Behind a triple-double from freshman Paige Bueckers and a career best 22 rebounds from Olivia Nelson-Ododa, UConn beat up on Baylor 110-66 in a game that wasn't as close as the final score shows.
The Huskies stormed into Waco and right off the bat showed that their long range shooting woes were in the past. As a team UConn was 15-22 on threes led by Anna Makurat's 5-6.
Bueckers showed early that DiDi Richards DPOY defense was no match for her ball handling skills. Consistently using those skills, Paige drove past Richards time after time finding an open shooter, garnering 6 assists in the first quarter. The main benefit of those passes was Makurat, who hit 3 three point shots from various spots on the court. Westbrook hit two and Williams hit her only three pointer. ONO used every move she has, Strong post up moves, fall away shot in the lane and and a foul line jumper.
The score was 35-20 after 1 quarter and Kim was totally depressed.
Geno then showed he was going to use a deep bench in this game. The starters in the second quarter were Westbrook, Muhl, Edwards, McClean and Griffin and they didn't let up. Muhl showed she was 100% healthy and ran the team with ease flashing the skills she showed in Europe. Breaking the Baylor pressure, she was able to find Edwards in the paint where the freshman dominated the Junior Smith. It was sweet revenge as Smith never found her rhythm and struggled to score and grab her offensive rebounds.
Mulkey must have had a flashback seeing the 5'11" Mir Mclean grab rebound after rebound on both ends of the court like former Baylor star 5'11" dynamo Nina Davis.
UConn stretched the lead to 20 at halftime, taking a 55-35 lead.
The second half was very similar with UConn just dominating from the git-go. Christyn Williams was the dominant factor in the 3rd quarter. With 3 steals and breakaway layups, she broke the back of the Bears pushing UConn to an 85-50 lead after three quarters.
Geno took it easy on Kim and cruised for a 25-16 4th quarter for the 110-66 final. The Huskies played the entire bench and everyone that played scored.
I'm going to push back against the conclusions drawn in the article. In short, they claimed this accomplishment “proved beyond dispute that the phenomenon [hot hand] is real.”
The Bloomberg article argument depends on one critical assumption that I think is flawed. The article states, “Let’s suppose Curry has an unworldly 80% chance of making every 3-point shot he takes in practice.” I grant that if you had access to all the practice sessions of all the NBA and good college teams, you would rarely find any player who consistently hit 80% of their three-pointers. However, there is practice and there is practice. Running around the floor, then spotting up and taking a three, even without a defender is not remotely the same as standing in one spot, being fed balls and taking shot after shot, especially if you are actually concentrating rather than zoning out and thinking that you’re working on muscle memory. 80% might be high for a player in traditional practice, but standing in one spot and being fed balls can result in a higher percentage.
I’m a terrible basketball player. I played in an industrial league decades ago, and my best guess is I made zero 3’s in my entire career. Yet, in high school, when I was manager of the team and had chances to take shots at one end of the court while the team was practicing at the other end, I could consistently hit 50% from beyond the three-point line. Switch to someone with actual basketball skills and 80% is not unworldly, but attainable. I know there are free-throw coaches that can get players into the high 90s at the free-throw line, I’m sure that a good coach could get a very good player into the low 90s from the three-point line.
Sure, you may be thinking 90% better than 80% but how much difference does that make? And that is the key point. While the article talked about making hundred and five consecutive shots out of 500, I’ll work with the simpler situation of just trying to hit 105 in a row.
If you are an 80% shooter, it’s not going to happen. The math is simple, raise 0.80 to the power 105 and you get a number that’s less than one in a billion. In other words, it’s not can happen randomly. That’s why the article reach the conclusion they reached, because it obviously did happen so they concluded that must mean there’s something to the hot hand theory.
However, what if he’s a 90% shooter when not running around the court but standing in one spot and concentrating? How much difference does it make to increase his percentage from 80 to 90? Again, the math is simple, raise 0.90 to the 105th power and yes, it’s still a small number but it is 250,000 times more likely. Still not enough but simply increase 90% to 91% and now it’s a million times more likely. Increase it just a little bit more, and now such a streak merely becomes unlikely, not statistically impossible.
Does this mean I don’t believe in the hot hand? No ,it simply means that I think Bloomberg’s argument has holes. I do think hot hands exist, but I think they are much less common than many people realize.
I have to close with a personal anecdote. While in an actual game, no one in their right mind would feed me the ball to take a three point shot, I once happened to find myself with some lucky circumstances, on the basketball court in the Naismith Hall of Fame, with Mel Thomas. She fed me the ball at the top of the key and I nailed a three. I didn’t walk off the court, I floated.
I thought I would add this section to display cancelled games and other COVID-19 basketball related information.
