Doggy's Doghouse 12/31/17

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

*********************************************************************************

If you ever have the chance to sit in the floor seats for a game DO IT! My granddaughter and I had a great time at the UConn men's game against No. 8 Wichita State. Thankfully it was a competitive game before they lost 72-62. But the experience is just great (and expensive).   

From the Valet parking, to the great pre-game food to the closeness to the court, it was a great basketball experience. I will definitely save my money to buy the same tickets to a women's game. Amazing.

Here are some pictures to give you a feel for it. 

   

The shrimp were the size of my fist! And delicious! Open bar as well!!!

As you can see, we were right in front of the UConn band. My feet were on the court!!! Crazy!!!

This was on the board at halftime!!! What a great surprise!!

So, heading to Florida Sunday morning and coming home on 1/9. Can't wait for a little warm weather and some golf! Going to see Billy Joel New Years eve for the second straight year. Whoo Hoo!!!!  

****************************************************************

Here is my UConn/Memphis Pre Game Report.

****************************************************************

Here is a GREAT Kia Nurse Homecoming video. I loved it! I'm sure you will too!!

************************************************************* ***

​

It's time for some news on our fantastic incoming class of 2018,

Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Christyn Williams. 

Here are some highlights from Nelson-Ododa's performance from the Crescom Classic!!

And Williams had a great few days recently 41 points and 16 rebounds in CAC's overtime win 12/28.

Highlights Video 1 

Highlights Video 2

Williams had 30 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists on 12/29to get CAC into the title game of the Lady Mustang tourney.

****************************************************************

By David in Naples!!!!!

The recent Fun with Numbers quiz highlighted an unusual statistical oddity.  UConn has six different players leading the team in the six major stats categories. For example, last season, Napheesa led the team in points, rebounds and made baskets, but Katie Lou had the most 3 point baskets & Gabby had the most assists. It is very unusual for one player not to lead in a couple of categories. 

Stewie's senior year, she led the team in points, rebounds, made baskets and made free throws. But, she was 2nd in assists and 3rd in steals. Stewie's freshman year, Kaleena led in points and baskets, Dolson in rebounds, Bria in assists, Kelly Faris in steals and Stewie led in made free throws. It makes sense that the leader in points probably has the most baskets. Or that the leader in assists, also has the most steals (see Moriah her junior and senior year).

Here are the stats on this season's leaders:
1. Points = Kia with 164
2. Rebounds = Azura with 85
3. Made baskets = Pheesa with 64
4. Assists = Crystal with 52
5. Made free throws = Katie Lou with 22
6. Steals = Gabby with 25

Six starters, six leaders.... weird.

Go Huskies..!!  

****************************************************************

UCONN LINKS

UConn Women Get Back To Work; AAC Opener Vs. Memphis On Sunday Courant
UConn women’s basketball gameday: Memphis at No. 1 UConn News-Times
Huskies Conclude 2017 With a Tilt Against Memphis UConn Team Site
Dangerfield is select company; UConn finds its range  Jim Fuller
UConn women proving to be a triple threat Jim Fuller
Conference Play Begins Sunday for Women's Basketball  Memphis Official Site

WCBB Top 25 Results

Upsets in RED

Northern Kentucky upsets No. 19 Green Bay women 62-54 Tampa Bay Times
Gedaka scores 24, No. 18 Villanova women top Friars 63-55 USA Today

******************************************  





 Statistical Sites

National Statistics

Rankings and RPI Sites

Last years sites (Updates soon)

 Realtime Daily RPI 

Massey Rankings and Matchups

Jeff Sagarin Basketball Ratings 

NCAA D1Women's RPI 

ESPN AP and Coaches Poll

ESPN Conference Standings

Warren Nolan RPI and SOS 

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  

ND Nation - Notre Dame women's basketball board

Rebkell - WCBB for everyone that thinks they are smarter than everyone else

Videos

UConn Women replays

UCONN Information

2017-18 Online Media Guide

UConn 2017-2018 Roster

UConn 2017-2018 Statistics

UConn 2017-2018 Schedule 

I'm always open for suggestions. Just please reply to this blog or email me at:

doggydaddy.UConn@gmail.com

Doggy's UConn/Memphis Pre Game Report





    

