Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 3/22/19

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I love when this happens. I posted in yesterday's blog that I would be in section 120 and my seat location. Well, in between the two games this nice woman stopped by. She told me her mother reads my blog every day and felt good that I said UConn would win by 60. I was off, but by only a little.

I couldn't let my one and only fan down, so I went over to where she was sitting and said hello. What a sweet woman. I just had to take a selfie!!!

I also want to give a shoutout to my friends Shelly and Rob who we sat behind for the game.

They haven't read my blog before so hopefully they will find this!!!

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Group Results

Rank	Bracket, Owner	R64	Champion	Max	Total	PCT
1	Swash004 7Swash004	150	UConn	1910	150	99.2
2*	arlpol 2arlpol	140	UConn	1900	140	93.2
2*	Chong-Masterespn09481555	140	Baylor	1900	140	93.2
2*	DoggyDaddy 1DoggyDaddy	140	UConn	1900	140	93.2

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That was an awesome game!!!! UConn was just in high gear offensively and Towson had just a terrible start as UConn pulled away early for a 31-7 first quarter lead.

The best news was how Katie Lou handled being back on the court again. She took some hard licks too and got right back up. She felt good enough to attempt to take a charge (that the refs ignored) as she flew backwards.

Geno was really animated in this game. He coached his ass off even in a blowout. I think he wanted to show the team that it doesn't matter the opponent or score, you play hard all the time! Late in the game, with all the starters on the bench, Geno had a long talk with them. To me it looked like just a conversation where he was building them up, and you could see the players shake their heads yes as he spoke. I think he likes this team now and believes they can win it all. I know I do!

Napheesa was her usual dominant self with 23 points and 14 rebounds. Geno got Katie Lou 22 minutes and she was just terrific. She was 3-5 on threes and added 6 assists. And she had 5 terrific rebounds. I loved the rebounding of Megan Walker. She only grabbed 4 (I think the official scorer was wrong) but while everyone else was having the ball bounce off their hands, Megan was strong in snagging her boards. Crystal kept the offense flowing whenever there was a lull in UConn's scoring. She added 20 points and 4 assists. Christyn was as good as she has been all season. She was aggressive with the ball, consistent from the outside going 4-8 on threes and scored 21 points.

Off the bench, Olivia Nelson-Ododa had a slight regression in her game. She was just not strong with the ball on both trying to score from in close and controlling her rebounds. She will be better next season as she has one more full season of working out in the UConn program. So Geno will have to just deal with her as is. And that is still pretty good!

A blowout wouldn't be complete without a Molly Bent three, and she gave that to the roaring crowd with under a minute left in the game.

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UConn/Buffalo Preview

UConn looked pretty darn good against Towson. It was a good experience to play a BIG team for possible future games against maybe Mississippi State/Notre Dame/Baylor. I'm not sure how I liked how the played the post. Towson got some good shots on the inside early in the game and were just missing. That being said, this game will be totally different.

Buffalo is not a very big team. They will probably start No. 24 Cierra Dillard, a 5'9" senior guard. More on her later. They also start No. 10 Hannah Hall, a 5'3" sophomore guard and No. 00 Summer Hemphill, a 6'2" forward. The last two starters (from the Rutgers game) are No. 25 Adebola Adeyeye, a 6'2" forward and No. 11 Theresa Unwuka, a 5'10" guard. Going by the Rutgers game, Adeyeye and Unwuka start but don't get the majority of the minutes. No. 12 Courtney Williams, a 6'1" senior forward and No. 13 Autumn Jones, a 5'8" senior guard, come off the bench and get a lot of minutes.

That is pretty much the seven player rotation for the Bulls but when you look deeper into the stats, you can see that they are 100% Dillard, 100% of the time. Dillard is the 2nd leading scorer......IN THE NATION! She averages 25.1 PPG. She takes a ton of shots to score that much. She is a true volume scorer. I do like how she plays. She has a fair three point shot, but it's her ability to get to the basket that allows her to score almost at will. Dillard only shoots 38% from the field and 34% on threes. Not great numbers. But she takes almost 17 shots a game with half of those three pointers. Yes, that's an average of 9 three point shots taken. She also gets to the line around 9 times a game and shoots those at a hefty 80% clip. I don't mean to belittle her skills. She is a dynamic player. And it's not like she doesn't pass the ball. She averages 5.7 APG. But I'm pretty sure her stats are a product of dominating her team's offense and the level of the opposition.

