Doggydaddy's Den: DoggyDaddy's Dailies 1/27/16

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No top twenty-five todays, one American conference game, and only a few article to link. Thank you WCBB for having a light schedule so I can pack for Florida. Here I am blogging poolside last year.

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The USA Today Coaches poll came out and out of the blue, South Carolina received one first place vote. Really.

So, one coach looked at UConn's week

UCF W 106-51, @ SMU W 90-37

And then looked at South Carolina's week

@ Auburn W 74-58, @ Miss St W 57-51

And decided that South Carolina should be ranked ahead of UConn.

Nuts....absolutely nuts. I mean, sure the writer in the AP poll that voted for South Carolina the first week because SC had played a game and won and UConn had not played yet was a little nutty. Writers can be that way.

But a coach do vote like this? It's beyond nutty. It's stupid. I mean dumb as a rock stupid. There is actually a coach out there that will eventually try to explain this vote. He/She will have some logic that may work for them but I'll be damned if I can even make something up that has any merit at all.

I hate to lump them all together but which one was the idiot that voted for South Carolina?

The USA TODAY Sports Board of Coaches is made up of 32 head coaches a Division I institutions. All are members of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association. The board for the 2015-16 season: Katie Abrahamson-Henderson, Albany; Zenarae Antoine, Texas State; Lynn Bria, Stetson; Joan Bonvicini, Seattle; Dawn Brown, Prairie View AM; Jamie Craighead, San Jose State; Kristy Curry, Alabama; Denise Dillon, Drexel; Brooks Donald-Williams, McNeese State; Oties Epps, Evansville; Brittney Ezell, East Tennessee State; Jason Flowers, Cal-State Northridge; Susan Robinson Fruchtl, Providence; Stephanie Gaitley, Fordham; LeDawn Gibson, Florida AM; Joe Haigh, Saint Francis (Pa.); Quentin Hillsman, Syracuse; Ali Jaques, Siena; Jeff Judkins, Brigham Young; Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick, North Carolina-Asheville; Kelly Lewis-Jay, Florida Atlantic; Jim Littell, Oklahoma State; Dave Magarity, Army; David Midlick, Austin Peay; Regina Miller, Illinois-Chicago; Mike Neighbors, Washington; Rhonda Rompola, Southern Methodist; Brady Sallee, Ball State; Wendy Schuller, Eastern Washington; Dayna Smith, Cornell; Coquese Washington, Penn State; Amy Williams, South Dakota.

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From David in Naples

Personal fouls are part of basketball. But, there are good personal fouls and stupid personal fouls. Occasionally fouling an opponent when trying for a steal, or pressing the ball handler, is better than fouling a shooter. UConn has 209 personal fouls that have resulted in 114 free throws. Of those 114 attempts, opponents have only made 77. So 209 fouls have only translated into 77 points, which is 4.3 pts per game.

Opponents, on the other hand, have fouled the Huskies 282 times. But, those fouls have resulted in 273 free throws. Since UConn makes over 78% of their free throws, they have scored 214 points from the charity stripe. That is just under 12 points per game. Giving the Huskies 137 extra points from the free throw line is not a good formula for winning. 8-)

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Oh Boy......the things UConn fans say. Take a load at a few of the comments about Kia Nurse. If you remember, I wrote about a few comments concerning Nurse and Ekmark a few days ago.

Well, someone posted this about Nurse - "Replace Kia in the starting lineup with ...Kia Nurse is a terrific player but Gabby is better, more explosive, better rebounder, ...".

Replace Kia....lol. Like this is really necessary?

"I do, however, cringe a bit whenever she puts her head down and drives the lane. She misses open team mates when she does that, and usually commits a charging foul."

The facts are that Nurse has 32 fouls in 18 games. Of those 32 fouls Nurse has FIVE offensive fouls. And she has had ONE in the last ten games. What has happened is that she had three consecutive games, Notre Dame, Colgate, Florida State, where she had one in each game. So fans all of a sudden saw that and it's all they can remember. Ohh.....Nurse drives out of control and USUALLY commits a charging foul? It's just bullshit.

"Forget about position strategy; go with the best athlete who can best help the team in different kind of ways. Some teams have a 4 guard system, don't they? Why not a 2 center, 2 forward, one guard or different other combos depending on the team played or particular time in the game being played? Let's think outside the box, or maybe NO box at all?"

Oy....now I'm getting a headache. Why the heck is anyone trying to change what this team is doing? 2 center, 2 forward, 1 guard....????? My god....can people get any more stupid?

"Kia has been throwing up bricks for weeks now. Time for a change. You need another guard on the floor, either Chong or Samuelson. My vote is Chong. Like Geno said we know she can score points. The thing Geno seems to forget is that you win games by SCORING more points than your opponent. If not constantly brow beaten Chong will score points in bunches.
Time for Kia to give the trowel and mortar a rest. "

This one was from the same winner that was trashing Nurse the other day. Time for a change? Why? Is there something wrong with a team that is playing like UConn is? Yes, Nurse is missing her 3 point shots, sometimes really badly. But she adds so much more to the team than shooting 3's. This guy is so short sighted. Geno is forgetting that you win games by scoring more than the opponent? Leading the country in scoring is forgetting? My god...what is wrong with this person??

This thread went on and on. To be fair, many posters were making similar points to what I have said. Thank goodness.

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So, without further ado!!!

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

No. 1 UConn women bring 55-game winning streak to Reynolds Center Tulsa World

Women’s basketball gameday capsule: No. 1 UConn at Tulsa New Haven Register

UConn Women's Insider: Stewart Established As One Of Program's All-Time Greats CT Now

No. 1 UConn Visits Sooner State to Face Tulsa UConn Huskies

UConn’s Saniya Chong showing flashes on court while managing injury The Middletown Press

ESPN3 omission of UConn women an isolated incident New Haven Register

Huskies' Stewart on the rebounds SNY TV

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Upsets in Red

Late games in Green

NO TOP 25 GAMES SCHEDULED

Temple 72 Tulane 54

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!!

Taylor Houston Bethune-Cookman 23 points
Kailyn Williams Bethune-Cookman 21 points12 rebounds
Alex Wittinger Illinois 27 points 15 rebounds 4 blocks
Rachel Banham Minnesota 27 points
Victoria Gonzales Howard 24 points
Imani Bailey Howard 22 points
Janayla White Radford 17 points 10 rebounds
Alyssa Mann Charleston Southern 20 points

Get Well Soon Johnny!!!!

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