Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Dailies 11/8/18

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Lucky me!!! Logan has a little brother. Barrett Jean - born 6/25/18!!!!! He is so cute! But you can see that for yourself. And Logan is now almost 3 1/2 years old.

You will be seeing more of them. Hey, it comes with the blog!!

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It's good to be back writing, although it took me a while to get this going. Hard to believe it's been 7 months since my last blog!

Now, I don't know if I will be blogging every day, but I said that last year and then I didn't miss a day until the season ended. We shall see.

I had a great off season, playing lots of golf, spending time with the grandkids, spending fun time with my wife traveling some and just enjoying life!

So, lets get right too it!!!!

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LATE BREAKING NEWS - DoggyDaddy is going to an open practice on Friday!!! I'll fill you all in after in a future blog!!!

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I probably won't do a full pre game report on the Ohio State game. It's weird that its in between two exhibition games but with the OSU roster, it's really like three exhibition games. The Buckeyes are coming off a loss to South Florida by a 71-47 margin. Yes, a 24 point loss. Ugh.

OSU lost it's top 6 scorers and doesn't have anyone back with more than a 3.5 ppg average. They filled a lot of the lineup with 5 year grad students, but I can't imagine that they will be working that well together.

I expect UConn to win by 40+ depending on how the bench does in the game.

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Speaking of the bench, the wonderful fans on the main UConn message board are all over these young ladies. They really make me sick. I won't repost some of the awful things they say about them, but sufficed to say, it's just wrong.

Most of these posters are 60+ years old. How sad. It's even worse with how these posters follow the kids still in high school like star struck teens, hoping and even praying they commit to UConn.

It's one of the reasons I've struggled to get this blog going. It just takes the fun out of it.

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Some interesting games have been played already this season. It's just starting and starting pretty early. I know Geno is not happy about that. So, here are a few game results and comments.

No. 3 Oregon won their opener big and Sabrina Ionescu notched the 11th triple-double over her career with 18 points on 7-for-9 shooting, 12 assists and 11 rebounds. She is just an amazing player!!! Look for big things from this Oregon team this year.

No. 11 Tennessee won their exhibition game big. I'm sure the Lady Vol fans were thrilled. But lets take a closer look at their win. They pressed the poor Carson Newman players for 40 minutes. Of course Tennessee shot a high percentage on their 2 point shots. Most of them were layups off of turnovers. But this team looks like they still can't shoot from long range. They were 20.8 on threes. And their free throw shooting was awful as well at 52.8. I didn't see them run any half court offenst and that is no surprise. They haven't done that.....ever! More of the same for Tennessee this year. They will beat up on the bad teams and struggle against the better teams. One more thing. When you watch Tennessee play watch their sophomore point guard Westbrook. She has that "Parker" sneer down pat. That look of arrogance that Tennessee players always seem to have.

Hey, how about those Houston Cougars!!! They took No. 24 California down to the wire before losing 80-79. Keep an eye on UH. They could be the third best team in the AAC and maybe a tournament team. Maybe.

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By David in Naples!!!!!

No sane coach or fan would trade graduated seniors Kia Nurse and Gabby Williams, even up for sophomore Megan Walker & freshman Christyn Williams. That said, with UConn's season set to start Sunday vs Vanguard, it would appear Geno will replace Kia & Gabby with Megan & Christyn. Here is one fan's guess at how that will go.

The Good - Gabby was an uber-athletic, 5'11" forward more comfortable near the basket than farther away. She went 1-12 from three-point range during her career, but led the team in defensive rebounds last season with 215. Megan is an uber-athletic wing who made 13 threes as a freshman in limited minutes (495). She did gather 82 defensive rebounds in 1/2 the playing time. Megan needs to fill a big defensive rebound hole left by Gabby. Her offense is perhaps more versatile with extended shooting range and more free throws per minute, (49 in 1/2 the minutes vs 69 for Gabby).

Kia was a hard-nosed "nasty piece of work" who led the Husky fast break and was 2nd on the team with 85 threes. Christyn will most likely lead the fast break when possible and by all accounts is a strong body, great with the ball in open court situations. If Christyn makes 35-40 threes, that would be great. Can't help but notice the similarity of Kia starting as a freshman early in the season, and Christyn's forcing her way into the lineup in her first game.

The Bad - Gabby's 191 assists dwarfed Megan's 29 last season. Together, Kia and Gabby had 293 assists and 903 points. That is a lot of production for two underclassmen to cover. Gabby's 87 steals led the team and her 52 offensive rebounds were 2nd. Megan showed ability with her 23 offensive boards but will need to become a disrupter on defense with steals and blocks. Christyn is an unknown, but has above average rebounding skills and point guard passing ability. Let's hope...

The Ugly - Replacing two shut-down defenders in Kia and Gabby will be impossible early on in the season and very difficult even in March. Both Megan and Christyn are physically talented, quick players. But Geno & company's biggest challenge will be developing those two as strong defenders capable of switching on screens, guarding bigger players and doing all the little things Geno preaches for great defense. Time will tell...

It may not be pretty early in the season, but it will be exciting to watch Christyn and Megan rise to the challenge of starting for the 11 time National Champions. They came to Storrs to be great. Here's your chance..!! Good luck..!!

Go Huskies..!!

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UCONN LINKS

UConn women's basketball head coach Auriemma upset with early start date

Geno Auriemma breaks down the UConn women's basketball roster

The UConn women might lack a transcendent star but have the best trio of players in the nation

UConn women's basketball freshman Olivia Nelson-Ododa adjusting to college

UConn preview: Katie Lou Samuelson a California kid thriving in Connecticut

Takeaways from UConn’s easy win over Vanguard

Freshman Williams gets off to running start for UConn women

For a change, Huskies need some answers

UConn women’s basketball preview: 5 questions for the Huskies

UConn Preview: 5 women’s basketball games to watch this season