UCONN vs Memphis 

Day: Sunday 

Date: December 31st, 2017

Location: XL Center

Time: 1:30

TV: SNY/ESPN3

No. 1 UConn Huskies                             Memphis Tigers

10-0                                                                                                  5-8


Prior Meetings

 Head to Head games

UConn leads the series 7-0

1/4/14 W 90-49 A

1/22/14 W 83-49 H

2/7/15 W 80-34 A

2/28/15 W 87-24 H

1/13/16 W 86-46 A

1/30/16 W 83-40 H

2/25/17 W 91-48 H
 

Highlights from last years game

Overview

Memphis is coming into Hartford on a four game winning streak. And they beat an SEC team in the process. But before that they had lost eight consecutive games after winning their opener. I don't think any of that matters coming into this game. Memphis is just one of the several overmatched teams when they play UConn.

UConn is looking better and better as they regained their health. They are coming off a well played game in their destruction of Duquesne in their last outing. It's been a long OOC schedule for the Huskies and I'm sure they are happy to be home against a weaker AAC member.  

Comparative Team Statistics

                                                UConn                                      Memphis

                                              89.4        PPG                            60.2
                                              60.7        Defensive PPG           70.1

                                              28.7        Scoring Margin            -9.9

                                              52.5        Field Goal %               40.6
                                              35.3        Defensive FG%          42.7 

                                              41.7        Three Point %            30.5
                                              29.8        Defensive 3PT%        33.2

                                              72.5        Free Throw %            68.2

                                              42.2        Rebounds/game        36.2

                                                8.3        Rebounding Margin     .-.4 

                                              22.7        Assists per game       12.2

                                              14.6        Turnover per game    20.3

                                                1.6        Assists/TO ratio            .6

                                                9.8        Steals per game          6.8

                                                4.9        Blocks per game          2.2

                                               UCONN                                     

UConn Starters

24 Napheesa Collier

6'1" Junior Forward

MPG -31.0, FG% .508, 3PT% .308, FT% .696, 15.2 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 3.2 apg, 18 blks, 21 stls 

15 Gabby Williams

5'11" Senior Forward

MPG - 26.9, FG% .538, 3PT% .000, FT% .714, 10.1 ppg, 8.4 rpg, 4.5 apg, 5 blks, 25 stls 

11 Kia Nurse

6' Senior Guard

Min - 33.5, FG% .600%, 3PT% .558, FT .840, 16.4 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 2.7 apg, 4 blks, 7 stls

5 Crystal Dangerfield

5'5" Sophomore Guard

MPG - 32.9, FG% .474, 3PT% .510, FT% .692%, 12.6 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 5.2 apg, 0 blks, 17 stls

33 Katie Lou Samuelson

6'3" Junior Guard/Forward

MPG - 28.8, FG% .532, 3PT% .514, FT% .786, 20.5 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 2.8 apg, 2 blk, 7 stls 

UConn Bench

23 Azura Stevens

6'6" Junior Forward

MPG - 24.3, FG% .598, 3PT% .182, FT .714, 14.6 ppg, 8.5 rpg, 3.3 apg, 18 blks, 10 stls

3 Megan Walker

6'1" Freshman Guard/Forward

Min - 17.5 FG% .400, 3PT% .250, FT% .615, 5.4 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 1.3 apg, 2 blk, 4 stls 

32 Batouly Camara

6'2" Sophomore Forward

Min - 2.5, FG% .000, 3PT% .000, FT% .000, 0.0 ppg, 1.5 rpg, 0.0 apg, 0 blk, 0 stls

2 Andra Espinoza-Hunter

5'11" Freshman Guard

Min - 7.0, FG% .385, 3PT% .364, FT% .000, 2.0 ppg, .1 rpg, .1 apg, 0 blk, 2 stls

10 Molly Bent

5'9" Sophomore Guard

Min - 5.6, FG% .500, 3PT% .000, FT% .000, .8 ppg, .4 rpg, .4 apg, 0 blk, 1 stls

25 Kyla Irwin

6'2" Sophomore Forward

Min - 7.8, FG% .583, 3PT% .200, FT% .000, 1.9 ppg, 1.1 rpg, .5 apg, 0 blk, 2 stls

