Late night, so it's just links and David's numbers. Looking forward to the DePaul game! Nervous but excited.
Hoping Dangerfield is back!!!
GO HUSKIES!!!
DePaul Pre Game ***************************************************************************
By David in Naples!!!!!
UConn plays four 10 minute quarters, each game, under the new format that started two years ago. Holding teams to less than 15 points per quarter is a good barometer of how well the defense is playing on any particular night. Against FSU, a 2 point victory, the Huskies only held the Seminoles to less than 15 points in the 2nd period. Versus Baylor, an 11 point win, the Bears only scored 14 pts in the 1st period and 12 in the 4th. Baylor's low output of 61 pts for the night, was due to good defense. Against Dayton and LSU, the UConn defense held those opponents to less than 15 points five times. The result was 23 and 33 point victories. If you get the idea that defense is key for the Huskies, you are right.
Last night, versus Chattanooga, UConn gave up 31 points in the first half, equaling the most points since FSU. Apparently, Geno reminded the team at halftime that playing lousy defense won't win the game. The Huskies responded by holding the Mocs to 5 pts in the 3rd period and 7 in the 4th. The results was a runaway 37 point victory. Defense is the key, and holding teams to less than 15 pts is the barometer.
Go Huskies..!!
And more numbers!!!!
UConn is 5-0 and some of the Huskies stats feature very strange, very round numbers... Consider:
1. Napheesa Collier now has 10 blocked shots.
2. Katie Lou has 20 defensive rebounds.
3. Napheesa is even better with 30 defensive rebounds.
4. UConn averages 40 total rebounds per game.
5. Opponents only have 50 assists on 322 shots.
6. If Gabby had made just 1 more free throw (8-12) she would have 60 points.
7. The Huskies have made 70 free throws.
8. UConn scored 80 points to beat Chattanooga for their 80th victory in a row.
9. Opponents have fouled UConn 90 times.
10. Led by Kia, the Huskies have 100 assists for the season.
Go Huskies..!! P.S. - Stats that just failed to make the cut include 201 total rebounds, 404 points scored and 49.0% shooting from the field.
Like last season, DePaul comes into the UConn game ranked. The 15th ranked Blue Demons are coming off an incredible shooting performance against then No. 11 Syracuse. They beat the Orange 108-84 going 19-39 from the three point line. They now lead the country in three point field goals made with 13.5 made per game. Every starter and four bench players hit three pointers. Crazy!
Prior to that DePaul defeated Appalachian State 99-58, UAB 90-80, Northwestern 89-66, Western Kentucky 77-69. They lost their only game to No. 5 Baylor 104-72. In the Baylor game, they still put up 41 threes, hitting 15 of them. They got killed on the boards 24-54 and Alexis Jones nearly had a triple double. I'm sure Geno watched this game very closely to check out this version of DePaul.
UConn is coming off a 37 point win against Chattanooga 80-43 where they really turned up the heat on defense the second half holding the Mocs to only 12 points. Offensively, UConn didn't look as comfortable as usual but the new big three carried them to the big win. UConn played without Crytal Dangerfield and I'm sure that made a difference in how the offense ran. Unknown if she will be available for the DePaul game.
Comparative Team Statistics
UConnDePaul
81.0 PPG 89.2 63.8Defensive PPG76.8
17.2 Scoring Margin 12.4
48.3 Field Goal % 44.1 36.6 Defensive FG% 44.6
44.7 Three Point % 38.6 30.2 Defensive 3PT% 33.6
78.9 Free Throw % 77.4
39.2 Rebounds/game 39.7
3.8 Rebounding Margin -1.0
19.8 Assists per game 22.8
14.3 Turnover per game 14.8
1.4 Assists/TO ratio 1.5
6.0 Steals per game 9.0
4.0 Blocks per game 2.5
UConn Starters
33 Katie Lou Samuelson
6'3" Sophomore Guard/Forward
Lou had a solid game against Chattanooga scoring 19 points. She showed a lot of different ways to score as her offensive game gets more and more diverse. UConn will need her to do better than the 1-4 on threes she had against the Mocs.
24 Napheesa Collier
6'1 Freshman Forward/Guard
Collier had a terrific game against Chattanooga and hopefully it will continue against DePaul. I don't think the Blue Demons have the size or quickness in the post to handle her. She is getting better and better at the step back jumper and you just can't stop her when she gets the ball in the paint. She is a terrific target for entry passes with her long arms.
11 Kia Nurse
6' Junior Guard
I keep saying it. Kia is still not 100% in the groove yet. Her defense is top notch though. I was glad to see her go 2-5 on threes. A few more games and her overall percentage will be manageable. Geno just trusts her. A lot.
