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Me and Logan and a friend
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UConn 72 Georgetown 41
You might not know it from the score, but boy, was Paige Bueckers missed in UConn's easy win over Georgetown.
Geno put it best when he was asked if they missed Bueckers today. He basically said, "when you don't have your best passer and best shooter, what do you think". And it showed for sure in spurts.
The Hoyas are so bad, it didn't matter. But you can tell that UConn tired out mentally. When you rely on a player to get the ball to the right place at the right time, it's difficult for other players to pick up that slack when she is missing.
That being said, there were a few standout performances in spite of what Geno said.
The juniors really came thru. Olivia Nelson-Ododa scoring 19 points and grabbing 9 rebounds in only 24 minutes. She also went 2-2 on threes. Now, I'm not sure that is good or bad. It's good because well, it's good to make shots. But it will only encourage her to shot more of them and I'm not sure that is a good thing. Can you imagine how the Tennessee game would have changed if she hit her first two threes in that game?
Christyn Williams had a decent game but why the hell did she take 12 three pointers? I get it if she had made 5 or 6, but she only made 2. She did end up with 17 points, 6 assists and 4 steals in playing the entire game.
Finally, Evina Westbrook did her best to get the offense moving and had 9 assists and 13 points. She also had 3 steals in her 31 minutes.
How cool was it to see Nika Muhl get her first start. As my friend Phil pointed out, when is the last time a UConn player started a game following a game in which she did not play (and not due to injury)? And when's the last time a UConn play started a game (not counting senior night) in January or later having fewer than 3 career points? She didn't do a bad job in playing 31 minutes. She hit two threes and had 3 steals. Too many turnovers with 5 but who is surprised about that number?
Aubrey Griffin started again. It's probably what she will do the rest of the season. And she was as effective as she always is with 15 points and getting to the foul line. This time she made 7-10. And she grabbed 7 rebounds.
I don't want to diss Anna Makarat so I'll mention that clearly she's been hurt for a while and it's impacted her game. Hopefully she get healthy and back to her normal. UConn will need hands on deck once the tournament starts.
Not much more to say about this game. I have several game links in the UConn Link section of you want to read more details about the game.
Next up is No. 15 Arkansas on the road. A big game when you don't play that many top teams. I have several days so look for a pregame report later in the week.
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Post Game Interviews
Geno
Olivia Nelson-Ododa
Christyn Williams
Aubrey Griffin
Watch this video and you will think Georgetown won!
Okay....here are the real highlights
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Ok, I'm going to show my age, but I'm a real old school kind of guy. I really don't like the new player trend to wear really long fake eyelashes while playing.
I was watching the Texas game and their very talented big girl, Charli Collier, wears them. I believe several women on the Baylor team wear them. I'm pretty sure that Chris Dailey wouldn't let a UConn player wear them. I'm still surprised they let Edwards have her Laker braids.
Yeah, I'm old fashioned. What can I say.....
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Gee, think they are happy they beat Tennessee and so happy for Evina??
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No. 14 South Florida at East Carolina - Postponed
No. 18 DePaul vs Providence - Postponed
No. 20 Gonzaga vs BYU - Postponed
The University of Arizona Athletics Department announced Saturday the women’s basketball Colorado game has been postponed. The department says the game has been postponed due to COVID-19 protocols within the program. The game was scheduled for Sunday, January 24.
Boston College is hitting the pause button for both its men's and women's basketball programs, as both are in COVID-19 protocols due to recent positive cases. BC women's basketball has postponed its last three games, while the men's team missed their its last two, including a home game against Pittsburgh that was scheduled for Saturday afternoon.
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By David in Naples
I read the after game comments on the UConn message boards and was sad to hear UConn lost by 50 to Georgetown. What..?? Oh, the Huskies won by 31..👌
So all the nasty comments were just Huskies fans kidding? As Rodney Dangerfield would say, “tough crowd”....
I searched for at 5 great things UConn did to make up for losing by 50 points...sorry, winning by 31 with 2 players missing, on short rest after a road trip and an emotional victory in a hostile arena....
1. Well, no one forgot their sneakers. (Think Gabby)
2. They only missed 4 of 15 free throws...73%.
3. G’town was held to 29% shooting and gave up 22 turnovers.
4. Olivia shot 2 more threes and made both..!
5. The Huskies had a “block party” with 9 blocked shots by 6 different players.
There was several more positives, but I will end now so I don’t ruin everyone’s bitching by being too upbeat. Just so glad UConn was able to get a victory to go with all their loses this season. 😳
Go Huskies..!
