboard. She was 1-3 from the field and 2-4 on free throws for her 4 points. She added 8 boards and that was her main contribution along with solid post defense. I like that she let the game come to her and didn't force a bunch of shots.


Nika Muhl was once again the heart of the team and led the Huskies in hustle plays. I'm sure she was happy with the win, but she seemed truly up with the play that ended up hurting the Xavier player's knee. I hope that young lady is ok, as does Nika. She had too many floor burns to count. She actually made a basket! It was a thing of beauty, finishing off a layup with her left hand. She had 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals. Just what Geno wants from her.


Aaliyah Edwards had a quiet but efficient game. She had 6 points on 3-3 shooting. She added 3 rebounds and 2 assists, but I'm sure Geno was not happy with her two turnovers. They were the unforced kind that makes Geno crazy.


Evina Westbrook went back to her quiet ways, scoring only 5 points on 2-6 shooting and 1-3 on threes. I don't know, she just didn't look comfortable out there for much of the game. She did add 4 assists, but I'm sure Geno wants more from her.


Amari DeBerry scored!! Ok, only 2 points. But she also blocked 4 shots. She is going to be a contributor, but maybe not until next season. 


PIath Gabriel looked like she deserves earlier minutes. She is really fluid looking on the court and is money when she gets the ball in the post. I love how she runs. She was 4-5 from the field for 9 points and added 5 rebounds. The more I see her the more I like her.

Maybe the defense was the POG? They held Xavier to 26.6% shooting and 1-9 on threes. And they turned the Musketeers over 24 times. I love the 16 steals. 

It just looks like this team is coming together on both defensely and offensively. Yes the opponents were not the best but you still have to perform and the Huskies did.

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UCONN VIDEOS

Game Replay

Game Highlights

Geno at his best - Injury Update  

Geno Post Game Presser

Nika Muhl, Olivia Nelson Ododa, Caroline Ducharme
Post game presser

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Straight from the Dog

 UConn played great Saturday and several times they had a close up of Paige and Azzi on the bench next to each other smiling and laughing. Of course they were enjoying their teammate's performance, but I think they both know they will be back soon enough. 


All I could think was how good this team will be when they do get back and get some games under their belt. Here is a sneak preview of them during warmups. It won't be long!!!


I'm guessing Fudd will be back in around a week. Paige sometime mid-February. 

I hope you had a chance to watch the video of Geno talking about Paige and Azzi. Hysterical!!

And up next is Oregon. I'll have a more complete analysis of that game in Sunday's blog. The Ducks played No. 7 Arizona and used a big run in the fourth quarter to send the game into overtime. Endyia Rodgers hit a jumper with .4 seconds left to give the Ducks the win.  The Ducks have faced three teams that reached last year’s Final Four, and lost to Stanford and South Carolina before defeating Arizona. Oregon will complete its run against all four Final Four teams from a year ago when it hosts Connecticut on Monday. I'm sure they will be sky high heading into that game after this huge win for the Ducks. 

Oregon was led by their big three, 6'5" Nyara Sabally with 20 points and 13 rebounds, point guard Te-Hina Paopao with 24 points and 6'7" Sedona Prince with 16 points. It should be an interesting match up with UConn.  

Just a little more from the Orange Idiots.

"I am not sure I would want my daughter to play where their players are getting as many foot injuries as his players are getting. Must be a flaw in the S&C program. However, it could be that his players just get injuries at convenient times."

Injuries at convenient times? Seriously?

"I said it from beginning that Geno didn't want to play strong school, he faked Covid results just like he faked it to get recruits."

How does someone fake Covid results? And how does someone get players to go along with it? Sigh.....

 
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By PHIL

And then there were none

Hold your hand up if you predicted that Colorado would be the last undefeated team to fall from those ranks. 

Just as I thought, there are no hands held up, not even Colorado fans.

If you happened to watch the game between Colorado and Stanford, you might’ve thought early on there was a chance they would survive a little longer, but it soon became evident that wasn’t going to be the case. By soon I mean first half, even though Colorado entered the fourth quarter tied. Even though Colorado was up by as much as 11 points early, they did it without any offense. They only had 28 points at halftime. While Stanford only had 24, you could tell they were going to turn it on at some point. Colorado admittedly had excellent defense, forcing 15 steals. But tenacious defense takes a toll, not to mention that it often leads to committing a lot of fouls. The only Colorado player with more than one three-pointer fouled out, playing only 19 minutes, while four other players had three or four fouls, which makes it difficult to play aggressive defense. Colorado ran out of gas, scoring only 11 points in the final quarter and Stanford finally put a few through the hoop and won by a relatively close margin but the result was not really in doubt.