15 Gabby Williams
5'11" Junior Forward
Not a lot of scoring for Gabby in the Chattanooga game, but she did have another double-double along with 4 assists. Her passing is getting better every game. And she had 4 steals. She just seems to be able to get in the passing lanes with ease. Only one turnover. She should have a big game against DePaul. They really don't have the size to deal with both her ability down low and her quickness driving to the basket.
12 Saniya Chong
5'8" Senior Guard
36 minutes and she was very good except for her shooting, going 1-6 from the field. But she did a good job running the offense and played acceptable defense. If Dangerfield is out for the DePaul game, Saniya will have to step up her game one more notch.
UConn Bench
51 Natalie Butler
6'5" RS Sophomore Center
She might have been under the weather for this one. But she worked really hard for every minutes she did play. A solid 6 points and 4 rebounds in limited minutes. I'm not sure how much she will play against the four guard offense that DePaul runs.
5 Crystal Dangerfield
5'5" Freshman Guard
The questions is - will she play or will she sit? Hopefully she will be ready to go. Concussions are tricky and you need to be careful. Her speed and quickness are really needed.
10 Molly Bent
5'9" Freshman Guard
She played some really solid basketball in her 18 minutes against Chattanooga. If Dangerfield is out, she will see plenty of time again. Even if Dangerfield plays, I have a feeling Bent will still see significant minutes.
25 Kyla Irwin 6'2" Freshman Forward
Geno didn't play her much against Chattanooga but she showed again that she is a real tough rebounder in the paint. Smart in finding good rebounding position, she works really hard to get the ball every time. She needs to find a go to move in the paint. She was blocked twice, but I still love her game and hustle. Doubtful she will play much against the smaller DePaul lineup.
20 Tierney Lawlor
5'7" Junior Guard
GO TIERNEY!!!!!! 1 rebounds and 1 block. Played her usual tough defense. But won't see much time in the DePaul game.
Geno gets to coach his team against another great longtime friend in Coach Bruno. For the second time, Bruno will head to the Olympics this time in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as an assistant coach to Geno. In 2012 and in 2016, Bruno helped the National Team to its fifth straight Olympic gold in London in the same role.
Over the last 14 seasons, Bruno has led the Blue Demons to 14 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and the program's first and second Sweet Sixteen showing in 2006 and advanced to the round of 16 again in 2011 and 2014.
Coach Bruno has been inducted into the DePaul Athletics Hall of Fame, the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame and the Illinois Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame.
Here is his full bio from the DePaul site. It really is worth the read.
DePaul Starters
14 Jessica January
5'7" Senior Guard
2016 Preseason BIG EAST Player of the Year… Sporting News 2016 Preseason third-team All-American... 2016 Nancy Lieberman Award Finalist… 2016 NCAA All-Dallas Regional Team… 2016 I-AAA Scholar Athlete of the Year… third-team CoSIDA Academic All-America.
2016 Nancy Lieberman Award Finalist I-AAA Scholar Athlete of the Year… third-team CoSIDA Academic All-America… NCAA Dallas All-Regional TeamJanuary was All-BIG EAST Honorable Mention as a Sophomore and on the ... BIG EAST All-Freshman team along with UConn player Natalie Butler (who was FOY in the big east). In high school she was McDonald's All American nominee and ranked No. 74 in her class by HoopGurlz.
22 Brooke Shulte
5'9" Senior Guard
2016-17 BIG EAST Preseason All-Conference Team… missed the 2012-13 season with a torn ACL... three-time member of the BIG EAST All-Academic team... Shirley Becker Academic Award recipient in 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16… enters final season with 624 career points.
34 Jacqui Grant
6'3" Senior Forward
Played freshman and sophomore seasons at Illinois… cleared by the NCAA to play at DePaul on Nov. 25, 2015… member of the BIG EAST All-Academic Team… earned DePaul’s Shirley Becker Academic Award and Pat Ewers Unsung Hero award as a junior. In her first season at DePaul, Grant appeared in 31 games with 29 starts including DePaul’s final 28 games… averaged 20.3 minutes per game and played a season-high 27 minutes at Villanova… ranked 17th in the BIG EAST with 5.0 rebounds per game… season-best nine rebounds in five games… averaged 8.6 points per game which ranked fourth on the team.
Ranked the No. 28 power forward and No. 108th overall player in the nation in the class of 2013 by Blue Star
10 Amarah Coleman
5'11" Junior Guard
Played freshman season at Illinois before transferring to DePaul.
