Sunday, January 21, 2018

Doggy's Doghouse 1/22/18





                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

*****************************************************************************
Image may contain: 1 person, playing a sport

After playing what Geno called his team's effort "the most disgraceful he's seen in the 32 years he has been coaching Connecticut." UConn bounced back with one of their best games of the season. 

 I said this yesterday - "So when Geno put the entire bench in at once you had 5 players that didn't get it. He had to know how that would turn out. Sunday, I'm really hoping he subs in only one or two bench players at once. At least have 3-4 starters in at the same time. It gives experience to the team on the court and the subs can learn from them. Ah....what do I know...lol."  

Maybe I know a little. Or maybe Geno is the best coach in the history of women's basketball. All I know is that he did exactly what I suggested and it worked!

Even without Kati Lou Samuelson, all the other players looked to have an extra hop in their step in this game. And the bench players that he brought in all seemed to play with more confidence.

All five starters were in double figures and freshman Megan Walker had her career high 22 points and 5 assists. She looked like a totally different player.

Here is my UConn/Temple Post Game Report. I hope you all got to see this wonderful game!  

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

Here is my UConn/Memphis Pre Game Report


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

I don't envy the voters for the Top 25 teams. There have been so many upsets this week, I wonder how they make their decision and who should be where. Even the top teams have had their bad games recently.    

Since the AP poll came out Monday, No. 8 Ohio State lost, No. 20 Iowa lost twice, No. 17 West Virginia lost, No. 25 Rutgers lost twice,  No. 7 Oregon lost, No. 22 Arizona State lost, No. 2 Louisville lost, No. 15 Duke lost. That's 10 upsets in the Top 25 just this week.

Crazy! And I expect a lot more as the regular season continues. There is just so much more parity in WCBB this season than any time I can remember. Fun to watch.     

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

Well, is there anything more fun than UConn winning? Probably not. But Tennessee losing is a close second!

They got beat up pretty good by soon to be No. 2 Mississippi State 71-52. Tennessee had their lowest scoring half so far this year with 26 points and matched that in the second half. After a big 15-0 start against a pretty weak schedule, the Lady Vols faced four highly ranked teams and lost to three of them. Their only win in that span was against an A'ja Wilson-less South Carolina team and they almost blew that game. No doubt in my mind they would have lost if Wilson had played.

I'm sure that when they start beating the weaker SEC teams, the Tennessee fans will be talking about how great they are, how great their freshmen are and how they are final four bound. Fool's gold.

All I saw in the last two games was terrible passing, selfish offensive play, and matador defense. Yes, they can out-talent some teams. But this version is no better than the last two double-digit loss teams. 

***************************************************************
Two teams that UConn still has to face to finish off the out of conference schedule played Sunday with mixed results.

No. 2 (not for long) lost to No. 12 Florida State 50-49 at home! So many missed shots by both teams. Not a top 25 worthy performance for either team. Louisville looked like they were going to blow out Florida State like they did Notre Dame last week, taking a 22-9 lead after the 1st quarter. But that was not to be. The Cardinals only scored 27 more points for the rest of the game. Yes, that's 27 points in 30 minutes of play. Awful. Florida State was not that much better, shooting only 28% for the game, 3-13 on threes and only 3 assists for the game. Louisville was just as bad, shooting 32% for the game and 2-15 on threes. They had 16 turnovers as well. All-American candidate was shut down, shooting 5-21 from the field and 1-8 on threes. 

I was a little worried about Louisville when the come to Storrs, but I'm less worried now. 
No. 9 South Carolina welcomed back A'ja Wilson as they handled Kentucky 81-64. Wilson is really a load. Big and strong, she just abuses people in the paint. In this game she had 26 points on 10-12 shooting, hit her only three pointer, grabbed 8 rebounds and defended the paint with 4 blocks. The Kentucky transfer Alexa Jennings is also a big player that is a load down low. They are really tough together and it plays into the UConn weakness that was exposed by Texas. I'm more worried about South Carolina now.   
    
***************************************************************

By David in Naples!!!!!


So Geno is back to being a genius again.. 8-)  In the 113-57 beat down of Temple, Geno went to the bench early and often with wonderful results. The players off the bench were not just ok or even good. They were great..!! Consider:

1. Megan Walker scores 22 points on 7-11 shooting & adds 7-7 from the free throw line.
2. The non-starters score a combined 39 points, high for the season. :D
3. Irwin (3-3), Bent (1-1), Camara (1-1) and Coombs (1-2) all score and look good on defense.
4. The subs also gathered in 11 rebounds, dealt 7 assists and stole 4 balls. ;)
5. Walker herself had Gabby type numbers with 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and a steal, to go with her 22 points.
6. UConn won the 3rd period by a score of 34-11 and the 4th by 23-14.
7. Offsetting the 8 turnovers was only 3 personal fouls.

With Azura starting for Katie Lou, Geno went to Megan early the game and then Kyla Irwin before the half was over. Both played well & led the parade of subs in the 2nd half. This was perhaps the best mix and match job by Geno with starters, subs and the deep end of the bench all playing well together.

Next up is Memphis on Wednesday..!

Go Huskies..!!

****************************************************************
UCONN LINKS
 Statistical  


Rankings and RPI Sites


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 Information






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

Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. USA GIRLJanuary 21, 2018 at 11:09 PM

    when you play your subs with the regulars and not 3 min at the end of the game you can get in the flow of the game better. No coincidence that kyla and meg played more and that’s why they scored more. They were set up to succeed today. Hard to build confidence when you don’t play in games.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)