****************************************************************************
Here is my UConn/Albany Pre Game Report.
****************************************************************************
Here is my DoggyDaddy's Dailies Bracket contest. I'll be posting the top ten as we do along.
I'm not big on rules, but please, only one sheet per person.
Sign up and win........my admiration.
Click here to join!! Password is uconnfansforever
Congrats to Geno for being a finalist for the Naismith Coach of the Year award. But I do have an issue with one of the candidates. Vic Schaefer, head coach of the Mississippi State Bulldogs, just doesn't seem to me to be a good candidate.
Well, unless they give the award for the Scheduler of the Year. Because that has been as much of a reason for their success as his skills as a coach.
Mississippi State is 29-4. Of those 33 games, guess how many were against ranked teams in their out of conference schedule?
One. Yep, out of 14 OOC games, they only played Texas. Granted, they beat Texas and everyone else on the OOC schedule. But they beat Texas when they were struggling early in the season and everyone else was not in the top 25. Many were in the 200+ RPI range.
In their conference schedule, they did face some top 25 teams. South Carolina twice, and Kentucky. Guess what. They lost to both teams going 0-3 losing to SC twice. And they got clobbered by unranked Tennessee. At home.
So, yeah, they are 29-4. But 1-3 against top 25 teams and 28-1 against unranked teams.
Thankfully, Geno will win and it won't matter. But I'm sure that there is another coach that could have been nominated.
Sorry Vic. I do like you, but come on. Schedule better.
Ah.....1 vs 16.....it's never pretty when UConn is involved. There has only been one 1 vs 16 upset in both the women and men's tournaments. That was Stanford vs Harvard in 1998. But there were some big time extenuating circumstances in that game. A small part of it was that Harvard was a really good team that maybe should have been a 14 seed that year. They had the nation's leading scorer in Alison Feaster. But the biggest part was the two devastating injuries that Stanford had before the tournament started. They first lost Vanessa Nygaard in their final regular season game and then they lost their leading scorer and rebounder in Kristen Folkl in a practice before the game.
Mostly, it's just a practice session for the No. 1 seed. A chance to get back into the flow of playing after some time off and then a chance for the bench to get some good minutes in the tournament. The bench minutes get reduced as the games become harder and harder.
Mostly, it's just a practice session for the No. 1 seed. A chance to get back into the flow of playing after some time off and then a chance for the bench to get some good minutes in the tournament. The bench minutes get reduced as the games become harder and harder.
In UConn's case, the pattern of these games goes right along those lines. UConn comes out real aggressive, they build a huge first half lead. Then they play the starters for a few minutes to start the third quarter and then it's up to the bench to determine the final margin of victory.
As I said in my Pre Game Report, you can look at the prior four championship seasons and come up with what will happen in this game.
UConn had leads of 58-17, 44-12, 47-14 and 65-14 in those games.
But the last 10 minutes in those games were 25-17, 11-16, 19-11 and 16-25.
The 16 seed outscore UConn in the last ten minutes of two of the games by 5 and 9 points. Talk about talking the pedal off the metal...lol.
But this game? I fully expect the same scenario. UConn will jump out to a huge first half lead and build on that for a few minutes in the second half. My 100-50 prediction is based on UConn continuing to score with the bench. My 50 points for Albany might be too high.
As I said in my Pre Game Report, you can look at the prior four championship seasons and come up with what will happen in this game.
UConn had leads of 58-17, 44-12, 47-14 and 65-14 in those games.
But the last 10 minutes in those games were 25-17, 11-16, 19-11 and 16-25.
The 16 seed outscore UConn in the last ten minutes of two of the games by 5 and 9 points. Talk about talking the pedal off the metal...lol.
But this game? I fully expect the same scenario. UConn will jump out to a huge first half lead and build on that for a few minutes in the second half. My 100-50 prediction is based on UConn continuing to score with the bench. My 50 points for Albany might be too high.
Thanks to my friend Madison for sharing this picture of Megan Walker!!!
This is going to be one special player.
And Wednesday night, Elena Delle Donne presented Megan with the Gatorade Play of the Year award at Halftime of the Washington Wizards game. Walker is really racking up the accolades.
And for those who have a twitter account, check out this tweet!!!
***********************************************************************************
By David in Naples!!!!!
Most fans of Women's College Basketball know about the emergence of Katie Lou Samuelson as a superstar. If they weren't sure, her 10-10 from three point range, 40 pt effort last game and mention on ESPN sealed the deal. So, how much better is Lou than last season? Surprisingly, while many stats show great improvement, KLS had a great season last year as well. Consider;
1. Points - Katie Lou has improved from 408 pts last year to 671 so far this season. That good for a 10 pt per game jump. But, she has played 120 more minutes this season and taken 176 more shots. Bottom line, last she made 49.3% of her shots. This year, it is 49.4%. 😎
2. Rebounds- Geno gives Lou a hard time about rebounding. This season she has 121 boards, including 21 at the offensive end. Well, last year she had 124 rebounds and 19 were offensive. With more games to play, she will improve further, but she was darn good last year as well.
3. Assists - Lou is 2 assists away from 100 for the season. Surely this is a dramatic improvement from last year. How many did she get last season when the Big Three were playing? 40, 50, or 60? No, KLS had 82 in just 870 minutes.
4. Three point baskets - Many fans forget Lou led the Huskies last season with 78 threes. Given her 198 attempts, that gives her a 39.4% rate. This year the number of threes are up to 110-252 or 43.7%. Clearly better, but last season wasn't bad either.
Katie Lou has improved all her stats this year. Even steals are up from 38 to 47. Free throws as well from 36 made to 93 this year. But, for a freshman, she had a darn fine season a year ago. The best news? Lou is only a sophomore..!! 😀
Go Huskies..!!
*****************************************************************************
UCONN LINKS
Auriemma Named a Finalist for 2017 Naismith Coach of the Year UConn Team Site
NCAA TOURNAMENT LINKS
Maryland gets 'disappointing' No. 3 seed in UConn's region Fredrick News Post
Lady Vols trying to avoid another storm in NCAA Knoxville News Sentinel
*******************************************
Message Boards
UConn Territory - The best UConn women's message board ever!!!
College Fans Only - WCBB board where no holds are barred
Vol Nation - Tennessee women's basketball board
CockyTalk - The upstart South Carolina women's basketball board
CockyTalk - The upstart South Carolina women's basketball board
ND Nation - Notre Dame women's basketball board
I'm always open for suggestions. Just please reply to this blog or email me at:
No comments:
Post a Comment