UConn will not play Baylor Thursday and Xavier on 1/13. Both are due to issues with UConn's opponents and not with the UConn program.
The ACC announced Tuesday afternoon that No. 3 N.C. State’s next two games, versus Virginia Tech on Thursday and at Wake Forest on Sunday have been postponed. These are issues with the Wolfpack's program.
Central Connecticut has postponed games due to COVID issues within the programs. The games versus Bryant University on Jan. 7 and 8 and Sacred Heart on Jan. 15 have been postponed.
South Carolina's game against Georgia on Thursday has been postponed as well as all team activities being temporarily halted.
SU announced Sunday night that its game against visiting Virginia on Thursday has been postponed. The school said the decision was because of a positive coronavirus test within the Syracuse program on Dec. 27 and within the Virginia program on Dec. 30. This is the fourth Syracuse game impacted by the pandemic. SU previously canceled two non-conference games against Morgan State and Binghamton and postponed Thursday’s home game against Carolina. Syracuse last played on Dec. 20, an 83-70 win at Boston College.
No. 12 Maryland 93 No. 23 Michigan State 87 - Maryland used a big first half to take a 15 point lead and held a double digit lead for more of the game. They led by 11 with 5 minutes left in the game before Michigan State closed to 4 points with 2:30 remaining and then 2 points with a minute and a half left. Chloe Bibby made a huge shot and was fouled for the regulation three point play to push the lead back out to 5 points. Bibby went 4-4 on free throws to close out the game. Bibby and Owusu scored 20 points each to lead the Terps to another big win. Nia Clouden had 32 points for MSU to keep them in the game. Fun game to watch.
No. 14 Mississippi State 68 Florida 56 - MSU controlled this game from the beginning and took an easy 12 point win. Jessika Carter led the Bulldogs with 25 points and Lavender Briggs matched that for Florida. Tough stretch for the Gators losing their last three games to ranked teams.
No. 15 Michigan 64 Nebraska 62 - Michigan held on to beat Nebraska in a game that should not have been that close. Very unimpressive win for the Spartans. Nebraska is not a very good team. Naz Hillmon scored 35 points and 22 points in a spectacular effort to lead Michigan and Sam Halby had 27 points for the Cornhuskers.
No. 19 Indiana 85 Penn State 64 - The Hoosiers made Penn State look like the bottom of the Big Ten teams with this win. And PSU IS the bottom, so it makes sense. Indiana putt the game way out of reach with a 25-14 fourth quarter. Mackenzie Holmes led Indiana with 27 points and Johnasia Cash (named after the singing star?) had 19 points and 17 rebounds for Penn State
No. 13 Arkansas 73 Tennessee 88 - This was the one upset of the night. Tennessee shook off early blahs and handled the Razorbacks fairly easily. The Lady Vols have 3 really talented players and they led the way in this game. Rae Burrell and Rennia Davis each had 26 points to lead Tennessee. They hammered Arkansas on the boards and pretty much just dominated a top 13 team. And they play a weak sister in LSU on Sunday. They might move them into the Top 25 next week.
No. 16 Ohio State 78 Illinois 55 - Not much to say about this game. Ohio State beat a terrible Illinois by 23 points. Aaliyah Perry led the Buckeyes with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
No. 2 Louisville 71 Virginia Tech 67 - Well, we almost had another upset and it would have been a BIG one. But alas, Louisville held on for the win. It was actually tied with 1 minutes left in the game on a shot by Dana Evan, a probable first team AA. After a VT turnover, Evans hit the go-ahead shot with 23 seconds left. Evans led Louisville with 22 points, even with going 0-5 on three point shots. Super freshman Haley Van Lith finished the scoring with two free throws with 4 seconds remaining. She added 15 points for the Cardinals. A win is a win.
No. 10 Kentucky 60 No. 8 Texas A&M 77 - I was really looking forward to this game and it didn't disappoint in competitiveness. The game was tied at the half 31-31 and 47-47 with 2 minutes left in the third quarter. At that point the Aggies ran off 6 points to end the quarter with Kentucky down 47-53. The Wildcats didn't score in the fourth quarter until there was 7 minutes left in the game and A&M pushed the lead to 12 points at that point. It never got closer than 10 points in the fourth quarter. Texas A&M had 4 players in double figures. And Rhyne Howard had 22 points to lead Kentucky.
Boston College 64 Notre Dame 61 - No, not a Top 25 game, but I just love when Notre Dame loses. And this one was especially satisfying. The Irish had a 14 point lead 58-44 with 5 minutes left in the game. Now, you'd normally say "hey, this one is over". The Eagles went on a ridiculous 20-3 run to close the game. Yes in the last 5 minutes of the game. Crazy. Muffet knew what she was doing when she slithered off into the sunset.
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