Providence comes into this game with a 5-6 record on the season.
Their wins are pretty weak. They beat Bryant 67-40, Rhode Island 76-50, Butler twice 73-52 and 62-50 and finally St. John's 76-53.
Their losses are nothing to write home about either. They lost to Quinnipiac 71-65, Boston College 58-46, Marquette 89-40, Maine 62-48, Xavier 64-50, and Seton Hall 77-71.
So what do the schedules tell us about the upcoming UConn game? Well, there were two teams that Providence played that UConn also played. How does that look?
UConn beat Seton Hall by 27 and Providence lost by 6. Net 33.
UConn beat Xavier by 47 and Providence lost by 14. Net 61.
Yeah, it doesn't look good for the Friars.
Providence goes only 7 deep in most games.
Starters
6'3" Junior forward Mary Baskerville. She must really hound the ball. Ok, I thought that was funny. She leads the team in scoring at 14 PPG and rebounds at 7.3 RPG. She also has 17 blocks.
The good? They have two big players in the starting lineup. And they start 3 seniors and two juniors.
The bad? They are a terrible rebounding team. Only 32 per game. Their assists to TO is not terrible. Just bad. 147/176.
So, what will happen in this game? Well, it's a pretty easy call. UConn will rebound and run like crazy the first three quarters before Geno slows it down. If UConn hits over 35% on threes, they will reach 100 points.
The Virginia women's basketball team's game against Wake Forest scheduled for Tuesday has been cancelled. This is the fourth consecutive game cancelled for the Cavaliers due to Covid.
Wichita State women’s basketball will pause all team activities due to COVID-19 protocols, the program announced Friday. The Shockers’ upcoming games against East Carolina on Saturday and its matchup against Memphis on Jan. 13 have been postponed.
The Texas game on Jan. 12 against the Oklahoma Sooners in Austin is being postponed due to COVID-19 implications on the Sooners side. Oklahoma will be under the minimum number of players to participate in the game.
The Washington women’s basketball team has been put on pause due to recent COVID19 developments that wiped out Friday’s game against No. 7 Arizona and forced the
Huskies to call off next week’s trip to Los Angeles and postpone games at USC and
UCLA.
On Wednesday, UW Athletics reported three active positive COVID-19 cases out of 568
student-athletes who have gone through testing. The university chooses not to specify
how many positive COVID-19 cases belong to each individual program “to protect the
health information of our student-athletes,” according to UW associate athletic director
for health and wellness Rob Scheidegger.
Before this latest string of postponements, UW’s game against Arizona State that was
scheduled for Sunday was scratched as a result of a positive COVID-19 test among the
Sun Devils.
It’s unusual to have 16 undefeated teams this late in the season but we all know this has been the most unusual of seasons. Let’s look at some of these teams individually, and the last seven as a group.
Stanford 9-0
I expected Stanford to be good this year but they’ve exceeded my expectations. Their strength of schedule is the strongest among the undefeateds by a wide margin. They won every one of the first five games by 30 points or more and typically exceeded Massey’s predicted margin. They had some closer games recently but blew out Arizona easily. The biggest test of the year is tonight against Oregon. If they can handle Oregon, they have a good chance of running the table although they do play Oregon at Oregon later in the season (Covid) permitting.
UConn 6-0
Not much I need to tell you about this team. Their strength of schedule at 82 is uncharacteristically weak because of canceled or postponed games at teams like Louisville and Baylor. That said, it is still the third strongest strength of schedule among the undefeated, which will be a theme for why there are so many undefeated teams.
NC State 10-0
NC state has long been a decent team with many trips to the postseason tournaments including the final four appearance in 1998 but other than that exception, they haven’t been a top tier team, never advancing beyond the sweet 16. That may have changed with the hiring of Wes Moore from Chattanooga. The gotten better almost every year since he started in 2013. Their strength of schedule this year isn’t stellar but it’s stronger than UConn’s. The signature win was the defeat of South Carolina. They will be tested if and when they play Louisville on January 17, but they are favored to win every other game on their schedule, with only Florida State and North Carolina expected to be competitive.
Louisville 9-0
if the original schedules had worked out,either Louisville or UConn would not be in this list, but as Geno might say “it is what it is”. The schedule isn’t the most competitive with DePaul ranked 37 according to Massey as their toughest opponent to date. DePaul is still in the top 25 in the polls, but with three losses they may be over ranked. On the one hand, Louisville disposed of DePaul easily, winning by 41 points, on the other hand they beat a weaker Virginia Tech team last night by only four. Which is the real Louisville team? They are favored in every one of their remaining games including the game against NC State, running the table is a realistic possibility, although Massey thinks they are will drop three of those contests.
Michigan 10-0
We don’t typically include Michigan in top tier teams but they have 10 wins against a schedule that’s the second strongest of the undefeated teams. Their win over Northwestern is their strongest when to date, so they don’t really have a signature win. They beat Nebraska by only two points last night. They have a number of challenging games left and are likely to you lose several.
Texas A&M 11-0
Texas A&M has the most wins of any of the undefeated teams, but the strength of schedule is in triple digits so while stronger than some of the undefeated teams, it’s one of the weakest among those we are going to take seriously. They have beaten DePaul and Texas and knocked off Kentucky last evening convincingly. Oddly, they struggled against Rice beating them only by four points. They are not favored in a game against Arkansas Sunday but if Arkansas plays the way they did last night this will be a blowout by Texas A&M. Their toughest remaining game will be against South Carolina.
Ohio State 6-0
Ohio State is in a special category. Due to improprieties they aren’t going to the postseason. While they technically could win the rest of the regular season games, they probably won’t and at best, the result would carry an asterisk.
New Mexico 5-0
Five straight victories but the strength of schedule is over 300. The strongest opponent to date is Sam Houston State ranked 248. That said, they don’t have a remaining game against a team in the top 100 so who knows what will happen. They are the favorites in every one of their remaining games but in 10 of them, their expected margin is five or fewer points. Those games are almost coin flips and it’s very hard to flip 10 heads in a row.
Cal Baptist 8-0
I know next to nothing about this team, but the strength of schedule is over 300 which explains their record. The good news for them is that they are favored every one of their remaining games, in some cases by a decent margin. Oddly, their toughest remaining challenge is against Seattle who is 3-5.
St. Louis 2-0
Bucknell 2-0
UC Davis 1-0
Boston University 2-0
Lehigh 2-0
St. Joseph’s PA 2-0
Alabama State 1-0
Yes, they are all undefeated but between them, they only have one more win than Texas A&M. Write back when they’ve got five or more wins and are still undefeated.
UConn fans are all worried about Anna Makurat's shooting woes so far this season. After 6 games last year Makurat was 7-28 (25%) from the field and 4-21 (19%) on threes. This year after 6 games she is 14-35 (40%) from the field and 7-26 (27%) on shots beyond the arc.
No. 1 Stanford 70, No. 11 Oregon 63 - I don't know if it's Covid issues that have made it tougher for teams to get into a rhythm but these two teams didn't play like the No. 1 and No. 11 teams in the country. Stanford did play without three players, who were out due to Covid protocols. Guards Lexie Hull and Hannah Jump and forward Alyssa Jerome sat due to contract tracing. Hull was the only starter and impact player missing. But there were lots of sloppy play and poor shooting. That being said, Stanford rode a huge third quarter (28-14) to pull away from Oregon and hold on for the 7 point win. Haley Jones was tough again with 18 points and 6 rebounds and Kiana Williams made four free throws in the last minute to complete the scoring. The one stat that stood out to me was a very un-Stanford like 8 assists and 17 turnovers. UConn can definitely beat this version of the Cardinal.
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