Doggydaddy's Den: DoggyDaddy's Dailies 2/6/2016

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Here is my UConn/East Carolina Pre Game Report

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I'm working hard on the UConn/South Carolina Pre Game Report. More info than you can imagine.

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From David in Naples

Breanna Stewart has now moved into 2nd place in UConn's all-time scoring list. Her 2,351 points are 2nd behind Maya Moore's 3,036 points. The 685 point difference can't be made up with what is left of this season. It is quite possible that Maya will be the leading scorer in UConn history forever. Her senior year, Maya averaged 33 minutes per game and scored 868 points. This year, Stewie is averaging 28.6 minutes per game and her scoring is averaging 19.6 pts per game. Stewie plays less minutes per game and scores slightly fewer points.

For her career, Maya scored 3,036 points in 4,683 minutes. That comes out to 0.648 pts per minute on the court. Interestingly, Stewie has scored her 2,351 points in 3,751 minutes of play. So her average is 0.626 pts per minute. The difference in their productivity is very small if you measure points per minute versus total scoring. Of course, all this analysis ignores all the other contributions both make on the court.

The scoring race was actually decided during Breanna's freshman year. While she played 854 minutes and scored 497 points, Maya played 1,121 minutes and poured in 678 points. Added to the extra time and points in Maya's senior year, Stewie best efforts pushed her to 2nd place, but not past Maya. Both Maya and Stewie will go down as incredible players who lifted UConn to National Championships and made those around them better. Can't ask for more than that..

Here are more numbers from David about the South Carolina UK game the other night.

Thoughts on South Carolina vs Kentucky.. Kentucky is a decent team, 15-5, and lost by 10 points. But they gave South Carolina a ton of breaks.

1. Kentucky had 31 fouls and that led to 35 USC free throws. (UK had 14 free throws)
2. UK made 2-8 three point shots. USC didn't have to guard out by the arc.
3. UK missed 41 shots from the field, USC had 28 defensive rebounds.
4. UK had only 4 steals.
5. UK gave up 27 points to Alaina Coates.

South Carolina didn't exactly blow UK away either...
1. USC missed 11 free throws and finished at 68% from the charity stripe.
2. USC was 2-12 from the 3 pt arc.
3. USC had 17 turnovers and 17 fouls.
4. USC gave up 38 points in the paint.
5. USC scored 26 baskets, but gave up 28.

So ask your self, is UConn going to foul 31 times, make 2 threes, miss 41 shots and have only 4 steals? Then ask yourself is South Carolina, w/ Mitchell playing more, going to make more than 2 threes, give up fewer than 38 points in the paint, have less than 17 turnovers and get 35 free throws ? A whole lot has to go USC's way for a win over a better team than UK.

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I'm tired of the complaints I hear about Nurse and her missing shot(s). Here is what Geno said about it. Thanks Cat for finding this.

The media didn't attend practice today because of the weather but did have a conference call with Geno. One of the topics addressed was Kia Nurse's 0-fer Wednesday night against Tulane. From Jim Fuller's blog:

The camera panned on the UConn bench as Nurse came out of the game for the final time and she looked as visibly frustrated as I have seen her.

"I think sometimes Kia puts a little too much emphasis on scoring, making shots and contributing that way offensively I think unnecessarily," Auriemma said. "There are a lot of things that Kia Nurse does to help our team be where we are today at both ends of the floor, offensively and defensively. For her to feel that way about not making shots, about coming up scoreless, I don't think that is good for her to be in that frame of mind so it was something that we addressed after the game for sure.

"You can't base how well you played based on how well you shot the ball and that is something we reinforce all the time. Making shots doesn't mean you played well and missing shots doesn't mean you've played poorly."

And an observation from David in Naples.

"As of tonight, Lebron James is 0-18 on three point shots in his last 6 games. Maybe someone could tell Kia Nurse. These things happen...just saying. "

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So, without further ado!!!

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