Coleman was cleared by the NCAA to play at DePaul on Nov. 25, 2015… saw action in 24 games including DePaul’s win over James Madison in the first round of the NCAA Tournament… averaged 7.3 minutes per game and played double-figure minutes in seven contests
Ranked No. 79 overall in 2014 class and No. 18 point guard by ESPN Hoopgurlz… ranked No. 82 nationally by Collegiate Girls Basketball Report
1 Ashton Milender
5'6" Junior Guard
Named DePaul’s Most Improved player following the 2015-16 season.
Last season she appeared in all 36 games… averaged 22.5 minutes… averaged 7.6 points per game and scored double-figures in 13 games… career-best 15 points in four games (Indiana, Xavier, Butler, St. John’s) last season… boasted a 1.1 assist-to-turnover ratio… 38 assists and 24 turnovers
Milender had a nice freshman year playing in 31 games and averaging over 20 minutes per game. This year she is coming off the bench and playing very well.
DePaul Bench
24 Tanita Allen
5'10" Sophomore Guard
Last season played in 30 games… averaged 10.0 minutes per game… season-high 18 minutes against Providence and Xavier… season-best 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting including 3-of-4 from 3-point range against St. John’s on Jan. 31… season-high six rebound against Indiana… dished out three assists and added one block and steal against Chicago State… averaged 3.7 points per game and reach double figures against Providence, St. John’s and Butler.
Allen was ranked No. 22 in the nation at her position by ESPNW. She was ranked the No. 4 player on the Carolina Scouting Report’s Top 100 in the Class of 2015 and named to the Full Court website’s 2015 Fresh 50 Watch List
20 Kelly Campbell
5'10" Freshman Guard
Ranked No. 76 by ESPN HoopGurlz and No. 62 by Bluestar… MSG Varsity NJ Player of the Year, 1st-team All-State… Gatorade Player of the Year finalist… McDonalds All-American nominee.
33 Claire McMahon 6'1" Freshman Guard
Averaged 13.3 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.6 assists her senior season at Lincoln Way East… school’s all-time leader in blocks and holds the school record for assists in a game.
DePaul is doing what they usually do in scoring a lot of points averaging 89 points per game. They were able to score 72 points against Baylor's tough defense. Not an easy task. I'm sure Bruno realizes his teams only chance to make a game of it is to make a lot of threes. The good news for DePaul is they take a lot of threes. Their top eight scorers have all taken more than thirteen threes each. They have taken 210 three pointers so far this season. That's 35 per game. Coming into the game last year they were over 26 per game. Nine more threes per gam than last season? Crazy!
DePaul is also one of the best passing teams in the country. Coach Bruno is an excellent offensive coach and his players do a great job valuing the ball. This year they have 137 assists, an average higher than UConn's at 22.8 per game. And they have only turned the ball over 89 times. There are not many teams that have a 1.5 assist/to ratio.
The question for DePaul is twofold. Can they hit their three point shots at a high percentage against UConn? Can they find a way to play enough defense to keep UConn under 80? Last year they pressed and pressed, changing players quickly to keep them fresh. It really frazzled the team last year and with no more Jefferson, the question is how will UConn handle the pressure. UConn needs to break the press cleanly and get easy looks at the basket.
DePaul lost their tough inside presence in Megan Podkowa to graduation. She was their leading rebounder and a real enforcer in the paint. Jacki Grant has picked up that slack but she is no Podkowa.
They also lost their leading scorer from last year in Chanise Jenkins, who took over 200 three pointers. But clearly, from the games so far, DePaul has more than made up for her graduation.
I don't know if Bruno will use the hockey strategy of changing out 5 players at a time, but he always seems to come up with something new against the Huskies.
DePaul is able to create turnovers against most teams, and as sloppy as UConn has been with the ball (well, more sloppy than usual) I would expect DePaul to have some success in doing that.
UConn's defense will have to work hard in preventing open three's. DePaul will find that open player. But UConn is the best at closing in on the open shooter with their amazing switching defense. DePaul will get some open looks. If they hit them at a high rate, DePaul can certainly make a game of it.
Final Prediction
This is a tough game to call other than I think UConn will win. But this game scares the hell out of me. DePaul can get hot and hit threes even if well defended.
Geno, in the Chattanooga post game interview was very honest. He thought his team needed an old fashioned ass kicking. Will this be the game? Or will the players hear that and get the message on how hard they have to work?
UConn still has too much for DePaul but the game will tough for the Huskies. UConn should hold on, but my guess is no more than 10 points margin of victory.
