Doggydaddy's Den

Doggydaddy

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Florida Here I Come!!!!!

Leaving Wednesday night, so I hope ESPN3 has it's issue with SNY straightened out so I can watch the game later that night or Thursday morning. I'll be there for a week so my Dailies may come out at different times than usual.

I'll have all my grandkids together for the first time since last August a month after my grandson was born. I can't wait!!!

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Here is a game I have been looking forward to this week. Tennessee at Kentucky.

Tennessee is coming off what was for them a big win at home over Vanderbilt. Of course, Vandy hadn't beaten Tennessee at home in 30 tries, so it was no surprise. Well, maybe a little surprise considering how poorly the Lady Vols have been playing. They come into this game 2-3 their last five games.

Kentucky is coming off a bad loss to SEC basement dweller Ole Miss. They were just terrible in that game. They had lost two out of their last three.

This was a big game for both teams. The loser would drop to the lower part of the SEC standings.

Deshields started out hot for Tennessee hitting her first two jumpers. She missed a jumper and then air balled a three pointer as Kentucky took a 6-4 lead on a Camera layup. After Deshields hit a three pointer Doris Burke exclaimed "THAT is the brilliance of Diamond Deshields, hitting shots from all over the court". More to come on that comment later. Tennessee and Kentucky went back and forth in a pretty entertaining first quarter with Tennessee taking a 19-18 lead on the revitalized freshman point guard T'ea Cooper's three pointer. Cooper hit two three-pointers in the quarter and scored six points and Deshields had seven. Janee Thompson had 6 for Kentucky.

Tennessee dominated the second quarter behind four more points by Cooper and spread out among several players. They scored 16 points to Kentucky's 10 to take a 35-28 lead at the half. Neither team was efficient but Tennessee definitely got the best of the play.

The third quarter was an opportunity to put some distance between themselves and Kentucky. But it was not to be. Makayla Epps, Kentucky's star player had different ideas. She scored Kentucky's first seven points and 10 of 12 while Tennessee scored seven and quickly it was a two point game. Taylor Murray hit a three for the Kentucky lead and Epps added a jumper to give Kentucky a three point lead 45-42 with 4 minutes left in the third quarter. Tennessee took a timeout but it didn't help much as they were outscored 4-2 to end the quarter. Both teams struggle at the end of the quarter but with Epps leading the way, Kentucky outscored Tennessee in the pivotal 3rd quarter 21-9 to take a 49-44 lead. Epps had a terrific 14 point quarter.

The forth quarter started as it took two minutes before either team scored. Cooper hit a three to bring Tennessee to a two point deficit. A quick eight point run by Kentucky gave the Wildcats their biggest lead of the game, with five minutes remaining 57-47. At that point I'm sure most fans thought the game was over, but to Tennessee's credit, they didn't give up. Behind their usual late game full court pressure, but were able to force some turnovers and quickly closed to 59-57 after a Deshields jumper. After an Epps turnover, Tennessee had a chance to tie but Deshields quickly turned the ball over right back to Kentucky with a sloppy entry pass. Deshields then fouled Janee Thompson, who made both free throws for a four point Wildcat lead. Cooper quickly hit a jumper to close to two points again. But Thompson hit a jumper for 40 ticks left on the clock for a 63-59 Kentucky lead. Cooper once again created some offense with a great dirve to the basket to close Tennessee to two points and Carter stole the inbound pass for Tennessee and was fouled. She had a chance to tie the game but only hit one of two free throws. Kentucky rebounded the miss and was fouled.

Whew....I'm tired just typing this. Just to reset, 28 seconds left, Kentucky inbounding the ball as Tennessee was not over the limit and the score 63-62 Kentucky. Kentucky advanced the ball on the timeout and inbounded successfully to Thompson who was fouled. She only managed to make one of two and with a 64-62 deficit, Tennessee had 23 seconds to try to tie or take the lead.

Cooper was fouled with ten seconds left but only made one of two free throws. Here is a Tennessee fan's description of the end of the game:

You have got to be kidding: Carter makes a great play to get the rebound, has a wide open layup and somehow stumbles and futzes the shot. Nobody around her. Graves should have immediately gone up strong--but instead she does what she always does: hestitated, waited too long...If she'd gone up strong as soon as she got the ball, she probably would have gotten a foul call. She plays SO DAMN SLOW. Then Cooper, who played well, is completely oblivious of the clock--just keeps dribbling as the horn sounds.

Kentucky wins by the final score of 64-63, sending Tennessee to their seventh defeat of the season and possibly out of the top 25.

