Doggydaddy's Den: DoggyDaddy's Dailies 2/10/16

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Well, it finally happened. Tennessee is out of the top 25 in one of the polls. Clearly the writers just couldn't pull the trigger, but the coaches, who had Tennessee lower than the AP for weeks, made the move. In fact, they are second down in "others receiving votes" behind BYU and tied with Missouri.

It's about time. Tennessee is 4-6 over their last ten games. Every one of the four wins were against unranked SEC teams. They were ranked 12th prior to the last ten games in the AP poll and 11th in the Coaches poll.

The Lady Vols have a tough game on Thursday against Vanderbilt, who they were only up by 3 with 26 seconds left in their last matchup a few weeks ago. And this one is on that strange court at Vanderbilt.

GO COMMODORES!!!!

And just to pile on - Tennessee self reported three recruiting violations since May, 2015. I saw this on Volnation:

The coaching staff sent recruiting materials to two recruits in Oregon that arrived the day before the first permissible date that recruits could receive such materials. Tennessee will not be allowed to send recruiting materials for the first 60 days of the permissible period this year.

The other violation occurred when an assistant called what he believed to be the father of a player he believed to be a 2017 recruit. He had dialed the wrong number and called the parent of a 2018 recruit, which was a recruiting calendar violation. The assistant coach was prohibited from calling any student athlete for 14 days and Tennessee is prohibited from calling the 2018 recruit for the first 60 days following Sept. 1, the first permissible day for phone calls.

This program is a mess.

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So, is Oklahoma the next formerly high placed program to fall out of the top 25 along with Duke and Tennessee?

The Sooners lost to unranked Kansas State 87-71 and it was not close.

They play Texas next and if they lose, the two losses in the week should drop them out. Hey, maybe Tennessee can slide back in if they beat Vanderbilt?

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From David in Naples

The excuses are already flying from South Carolina fans after UConn's sweet 66-54 victory yesterday. "Our best player got hurt." "Our other best player was hurt, too." "The refs cheated for UConn." Blah, blah, blah... Stop your whining and listen up.

1. When Wilson got hurt, South Carolina was losing by 15 points. (30-15) Wilson was as fresh as she was going to be in the 1st period and early 2nd period and you were getting thrashed. She finished with 23 minutes of game time, do you think she could have played 40 and been effective?
2. South Carolina started the game with two shot clock violations. When you don't get a shot off, even a bad one, your offense is pathetic.
3. Mitchell, the other star player, was in the game for 39 minutes. If she was hurt, then your coach is dumb. Mitchell normally takes 11.1 shots per game. Last night she took 12 and made 4. She normally hits 41%, last night she made 33%. It's called good defense.
4. Three starters, Coates, Sessions and Roy went 2-15 from the field or 13.3%. UConn's other three starters went 9-23 or 39.1%. It's called balance.
5. UConn was called for 16 fouls. SCar was called for 15 fouls. So, shut up.
6. Two players for the Gamecocks made a total of 3 three point baskets. UConn made twice as many.
7. South Carolina had 7 assists. Wilson, Coates and Mitchell had a combined 0 assists. Try passing the ball.
8. Despite missing 33 shots, South Carolina had only 6 offensive rebounds. If you can't make the shot or get the rebound, you lose.
9. Coates had twice as many fouls (4) as points (2) and played 26 minutes.
10. Cuevas and Cliney came off the bench for 20 minutes each, but shot 2-10 with 2 turnovers.

South Carolina scored 21.7 points LESS than their average in the first 22 games. That is not the refs, injuries or bad luck. It was good defense, pure and simple. UConn handled the sellout crowd, didn't actually play their best game, but still won handily. Get over it, UConn is a better team.

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David did a fine job of shutting up the South Carolina fans with his excellent "Fun with Numbers".

Now it's my turn to tell some UConn fans to shut up and stop whining. You know who you are. The ones that are so worried about how UConn let South Carolina beat them by 9 in the 4th quarter. As if that is a sign that UConn could possibly lose this game.

Geno, like it or not, pulled the plug both offensively and defensively. The team certainly did not play with the same defensive intensity that they did for the first three quarters. There was not nearly as much on the ball pressure. They also were the victims of some questionable refereeing.

I usually use Geno as a barometer for how the team performed and he was incredibly proud of the team. I'll stick with that!!

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So, without further ado!!!

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