I figured that a short Post Game report on the Chattanooga game and a long DePaul Pregame report would be better than the opposite . DePaul Pre Game is up!!!
Well, I was able to attend my second game of the season, and I have to say, I've had better times. The company was great, sitting with my two good friends , Bruce and Lesley. And my wife was with me as well. I also got to see my brother, who surprised me and my buddie Dan, who I'm still pissed off at....well...not really.
Anyways, the game? I've seen better. Yes, UConn won 80-43. There were some good individual performances, but overall, they were sloppy on offense, disinterested on defense and just didn't seem to be into playing the entire game.
Was it the Thanksgiving break? Possible. UConn has struggled after the break before. It's usually the Christmas break as that one is longer.
Was it the missing dynamo, Crystal Dangerfield? Also possible. She brings such a unique skill set to the team. They could have used her spark.
The game started out slowly for the Huskies. Chattanooga ran out to a 5-0 lead. UConn came back and it was back and forth until the Mocs took a 14-11 lead with 4:24 left in the 1st quarter. The arena was quiet and the team seemed off. But UConn turned 6 Chattanooga turnovers into a 10-0 run taking a 21-14 lead at the end of the quarter.
I was feeling better and was hopeful that the Huskies had figured it out. But the second quarter was more of the same, just missing enough shots and letting Chattanooga stay close. They were only down 12 at the half 43-31.
I guess Geno was able to get their attention at halftime. I think the paint was melting off the walls of the locker room. UConn only allowed 5 points in the 3rd quarter and 7 points in the 4th quarter. That led to plenty of scoring opportunities that the Huskies never really took advantage of as they only scored 37 points in the second half.
Performance wise, Napheesa Collier was clearly the best player on the court with her 23 points on 11-12 shooting, 4 assists and 2 blocks. Gabby Williams had another double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds along with 4 steals. And Katie Lou Samuelson hit a variety of shots, but going only 1-4 on threes while scoring 19 points showing everyone that her offensive game is really diversifying.
I loved the contribution of Molly Bent. She played 18 minutes, going 2-3 from the field, 1-2 on threes, grabbing 4 rebounds with 1 assists and only 1 TO.
Butler had 15 minutes. I think she might have been under the weather. She played a couple of minutes in the first half. She ran off the court and after a hand slap from Geno she ran right to the locker room. A UConn manager followed her. Maybe a stomach bug?
Both Chong and Nurse played extended minutes with 36 and 35 each. I think Sanyia played ok and just shot poorly. She led the team with 5 assists and added three steals. Kia looked like Kia. Aggressive and sometimes out of control. But she did hit 2-5 three pointers and had 10 points with 4 assists and 3 rebounds.
As a team, UConn was able to shoot 50% from the field but only 4-15 on threes. They were a pedestrian 10-16 from the FT line. They held Chattanooga to 28% shooting and only 6-31 on threes.
I had predicted a 45 point win. I changed it from 35 after the Chattanooga loss to Maine in their previous game. Like changing your golf club choice, you should always stick with your first instinct.
Next, UConn plays DePaul. If they play like this, they could be in trouble. But there is no reason to think they will. Sometimes you play down to your opponent. They have to play well to beat DePaul. And hopefully Dangerfield is available. UConn Box Score UConn photos
Some great quotes. Geno thinks the team needs to get their asses kicked and soon.
Post game player interviews. Gabby and Napheesa. Delightful young women.
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By David in Naples!!!!!
Tonight's game against Chattanooga is one of six that will be played at the XL Center in Hartford, UConn's home away from home. Other games include Ohio State, East Carolina, USF, Houston, and Temple. The Huskies play well at the XL Center and their all time record is 155-13, for a 92% winning mark. In the last 83 games at the XL Center, UConn is 80-3. By comparison, their recent record at Gampel is even better at 97-2. It certainly looks like the Huskies love the home cooking at either arena.
UConn could also be said to have two more "home court" venues. Sunday's game versus Texas is going to be at Mohegan Sun, where Geno has a restaurant. Speaking of home cooking, when your coach owns a great restaurant at an arena, it is considered your home court. The AAC tournament is usually held at Mohegan and the Huskies have never lost any AAC tournament game. The Huskies also play well and win at the Bridgeport location. The early rounds of the NCAA tournament are hosted by Bridgeport in the East Regional. With a crowd that is 95% UConn fans, the Huskies might as well be playing in Storrs.
Look for the Huskies to finish the month of November with a strong game against the Mocs from Chattanooga..!!
Defense is the key, and holding teams to less than 15 pts is the barometer.
