Doggydaddy's Den: DoggyDaddy's Dailies 2/19/16

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What a crazy AAC game Thursday night. It tied for the longest game in women's basketball NCAA history, in a FIVE overtime thriller, Memphis beat Temple 100-97 in a game that took 3 hours and 20 minutes. What an unbelievable performance by both teams in clutch basketball.

Basket after basket tying the game up at the end of each period from the 4th quarter through the 4th OT. Amazing.

Five players fouled out for Temple and two for Memphis.

A painful loss for Temple in their quest for an NCAA bid.

Here is the Temple Team Site Game Recap. You just have to read the details.

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Friday, one of UConn's 2017 recruiting targets is announcing her decision and I'm feeling really good about that.

Lexi Gordon, a 6' wing from L.D. Bell high school in Hurst Texas, is currently the 34th ranked recruit by ESPN. But she has had a terrific junior year and I expect her to move up in the rankings.

She visited UConn in January on an unofficial visit (on her own dime) and immediately announced her final four teams with Included UConn, Baylor, Texas and TCU. Both her parents went to TCU so expect that to be a possibility.

She said she would announce right after her season ends. That came abruptly when her team lost early in the state tournament.

She had an amazing visit on her own dime and is announcing her decision before having an official visit. As a friend said, this just screams UConn. I'll be shocked if it's not.

I'll post links, videos and everything else I can find one she commits. And don't kill me for jinxing it if she goes to a Texas school.

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Speaking of recruiting targets, here are highlight videos of 2016 recruits Notre Dame's Erin Boley and UConn's Kyla Irwin.

I don't know. To my untrained eye, these look like two very comparable players. yes one is top 10 and one is at the bottom of the top 100 rankings.

What do you all think?

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So much DRAMA going on almost every day with the Lady Vols, I had to create it's own section!

Tennessee played a dreadful first half against Ole Miss, down 33-30.

They threw the ball away several times leading to Mississippi baskets. They allowed dribble penetration almost every possession. Granted Ole Miss players were hot from the outside but the Tennessee defense offered little resistance.

As a Tennessee player was called for a charge, Warlick went ballistic. One of the assistant coaches played the role of Chris Daily as she held Warlick back and saving her from a possible technical.

In possibly the worst half time interview ever. Warlick was asked how they stay in the game. She said so much drivel, it was sad. Play better, stop charging. When asked what adjustments she might make, she said "don't know, we will have to talk" as she pointed to the locker room. She seemed so flustered.

To her credit, she must have pushed the right buttons. Basically they went full court HARD pressure, forcing Ole Miss into several turnovers. They used this to outscore the Rebels 16-6 for the third quarter to take a 46-39 lead.

Tennessee started the quarter outscoring Ole Miss 4-2 to take a 50-41 lead with 7:30 left in the game. It's hard to believe that Tennessee would blow another late game lead but it began to look that way. Mississippi outscored Tennessee 10-0 over the next 6:00 minutes before a layup by little used Kortney Dunbar gave Tennessee the lead with 1:36 left. After an Ole Miss turnover, Dunbar gave Tennessee a four point lead with a long three pointer.

Tennessee rebounded a Mississippi miss and was able to run some clock before Deshields was fouled with 25 seconds left. Believe it or not, she missed both free throws giving the Rebels life. But not for long as they missed a three pointer with 18 seconds left. Reynolds put the game away at the line for a 57-51 win for the Lady Vols.

While winning is always better than losing, Tennessee was just awful in this game. The bright spot was Bashaara Graves, who had 15 tough points in the paint along with 12 big rebounds.

Bad new is that Russell looked to injure her ankle early in the game and never came back. More to come on that but Tennessee gets real small without her.

Another strange performance by Diamond Deshields. Coming off the bench once again, she scoreless, missing all four of her shots and all two of the free throws. She had two assists but countered that with four turnovers. Just an ugly game where she looking like she was playing in a CYO game playing selfishly and looking disinterested.

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No. 2 Notre Dame was impressive once against beating up on Wake Forest 86-52. Brianna Turner was terrific once again with 19 points and 11 rebounds. They play like a No. 2 should play.

Unlike No. 3 South Carolina, who beat an average Georgia team 61-51 allowing 24 points in the 4th quarter. Dawn really shortened her bench, only going seven deep with Roy and Imovbioh coming off the bench. Cuevas and White didn't see any action. Not a great performance but I'm sure they will take the win.

Two top 25 upsets Thursday night -

No. 23 Syracuse beat No. 10 Florida State 83-73. Syracuse has had a terrific offense this season and scoring 83 points against the stingy FSU defense is quite impressive.

No. 16 Kentucky hammered No. 14 Mississippi State 83-60. And they did it on MSU's home court. A very good win for the Wildcats.

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From David in Naples

How important are Stewie and Moriah to the results of this season's UConn team? Besides the leadership and maturity, the statistics are overwhelming:

1. Stewart and Jefferson have scored 803 combined points or 36.2% of UConn's total. They are 1st and 2nd on the team.
2. They are first and second in assists as well with 135 for MoJeff and 102 for Stewie. Third has 73.
3. Stewie leads the team with 80 blocked shots, next is 34. Moriah leads with 71 steals, next is 50.
4. MoJeff and Stewie have played 749 and 697 minutes this season, #1 and #2 on the Huskies.
5. Both players are shooting over 40% on three point baskets with Stewie at 43.5% and Mo at 41.2%. Tops on the team.
6. Together they are making 83.1% of their free throws.
7. Stewie leads the Huskies in rebounding with 198 while MoJeff averages 31.2 minutes per game.
8. Together they average 33.4 points per game playing only 1/2 the game, while opponents average 48.6 in a whole game.

This magical final season has many games still to play. Enjoy the ride Stewie and MoJeff are taking UConn fans on....
Go Huskies..!!

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I like South Carolina's Tiffany Mitchell. I really do. But I just don't understand why she is on the 20 player Wooden Award list that just came out.

She was an All-American last season and it was well deserved. But her numbers are significantly lower than last year.

Shooting percentage went from 50% to 41%.
Three point percentage went from 42% to 34%.
Rebounds went from 3.1 per game to 2.9 per game.
Assists went from 2.9 per game to 2.3 per game.

Her scoring is up a little from 14.4 to 14.6. But she is taking more shots and many more three pointers on average.

Wooden does have more than just stats to go by when they select players. Mitchell is a great ambassador for the game. But I believe that her play doesn't warrant this honor.

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So, without further ado!!!

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