As I watched the Buffalo/RU game, I just fell in love with Hannah Hall, their diminutive 5'3" guard. She is just fearless. She hit a few timely three point shots and handed out 8 assists in that game. She didn't take many shots but she ran the offense well, getting the ball into Hemphill and Dillard's hands at the right time.

Hempfill is the second leading scorer for the Bull at 14.5 per game. She is the inside threat for this team. She shoots around 60% from the field and 10.5 rebounds per game.

Other than Hempfill, three of the top four scorers are guards.

So, how do I see this game going? UConn does very well against teams like Buffalo. The Bulls are dominated by one player, and UConn does a great job shutting down teams with that situation. And UConn does really well against smaller teams as UConn is a bigger team with small team skills.

I'm pretty sure UConn will defend Dillard with more than one player. I'll be curious to see how Geno handles it. Dangerfield might be too small, Williams too inexperienced. UConn should dominate the inside scoring. I don't see how Buffalo stops Collier, Walker and Samuelson when they struggled with the Rutgers bigs. It was mostly the out of control guard play by the Scarlet Knights and really hot three point shooting by the Bulls that allowed Buffalo to win that game. I can't see Buffalo shooting 12-23 on threes again.

Toughness does count for something and Buffalo appears to have plenty of that. So my final prediction? UConn by 25+.

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We arrived at Gampel just in time for the start of the second half and quickly Buffalo was down by 7 points. But Buffalo wasn't deterred and I was impressed with how hard they played. Rutgers I thought was out of control and was only able to keep it close with their solid play on the inside. I picked Buffalo in both of my brackets so I was cheering for them loudly. I'm sure some fans were wondering who this guy with the UConn hat was that was screaming for Buffalo...lol.

I'll have more on Buffalo in Saturday's blog when I have more time.

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I did get to watch some of the other games before heading out to Storrs for the double header. There were some really exciting games. That doesn't mean well played games, just exciting.

I watched the end of the Mercer-Iowa game where the No. 2 seed Hawkeyes squeaked out a 66-61 win. 15 seed Mercer played a terrific game but I thought Iowa played pretty poorly. I don't know about their coach's comment after the game. " We liked out seed but we didn't love our opponent. We played against someone that was much more difficult than a 15 seed. Everyone can recognize and understand that." No....to me it looked more like Iowa was worse than a 2 seed and everyone can recognize and understand that!

In another really close game 5 seed Marquette slipped by 12 seed Rice 58-54 in overtime. Rice was ahead for most of the game before Marquette's defense allowed them to come back and win. I am shocked at the bad offensive game by the Golden Eagles. They shot 33.8% from the field and was only 4-23 on threes. They were lucky to pull this one out.

7 seed Missouri beat 10 seed Drake in overtime 78-77. Yes, another overtime game. Sophie Cunningham, the player that Tennessee fans love to hate, led the Tigers with 21 points. Jordan Roundtree hit a free throw after being fouled with 1.1 seconds left in the OT.

There were other close games and upsets too.

5 seed Florida State beat 12 seed Bucknell 70-67.

10 seed Indiana beat 7 seed Texas 69-65. (I called this upset in one of my brackets)

I love how this tournament is going. Parity has really come to WCBB!!

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By David in Naples!!!!!

There was much to like about UConn’s crushing of The Towson Thugs. For starters, hanging 110 points should demonstrate “street ball” doesn’t work against the Huskies. Here are some other things to like:

1. The five starters went 13-25 from three range. Better than 50%..!
2. Lou looked good, shot well and got right up from being knocked down.
3. Napheesa another double-double, 23 pts & 14 boards.
4. Squeaks goes for 21 points.
5. UConn with 7 blocked shots, 6 steals and only 6 fouls by starters.
6. Towson held to 31% shooting w/ 50 missed shots.
7. The Huskies won the all important 4th quarter, 20-17.

Things to dislike:
1. 20 fouls on Towson, not including 42 others not called.
2. Ball hog Jeter 27 shots, 2 assists. She wouldn’t see the court for Geno.
3. Olivia, make your free throws.

Lots to like with this a$$ whopping of Towson.

Go Huskies..!!

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