Great win for Kentucky, who lost all three games against Tennessee last season.

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As I mentioned earlier, after a Deshield's three pointer, Burke exclaimed "THAT is the brilliance of Diamond Deshields, hitting shots from all over the court"

You have got to be kidding me. Brilliance? She hit two jumpers, missed one, AIR BALLED a three before hitting that three. What the hell is brilliant about that? Yes, she can jump really high on her jumper. But big deal, she hit a three pointer. Does Burke realize that Deshields is shooting 24% on threes? And 40% overall? That she has 47 assists and 71 turnovers? That she sulks after missing?

Bottom Line, after starting the game scoring seven points by going 3-5 from the field and 1-1 on threes in the first 4 minutes, over the last 36 minutes of the game, she was 2-10 from the field, 0-4 on threes with EIGHT turnovers. EIGHT.

This love affair with a player that has these horrible stats is not only wrong but dumb. Burke is an idiot.

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And as an equal opportunity blogger and UConn fan, what was Rebecca Lobo thinking when she said at the half that South Carolina has a good bench. UConn has a huge advantage in that area.

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From David in Naples

UConn has 399 assists, so far this season, on 632 field goals. That works out to assists on 63.1% of the Huskies baskets. Opponents have just 200 assists on 362 baskets or 55%. Better shot selection and better shooters results in more assists.

Four players already have over 50 assists including MoJeff (94), Stewie (69), Morgan (53) and Kia Nurse (53). Right behind them is Louuuu at 47. With good health, UConn may repeat last year's milestone of five players with over 100 assists. The per game average of 22.2 assists this year is slightly better than 2014-15's 21.2 per game. Two years ago the average was also 21.2 assists per game.

The clear assist leader for UConn is Moriah with 94 in 18 games. That works out to 5.22 per game. Last year she had 191 assists, but the average was 4.89 per game. Two years ago, MoJeff ran up 195 assists in 40 games for an average of 4.88 average. Of interest, Jefferson's scoring average is 13.4 pts per game vs 12.4 last year. She has raised her scoring AND her assists.

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Charlie Crème has his latest Bracketology out and of course UConn is the top No. 1 seed. But this one is interesting as it's the only one I can remember that UConn is matchup up with Tennessee. The Lady Vols would be the No. 4 seed in this scenario. But to reach UConn they'd have to beat a decent Purdue team.

I am sure that the UConn fan base is split on if they want this matchup to happen. Personally, I hope we never play Tennessee again. For everything that program did to hurt UConn, I hope they don't even make the tournament. But that's just me.

It's hard for me to get past that incident where Tennessee, through the SEC, sent a list of what they considered recruiting violations. This included 30+ pages of message board posts where UConn fans talked about recruits. There is so much more to this story, and much we will never know about.

Of course, the only accusation that stuck was that someone on the UConn staff called and arraigned a tour of the ESPN facility that anyone can go to. The rest were considered by the NCAA and dropped as not being an issue. But the sting of the event still burns with me. So, screw Tennessee. But if we do matchup, my preliminary prediction is pain....and lots of it for Tennessee.

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So, without further ado!!!

Ladies and Gents, DD looks at the news........

UConn Puts Three on USBWA Midseason Watch List UConn Huskies

Rebecca Lobo Among 3 Elected to Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame Patch

Olympic Team Finalist List has Breanna Stewart, 5 Other Former UConn Stars Hartford Courant

UConn's Stewart, 5 former Huskies finalists for USA Olympic Team Jim Fuller

UConn/ESPN working on streaming issues Jim Fuller

Culmo's Courtvision: Gabby Williams presented by Yale New Haven Health SNY

UConn women make impression on Texas recruit Lexi Gordon New Haven Register

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Upsets in Red

Late games in Green

MSU-Maryland women postponed; Spartans up to No. 18 The Detroit News

Epps, No. 12 Kentucky women hold off No. 19 Tennessee 64-63 Baynews9

No. 14 Louisville Women Beat Syracuse 71-53 ABC News

NO AAC GAME SCHEDULED

Thanks to Johnny C for sending me many of these numbers!!!

Johnny C is on the DL with a shoulder injury. I'll do my best to get you the info!!

Mercedes Russell Tennessee 12 points 10 rebounds
Makayla Epps Kentucky 23 points
Myisha Hines-Allen Louisville 27 points 10 rebounds
Rachel Bell Vanderbilt 23 points

Get Well Soon Johnny!!!!

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