****************************************************

It was so much fun to go with my wonderful wife to the first game of the season. It will be the only game we get to see in person as we will be heading off to Florida in December until March. I'll be bringing my laptop to the pool to write my Blog.

And Happy Anniversary to my beautiful bride. It will be 46 years on 11/15!!! Thank you Huskies for a great anniversary present.

**************************************************

"I look for a 15-20 point win for UConn."

Both UConn and I are 1-0 on the season!!!!

Well, I guess we can forget about the theory that Bueckers will average less points and more assists this season. It doesn't matter who else in on the floor with her. She will always be the best option.

It was an interesting game. A typical Mike Neighbor's team, the Razorbacks are a hard working team. The Huskies ran out to a big early lead but after a timeout by Arkansas and a talking to by the coach, the Razorbacks played much better and closeed the lead to I believe 4 points at one point. A good run by UConn brought it back to 10 points at the half. A quick start to the second half for UConn brought another timeout for Arkansas.

Ok, I haven't talked about Bueckers in a whole paragraph. Did I mention she was 15-19 from the field?

There are a few things that Geno will work on with the team in his usual calm approach...lol. The defense by the three bigs, Olivia, Dorka and Aaliyah, was lets say, sucky. They looked like it was their first game of the season. Oh wait. It was. But still, they were a step behind all night. That causes foul trouble.

The other thing that stood out to me was the way Arkansas was able to offensive rebounds in the first half. UConn did a better job in the second half but Arkansas had 15 offensive rebounds. That can't be happening. Hopefully the improved effort in the second half securing rebounds will be a good sign.

So, lets talk about the players.

Geno played 9 players in this game but really it was an 8 player rotation.

The freshman Caroline Ducharme was not ready for primetime yet. Four uneventful minutes.

I was a little disappointed in Nika Muhl's game. She looked a little nervous and her usual aggresion on defense was not enough to get her more than the 13 minutes she played. Her outside shot was just off. She was 0-3 on threes and 0-2 from the FT line. She did have 2 assists, but she will have better games in the future.

The frontcourt, as I mentioned before, had a tough game.

Nelson-Ododa started out great with an early bucket and a few defensive rebounds. But her foul trouble limited her to 17 minutes. Other than the fouling, she had a solid game while on the court with 9 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 blocks. It would have been an easy double double with more time on the court.

Edwards also had foul trouble limiting her to 19 minutes. She did have 9 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. But that 4 rebound number hurt the Huskies. She didn't get to some of the 50/50 rebounds. I'm sure she is not happy with her performance.

Dorka did not look as good as she did in the preseason game. But then again, that was a terrible team they played. She did get in 13 minutes, but looked a little off. Some of that is conditioning. She is still working on that. She did show some of what UConn will get from her. She went 1-4 from the field but I loved the post move she made for her one basket.

I think it's important to remember that Arkansas is a guard oriented team that forces your big players to chase and foul. In fact, at one point, Geno had had enough of that and put five guards on the court at one time for several minutes. It was very effective.

I already mentioned Muhl, who was one of those guards, and her is my take on the other four.

Azzi Fudd, The next coming of Maya Moore/Kalena Mosqueda-Lewis. Ehh...not yet. She played a decent 20 minutes. Scoring 7 points and grabbing 3 rebounds, she didn't hurt the team and didn't look out of place. Geno certainly trusted her. She missed three of four 3 pointers but every one looked good coming out of her hand.

Christyn Williams got her revenge for Arkansas ruining her homecoming last year. She was great in everything she did except foul shooting. She played 36 minutes and scored 18 points. Her outside touch was off but we all know she is a streaky outside shooter. I watched her in warmups and she didn't miss one! Her foul shooting was the most disappointing part of her game. She was 6-11. Awful.

Evina Westbrook was just terrific in this game. She was clearly the leader out there. When Arkansas made it close in the second quarter, she kept everyone calm. Evina played 38 minutes and that shows how much better she is physically than last season. She filled up that scoresheet. 15 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals. I'm thinking she will be on a few lists at the end of the season.

Finally. Paige Buckets. Simply the best college player hands down in the country. Just pass out the awards now. She was quiet in the first quarter but when the Razorbacks made a nice comeback and closed to 4 points, she just took over. Geno just couldn't sit her. And she handled it great. Her conditioning is as good as anyone. It's a big part of her game. In her 40 minutes, she was 15-19 (yes, I know I said that already, it deserves repeating) from the field, 34 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. Amazingly, she only took one three pointer and missed it. Best player.

The Huskies have 5 days off before opening against Minnesota in the Battle 4Atlantis in the Bahamas. I say every time they play in one of these I will take my wife and go for the week. But it's always around Thanksgiving and I love being with my family.

UConn will play three times in three days, November 20, 21 and 22. There is a good chance they play South Carolina two times. Certainly one time. Now that will be the big test. Looking forward to it. Geno will have to find a way to distribute the minutes better in that gauntlet.

