Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 11/30/17

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Just to let you all know, I have been on fire bowling lately. My average is up to 197.6!!! Wednesday night I had a 207, 235 and 212. It's been a blast!!

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I watched the Notre Dame/Michigan game to get a better feel for the Irish before Sunday's game. I should have my Pre Game Report out very soon.

The Irish had a terrific first quarter behind the excellent performance of Arkie Ogunbowale. She ended up with 20 points in the first half.

Yes, I know they won 83-63 in this game, but this is not a very impressive Notre Dame team. Young and Ogunbowale are terrific players and possible AA candidates, but the rest of the team is not up to the usual Irish standards.

Marina Mabrey has really struggled this year, Shepard is the type of player that can dominate the weak teams but is too slow to handle teams with any quickness in the middle. Same for Westbeld. I'm not sure she has recovered from her ankle injury. She looks a little slow.

Off the bench you have Lili Thompson, the Stanford transfer. A nice player, but not one that can put up big numbers. McGraw has mover her to the bench and is starting Westbeld. The other two bench players are just not the kind of players that can make a difference in a game against good teams. Nelson is a big body, but really slow and plodding with no offensive game. She had 4 fouls in 7 minutes in this game. The freshman Patterson is a decent big player, but she is a freshman and plays like it.

Here is my UConn/Notre Dame Pre Game Report.

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Well, I predicted yesterday that UConn fans would be besides themselves on the second half performance against Nevada. Here are a few comments -

"Unlike past UConn teams, this is not a team that is searching for perfection. Its performance is so far from perfect that you might say that during the second half of games, it is searching for above average."

Geeze, how can you say they are not searching for perfection? I don't even know what that means.

"They rely less on the extra pass and more on kicking it out to the three-point shooter, who may or may not be on target. If it's Kia, no problem. Otherwise, the results are not very pretty. Their defense gets sloppy and forget about pinpoint passes."

Well, that is just bullshit. They are averaging 64% on assists per basket. Last year was 71%. But that was including all the weak teams in the AAC and the early NCAA games. They are also averaging 38% on threes. And that is without Katie Lou.

"And right now, this team spends a lot of time getting by on talent -- who they are, rather than how they play."

I'll call bullshit on that comment too. They have played really well.

"They continue to struggle with their half court offense and defense while winning convincingly. Seem to be a lot more cohesive last year."

Disagree with that. Considering the tough early schedule, I think they have looked great both offensively and defensively.

They are averaging 86 and giving up 58 against 5 ranked teams and a pretty good Nevada team (watch them, they play really well). The opponents are shooting 35% from the field and 29% on threes. Nothing wrong with that defensive effort.

UConn fans are the only ones that will complain about being 6-0 and winning by an average of 28 points per game without what is arguably their best player and three point shooter. Silly.

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Three top 25 games almost ended up as upsets.

No. 13 Florida State overcame a 12 point 4th quarter deficit to beat Iowa 94-93. Shakayla Thomas had a big game with 31 points for FSU and Megan Gustafson scored 34 points on 15-of-18 shooting for Iowa.

No. 15 Maryland overcame a late 3 point lead for Virginia to win 60-59.

No. 25 Villanova barely will stay in the top 25 with a 62-59 win over Princeton. Good for Harry!

Lastly, George Mason won against to go to 7-2 on the season. My favorite Non-UConn player Natalie Butler had 25 points and 11 rebounds. She is just kicking ass!!!!

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By David in Naples!!!!!

One of the strangest stats of the Nevada game was the number of players with better accuracy from 3 point range than in closer. For example, Kia Nurse was 8-8 from three range, but 0nly 1-2 from in close. One would think the closer to the basket, the easier the shot.

The rest of the Huskies did not have that problem. Pheesa was 0-3 from long range, Z was 0-2 and Crystal was 1-4. Only Kyla matched Kia's perfection going 1-1 from beyond the arc.

Nevada's little guard, Camariah King, was brilliant from way beyond the arc, making 5 of 6 threes. In close, not so good at 0-5. She even struggled at the free throw stripe with no defense and plenty of time to shoot, missing badly and going 0-2. Gabby's longtime friend, T Moe, had a bad shooting night from three and in closer. She was 1-4 from outside the arc and only 1-6 inside it.

One possible explanation is the farther from the basket a player shoots, the less traffic or defense there is to throw off the shot. King had six very clear looks at the basket and made 5 of them. In Kia's case, she was just "en fuego" and would have hit from the locker room if she tried.

Go Huskies..!!

P.S. - Despite the halftime lead narrowing later in the game, UConn "won" the 4th quarter, for the first time, all year by 17-13.

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