Friday, January 12, 2018

Doggy's Doghouse 1/13/18





                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

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Breaking news



Andra Espinoza-Hunter Leaves UConn Women's Basketball Team

More links in the UConn section.

No surprise that AEH decided to leave UConn once she left the team to go home and missed several games. We might or might not find out the reasons she had for this move and let me say that we as fans have no business questioning her decision, prying into her reasons why if she doesn't want to share them and certainly no business criticizing her for doing it.   

Now, that won't stop many fans that I like to call morons from doing all of that. Some of you are my friends. And it will be my business to bring everyone some of those comments and ridicule them. Hey, it's what I do. 

She plans on taking a few classes at Westchester Community College and visit schools while figuring out her next steps. 

She did have some comments when reached by phone -

"I just realized that UConn wasn't really a good fit for me. If I didn't commit as such a young age I would've been able to explore more options. Just to look at other schools, see what other schools had to offer as well - kind of what I'm doing right now, hence why I'm staying home, so I have time to weight out my options."     

Good for her to take action on her feelings. Better than staying and not being happy.  

Good luck to Andra and I hope she picks a school that she can be happy at and excel with her wonderful basketball talents. I'll be rooting for her!

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Here is my UConn/Houston Pregame Report.

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I'm so happy for Coach Hughey and the Houston Cougars. It's just great to see another AAC team make the jump to be a possible NCAA tournament team. Temple made the jump last season when they lost in the first round to Oregon by only one point 71-70. If Houston can continue to play well enough to make the tournament this year, it will be a fourth program to make the tournament while in the AAC. It's a small jump but it's progress. And everyone comes back for Houston next year. If Hughey can somehow get a post player to compliment his guards, look out!


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Sad Notre Dame Irish Man

I was only able to go back as far as the 2001-02 season but I couldn't find another game that Notre Dame lost where the opponent scores 100+ points. Not one. Muffet much have blown her tuffet.

The Irish will have what should be an easy walk-over against Boston College on Sunday before they welcome Tennessee to South Bend. This should be one pissed off Notre Dame team for the next few games. They were embarrassed by Louisville and I don't think I've ever seen a McGraw team play with so little effort.     


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 Speaking of Tennessee, the spin on their loss to A&M has me dizzy. I particularly love the comments that these fans would take 15-1 at the start of the season. Of course you would...

But let's look at who you beat where you thought you might lose.

Stanford - A totally down year for Stanford who is out of the top 25 and now 9-7.
Marquette - 11-5 now and they took the Lady Vols to OT.
Texas - For one thing, the Longhorns star had a terrible game. It was in Tennessee. And Texas just lost to unranked TCU.

So, three games that maybe, just maybe could have been considered possible losses to begin the season.

Now they play South Carolina on the road. Fortunately for the Lady Vols it looks like A'ja Wilson hurt her ankle and is questionable for the game. Even if she plays, the ankle should impede her against Tennessee. Maybe another tainted win?

I'll admit, they are a little better than I thought they would be. But please, just accept the fact that it was a bad loss. Which leads us into David's Fun with Numbers.

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By David in Naples!!!!!

N.I.S.E. or Naples Index of Scoring Efficiency. It's is a great way to compare players who score lots of points to players who are more efficient.  Never was there a clearer example of why NISE matters that the Texas A&M vs Tennessee game. A&M super freshman Chenedy Carter jacked up 31 shots and tried 7 free throws. She scored 21 points. Her NISE was -17 (38 total tries - 21 points). She darn near lost the game for A&M with all her misses. Carter missed her last 7 shots in the 4th period and all 3 in overtime.  (puke)

Meanwhile, her teammate, Danni Williams, won the game for A&M. She took 17 shots and the same 7 free throws. She scored 22 points for a NISE of -2. More importantly, she made a basket in overtime to tie the score at 74, and then calmly sank three free throws with 7 seconds left to win the game. Clutch..!! The Center for A&M, Khaalia Hillsman, had an even better NISE. She took 9 shots, made 8 and sank all 6 free throws for 22 points. Her NISE was +7 (9+6 = 15 for 22 points).

So who had a better game? The freshman gets all the headlines, but Williams and Hillsman won the game. It ain't how many points you score, it's how many shots you take and when you make them.

Go Huskies..!!

And more - 

 The debate rages on whether this was a "bad loss" for Tennessee. It was..!  Let's go to the numbers...  8-)

1. Tenn had the game won in overtime- They were up by 4 points in overtime and their offense did the following: Turnover, missed shot, foul, foul, missed shot, foul, basket for 2 pts, turnover and foul.
That is not how to close out a game. While the offensive sputtered, the defense gave up 9 points.

2. Bad shot to end regulation- Tenn called a timeout with 3 seconds left in the game. Use the timeout to set up your best play to try to get a basket or a foul, right?  Not Tenn, they take a 40 foot shot from a player who went scoreless (0-6) for the game. :o

3. Miss 14 of your 19 three-point shots - Tenn made 26% of their threes. One starter had 4 threes. The other four went 0-9. The center, Russell, went 9-16 down low. Maybe feed her the ball in close and not try so many threes?  Russell took 1 shot in overtime, was fouled and made both free throws. :-[

4. Texas A&M is not a great team - Until this game, they had lost to every ranked team they played. (Oregon (2), South Carolina and West Virginia)     Like many programs, A&M has feasted on poor programs. They only beat Kentucky by 4 pts and UK has a 9-9 record.

5. Texas A&M played poorly - You have to beat a team that isn't playing well or it's a bad loss. A&M shot 36% from the field..! They missed 10 or their 14 threes. Their subs played a combined 7 minutes & scored 0 points. Their freshman sensation missed 22 shots and 4 of her 7 free throws. And this and you lose..?

Bad loss for Tennessee..!!  And it only gets worse with South Carolina, Notre Dame and Miss. State up next...!  8-)

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1 comment:

  1. ptgrd69@gmail.comJanuary 13, 2018 at 1:21 PM

    I'm sure the NISE inventor knows more about his intention than I do; but the formula is mathematically incorrect.

    As presented - - Shots attempted - points = NISE

    38-21= +17 not -17 I get the intent
    More Appropriate : Total points - Total shot attempts = NISE
    21-38 =-17

    Just sayin'

    ReplyDelete

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