Doggydaddy's Den: DoggyDaddy's Dailies 5/5/16

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I am trying Twitter again so if you can't find me on your usual sites or search engines, here is my twitter account. Feel free to follow me. I love followers!!!! And share this with others!

I plan on tweeting during the day when I hear something of interest regarding women's basketball.

DoggyDaddy@uconnden

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Phoenix beat Seattle 81-73 in a pre-season game. Phoenix played without Griner and Taurasi in this one.

Stewart had a great start, but overall, not a very efficient offensive game for her. She was 4-13 from the field, 1-3 on threes, 2-3 from the line. She added two steals and one block. So overall, she scored 11 points and grabbed 8 rebounds, 3 off the offensive glass. She was +3.

I can't wait to see her on TV!

San Antonio defeated Atlanta 73-67. Moriah Jefferson led SA with a 14 +/- rating. She had a tough time shooting, going 3-11 but she scored 6 points and had 6 assists and only 1 turnover. A decent start for Mighty Mo!!!

Morgan Tuck made her debut as well in the Suns vs Chicago and EDD.

The Sun had a 49-43 lead at the half. Morgan had a tough first half. Starting, she was 1-6 from the field, 0-3 on threes. She scored 3 points and grabbed couple of rebounds. But she was able to get to the foul line, going 4-4 in the second half in the Suns 84-81 win. She scored 7 points, snared 4 rebounds, handed out 3 assists, had 2 steals and 1 block. A full box score for Morgan. Nice start. Better should would help.

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Boy, do I love Jim Fullers writing!!! I linked a great article by him in the UConn section of links. I have waxed poetically about UConn signing Azura Stevens, but his blog was just amazing.

Let me just give you a taste before you read the entire article.

"I remember saying that wherever Stevens landed was going to change the national pecking order. Not only did UConn land Stevens but other top programs like South Carolina and Louisville (whose coaches worked with her on the U.S. U-19 team) did not. Stevens will need to sit out next season due to NCAA regulations on players who transfer from one Division I program to another one but UConn will be adding a player who I probably would have had among the five best in the country on the various preseason All-American teams I cast votes for."

Wow!! He would have her on the pre-season AA team? One of the top 5 players in the country? He is so right that this changes the national pecking order and puts UConn squarely at the top for the 2017-18 season.

One of her HS coaches said this - "Before she is even a basketball player, she is just a great kid. She is your typical high school kid, when she was here. She stood out here because of her height walking down the hallway but you wouldn't have known she was as talented of an athlete as she was based on talking to her. She just wanted to be like everybody else. She obviously has natural, God-given ability but she works hard at the same time and in the classroom she does the same thing, she was always an A/B student and you will never find anybody who will say anything negative about her. I would think it would be very hard to find somebody who didn't like her or anything like that, she is just a great kid."

and more!!!

"I think she has a ton of potential still. She is such a unique kid with her size, she is big enough to play inside but she has guard skills. She can shoot the 3, bring the ball up, she has this unique skill set and that is what makes her so special. If you play her at the guard position, now you have to box her out because she will go in there, fight for rebounds and get putbacks and she presents a lot of challenges for opponents. I think that is what makes her so unique is that she can play basically all five positions, whatever we needed her to do at the high school level she did.. I think even just sitting out next year, she is going to develop a lot. I am really excited to see her step onto the court for her last two seasons".

Man oh man....what a pick up!!!

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It looks like there are drums beating for a Big 12 expansion and UConn being one of the two teams being invited. I'm not one to get into the minutia of who, why or how. But it's fun to look at it from a UConn women's basketball perspective. Hey, that is what this Blog is all about!!

UConn would improve their in conference schedule by a lot. Just looking at last years results, they would play Baylor (36-2), Texas (31-5), West Virginia (25-10), Oklahoma (22-11), Oklahoma State (21-10), Kansas State (19-13), TCU (18-15). That's seven good team. The other three, Kansas, Texas Tech and Iowa State are pretty lousy.

But overall that would be a much better RPI schedule. Add in the usual OOC tough games (Stanford, Duke, South Carolina, ND, etc) and you might get to the No. 1 schedule in the country.

I would prefer the Big Ten but being in a a major conference beats not being in one!

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By David in Naples

The ten most amazing stats from last season.

1. Stewie had 147 assists AND led the Huskies with 716 points. She was 2nd on the team in assists and finished 251 points ahead of the next scorer.
2. Napheesa Collier, at 6'1", led the team in offensive rebounding with 83. More than Stewie, Tuck, Gabby or Butler. Wow..!!
3. Gabby Williams improving her free throw accuracy to 75%, from 46%. Hard work pays off..!!
4. Moriah Jefferson reaching 204 assists despite playing only 3/4ths of possible minutes.
5. Kia Nurse was the only player for UConn to start and play in every game, 38 of 38.
6. Gabby and Natalie Butler did not try a single 3 point shot all season.
7. UConn made 453 free throws for a team average of 80%.
8. Opponents made 728 baskets, but the Huskies created 784 turnovers..!!
9. Stewie made 122 free throws this season (83.6%) while all opponents combined, only made 172.
10. UConn won every game by double digits and never trailed in the 4th quarter.