Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Doggy's Doghouse 12/31/19








                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

                                                
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From me to all of you

I hope you all have a wonderful 2020 as we root for our UConn Husky women's basketball team on to another championship. We are all blessed to be able to watch  these lovely and talented young women play basketball at the highest level and with such incredible sportsmanship. 

May you and yours have a healthy and happy new year. If you are going out, please drive safely and look out for the other guy!!

Doggy and the Dogettes.


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Does this game count? Mid-Major and No. 21 Missouri State played the William Jewell Carinals today and beat them soundly 111-39. 

William Jewell is a Division II team located in Liberty Missouri, so maybe Missouri State is looking at this game like a glorified scrimmage? Or an exhibition game? Or a favor to someone?

Either way, I don't see the benefit of playing this game at this time of the season. And I don't have the heart to give William Jewell an UGGY award, although their stats qualify!

The article I linked to the win in the top 25 section had this headline:  

"No. 21 Missouri State women ease past William Jewell 111-39"

Now THAT is funny!!

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No. 14 Indiana beat Rutgers 66-55 in a game that was really close throughout and No. 19 West Virginia struggled Cornell before winning 68-62 so no upsets to report on.

But at the half, No. 12 Maryland is losing to Northwestern 34-23 (yes 23 points for the 12th ranked team in the country) and No. 24 Minnesota is losing to Ohio State 34-28.

On edit - I had time before we went out for the evening to update these two games.

No. 12 Maryland lost to Northwestern 81-58. Is Maryland the most overrated team in the Top 25? It's possible. 

No. 24 Minnesota can say goodbye to the Top 25 after they lost to Ohio State 66-63.  The Golden Gophers made a great comeback and actually had a 63-59 point lead with 3 minutes left. But Ohio State outscored Minnesota 7-0 to end the game.

Boy, that Big Ten has some offensive powerhouses!! Only one team out of 6 scored more than 68 points.   

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By David in Naples!!!!!

Olivia Nelson-Ododa has appeared in 48 total games for UConn. She has 98 blocked shots in those 38 games last year and 10 this season. In the 10 games this season, Liv has blocked 44 shots for an average of 4.4 per game. Over a projected 38 game season, that average would result in about 167 blocked shots. That is 20 more than the record 147 blocks that Kiah Stokes had her senior year. A lot can happen between now and the end of the season, but this is a record that should be fun to watch and follow.

Assuming ONO was able to block about 150 shots this year, just that total would place her 12th all-time in career blocked shots at Uconn. Combined with her 54 blocks last year, Olivia would be tied for 8th place with Maya Moore at 204 blocks. With two seasons still to play, Liv would need just 100 blocks to get in the top five. Here are the top five all-time shot blockers in UConn history.

1. Stewie 414 blocks
2. Rebecca Lobo 396 blocks
3. Kara Wolters  370 blocks
4. Kiah Stokes   375 blocks
5. Tina Charles  304 blocks.

Go Huskies..!!


UCONN LINKS
Top Twenty-Five Scores and Links
Upsets in Red

No. 12 Maryland 58 Northwestern 81
No. 14 Indiana 66 Rutgers 56
No. 19 West Virginia 68 Cornell 62
No. 21 Missouri State 111 William Jewell 39
No. 24 Minnesota 63 Ohio State 66

Statistical Sites


Rankings and RPI Sites


Message Boards

UConn Territory - The best UConn women's message board ever!!! 
College Fans Only - WCBB board where no holds are barred
Vol Nation - Tennessee women's basketball board
CockyTalk - The upstart South Carolina women's basketball board 
ND Nation - Notre Dame women's basketball board
Rebkell - WCBB for everyone that thinks they are smarter than everyone else



Videos


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I'm always open for suggestions. Just please reply to this blog or email me at:

Doggy's UConn/Wichita State Pregame Report

Image result for wichita state basketball logoImage result for uconn women's basketball logo


UCONN vs Wichita State
Day: Thursday
Date: January 2nd, 2020
Location: XL Center,
Hartford, Ct.
Time: 7:00 PM
TV: SNY/ESPN3



No. 1 UConn 10-0 (1-0)                               Wichita State 8-5 (0-0)
             
 Head to Head games

This is the 3rd meeting between UConn and Wichita State women's basketball teams. UConn won the first match up two years ago in a big romp, 124-43 at home and then last season 84-47 in a game in Wichita. They ran out to a big 27-5 lead after one quarter and never looked back. Collier had a big game with 32 points and Samuelson scored 18 points hitting 5-8 three point shots. UConn's two leading scorers this season Walker and Williams had 2 points and 6 points in this game. I think it might be a little different in this game.     

Here is the Box Score from that game.


Game Highlights
 
Pregame Interviews








Overview

Wichita State

The Shockers come into this game at 8-5. They played ranked Missouri State tough before losing 68-55 and beat Oklahoma 88-83 in the only game where they shared a UConn opponent. The rest of the schedule is pretty non-descript. They had three big scoring games, with 88 points against Oklahoma and La Tech and 100 points in a win over Arkansas Pine- Bluff. They lost their first two games of the season, so they are 8-3 in their last 11 games.   

UConn has moved into a familiar spot. At 10-0 they are now No. 1 in the country in both polls thanks to Stanford being upset by Texas. There has been plenty of discussion on how worthy they are for this position, so I'll just leave that alone. Let's just say that UConn seems to be getting better and better and the bench is contributing.  


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WICHITA STATE


A short fun intro video 


Team Photo
Keitha Adams

Wichita State Starters

Mariah McCully
2 Moriah McCully
5'7" Junior Guard
  
 Game Analysis

I found a few highlight videos for Wichita State and it helped get an idea of how they are playing this season.

They have 6 players back from last years team including 3 starters.

Their leading scorer is 5'7" guard Mariah McCully a transfer from Wabash Valley College. After sitting out a year, she just moved into the starting lineup. McCully is the only double digit scorer on the roster at 12.6 points per game. 

Leading rebounder is 5'11" sophomore forward Shyia Smith at 6.1 per game. As you can tell from that low number, Wichita State is not a strong rebounding team. They only grab 36 per game.

The Shockers are a really poor shooting team. They are only 40.9% from the field and 29.6% on threes. Carla Bremaud a 5'11" sophomore guard take the most three pointers on the team at 54 and leads the team with a 33% shooting percentage. Not good. But they only take 17 per game. Not a big part of their offense. 

Their assist/turnover ratio is 135/218. In case you didn't know, that is really bad. Geno (if he is coaching) might look to turn up the defensive pressure.  

Wichita does like to run, but with their lack of rebounding, it's hard to get that going, They average around 10 steals per game, so that sometimes gets the running game in gear.      

On defense, they looked to play mostly zone. But it was a really weak zone. It appeared in the game I watched that they were slow to the ball and left players open on the perimeter. And I can't tell you how many times is saw them let players get into open spaces in the zone for easy shots.

UConn has so many advantages, it's tough to name them all. Their biggest advantage is their size so they should be able to dominate the boards. Wichita State has one player that is 6'3" but she doesn't see much time. Their leading rebounder is only 5'11". I would look for the Huskies to get many many offensive rebounds and put back baskets.

I'm thinking this is a good game for Williams to break out. UConn should run like crazy with the rebounding advantage along with the many turnovers the Shockers will have and Williams loves to get out on the break.

Game Prediction

Well, two years ago UConn scored 124 points. Last year only 84. But this team is on the upswing in regards to improving the offense and this should be a game where they can put up a lot of points in a short time. Especially at home.

I'm expecting a big win for the Huskies before they head out to Texas to play SMU.

UConn by 40+.