Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 11/20/19

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It's not gonna be pretty, but it's got to be gritty!

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Doggy's UConn/Virginia Post Game Report.

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Well, all five players in the 2020 class have signed their LOI's and will be coming to UConn next season. I love this class!!! Next years roster is going to be deep and talented!! Here is the list of players with their best HS ranking in parenthesis.

Seniors - Megan Walker (1)

Juniors - , Evina Westbrook (1), Christyn Williams (1), Olivia Neslon-Ododa (5)

Sophomores - Anna Makurat (NR), Aubrey Griffin (21)

Freshman - Paige Bueckers (1), Nika Muhl (NR), Mir McLean (11), Aayilah Edwards (26), Piath Gabriel (41)

An amazing collection of talent!!! Four former No. 1 HS players, three wonderful foreign players,

Lots of height (6'5", 6'5", 6'3"), three point guards who are really combo guards, two pogo stick forwards. So much diversity.

Here is what Geno said about each recruit.

Paige Bueckers - “The thing that is impressive to me about Paige is how unselfish she is and her ability to get everyone involved in the game and her knack of getting to the basket. She’s going to add, to us, a bigger guard that can impact the game, whether she’s shooting it or passing it. It’s important for us to get kids that are talented and unselfish and can score, and Paige has been able to do all those things.”

Nika Muhl - “What I like about Nika is she just has this incredible passion for the game. She has a certain toughness about her that comes from playing in a really competitive environment over in Croatia. Along with Paige, she’s another player that I think gets a lot of satisfaction out of getting someone else the ball and not necessarily focusing ons coring. I just love her enthusiasm and passion for the game and how tough she is physically and mentally. I think the fans are really going to like Nika.”

Mir McLean - “Mir is just a different kind of athlete. She’s a little bit like Aubrey [Griffin] in that she can get to places on the floor that most players can’t. She can get the balls off the rim that most players can’t. She competes as hard, if not harder, that anybody that I’ve seen. We needed to get a lot quicker and a lot more athletic, and having Mir, we’ve done that.”

Aaliyah Edward - “Playing for the Canadian National Team has given Aaliyah a tremendous amount of confidence and a lot of exposure to really good basketball at a really high level. She’s tough, she’s aggressive, she goes all out all the time. She can become an amazing defender for us, she can become a scorer that scores from a lot of different places. I think we’re getting a really mature, experience player that can play a lot of different positions for us.”

Piath Gabriel - “The first time I saw Piath play, I was impressed by how hard she works. How hard she runs the floor. How willing she is to mix it up in the lane. There’s some things offensively that she needs to work on that I think we can help her with. Of all the big kids that I saw this season, she really impressed me with her work ethic. I think Piath is probably going to be the biggest surprise of all the kids coming into college next year.”

Welcome ladies of 2020. Enjoy your four years at UConn!!!!

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So, I usually peruse the Top 25 scores for my blog, but then I remembered that one of my "favorite" teams is now out of the Top 25 for the first time in 12 years. Yes, I'm talking about those Fighting Irish of Notre Dame!!!!

So, I did look and it happens that they have a home game against 1-1 Toledo. I bet you are all wondering how they are doing. Will this game be the start of getting back into the Top 25???

Well, at the half it's 33-26 Toledo. Holy Crap!!! Did I mention Toledo lost by 18 to Dayton?

I'll be updating this with the final score later Wednesday night. I'm sure that Notre Dame will come back and win this one.

And as expected, Notre Dame poured it on with 13 fourth quarter points to beat Toledo 54-51. It's an amazing season when a home win against Toledo in such a low scoring, poor shooting game is consider a BIG win.

They have No. 21 Michigan next. Should be interesting.

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By David in Naples!!!!!

The good news is 5 players made three-point baskets in the win against Virginia. The bad news is Christyn was 1-6 and Crystal went 2-6 from outside the arc. Anna made 2 threes (good), but was only 2-6 (bad). For the year, UConn is 28-93 or 33.7%. That % is getting better...slowly..

And.....

Last night, Virginia started the game 4-5 from the field and held a 9-7 score advantage after 3 1/2 minutes of play. For the rest of the game, they shot 10-52 or 19%.

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UCONN LINKS

Here's what Geno had to say about his 2020 Recruiting Class
UConn women officially announce 2020 recruiting class
Coming off career night, Kyla Irwin carving out role with UConn
UConn women post game notes

Top Twenty-Five Scores and Links
Upsets in Red

No. 9 Maryland 88 George Washington 54
No. 20 Arkansas vs Belmont

Statistical Sites