Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 2/9/19

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This will be me again, hanging out in Florida visiting my son and his family. I can't wait to see my two granddaughters!!!!

So, I'm flying out Sunday and I will try to put together a South Carolina game preview. Maybe I'll stay up late Saturday night and sleep on the plane??

I will be there for a week and I'll either be playing golf or hanging around my son's pool! Tough life, huh.

The bad news is a good friend of mine was able to get great tickets right across from the UConn bench. He asked me to go but I'll be in Florida. Bummer! Great seats to watch a game that is sure to be as loud as any over the last few years.

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The Boys are really Enjoying themselves!!!

Barrett is loving his yogurt!

And Logan eats pizza upside down!

I like thin crust, my wife likes thick crust.

So I cut the dough ball in half and we rolled it out to our desired thickness!

They were delicious!

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UConn continued it's hot shooting at home with a big 109-74 win over Temple. It was the second consecutive game scoring 100+ points for the Huskies.

Lots of great things happened in this game. Let's get started!!!

UConn was led by Napheesa Collier, who was just terrific in this game. She had 30 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 blocks, and 1 steal. She was 12-16 from the field and even hit her only three pointer she took. She is playing as good as her great sophomore season and even better. 1st team AA in my book.

I've said this a few times over the last few weeks. Crystal Dangerfield is the best point guard in the country and getting better. She had nine assists in this game with 3 turnovers. AND she was 5-6 on three pointers to finish with 22 points. She also added 3 steals. She could be the difference maker for this team in the tournament as the third scorer on a consistent basis. She is really not only looking for the assist but she is also looking for her shot at the right time.

Is Katie Lou out of her slump? I believe that might be true. She hit a couple of threes that the ball barely hit her hands from a pass before launching it. It was beautiful. I'll have a writeup on her three point shooting after this game report. She was 5-8 on threes and for 19 points and she added 7 assists. She is really a complete player.

Megan Walker was limited by foul trouble in this game but she still managed 12 points in her 21 minutes. I really liked how she ran the court for fast break opportunities and she posted strong in the paint. She is really becoming more and more reliable out there.

Christyn Williams is slowly creeping out of her slump too. She was 2-4 on threes, and that is huge for this team. She only scored 9 points, but she added 3 assists.

It was great to see Olivia Nelson-Ododa be the first player off the bench. That is what I envisioned at the beginning of the year. She still has foul trouble issues so her minutes will be limited in most games, but 10 points and 6 rebounds in her 16 minutes? Geno will take that every game.

The rest of the bench did a nice job when in the game. It's always fun to see Molly take and make a three pointer and she added 5 total points. Mikayla Coombs played 10 minutes and I'm not kidding, she hit a shot!!! Kyla Irwin had a solid 11 minutes. She didn't score, but she had 2 rebounds and 2 assists and a ton of great screens. She understands her role as good as anyone on the team.

Overall, a terrific effort by UConn. Temple was able to take 34 threes, and were over the top hot from the perimeter, making 14 of them. But UConn was hotter, going 15-24 on threes. They were over 60% from the field. They had 31 assists on 39 baskets and only had 9 turnovers for the game.

They will need to play at a high level in their next game with South Carolina coming into Hartford Monday night.

Here are some post game interviews.

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Yeah, we all know about it. Katie Lou Samuelson has been in a shooting slump. Normally a career 40%+ percentage shooter.

Freshman Season - 39.2%

Sophomore Season - 42.0%

Junior Season - 47.5%

This year, coming into the East Carolina game two games ago, she was 51-148 from downtown for 34.4%. That is way below her career numbers and scary to many worried Husky fans. But you know me. I always look for the silver lining.

They say that baseball players pretty much always play to the back of their baseball cards. That holds true for basketball players too. Eventually they will get hot enough to balance out shooting slumps. So for UConn fans, if that holds true for Katie Lou, they are in for a great final part of the season. And in fact, she started that in the East Carolina game where she was 2-2. And after the Temple game she is now 7-10 in her last two games.

She is averaging 7 three point shots taken per game. With hopefully 17 games left after those bad 21 games to start the season, she will get around 105 shots. So, how many of those will she have to hit to get to 40%?

Well, that means she would have taken 256 threes on the season. She would have to make 103 threes on the season. Well, lets do the math!

Shots Taken - 256-151=105

Shots Made - 103-51=52

That's 52 for 105 for 49.5% for the remainder of the season. What, you say? That is not easy to do? True, but she already went 7-10 in the first two games out of her slump. So...…

She really needs to go 45 for 95 in her last 15 games. That's a manageable 47.3%. Pretty much what she shot last season. Hey, maybe she will shoot 50%!!!!

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By David in Naples!!!!!

What do you do if your teammate & best buddy scores 31 points in Wednesday’s game? If you are Napheesa, you score 30 points and grab 14 rebounds against Temple. Pheesa went 5-8 from the free throw line and those missed charity tries could have helped her pass Lou. In addition to points & rebounds, Collier added 6 assists, 3 blocked shots and 1 steal. That means she was just 4 assists short of a triple double.

In addition to Napheesa’s great numbers, the UConn bench played well w/ 49 minutes, 17 points & 9 boards. The 109 points scored was the second time UConn was over 100 this season after scoring 118 in previous game.

Go Huskies..!!