Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 3/19/18

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I'm going to keep this here to remind you all to vote for UConn players!!!!!

Gabby - CLASS Award (voting ends March 19)
Gabby Williams | Women’s Basketball 2017-18 | Senior CLASS Award

Kia, Lou, Gabby, Napheesa - Hoophall Award (voting ends March 23)
Hoophall Awards

Lou, Gabby - Women's Citizen Naismith Trophy (vote March 19-30)
http://naismithtrophy.com/vote/

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UConn will be playing Quinnipiac Monday night at 6:30 on ESPN2. I really doubt that the Bobcats will follow the strategy of UConn's last opponent and take 57 three's but they will take their share. Every player that will play has taken and made three pointers and four of them have taken over 100 each. They hit a pretty good percentage at 35%. 

They also do a good job taking care of the ball as they average only 12 turnovers per game and have a nice 1.4 assists to turnover ratio. On the defensive end they force plenty of turnovers at 18 per game and they also average 10 steals per game.

None of that matters against UConn other than the Huskies will have to be careful with the ball and get out on the shooters.     

UConn hasn't played Quinnipiac since 1998, where the Huskies beat the Bobcats 117-20. I don't anticipate the same score, but I do anticipate a lot of pain for Quinnipiac. The Huskies are on a mission.

UConn Pregame Presser

Quinnipiac Presser - On Facebook

Please make sure you watch this video of the Quinnipiac Presser and at least skip forward to coach Tricia Fabbri. She is a terrific interview and says some great things. So confident and excited about the UConn game. She was coaching when they last played where UConn won 117-20 in 1998. And I believe she played against the 1991 or 1992 UConn team when she was at Fairfield. 

My friend and reader Mark pointed this out to me - "538 now showing Huskies at 77% to win it all vs. the 65% they showed before Saturday's game." 

It must have been the 140 points?

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Texas A&M and DePaul put on a great show Sunday. The Blue Demons took an early lead and then tried to hold on for dear life. I said in yesterday's blog that DePaul would have to hold down the A&M freshman sensation and they did just that in the first half. But in the second half, Chennedy Carter was just out of her mind. She scored 32 points and hit the game winning three pointer with 3.2 seconds left for the 80-79 Texas A&M win. Wow!

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Notre Dame struggled in the first half against Villanova, but a 28-8 third quarter was the big difference in the 98-72 win for the Irish. The big four of Mabrey, Young, Shepard and Ogunbowale were dominant in this game and scored 88 of the 98 points in playing a ton of minutes.

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North Carolina State took Brenda and the Maryland Terps right out of the tournament. I'm not surprised with this result. I thought Maryland would lose in the first round. Their best player Charles was just not on her game in this one.

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UConn's possible opponent in the Elite Eight, defending champ South Carolina had another tough outing, beating a weak Virginia team 66-56. A'ja Wilson dominated the paint again with 25 points, 11 rebounds and 3 blocks. She got to the line 11 times making 9 of them. She is a load for teams that can't play defense well enough to double on her without fouling. Everyone else for South Carolina are just role players. I'm not sure you can win with one great player unless her name is Diana Taurasi.

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In the game of the day and the only upset, 6 seed Oregon State beat 3 seed Tennessee 66-59. It was a sad ending to the three seniors, stars Mercedes Russell and Jamie Nared and bench player Kourney Dunbar. Russell had a terrific game, going 10-19 from the field in scoring 21 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. Nared had one of her worst game of the year, shooting 3-14 from the field and only scoring 9 points and snaring 4 rebounds. A tough way to go out. Dunbar only played 2 minutes in spite of the Tennessee fans calling for Warlick to "Free Kourtney".

Tennessee has now dropped to depths the programs has never seen under Pat Summitt with two consecutive seasons where the team didn't get past the second round. With the talent on this team (although I think some is overrated) that is inexcusable. They also lost for the first time on their home court in the NCAA tournament, going 57 straight games without losing before this game.

Warlick had a very shaky post game press conference. I'm sure she thought she was doing the right think in protecting her players, saying that "Sometimes the things thrown at these kids are unfair. They get criticized quite a bit". Later she added "I don't think they deserve half the crap thrown at them".

I guess she is talking about social media. The fans on the message boards can be quite unforgiving. But almost all of it is being thrown at her, and not the players. And half the crap they deserve? She really is just not very sharp.

I've been tough on the Lady Vols all season and I think this game bears out what I've been saying all season. They should never have been a No. 3 seed. Overrated all season, a second round defeat is what I expected.

So now their leading two scorers and rebounders are graduating, and although they have a very good recruiting class coming in, we saw how tough it is for freshman to make an impact. I can't see next season's team being as successful in the regular season as this year. They will be short on height and long on bad coaching. But that won't stop the Tennessee fans saying that 2018-19 will be the year they make the final four again. Dream on, Vol fans, dream on.

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A few good games Monday night. Of course the UConn game is of interest for us all.

5 seed Duke is playing 4 seed Georgia and sad for my friend David, I think that Duke should win this one. I haven't been impressed with Georgia all season. They beat up on the weak teams in the SEC and had few signature wins. The did beat Missouri twice but the luster is off those wins with the Tiger loss in the NCAA's. I'm picking the Blue Devils in this one.

There are two 3 vs 11 matchups. Is there an upset brewing in either one of those? 11 seed Central Michigan will be playing 3 seed Ohio State. I just have a feeling that the Buckeyes have a clunker in their future. Will it be this game? And 11 seed Creighton will take on 3 seed UCLA. The Bruins have had a few bad losses and could be susceptible to another against a feisty Creighton team. Stay tuned!

