Doggydaddy's Den: DoggyDaddy's Dailies 4/3/17

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Life goes on and Logan is loving his yogurt!!!!!

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I think there was a game Sunday, wasn't there? Around 6:00? I was washing my hair, so I might have missed it.

Ahh....I'm sure you all know I don't have any hair.

I did watch some of the game but not enough to have any thoughts about how it went.

I will congratulate Coach Staley and her team for winning the National Championship. They seemed to play better with the smaller lineup with Wilson dominating the paint instead of sharing it.

That's about all I'll say about it. Well, other than I wish UConn had been there.

I'll throw a few obligatory links about the game. I won't read them, but some of you might be interested.

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I have to stories to tell you. One from my friend Phil and one by my friend Cat. Two incredibly dedicated UConn fans that have a unique perspective about the team and life in general. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

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The Story of 0

By Phil

Zero is the number associated with the current UConn winning streak. We are chasing win #1, so we are at zero. It's the first time in a long time we've had to share a number; in fact we share it with quite a few teams. It's getting crowed in here, so it will soon be time to win some games and set ourselves separate from the pack.

Zero is an interesting number.

Most people don't think much about it.

Understandable.

Some who have thought about it a little think that zero is anomalous because its history is more recent than other numbers, such as 1 and 2. This is partially true, but partially misleading.

It is partially true to the extent that much of written western civilization traces its roots to the Greeks, who didn't really have a zero. The Greeks gave us a lot in mathematics, especially in geometry and logic, but they were a bit weak when it came to zero. Later Greeks, such as Ptolemy, got their act together and had a symbol for zero (and contributed to astronomy, albeit with some notable errors).

However, Egyptians and Pre-Columbian Americans had the notion of zero in earlier times.

There's a whole book about it :Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

It is unique in being the only real number than is neither positive nor negative.

It is the additive identity, which means when you add it to a number, the result is the same number.

You can divide any number by any other number, except zero. When a non-zero number is divided by zero, the result is said to be undefined. Zero divided by zero is a special case, and said to be indeterminate.

While interesting mathematically, as a streak number it is exceedingly uninteresting, so I look forward to a new season and new numbers to explore. Let's not visit zero again for a long, long time.

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The Story of O

By Cat

This is about the letter O which is often shorthand for Offense which is the reason UConn lost to MSU last night. UConn's defense held MSU to 6o points in 40 minutes and 66 points in 45 minutes. There's nothing wrong with that defense; after all, MSU put up 94 points against Baylor's defense in last week's OT win. Last night's game was lost because UConn struggled to score points.

Chris Dailey said last week that during the preseason the coaches were most concerned about this team's ability to score points. After all, this UConn team essentially started 5 (or 4.5) perimeter players. Somehow, Geno was able to mask the team's lack of post size by (brilliantly) employing an offense that centered around the athleticism, vision, court savvy and passing ability of Gabby Williams. Still, there were games that offered hints that this team just might struggle to score against a team with size and athleticism coupled with the pressure of the biggest stage. That's exactly what happened last night. MSU's strategy was to take away the play-making ability of Gabby and it worked. Although Gabby was able to score on some drives, she wasn't able to facilitate the offense the way she had throughout the season. There were few, if any, high-lows to Napheesa, or drives and dishes to Napheesa or drives and kicks to Lou.

UConn struggled to manufacture points in the half-court and there were no easy points in transition. My lasting image of last night's game will be Morgan William walking the ball up the court and pounding the ball in to the hardwood. I loathe that style of basketball but that's exactly what MSU needed to do to win the game. Vic knew that his team could never win if the game were an up and down, fast-paced game. He needed the game to be in the 60s and that's exactly what it was. The pace of the game was exactly what MSU wanted. MSU grabbed a ton of offensive rebounds which took away UConn's ability to run off misses, and MSU committed few turnovers. One way a team can speed up the pace of a game is to press, but UConn lacked the depth to put on a full court press.

UConn also didn't have a big post player who could either score in the lane or draw double teams (like Aja Wilson) and then kick out to open 3-point shooters. MSU didn't have to double-team any of UConn's players.

I bring up these points to re-enforce the message for next season: help is on the way. Azura Stevens is 6-6 and will be the post player this season's UConn team lacked. I've been told that the expectation among the coaches is that Azura Stevens will be the best player on the team next season. We've heard Kara Lawson and Doris Burke say the same thing, in fact Lawson said she may be the preseason POY. It's pretty clear Lawson and Burke are also hearing this from Geno. Think about the attention she'll draw and what that will mean for Gabby, Lou, Kia and Pheesa.

Help is also on the way in terms of depth. Next season's team will be able to press and press some more. There won't be any walking the ball up the court and pounding the varnish off the hardwood floor. While there's been lots of talk about Megan Walker, and rightly so, watch out for Mikayla Coombs. Her perimeter shooting will need some work but she'll be a defensive demon.

Because next season's team will be traveling and playing in Italy in August Geno will have an early opportunity to see how the pieces of the puzzle fit together. With so many newcomers the timing of the European trip could not be better.

Enjoy the summer and look forward to an outstanding 2017-2018 season.

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