Doggydaddy's Den: 2018

Monday, December 31, 2018

Doggy's Doghouse 12/31/18

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From my family to yours!!!!

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Two more upsets Monday! You can tell conference play has started. Both of these upsets were in the Big Ten.

Lindsay Whalen's No. 12 Minnesota Gophers lost to Michigan 76-60 and in the big upset of the day, Rutgers beat No. 4 Maryland 73-65.

There were a lot of fans and so called experts (including me) who thought that Maryland could go through the Big Ten undefeated. They had an easy OOC schedule and the Big Ten was not as strong this season. But what we are seeing is a lot of parity in that conference.

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UConn's next opponent, No. 8 Baylor, tuned up for the Huskies with a real challenge.

They barely beat a game UT Rio Grande Valley team 98-37.

Ok, sarcasm aside, can anyone tell me how a game like this prepares Baylor for UConn? It doesn't. And it's embarrassing for a top team like the Bears to schedule them so late into the season. Maybe an opening game or in their first few outings it makes sense.

They were basically like a cat with a mouse in the corner, batting the poor Vaqueros around the corral.

UTRGV was lucky to even score one basket with the physical disadvantage that Baylor had. The most telling stat was the rebounding. The Bears outrebounded UTRGV 75-26. And they had more offensive rebounds than UTRGV had rebounds with 31. The Vaqueros had one player with 3 rebounds a few others with 1 rebound.

UTRGV was only able to shoot 16-59 for 16.9% from the field and 8-38 on threes for 21.%. They did manage 59 shots. So that's something. Baylor was able to put up 81 shots with their offensive rebounding advantage but only shot 45% from the field and 5-14 on threes. And they were 19-29 on free throws.

Baylor was able to get plenty of minutes for the bench. They put in 81 minutes! But it's impossible to judge Baylor on this game. I'll be looking at their more competitive games. A quick clue. In their 3 games that were determined by less than 6 points (1 loss), They played only one player off the bench in two of them and that same player was the only effective bench player in the third game. They are just not deep. And a game like they just had doesn't help the players who will see the most minutes against UConn play cohesively.

Here is my UConn/Baylor Pregame Report.

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By David in Naples!!!!!

Crystal and Christyn share more than a backcourt at UConn. They have virtually identical stats for the 11-0 Huskies..! Consider:

1. Minutes - Christyn and Crystal have started all 11 games and racked up 379 and 376 minutes of game time respectively. Their averages are 34.5 and 34.2 per game.

2. Both have scored 152 points.

3. They both 42 total rebounds with Crystal having more defensive & Christyn more offensive boards.

4. Both have 11 steals.

5. Christyn has 60 baskets, Crystal 54. The extra threes Crystal has made make up the point difference.

6. Crystal has taken 22 free throws and Christyn just 2 fewer at 19.

7. They both have a "Y" in their name. 8-)

The assists totals are the biggest difference with Crystal ahead 57-23. Both have low turnover totals with Christyn better at 13-27. Their overall stats show this duo are in sync and compliment each other wonderfully. Look for Crystal and Christyn to get better as the season rolls on & tournament time approaches.

Go Huskies..!!

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UCONN LINKS

Five questions for the UConn women in season’s second half

UConn looking to continue success in American Athletic Conference play

WCBB LINKS

Top 25

Monday's Games

No. 4 Maryland’s 12-game winning streak halted at home by Rutgers
No. 8 Baylor Women Roll Past Texas-Rio Grande Valley 98-37
Michigan Women Hand No. 12 Minnesota 1st Loss, 76-60
Rice scores 23, No. 17 Gonzaga women top Pepperdine 79-54
No. 20 Marquette Women Use Balance, Top Creighton 85-67
Grays, Held Lead No. 24 DePaul Women to 88-62 Win

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Statistical Sites

National Statistics

Rankings and RPI Sites

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 (New Link)

UCONN Information

2018-19 Online Media Guide

UConn 2018-2019 Roster

UConn 2018-2019 Statistics

UConn 2018-2019 Schedule

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

doggydaddy.UConn@gmail.com

Sunday, December 30, 2018

Doggy's Doghouse 12/30/18

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Logan is just like his Grampa!

I always read when I'm doing business!!!

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I had a wonderful birthday Sunday! My wife made me breakfast in bed,

Eggs over, cheese on top, bacon and toast!!

I got to watch all the football I wanted!

And my wife made me my favorite dessert, a Boston Crème Pie.

I want to thank everyone for their birthday wishes.

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Several Top 25 games Sunday and it's been a while but there were four upsets.

In a "not really an upset" upset, No. 21 Michigan State beat No. 16 Iowa at home 84-70 behind Nia Clouden's 27 points. Iowa had already lost 2 games this season including a lose to unranked but rising Florida State and a 34 point loss to Notre Dame. Not a signature win in their season to date. Michigan State had that big win against at the time No. 3 Oregon and only lost to now No. 9 North Carolina State. Add in the fact that MSU was home and it was not a big upset. But a really good win for Michigan State.

Unranked Central Michigan upset No. 24 Miami 90-80 in Miami. Not a big surprise as Miami was a little over-ranked at 24. In a good plug for the AAC and for their RPI, Tulane had beaten Central Michigan in their last game. Hey, the AAC needs all the help they can get.

No. 14 California had a UConn hangover and lost to Harvard at home after playing the Huskies so well the game before. The Golden Bears just couldn't hit a high enough percentage of shots. They had 23 offensive rebounds, but only shot 40%. Their defense was pretty weak as Harvard shot 53% from the field and 13-25 on threes to help them score 85 points. California took 13 more shots, outrebounded Harvard 46-25 and still lost.

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The fourth upset deserved it's own area in my blog. No. 17 Arizona State was upset by Arizona. Now, on it's surface, it's not a huge upset. Arizona had only one loss coming into this game and they were at home. But it's the final score and lousy play that stands out. The final was 51-39. Yes, only 90 points between them.

The winning team only scored 51 points. They were only able to put up 43 shots and shot 46.5%. Not terrible. But they were 1-8 on threes and had 7 assists and 15 turnovers. All of these stats would usually put a team on the losing side of the equation. But when the other team plays so badly, you can't even believe the numbers are real, well, you can win playing as poorly as Arizona did.

ASU was just pathetic in this game. Here are the hard numbers. 23.2% from the field, 4-23 on threes for 17.4%, 10 assists and 17 turnovers. Former UConn players Courtney Ekmark was 1-10 from the field and 1-8 on threes. Now, 39 points is the hardest number of all of them especially for a team ranked No. 17. So, because of all this, I am resurrecting the UGGY award!!!

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Just below being upset are games where ranked teams underperformed against a pretty weak opponent. We have a couple of those. And to no surprise, at least to me, it was by two SEC teams.

No. 25 South Carolina was able to slip by Furman, yes Furman, 66-53 using a 10-1 run to end the game. This Furman team lost to Kennesaw State and lost to Mississippi State by 65 points and Georgia by 23 points. I have a feeling that South Carolina will struggle to be .500 in the SEC. That would make them 16-12 for the regular season and needing at least 2 wins in the SEC tournament to make the NCAA's. Long way to go though. Maybe they can turn it around?

No. 10 Tennessee defeated Belmont 84-76 in a game that should not have been that close. Tennessee was leading 59-58 going into the fourth quarter and Belmont was actually up 66-65 with 5:27 left in the game. Tennessee put the game away from the free throw line over the last 3 minutes of the game. This is a Belmont team that lost to Toledo and a mediocre Clemson team. Tennessee hit 9 threes in the first half and missed all of their attempts in the second half. I just don't know what to make of this team.

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