Doggydaddy's Den: DoggyDaddy's Dailies 4/4/16

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Here is my UConn/Syracuse Pre Game Report

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Here is the link to my ESPN Challenge page.

After Friday's action, here are the leaders -

Synthia - 1050
Chappette - 1030
Jbb1985Knife-edge - 980
JerrJerrMorg - 960
JerrJerrmo - 960
ptgrd69 - 940
Jbb1985Karnevil9 - 910
DoggyDaddy - 900

Congrats to Synthia, who picked Syracuse to get to the final four and is still leading!!

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I will be adding more links Monday morning, so check back.

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"Pressure is being asked to do something you can't do" - Geno Auriemma

That was Geno after the win against Oregon State looking forward to the Championship game against Syracuse. And certainly UConn beating the Orange for the championship is NOT something they can't do.

After seeing them dismantle a terrific Oregon State team, it's hard not to have a great deal of confidence that they will win their 11th Championship.

UConn was terrific from the start. In spite of Stewart getting two quick fouls and OSU doing a great job defending her, UConn was able to jump to an 18-6 lead. Morgan Tuck was just phenomenal hitting three pointers, put backs, drives. Her full offensive arsenal was on display as she scored 21 points.

The defense was terrific as well, holding the Beavers to 33.3% from the field and 6-19 on threes. UConn also forced 18 turnovers.

Stewart scored only 2 point in the first half, but only took 2 shots. The second half was more to Stewarts satisfaction, as she shot 6-8 from the field, hit two threes and ended up with 14 points, 16 for the game.

Congrats to Jefferson on her becoming UConn's all time assists leader passing Diana Taurasi. What a remarkable achievement!

Although my prediction of the score was a little off, my margin of victory and how I thought it would go was spot on.

From what I have seen, it doesn't look good for the Beavers in making this a competitive game. They have some good players. Some really good players. But they don't match up well with UConn. Not enough team speed, they turn the ball over too much and they don't score enough. They are big and rebound very well and use that size to defend but it's not enough to keep it close.

I can't see them scoring more than 50 unless they get hot from the outside and then they may break 60. They will struggle with the UConn Seniors and this could be an ugly game.

I'll call it 88-58 in favor of the Huskies. 30+ points. And on to the Championship Game!!!!

If you want to know how the championship game will go, I'll have my pre game report out sometime Monday. I hope!!!

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What a great performance by the Syracuse team in beating up on a game Washington team who just couldn't handle the Orange pressure.

Syracuse does what Kentucky professes to do, "40 minutes of dread" and the West Coast Huskies had no answer to it. They forced 18 turnovers and turned them into enough points to grab a double digit lead that they would never lose.

The second part of the Syracuse offense is their volume three point shooting. They rarely his a high percentage, but they will take close to 30 every game and make around 10. Tonight they were hot early when they built their big lead and hit enough to maintain it. They ended up 12 for 34, both final four records. Impressive.

Butler set a single season record on three pointers made, breaking the record that Kelsey Mitchell of Ohio State set last year.

Their winning formula has been hitting 35%+ on threes and turn the other team over 20 times. They were able to do that in this game, at least close enough with 18 turnovers.

Syracuse was led by Peterson, Sykes and Butler who scored 18, 17 and 12 points respectively. And the lefty Fondren was terrific off the bench with 10 points.

Washington was also dominated on the boards and along with all the turnovers, it gave Syracuse a huge advantage of 19 more shots taken.

More to come in my UConn/Syracuse pre game report.

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Last night's Fun with Numbers outlined Oregon State's deficiencies in turnovers, assists, steals and scoring. In UConn's victory today, OSU's troubles in those areas continued. Consider:

1. The Beavers had 18 turnovers, including 13 in the first half.
2. OSU managed only 8 assists vs 19 for the Huskies.
3. Oregon State made 18 baskets on 33% shooting.
4. UConn scored 34 baskets on 57% accuracy.
5. Weisner, OSU's leading scorer, went 4-15 and ended up with 9 pts.
6. Stewie went 7-10 and scored 16 pts.
7. OSU stole the ball 5 times, the Huskies 8.

Uconn executed in every way. They forced OSU into errors, missed shots and turnovers. On offense, they made 57% from the field and minimized mistakes. Look for more Tuesday.