I don’t know an easy way to figure out which teams are the last to fall from the unbeaten throughout history, so I’m going to take the lazy route and make up my analysis of history.

The unbeaten fall into two categories. The first is obvious, a truly dominant team. UConn has been that team many years, and virtually every team that ends the season undefeated is in that category.

The other category is largely populated by mid-majors or maybe even someone from a weaker conference. Princeton and Liberty come to mind. They haven’t typically been national powers, so their nonconference schedule is not littered with top 25 opponents. They had a particularly good player or two, someone who could well play for one of the top teams in the nation but chose to go to another team for a variety of reasons. They carry the team to undefeated status in the nonconference schedule. Then they happen to be in a conference where there are no outstanding other teams, and managed to run the table, at least until the NCAA tournament, when all of the top teams have managed to lose to someone.

That’s what makes Colorado a bit of an anomaly. They are a member of one of the power five conferences, yet not really a dominant team. Their undefeated record earned them a position in the top 25 but near the bottom of those ranks. Maybe we could get somebody from hoop stats to look it up, but I won’t be surprised if it is extremely rare for a power five team, not ranked in the top 10, to be the last undefeated to fall out of those ranks.

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By David in Naples

David taking a well deserved night off!!!

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UCONN LINKS

Several links are pay sites. Sorry!


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Friday, January 14, 2022

Doggy's Doghouse 1/14/2022

 






 








                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
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GO UCONN!!!!!

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January 15th, 1972.

My good friend Dana Perlstein (may he rest in peace) asked me to go on a blind date as a favor to his girlfriend Carol Gluck. I reluctantly said yes and we went to Carol's house for a dinner date. I believe we had pasta. The fix up was Marsha Kraimer, a senior at Hall High. It was a great night and when I left with Dana I told him I was going to marry that girl. It took almost 4 years to convince her but we finally tied the knot on November 15th, 1975. So 50 years from that first date, we are still together and still in love!!! This picture isn't from that night but we were still so young.


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                   No. 10 UConn Huskies                 Xavier Musketeers                                        8-3 (3-0)                                    6-8 (1-4)   

Saturday, January 15th
12:00 PM EST
Hartford Connecticut
XL Center
TV: SNY

Matchup History

XAVIER | UCONN LEADS 3-0 
H: 2-0 | A: 1-0 | N: 0-0
 
03/15/99 #4 UConn 86, Xavier 84 Storrs, Conn. 
12/19/20 #3 UConn 106, Xavier 59 Storrs, Conn. 
02/20/21 #1 UConn 83, Xavier 32 Cincinnati, Ohio

Last Years Highilights 
UConn's 83-32 win at Xavier 

Boy, that was tough watching Paige Bueckers make her usual great plays. Damn I miss watching her on the court.

But they are who they are and this year will be a different game. I'm not saying the result will be that different but the product on the court will be very different. 

In last year's game, UConn just ran over the Musketeers, sprinting out to a 26-6 first quarter lead and a 42-13 half time lead before finishing them off in an 83-32 fifty-one point win. So what is different in this year's game?

Well, for UConn, they are of course missing Paige Bueckers from the starting lineup. Three of the starters will be starting in this game, Nelson-Ododa, Williams and Muhl. The new starters are Juhasz and Ducharme. Westbrook started in last years game and will come off the bench.

Bueckers had a low scoring game with 11 points, but she did add 7 assists. They really miss her playmaking. Williams led UConn with 21 points and Edwards off the bench had one of her best games with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

The other missing piece in this game is Aubrey Griffin, who played 11 dynamic minutes scoring 4 points and grabbing 4 rebounds, 2 offensive. And she added 2 steals. Damn, miss her too!!

Xavier returns 2 of their 3 top players in No. 11 Kae Satterfield, a 6' junior guard that had transfered in from Ohio State last season and this year's leading scorere No. 1 Nia Clark, a 5'9" RS sophomore guard. 

It looks like No. 00 Shelbey Calhoun, a 5'11" sophomore guard transfer from Virginia Tech, who is finally back from her hand injury, will add offense to Xavier. 

They have 8 players who play more than 20 MPG, so look for a lot of substitutions.

Xavier is coming off a 54-49 loss to Providence on Jan. 11 at Cintas Center. Mackayla Scarlett scored a game and career-high 17 points on 6-for-17 shooting. She scored seven of her points in the final quarter. The guard added two rebounds and two steals. 

