Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 12/1/17

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Great game for 2018 recruit Olivia Nelson-Ododa. She had 16 points, 16 rebounds, and 7 blocks on Tuesday in Winder Barrow's narrow 50-48 win.

And from Patosha Jeffery - Having the opportunity to watch the espnW #1 ranked 2018 player and UCONN signee, Christyn Williams, was a treat. Her team, Central Arkansas Christian, participated in the 1st National Bank Shootout. She was simply unstoppable. She almost had 40 points by the end of the 3rd quarter while effortlessly scoring off screens, at the basket or way beyond the 3. If you live in the surrounding area of Little Rock and desire to be a high level player, I recommend you catch one of her games. Pay attention to her effort, her attitude, and her skill set.

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Here is my UConn/Notre Dame Pre Game Report.

Freshman Mikayla Vaughn is out for the season with a torn ACL. So sad for this nice young women. I'm not sure if the 7 games she played is too many to get a red shirt. I hope she can get this year back.
From a basketball perspective, a short handed Notre Dame team becomes even more short handed. They only have 8 players for the rest of the season. The other freshman Danielle Patterson will see more minutes and their senior center Kristina Nelson will be playing more minutes than she should.

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More top 25 games -

Well, we had an upset Thursday night with No. 14 Duke beating No. 9 Ohio State 69-60 behind the dual effort of Lexi Brown and Rebecca Greenwell. Both had 19 points and were a combined 6-11 on threes. OSU's Kelsey Mitchell showed why she is going to end up in the top ten in career points and at the same time shows everyone she is far from a team player. She scored 24 points on 9-27 shooting and 4-17 on threes.

South Carolina played angry after being beat by Notre Dame in their last outing. They hammered Western Carolina 101-43 behind A'ja Wilson's 29 points.

Tennessee and Central Arkansas did something I have never seen before. They held Central Arkansas to ZERO points in the fourth quarter. I mentioned both teams because Central Arkansas just gave up trying to score. They would run the clock down to a few seconds, take a crappy shot and then watch Tennessee run past them for a layup. CA had the ball with 30 seconds left in the game and just ran out the shot clock. Unbelievable. What an embarrassing effort. I'm sure Tennessee fans are out of their minds about it, saying how great their defense was. That was only part of it. And I thought it was disgusting that Tennessee kept running until the end. Talk about rubbing it in your face. It's probably why CA ran out the clock. They didn't want Tennessee to have another fast break.

At the time of me writing this No. 9 Baylor is beating up on No. 20 Kentucky. I really believe that the Wildcats are one of the most overrated top 25 teams and hopefully will be out of the rankings soon. The score was 73-40 going into the fourth quarter. The final was 90-63.

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I'm sure you have realized how much I like Natalie Butler and I occasionally post how she is doing. So far GREAT!

Well, as usual, someone has to piss in my Cheerios about her on the UConn message board.

My friend Link merely posted that she had a great game and was leading the country in rebounds. Someone had to put in their two cents and say "do we care?". From there it turned into a stream of criticism of Natalie.

"Natalie wasn't enough of an athlete to fit UConn's offense or defense"

"she never lived up to the hype that some, including me, believed"

"She's not as good as I and others believed she would be. If she was with UConn this year, she wouldn't be seeing much playing time"

"I never thought she was a fit for UConn."

" a halftime update on an ex -Uconn player, playing for another college, seems a tad excessive. What's next a game thread based on Natalie's games?"

Someone else posted this...thanks!

Natalie's stats through today:
#1 in nation in rebounds
#1 in nation on DD's
and though only a couple she is hitting threes at 66%

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By David in Naples!!!!!

Armchair critics continue to worry and criticize the play of Azura Stevens, among other Huskies. Too many fouls, keeps taking 3 pt shots, turns the ball over, and a personal favorite, "she's too nice..." From her role as the first player off the bench, Z is now a starter. Let's look at her last two games stats. Keep in mind, the games were played at the end of a long road trip in Oregon and Nevada.

1. Points = 42 total
2. Rebounds = 30 total
3. Assists = 10 total
4. Blocks = 3 total
5. Turnovers = 2 total
6. Fouls = 5 total

So, Z is averaging a double-double, not turning the ball over, dealing assist after assist and has not fouled out of any game. And she is getting better and more comfortable game after game. What about the 3's? Not good at 3-17 (17.6%). Free throws? Not very good either at 10-17 (58.8%) But, inside the 3 pt arc she is hitting 72% (33-46) and has been a rebounding beast. And, UConn is 6-0 and beating good opponents by 30 points every game. Relax...

Go Huskies..!!

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UConn Takeaways: Gabby Williams' Homecoming, Kia Nurse's Shooting Courant

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