**************************************************

Full Game Replay

Game Highlights

Paige's Historic Performance

Geno's Postgame Presser

Paige Bueckers, Evina Westbrook, and Christyn Williams Arkansas Postgame Presser

Mike Neighbor's Post Game Presser

**************************************************

No. 3 Stanford 56, No. 25 Texas 61 - Well, that didn't take long. The defending National Champion lost to Vic Schaffer's Longhorn in a hard fought game. Texas outscored the Cardinal 26-16 over the last 10 minutes. Stanford looked really out of sorts in this game. Their 4-27 on threes and 20 turnovers made then a contender for an UGGY award. Their 56 points saved them from that embarrassment. Their Hull was breached as the sisters went 2-10 on threes. It should be interesting to see how they bounce back from this game. Mississippi State transfer Aliya Mathar hit all four of her three pointers and finished with 17 points to propel Texas to the upset win. I'm sure the Tennessee coaching staff and fans kept a close eye on this game. They play them both later in the season.

No. 4 Maryland 81 James Madison 45 - Easy win for the soon to be No. 3 Terps now going 3-0 on the season. Cloe Bibby led them with 19 points. Ashley Owusu added 14 and Angel Reese had 12 points and matched her career high with 14 rebounds. The only point of interest in this game is that Owusu rolled her ankle and had to leave the game. Hopefully she will quickly recover.

No. 5 NCST 85 Florida 52 - North Carolina State had four players score in double figures as they defeated visiting Wofford by a 90-57 score in its opening game of the 2021 Preseason WNIT. Graduate forward Kayla Jones ed the team in scoring with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting. Elissa Cunane (13 points), Jakia Brown-Turner (10 points) and Diamond Johnson (10 points) joined her in double figures.

No. 8 Indiana 88 No. 13 Kentucky 67 - Mackenzie Holmes scored a career-high 29 points and fellow preseason All-Big Ten selection Grace Berger had 19 as the Hoosiers pulled away from No. 13 Kentucky in the second half for an 88-67 victory. Ali Patberg, a former Notre Dame player now in her seventh season of eligibility, added 16 for Indiana. After Kentucky cut the lead to 48-46 with 5:44 remaining in the third quarter, the Hoosiers (2-0) went on a 7-0 run and never led by fewer than six points again.

No. 9 Iowa 82 Northern Iowa 61 - Iowa took down the Panthers, 82-61. Sophomore point guard Caitlin Clark blazed the trail for the Hawkeyes, finishing three assists shy of a triple-double. The preseason All-American had 25 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists in the game. “I think that defense needs to be our identity,” Clark said postgame. The Hawkeyes forced 19 Panther turnovers, and also forced Northern Iowa to shoot 32 percent from the floor and 25 percent from 3-point range. Interestingly, their defense last season was one of the worse in WCBB. I think we should wait until they play a better team before declaring them a good defensive team.

No. 10 Oregon Dixie State - Late Game

No. 16 Florida State 79 Milwaukee 42

No. 17 Ohio State 86 Norfolk State 48

No. 24 Virginia Tech 81 George Mason 52

**************************************************

By David in Naples

I'm just leaving this here for whenever David feels like sending me something.

********************************************************

By Phil

Bad day for the SEC

There were nine SEC teams in action on Sunday. You know the SEC, the conference that some fans think is by far the best women’s basketball conference in the country. So how did they do Sunday? You know about one of those games, Arkansas came to Connecticut and went away with a loss. They weren’t the only SEC team with a loss. Six of them, listed alphabetically, all came up short:

1. Alabama

2. Arkansas

3. Auburn

4. Florida

5. Kentucky

6. LSU

That means three teams won their games yesterday:

1. Mississippi State

2. Missouri

3. Ole Miss

So maybe the conference schedule is tough, and took on some of the strongest teams in the country. Hard to argue with that premise when it comes to Arkansas taking on Connecticut, and Kentucky took on Indiana. It wasn’t long ago, that one would expect blueblood Kentucky to prevail over an Indiana team with a long record of being decent, although hardly ever top shelf, but things may have changed for Indiana and we will find out if it has changed for Kentucky.

Florida took on fifth-ranked NC State so one can hardly expect them to come away with a win. But LSU brought in one of the best coaches of all time and was taking on Massey ranked number 75 FGCU. LSU lost. What happened?

Auburn isn’t exactly top tier in the SEC, but avid SEC fans will declare that even the weaker SEC teams outclass most teams in the country. They took on Old Dominion, which had some success half a century ago, but hasn’t dominated recently and is ranked number 137 by Massey. Auburn lost.

Alabama took on Tulane. You know Tulane, the team in the American Athletic conference that SEC fans used to snicker at. Tulane better than Old Dominion but is still ranked in triple digits by Massey at number 106. Alabama lost.

Okay, so at least three teams won and there must be some quality wins, right?

The combined record of the opponents of the winners was 0 – 6.

That means not a single SEC team managed to win if their opponent had as many as one win.

Not a good day.

I know, I know, they’ll be a day that SEC teams will win every matchup and maybe someone will try to throw it in my face. The SEC actually is one of the better conferences, but they aren’t quite as good as their most avid fans think, and Sunday is evidence of that.

********************************************************

UCONN LINKS

Sorry if some links need a subscription