Shaila Beeler added 11 points, four assists and one steal. She was also 7-for-8 from the foul line. She has now scored in double figures six times this season. In her first game back since a hand injury (suffered on Nov. 13), Shelby Calhoun posted nine points and seven rebounds in 25 minutes of action off the bench. 

Ayanna Townsend pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds to go along with five points. She now has five career games with 10 or more rebounds. Xavier had 10 steals vs the Friars, the team's fifth game of the season with double-figure steals.

Xavier has had eight different players lead the team in scoring through 14 games. Nia Clark has led the team in scoring in five games, followed by Shaila Beller (twice), Aanaya Harris (twice), Kae Satterfield (twice), Mackayla Scarlett (twice), Ayanna Townsend (twice), Shelby Calhoun (once) and Mikayla Hayes (once). 

All told, six players are averaging over eight points per game. Five different players have dished out 20 or more assists this season.

Overall, Xavier struggles on offense. They average 67 PPG which is not that bad. But they only shoot 41.5% from the field and 26.1% on threes. UConn will want to keep them off the free throw line as they shoot a spectacular 78.5%. That's 10th in the entire country!! A side note. Iowa is leading the country in FT shooting at....wait for it.....85%! 171 out of 200. Amazing.

Xavier has seven new players this season, so while the team will look different, the results should be similar to last season's two games.  

The Musketeers don't rebound the ball well, so UConn will look to dominate the boards, something they haven't been able to do all season. They also turn the ball over almost 17 times per game. I'd expect UConn to use their rebounding advantage and ability to force turnovers to turn defense into offense and run run run. I love how Muhl rebounds and takes off. 

This should be a good game for Geno to keep working on his new lineup and rotation and still get plenty of time on the court for DeBerry and Gabriel. I'm looking forward to DeBerry's first basket since her one made basket against Georgia Tech in December. 

My prediction? I underestimated the new lineup in the last game and said a 25 point win against Butler when it ended up 45. I'll split the difference and say UConn by 35+.

GO HUSKIES!!!

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GAMES

MOST SCORES HAVE CLICKABLE LINKS TO A GAME STORY

UPSETS IN RED

No. 2 Stanford 60 No. 22 Colorado 52

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Straight from the Dog

If you read any article I linked, read the first one, it's a doozy. Some great Geno quotes and an insight to how the team is handling Covid and injuries and how Geno is motivating the team. I would suggest you guys read it!

Four Big East games Friday night and they were pretty competative. 

Providence went over .500 with their 56-49 win over St. John's. The Friars are now 3-3 in the conference and the Johnnies are 1-3. I'd say more about this matchup but really, I'll have more about these two teams when UConn puts a whippin' on them.

Creighton is showing everyone that they are probably the 2nd best team in the Big East behind UConn. They beat up Seton Hall 83-60. The Bluejays are just a really good offensive team. They shot 55.6% from the field and 32% on threes. It just shows what a good defense that UConn is playing. Seton Hall is a disappointment. Their two hyphaneted stars Park-Lane and Espinosa-Hunter were just terrible in this game. They each scored only 4 points each with Espinosa-Hunter only making 4 free throws.    

DePaul used a big second half to beat Villanova 75-63. The Wildcats actually had a halftime lead, 33-30 before DePaul exploded in the third quarter to take a 7 point lead they wouldn't lose. Villanova's Maddy Siegrist, possible Big East POY scored 31 points, snared 14 rebounds and had 4 steals. DePaul's Sonya Morris, another POY candidate had 25 points in this game.     

Marquette showed what a bad team Georgetown is, holding them to 4 points in the second quarter and 5 points in the fourth quarter in their 68-32 win. The Golden Eagles is right there with Creighton and DePaul for second in the conference.  

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By David in Naples

Among the many talents that Caroline Ducharme brings to the Huskies, her free throw shooting is the most unknown. She is currently 12-15 or 80%. That is best on the team. Paige was 10-13 or 76.9% before her injury. (Last season she was hitting at 86.9%.) But Paige was only 3rd on the team behind Aaliyah Edwards who is making 77.8% (7-9).

The most surprising stat is her shot blocking. She has 10 blocks and is 2nd on the Huskies to Olivia's 18 blocks. She has a real talent getting her long arms up & in the shot arc without fouling. Surprising in the other direction is Dorka and Aaliyah's lack of blocks. Dorka, who is 6'5", has 2 and Aaliyah, at 6'3", has 4. Is it not about height, but rather timing.