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By David in Naples!!!!!

The UConn players had not yet finished the hand shake line, after the St. Francis victory, when the criticism of Geno started.
"He ran up the score."
"UConn is bad for the game of basketball.
"Geno embarrassed the other coach."
Not much of it was original, but this time it was supported with"facts" such as "they scored 140 points", "he left the starters in too long" and "they took 91 shots."

Anyone who thinks that UConn "ran up the score" or this game was "bad for basketball", or "embarrassed St.Francis & their coach" is either stupid or lazy. I'm about to give readers all the real facts they need to understand what happened, so that just leaves stupid if you still don't get it.

Fact 1. St. Francis took 57 three point shots because that is how they play. They took 1,152 three-point shots this season. By comparison, UConn took 678. Eleven different St. Francis players tried a three-point shot. St. Francis has the 2nd leading scorer in the nation in Jessica Kovatch. She took 372 threes this season. That is 200 more than UConn's leader in three-point tries (KLS = 176).

Fact 2. St. Francis runs a fast-paced offense. They are the opposite of UCF, who slows the game down and milks the shot clock to under 5 seconds, every possession. St. Francis took 81 shots against UConn. This season, they averaged 72 per game. Over 70% of their shots were taken with 15 or more seconds still on the shot clock. Their coach admitted after the game that the plan was to run & shoot threes quickly.

Fact 3. Azura led Uconn in scoring with 26 points and played only 15 minutes. Napheesa was 2nd in scoring with 25 points and saw only 17 minutes of action. You don't run up the score with the two leading scorers playing less than half the game each. Of the other starters, Gabby had 22 minutes, Katie Lou played 24 and Crystal was on the court for 21 minutes. Kia played 29 minutes, but scored 0 points in the 3rd or 4th periods.

Fact 4. UConn only took 19 threes and made 8. For the season, the Huskies averaged 19 threes per game. More threes would have helped "run up the score." UConn averages 65 shots per game. Against UCF they took only 54. They made 40% and scored 55 points. With the fast pace of St. Francis, they took 91 shots, made 65% and scored 140 points. The UConn bench took 45 shots while the starters took 46. Fact 5. In this game, UConn's bench played more minutes (87), took more shots (45) and scored more points (62) than in any other game this season. Geno maximized his use of the bench, despite the starters not having played in 10 days.

Fact 6. St. Francis took 81 shots and missed 63 of them. They made 18 shots or 22%. They only had 8 offensive rebounds and 8 free throws. St. Francis scoring more would have lowered UConn's possessions and held down the score.

Fact 7. St. Francis gave up 2,455 points this season and had 9 losses. Their losses included Southeast Missouri State (who scored 82 pts), Columbia (who scored 94 pts) and William & Mary (who scored 92 pts). Is anyone surprised UConn scored 140 points..??

Joe Haigh, the head coach for St. Francis, decided to attack, attack and attack against a superior foe. It didn't work for General Custer at Little Big Horn and it failed for St. Francis in Storrs. Geno played his starters the fewest minutes of any game this season and called off the full court press, stopped fast breaking and had his offense walk the ball up court in the 2nd half. UConn still scored 140 points. That's all on St. Francis..!!

Go Huskies..!!

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WITH

Given the absolutely smashing way the Tournament is proceeding I better get this thing off my desk and onto DoggyDaddy's terrific blog. This one is all about peace and love.

The kind of peace and love I'm hoping will break out is the anticipated match up between Mississippi State and Baylor. I'm praying that the game comes to pass because it promises to be a doozie. I'll offer you a little Xs and Os maybe, but I'll be focusing on something else. What you ask? The goings on in front of both benchs. Oh lordy, if we could have them btoh miked up; but no one wants to see ESPN lose their broadcasting license.

The Truly Arrogant Beyond Measure Head Case: Miss Mulky

She has made herself an easy target for oh so long. There is no one so foolish as someone who has been conditioned in her own little enclave to think she's the best thing since sliced bread and invulnerable. The ruler of her domain.

I'm not saying the absurd, that she is not a very good coach. She recognizes what's going on on the floor as good as maybe anyone in the business. But her strength of scheduling NOT, together with her arrogance from living in that very special bubble called Baylor has weakened key skills for a Final Four Coach.

One Rule to Follow: Do Not Throw Your Clothes In The Stands If You Don't Like A Call.

Or at least not after you just told a referee his mother sired a fool!

And don't think the jacket thing is a one off. You can find others could you care to look.

Mulkey is a very good coach with a pretty big flaw. She's not the queen and she has a bad temper. That can make her a bad, yes bad, in game coach. Remember the early exit against Oregon in 2016? Guess what. A jacket is involved there too!

And who will she face if she gets to the Regional Final., Hopefully it will be Mississippi State, because Miss St is best prepared of that bunch down there to knock Baylor off it's perch. Not because of their players, but because of their coach Vic Shaefer. He took a nobody to a big somebody in 5 years (thank you a panicked UConn club). He can get heated and if they call the foul for a coach yelling instructions on the court in live play he's going to earn a T or 2. But the man knows his Xs and Os.

And he has a handle on reality and knows how to both win and lose with grace. Totally destroyed two years ago by UConn in the NCAA's he stuck it out and was gracious, even funny.

And he said he wanted to play like UConn and win. I won't make anybody watch what we never will forget.

It was a fluke but it happened. UConn should have won, but the punch in the nose was Miss States and how better to try to beat a more talented but young team.

That's the guy I'm betting on should the Mulkey v. Shaeffer game become reality.

He's a better coach. I'm betting on him.

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