Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 3/28/18

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

Lou, Gabby - Women's Citizen Naismith Trophy (vote March 19-30)

http://naismithtrophy.com/vote/

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No time for me to write a full post game write up, but here are some videos if you haven't seen them yet. Enjoy!!

Full Post Game News Conference

UConn/South Carolina Game Highlights

UConn/South Carolina Full Game No Commercials

South Carolina Post Game News Conference

Coach Staley, A'ja Wilson and Alexis Jennings

A'ja Wilson Locker Room Interview after the game

Katie Lou Locker Room Interview

Gabby Williams Post Game Interview

Kia Nurse Post Game Interview

Napheesa Collier Post Game Interview

Crystal Dangerfield Post Game Interview

Azura Stevens Post Game Interview

UConn Send-Off Rally!!!!

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By David in Naples!!!!!

The AP All-American voting is out and Napheesa is on the 3rd team. While that is quite an accomplishment, it is a step down for Pheesa from the 1st team All-American status of last season. Many fans seem to feel her performance this season has not been up to the standard she played at last year. In raw statistical numbers, they may be right. But consider her performance in the four games in the NCAA tournament.

1. Scoring - Collier scored 80 points total to average 20.0 ppg in the four games. She had 16 pts against both Duke and South Carolina, after scoring 23 and 25 versus Quinnipiac and St. Francis.

2. Rebounds - Her 31 rebounds led the Huskies in that department. Keep in mind, she only played 17 minutes with 5 rebounds against St.Francis. UConn had 69 rebounds in that fastest pace game ever. (Kia, who played 29 minutes had 10 rebounds.)

3. Assists & blocks - Collier added 18 assists in the tournament to bring her season total to 120 assists. Magnificent numbers for a power forward who makes a living in the lane. With 6 blocked shots, Napheesa raised her total to 63 for the season. By comparison, A'ja Wilson had 8 assists during the tournament and 10 blocked shots.

4. Shooting percentage - Napheesa shot 33-44 from inside the arc in the four tournament games. That is 75%. Add in the 0-4 from three range and she was still hitting an incredible 68.8% of her shots. That is still better than last season's average when she was a 1st team All-American.

Given that Collier averaged 20 pts per game, led the team in rebounds, had only two fewer assists than Crystal and guarded bigger players every night, Collier is back to performing at 1st team All-American level. She will be a big reason if the Huskies bring home NC #12.

Go Huskies..!!

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1 Pity Party Down, 1 to Go

I would have preferred for the Quakers to have come out of the Spokane Regional because new blood is a good thing and Ionescu sure is fun to watch work. But here comes Notre Dame in all their struggling through injuries, thank god the NCAA committee gifted us Shaefer story line glory. Muffet may well be coach of the year. But what is she going to do in the next 3 days because in her heart of hearts she knows she has to get something going to upset the Huskies or their coach.

Muffet needs very little by way of a nudge to get some perceived slight as a source of attack on Geno. And she isn’t about to sneak up on the Huskies with the boo hoo me the poor underdog thing. Her team lead the Huskies at home for what, about 3/4s, this winter. Muffet may know she can beat the Huskies, but I’m not sure any of her players can recall playing a game they won; in fact I’m sure they don’t. So, for the players here is an angle:

There is something Muffet can work with there. The multi-generational Chip On Our Shoulder thing. True, it has a proven track record of FAILURE, but you never know, on any given day, that’s why we play the games,….

If Muffet is smart she just lays low, shakes her head and says: “Is there a way to beat them? Know one has had the formula, but we’re going to give them a Notre Dame game.” Then when the whistle blows have her team psyched to do the early blitz thing and pray for luck. Almost worked earlier this year and sure worked for Miss ST last year.

Lou says we are done doing that slow start thing.

And we have “hate/respect” going for us and I hope that is where Geno stays, no matter what petulant pout rant may escape Miss Muffet’s lips.