Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 11/21/17

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My Florida granddaughters had a great time in their second day in NYC today.

Ellis Island!! And More!

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Here is my full UCLA pregame report.

And I found a highlight video from the Maryland game.

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Butler Named Atlantic 10 Player of the Week

Natalie averaged 17.7 points, 14.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.0 blocks in three Patriot wins last week.

From the Article:

This past week, she posted three consecutive double-doubles, including a Mason-best 21 points and 16 rebounds against Old Dominion on Friday in the Preseason WNIT.

Her week started with 20 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks in a 80-72 victory at Loyola (Md.) on Tuesday. Then, in her first home game at Mason, she scored 21 points and grabbed 16 rebounds in a 66-53 victory over Old Dominion on Friday. She also shot 8 for 14 with two blocks and two steals.

She capped off her week with 12 points, 15 rebounds, three blocks and three assists in a 57-38 victory over Southeast Missouri State on Saturday for the Patriots' third straight win - their longest winning streak in nearly three years.

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It's going to be a long year for the Tennessee Lady Vols. Monday night they played a weak Wichita State team and struggled to beat them winning 68-56. It was a one point lead for the Lady Vols at the half before they used a good defensive third quarter to build a 12 point lead that they held on to for the final margin.

Wichita State had lost to Creighton by 5, Oklahoma State by 24 and South Dakota by 14. Not exactly murderer's row of opponents.

Tennessee had to play 4 starters 36, 36, 39 and 40 minutes against this terrible Wichita State team and while the other starter only played 14 minutes, only one other player had real minutes with 27.

The only good news is that the freshman are getting great minutes and learning how to play Holly's offense and defense. The bad news it that it's Holly's offense.

They move on to the Cancun challenge where they play two of the teams that played Wichita State, Oklahoma State and South Dakota. Based on relative scores, both those games should be very competitive. In their first game of the tournament they play No. 20 Marquette. That could be a game where we can see where the Lady Vols of 2017-18 are.

Three games in three days. They better find a way to spread out the minutes or these players will be collapsing on the court from exhaustion.

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By David in Naples!!!!!

Lucky you, you get a two-fer from David!!!!

I understand losing coaches often put the best possible spin on games against UConn. But after listening to as much of Brenda Frese' post-game analysis as I could bear, I'm convinced she watched the wrong game. In the first 30 seconds of her talk, the Maryland coach claimed she was "pleased" with her team's performance, said they "grew as a team" and highlighted their 16 steals and 72 points. In an alternate universe moment, she proudly proclaimed that if you looked at just the 2nd, 3rd and 4th periods, Maryland only lost by 4 points. Seriously..?? Here is one UConn fan's rebuttal.

1. Brenda, your team gave up 97 points to a team missing Katie Lou Samuelson. That is just 3 points short of 100. Get excited about the steals if you want, but your defense is really bad. Really, really bad..!

2. With 8:48 left in the game, you were losing by 37 points. Thank Geno for playing the bench for 54 combined minutes and not beating your team by 50.
3. Your best player, Kaila Charles, scored 29 points because you left her in for 40 minutes. In the 1st period, against the starters, she had 4 pts. In the 4th, she scored 15, more than half of her total.
4. Are you please your team shot 26% from 3 point range and 61% from the free throw line?
5. Maryland scored 21 points in the first half. 20 minutes, only 21 points. Meanwhile, UConn hung 46 points on your defense and took a 25 point lead into the locker room.

6. Basketball games are 40 minutes long. You didn't "compete for 30 minutes." You were in this game for exactly 2 minutes and 15 seconds when you tied the score 7-7. Then your team gave up the next 11 points. :rolleyes:

7. Brenda, your team shot 39% from the field, had only 9 assists, gave up 20 turnovers and two starters (Confroy & Myers) played 41 combined minutes and scored 0 points. Still pleased..?

Maybe the effusive praise for UConn's defense, offense and players came later in the press conference. I had long since reached for Katie Lou's bucket to offload my lunch. I guess being winless (0-6) against Geno and the Huskies is not fun, so go ahead and be "pleased" with your young team. But, seriously, you missed a great game.

Go Huskies..!!

Here's number 2 -

UConn has routed three ranked teams in their first three games. As nice as the wins are, the margin of victory is even more impressive. In just three games, the Huskies have scored 257 points, 85 more than opponents. UConn has also had leads of 42 points over Stanford, 45 points vs California and 37 against Maryland. These games were never close, even though the opponents were respected programs, ranked in the top 20.

UConn is averaging 85.7 points per game and just hung 97 on Maryland, without Katie Lou. The leading scorer is Crystal Dangerfield with 48 points. But, the next four players have scored 39, 39, 37 and 35 points. Talk about balance..! The defense has been even better, allowing only 19.6 points per 1st half. In the 2nd period alone, UConn has only given up 27 points. That is an average of 9 pts in 10 minutes.

Go Huskies..!!

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