Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 1/25/19

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Barrett feeling a little bit better and I have no idea what he is eating

Logan loves his yogurt.

That is why we sometimes call him Logurt!!!!

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UConn's next game is against UCF and while their record is impressive, I'm not sure how good this team really is.

The Knights have only played a few good teams. The best of those was Syracuse, who beat UCF 57-52. A tough loss but impressive defense. Syracuse is a tough team to keep under 60 points. They also lost to the second best team they played, Central Michigan, losing 75-68.

The rest of their schedule was littered with the mediocre to the lousy, which accounts for their SOS being 81st.

Central Florida is basically a team that relies on it's defense to win games. They average only 53 points per game allowed. They have held eight teams under 50 points and even one under 40 points. They number that really stands out to me is 20.5. That is how many turnovers they force each game. That is pretty impressive. And opponents shoot only 34% from the field and 29% on threes.

The Knights pretty much force mistakes. They use all their players, even in the competitive games. I expect them to play at least 9 players double digit minutes.

While UCF is great defensively, they are pretty much offensively challenged. As a team they shoot only 41% from the field and 34% on threes. They should really struggle to get much over 50 points against the renewed defensive effort by UConn recently.

Central Florida is led by Korneila Wright, a 5'7" junior guard. She averages 18.7 ppg and a team leading 3.6 assists per game. She is a dynamic player and UConn will have to put some pressure on her.

No one else stands out statistically for the Knights. The rest of the starters are 5'11" senior guard Sydnee McDonald, 5'8" senior guard Jamesha Paul, 6' redshirt senior guard and leading rebounder Nyala Shuler and 5'11" redshirt junior forward Tolulope Omokore.

Off the bench they play 6'3" sophomore forward Masseny Kaba, 5'8" senior guard Kayla Thigpen, 5'8" senior guard Lawriel Wilson and 5'8" freshman guard Diamond Battles.

UCF is not a very big team so they could struggle with UConn's Collier and Walker but with their constant pressure, you could see higher turnover numbers for Samuelson for sure.

UConn has not broken out of their shooting slump, but they have played better defensively so I think that is where UConn can possibly turn defense into offense. Eventually they will have a big shooting game, but this might not be the opponent to do that against.

I still think UConn wins handily, but only by 20+ points.

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Here are the post game videos with the Tennessee players, Holly Warlick and I've even added in the Notre Dame Post game interview.

Not much to say here. Holly is trying her best to take something positive out of the loss and she is probably hoping the team will be positive going into the LSU game.

Coach McGraw was very nice about the Tennessee team. I think she is friendly with Holly. It's all bullshit, but she was nice.

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By David in Naples!!!!!

Last night, Notre Shame beat Tennessee 77-62. The game was very close until midway through the 2nd half. However, with 1:18 left to play, and leading by 18 points, Arike Ogunbowale was not only in the game, but shooting. She made the basket and the free throw that you automatically get for being in an ND jersey. For the game, she took 21 shots, scored 28 points and had only 2 assists. Typical of Arike...

Tennessee was called for 23 personal fouls and ND was awarded 28 free throws. ND was only called for 10 fouls and their opponent given 8 free throws. Four Notre Shame starters played 39, 38, 37 and 36 minutes in the game. in a blowout. Their 1 bench player got in for 9 minutes. The total bench output was 1 rebound and 2 points. And fans worry about the Huskies bench..??

Notre Lame opponents have been called for 386 personal fouls. That is 117 more than ND in 20 games. Ogunbowale has taken 120 free throws so far this season. UConn's leading free throw shooter is Napheesa with 79. Just saying... 8-)