Caroline is 5th on the team in scoring with 93 points. She is averaging 18 pts per game in her last 4 games. Only a matter of time until she catches Liv (103 pts) and Evina (106). 

Go Huskies..!!

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UCONN LINKS

Several links are pay sites. Sorry!


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Message Boards

UConn Territory - The best UConn women's message board ever!!! 
Vol Nation - Tennessee women's basketball board
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UCONN Information



I'm always open for suggestions. Just please reply to this blog or email me at:

doggydaddy.UConn@gmail.com
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Thursday, January 13, 2022

Doggy's Doghouse 1/13/2022

 






 








                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
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GO UCONN!!!!!

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Well, after a trip to Indiana and an easy win against a really bad Butler team, the Huskies return to Connecticut and the XL Center for a game against Big East foe Xavier.

The Musketeers are 6-8 overall and 1-4 in the conference with their only win against Butler. In their last game they lost to Providence 54-49. I'm pretty sure Xavier won't score more than that against UConn.

I took a quick look at their season stats and I thought I was looking at the Butler stats I views a few days ago. Poor shooting, poor ball handling, spread out scoring. It could be similar results.

I'll have more on this game in Friday's blog. 

This will be the last chance to work out any kinks and settle in on the new starting lineup before taking a long flight to Oregon to take on the Ducks. This is a HUGE road game for the Huskies on national television. 

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Straight from the Dog

What is the opposite of an upset? After a close first half where No. 1 South Carolina was leading Texas A&M 26-24, the Gamecocks just put the hammer to the Aggies, beating them in the third quarter 21-10 and went on a 17-1 start in the fourth quarter to win the game XX-XX. South Carolina was led by probable POY Aliyah Boston's 19 points and 15 rebounds. Texas A&M has now lost three games in a row and is 10-6 and 0-4 in the SEC. They are just not a very good team bordering on bad.     

So, the latest from the Orange Idiots is more Ashlynn Shade "shade". 

“ Obviously, the Shade girl got the phone call she was wanting on the plane back home...UConn. has no football program to speak of, so Geno has lots of money to work with!!.” 

So insulting to imply that the reason Shade committed to UConn was because somehow Geno paid her. I don't mind the insults to Geno. But to think that was the reason she chose UConn is just pathetic. 

Here is what she said was her reason to choose UConn.

“From practice to just hanging out with the team to going to the game, it’s a hard feeling for me to describe because it just felt so right. It’s kind of like when you have a gut feeling, when you just know something is right. That’s just how I felt being there and seeing everything, meeting the coaches, the players. I just knew in my gut that it was the place for me. 

So,  stuff it Tennessee fans. She did not want to deal with you!!

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TOP 25 UPSETS

I just had a bad case of Deja Vu! Unranked Virginia Tech beat No. 17 Duke 65-54. Yep, the same Virigina Tech team that beat Duke just 2 weeks ago did it again. So either Virginia Tech is underrated and Duke is overrated. Or the Hokies just have the Blue Devils' number!! 
 
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By David in Naples

UConn's victory over Butler was expected, but still sweet. The Huskies did what they were supposed to do, and did it convincingly. Among the highlights was making 11 threes. That ties the season high reached in the USF game. Of course, it only took 27 shots against USF vs 34 shots against Butler. That was the game Azzi went off for 6 threes on 9 tries. Paige also made 3 threes that game, so those two had 9 of the 11 threes. Since both were missing versus Butler, others had to step up. UConn got 3 threes from Caroline, Christyn and Evina & 1 each from Dorka and Olivia. Good balance.

Another strange stat from last night includes 7 steals by Christyn Williams and 19 by the whole team. The Huskies have not been a particularly larcenous group this season. Their previous high in steals was 10 against Seton Hall. That raises their season total to 90 steals.

Just as strange was UConn shooting % in the 1st and 3rd periods. 62.5% in each on 10-16 shooting. Two of the best quarters this season.

Finally, the most one-sided stat of the night was points off turnovers. UConn scored 43 points after Butler turnovers. Butler had 0 points off turnovers. Of course, UCOnn only had 7 turnovers.  Doesn't get any more lopsided than that...

Go Huskies..!!

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UCONN LINKS


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Message Boards

UConn Territory - The best UConn women's message board ever!!! 
Vol Nation - Tennessee women's basketball board
ND Nation - Notre Dame women's basketball board
Rebkell - WCBB for everyone that thinks they are smarter than everyone else

UCONN Information



I'm always open for suggestions. Just please reply to this blog or email me at:

doggydaddy.UConn@gmail.com
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