4  Mikayla Coombs
5'8" Freshman Guard

Min - 4.4, FG% .333, 3PT% .000, FT% .000, .6 ppg, .4 rpg, .3 apg, 0 blk, 2 stls

34 Alexi Gordon

6' Freshman Guard

Min - 1.8, FG% .000, 3PT% .000, FT% .000, 0 ppg, .2 rpg, 0 apg, 0 blk, 0 stls

UCONN TEAM STATS

*******************************************************************

Head Coach Melissa McFerrin

Here is her Bio

Memphis Starters

  

10 Cheyenne Creighton 

6'1" Junior Forward

MPG 36.3, FG% .469, 3PT% .333, FT% .593, PPG 15.5, RPG 9.3, APG .6

05 Brea Elmore 

5'9" Junior Guard

MPG 31.9, FG% .360, 3PT% .377, FT% .750, PPG 13.0, RPG 4.1, APG 2.4

15 Taylor Barnes 

5'8" Sophomore Guard

MPG 31.6, FG% .326, 3PT% .286, FT% .707, PPG 7.8, RPG 2.9, APG 2.8

01 Breigha Wilder-Chochran 

5'9" RS Senior Guard

MPG 27.1, FG% .364, 3PT% .000, FT% .739, PPG 3.4, RPG 4.8, APG 3.7

25 Brianna Porter

6'3" Junior Forward

MPG 23.8, FG% .650, 3PT% .000, FT% .500, PPG 7.0, RPG 4.5, APG .5

Memphis Bench

00 Jada Stinson

5'8" Freshman Guard

MPG 22.5, FG% .355, 3PT% .294, FT% .688, PPG 6.3, RPG 1.8, APG 1.8

33 Alana Davis 

6'2" Freshman Forward

MPG 12.9, FG% .581, 3PT% .000, FT% .667, PPG 5.2, RPG 3.0, APG .3

35 Jasmine James 

6'2" Junior Forward

MPG 20.8, FG% .422, 3PT% .000, FT% .600, PPG 4.6, RPG 4.5, APG .2

 Memphis Stats

 Game Analysis

Memphis is just not a very good team. I really can't add much more than that, but I will try! I did see some of their play via highlights so take a lot of this with a grain of salt. The bottom line is in the prediction area. 

On defense, Memphis primarily plays both a 2-1-2 zone and a 3-2 zone, mixing them up to try to confuse the offense. On the inbound passes after a make or on a defensive rebound by the opponent, they use on the ball pressure to try to disrupt the initial offense before slipping back into the zone.

It's not a bad zone. They do work pretty well together. But it has gaps that UConn will exploit and with crisp ball movement, there will be open threes as well.   

On offense, Memphis plays an inside out game, working the ball to their one inside threat, Bira Elmore. Cheyenne Creighton, their senior leading scorer was more of a three point threat last season, but is playing mostly inside. She gets to the line several times a game but unfortunately she only shoots 55% from the foul line. Their guards like to drive to the basket and then kick out to open players. They only take a dozen or so threes a game and it's probably a good thing as they only shoot 30% from beyond the arc. Mostly when they get the ball on the outside, they set screens and try to get the ball handler to the rim.

UConn will pick apart the zone as best as they can and find all those open gaps I talked about. With the terrific ball movement that they show, the Huskies will hit the gaps and kick out to open shooters. 

Defensively, UConn will pressure Memphis into many mistakes. They aren't a very good ball handling team as they have over 100 more turnovers than assists and that is only after 13 games. I expect UConn for create 20+ turnovers. Memphis doesn't have the size to cause problems on offense nor the shooters to make UConn pay if they do leave them open occasionally.   

  

Final Prediction

Last season, Memphis was a surprise team in the AAC ending up fourth in the conference. This year, the surprise is how poorly Memphis started the season. But they are on a four game winning streak beating SEC team Vanderbilt on the road. So, have they fixed something? It doesn't matter. It's just a bad matchup for Memphis. Really bad.   

UConn by 45+.