Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Doggy's Doghouse 1/31/18




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

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

Delfin Florida

Image result for 19

Days until Florida!!!!

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

A couple of tweets about the team at practice on Tuesday

Mike Anthony @ManthonyCourant

Katie Lou Samuelson is feeling ill, though she made it through a full practice and left the building immediately afterward as other players met the media. As of right now, there's no fear of her being unable to make the South Carolina trip.

 and
Jim Fuller @NHRJimFuller

At one point today, Kia Nurse, Gabby Williams, Crystal Dangerfield and Katie Lou Samuelson were all on the sidelines, on stationary bikes or working with the athletic trainer at practice

Have no fear!!! I'm sure all will be ok for the game Thursday.
***************************************************************

Here is my newly minted UConn/South Carolina Pre Game Report.

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

I always look for a game to watch on my IPad when I am on the treadmill. Tuesday I decided to take another look at South Carolina. I wanted a close game and I wanted a game on their home court.  

I settled on the South Carolina/Texas A&M game from 12/31/17.

Game Highlights

Interesting Post Game Interview 

I have a feeling Geno watched this game to see how Gary Blair and the A&M team was able to hold the Gamecocks to only 61 points. Now, some of that was the uncharacteristic number of turnovers that they had, most of the self inflicted. I don't think UConn can count on that happening again.

But what Geno can use is how A&M forced South Carolina to go away from Wilson in the first half and what exactly went wrong in the second half that allowed Wilson to have 25 points and 15 rebounds. Some of that is just Wilson being Wilson. She is a dominant force when she gets the ball on the left side of the court. The good news is that Geno and UConn have seen Wilson now for four years and have a good idea on what she does and how good she does it.

The issue for South Carolina in this game is getting something from someone else on the court.

Harris is a great distributor and will get her 6-8 assists. But she just doesn't shoot enough to be a big threat. Maybe she will take more than her average of 9 shots per game. She only took 7 shots making 4 of them. 

Cliney is mostly a very good defender. She can score occasionally, but I'm sure UConn would love if she did take more than 10 shots. She took 17 shots scoring 16 points in the Aggie game and only made 7 going 0-4 on threes. Not good.

Their other big in this game, Jennings, was totally ineffective. I have seen her play much better, but A&M had enough size to keep her to 6 points and 3 rebounds. I'm not sure UConn can do the same, but she is foul prone and will have to guard either Williams or Collier to start and maybe Stevens at times. Not good matchups for her.

I mentioned Spann in my pre game report and she did play 11 minutes in this game going 1-2 on threes. She was just back from her knee problem in this game and would be doing the same thing against UConn. She really struggle to get open and to defend. I'm not sure she will even play. If not, the fifth spot on the floor belongs to freshman Bianca Jackson. She was invisible for most of this game and played 31 minutes. She did snare 6 rebounds but was scoreless.        

Their bench, including Spann, had only her three pointer. Yes, 3 points from the bench, 6 rebounds and 1 assist.

This is NOT a deep South Carolina team and to tell you the truth, not overly talented. Wilson is really carrying the team. She dominates the paint, gets to the foul line a crazy amount of times and she will get hers. I'm not sure that the Gamecocks will even reach the 61 points they had in the A&M game.   


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

By David in Naples!!!!!

South Carolina's best player is A'ja Wilson. She leads the team in scoring at 23.1 points per game and rebounds with 11.2 per game. No other SC player is close to those totals. The 2nd leading scorer, Alexis Jennings, averages 13 ppg, a full 10 points below Wilson. For UConn, the top six scorers are within 7 points of each other. Wilson has 439 points this season with the Jennings 2nd at 274 points. The Huskies leading point total is 302 with the next two scorers coming in at 297 and 296. Third and fourth place have 255 and 224 points. South Carolina's scoring is concentrated, UConn's is spread out. That is key for the game Thursday night. :D

Wilson also leads SC with 213 rebounds. Jennings is 2nd with 157 boards. UConn's leading rebounders have 158, 157 and 148 rebounds. Concentrated versus balanced. A'ja has taken 154 free throws and that is 71 more than the 2nd place player, Jennings at 83 tries. UConn's top four free throw attempts are 53 (Kia), 53 (Z), Katie Lou (50) and Pheesa (42). Are you seeing a pattern? 8-)

Wilson has 33 assists versus 287 shots. She gets the ball and takes her shots. That is not a criticism, just reality. Her job is to score. Maybe the Huskies can do something about that and make other players score, rebound and handle the ball. That's a good bet... ;)

Go Huskies..!!

****************************************************************
UCONN LINKS
Upsets in RED 

22 TCU Iowa State
******************************************  
 Statistical  


Rankings and Standings
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

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)