So all the nasty comments were just Huskies fans kidding? As Rodney Dangerfield would say, “tough crowd”....
I searched for at 5 great things UConn did to make up for losing by 50 points...sorry, winning by 31 with 2 players missing, on short rest after a road trip and an emotional victory in a hostile arena....
1. Well, no one forgot their sneakers. (Think Gabby)
2. They only missed 4 of 15 free throws...73%.
3. G’town was held to 29% shooting and gave up 22 turnovers.
4. Olivia shot 2 more threes and made both..!
5. The Huskies had a “block party” with 9 blocked shots by 6 different players.
There was several more positives, but I will end now so I don’t ruin everyone’s bitching by being too upbeat. Just so glad UConn was able to get a victory to go with all their loses this season. 😳
Go Huskies..!
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What a difference a couple weeks make.
On 8 January, I wrote about the 16 undefeated teams, noting this was an unusually high number but explained why there were so many.
A couple weeks later, nine are gone and we are down to seven.
They now neatly fall into two categories.
The first category includes three ranked teams:
UConn
Louisville
NC State
They all have something in common, they are all strong teams playing a decent but not spectacular schedule.
Interestingly, their strength of schedule as measured by Massey are 71, 66 and 68 respectively, virtually identical from a statistical standpoint. UConn's is lower than it typically is for some obvious reasons, and it is only fair to note that some very strong teams, such as South Carolina Stanford, Oregon and UCLA are not in the undefeated list largely because this type of schedules are right six, four, nine, and five respectively.
The other category includes the following teams with their strength of schedule listed:
Cal Baptist 312
UC Davis 283
Bucknell 256
Alabama State 339
In a nutshell, they haven't played anybody.
Alabama state is likely to drop out of this list soon as they have a number of opponents favored to win upcoming games.
UC Davis is partly on the list because they've only played two games to date. They have a better shot at keeping the streak alive but face some challenges soon.
Bucknell only has six wins faces but a weak remaining schedule. The toughest remaining game is at Lehigh when they have a 71% chance of winning. Massey guesses that they will have a single loss over the remaining schedule but it could go either way.
Cal Baptist has the most wins with 13 (tied with Louisville) and a decent shot at running the table. The toughest remaining game is at Seattle where they have a 64% chance of winning.
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No. 5 Stanford 66 No. 6 UCLA 70 - This was a game from Friday night, too late for me to talk about until this blog. Hey, I do have to sleep here and there. I watched the first match up with these two teams where Stanford won. I was not surprised that UCLA won this one. They Cardinal struggled with foul trouble the entire game. Charisma Osborne had 24 points, nine rebounds and three steals for UCLA Michaela Onyenwere added 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Bruins (9-2, 7-2 Pac-12), Natalie Chou had 12 points and five rebounds, and Emily Bessoir added 11 points. UCLA blew an 11-point lead in the second half, and the score was knotted three times in the fourth quarter, Stanford rallying to tie it for the last time at 66 with 1:47 remaining. Osborne hit two free throws with 1:23 remaining to put the Bruins back in front for good. The Cardinal had a chance to tie or win in the final seconds, but Francesca Belibi committed the team’s 14th turnover with 13 seconds left and UCLA put the game away at the free-throw line, Osborne and Onyenwere each making one. Two losses in a row for the Cardinal. They should drop another couple of spots on Monday.
No. 9 Baylor vs Oklahoma - Late Game
No. 24 Iowa State 59 Texas 70 - Texas was able to slow down Iowa State's star player Ashey Joens and that was the difference in this game. Joens spent most of the game on the bench in foul trouble. And Texas took advantage of it. The Longhorns ended Iowa State’s four-game winning streak. The loss was the first for Iowa State since Jan. 3 with was also against Texas. Joens came into the game averaging 25.1 points and 9.4 rebounds to lead the Big 12. She picked up two quick fouls and sat for most of the second quarter after picking up her third. Texas’ Charli Collier along with Joens are likely the top two contenders for Big 12 Player of the Year honors. Collier made a great case for herself, tallying a double-double - in the first half! She finished the night with 22 points and 19 rebounds before fouling out in the fourth quarter. Big game for the Longhorns. They could swap out their positions and Texas could re-enter the Top 25 while Iowa State drops out.
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UCONN LINKS
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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
ND Nation - Notre Dame women's basketball board
Rebkell - WCBB for everyone that thinks they are smarter than everyone else
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