Doggydaddy's Den: DoggyDaddy's Dailies 12/22/16

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Happy EIGTH birthday to my wonderful granddaughter Mya!!!

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She is so creative so we sent her an art kit for her birthday. Looks like she likes it!!!

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UConn handled Nebraska Wednesday night, winning 84-41. UConn really spread around the scoring and the minutes as well. Hopefully all the hand wringing fans, worried about playing the starters too long will relax.

Chong came back from her concussion issue and played 28 minutes. She was solid with 8 point, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists. It's the type of performance that will really help the Huskies going forward.

The minutes were well dispersed, with only Kia Nurse with over 29 minutes. Collier played only 22 minutes. Collier 26 and Samuelson 29. Like I said yesterday, there is no minutes issue.

Read below about the Maryland game. I can tell you that even if they are a little fatigued, I would take the UConn started for extended minutes over any team that goes 10 deep. When weaker players are in, the UConn advantage grows, even if they are slightly fatigued.

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No. 4/3 Maryland had a pretty blah game against Duquesne winning 77-57 in their tune up before facing No. 1 UConn on December 29th. Sure it was a 20 point win. Now we downplay those? I guess that is exactly what I am doing.

They did play 12 players, so the end of the bench saw plenty of time. But Maryland seemed to be looking ahead. I really can't blame them.

I heard the announcer during the Ohio State game talk about UConn playing Maryland and that the Terps have confidence when they play UConn because it's been close game.

Yes, last year was closer than expected even though it did end up a 10 point UConn win. But only 8 months before that UConn hammered them by 23 points. The margins in the other three games these two schools have played in was 17, 16 and 15 point margins. Maryland has never beaten UConn.

So maybe they do it on 12/29. Maybe not. But this series has never been close.

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By David in Naples!!!!!

Last season, only one player for UConn scored 28 or more points in a game. Stewie did it twice with 28 pts against Notre Dame and 29 versus DePaul. Moriah's high for the season was 25 pts in the Temple game.

This season, three different players have scored 28 or more points in a single game. Napheesa Collier opened the season by going for 28 pts against FSU. Katie Lou followed that with a 28 point effort versus LSU. The very next game, KLS went off for 29 points in the Dayton game. Then it was Kia Nurse's time to shine with a 33 points explosion against DePaul. Both Napheesa and Katie Lou came close again in the Ohio State game with 27 & 26 points respectively.

With only 10 games played, and the AAC schedule ahead, there is a good chance the Huskies will crack the 28 pt level several more times. Honestly, Stewie and MoJeff just played too well and had too big a lead to stay in the game and score more points. This season, more competitive games means more minutes and more scoring.