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GO UCONN!!!!!
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Let me give you starting lineup that could compete for a national championship.
Westbrook
Williams
Fudd
Nelson-Ododa
Edwards
Add in the bench
Juhasz
Ducharme
Griiffin
Mühl
Wow. That is a great team. You have size, quickness, shooters, experience, and a couple of freshman that will get better and better.
Wait you say, isn't something missing?
Oh yeah, Paige Buckets. The winner of every POY award last season and off to an incredible start in her first game of this season.
I just shake my head when I see this roster. Now, with ten players that could get minutes in every game, it will be a challenge to keep those at the bottom of that rotation "game" sharp. But Geno knows how to accomplish that so I really have no worries.
I can only imagine how good this team will be after 20+ games under their belt.
Saturday's opening round game is against Minnesota. I'll have a more complete analysis of that game in Friday's blog. However, after hammering the Golden Gophers, UConn would take on the winner of the Syracuse/USF game. Two very familiar opponents. It's assumed that UConn will be playing South Carolina in the championship game. But don't sleep on Oregon. Their size (Prince and Sabally) will match up well with the Gamecocks.
I didn’t pay close attention to the games played Wednesday evening because I spent all evening at a fundraiser (it was a fundraiser for my organization so I felt I had to be there.) I did glance at the ESPN top 25 scores, and I got the impression I wasn’t missing much. DoggyDaddy had a nice summary of the South Carolina game, but it sounds like it wasn’t interesting in the first half although moderately close, with more action in the second half but no drama.
I haven’t done a formal analysis, but it felt like the top teams were playing mostly cupcakes. I took a look at Massey’s list of all games to see if there were some close ones, and the answer is they were, but unless you are a fan of a particular team, most of the close games were not “must see” games.
Massey thought there should be some interesting games. UCF was at Virginia, and he had UCF as a 1.5 point favorite, so it had potential, but UCF won 59-38. There were some other predicted close calls, but my rule of thumb is if both teams are ranked in triple digits, it’s hard to get excited about the outcome of a game unless you have a personal rooting interest. So, for example, Eastern Illinois was predicted to have a close call at Indiana State, and it ended up being a nine point game, but with the stronger team ranked 137, it’s hard to care.
BYU and Arizona State had more potential, with a predicted 1.5 point margin and the teams rated number 44 and number 63 respectively, but BYU won 55 – 44. Close enough to be mildly interesting but not exactly a nail biter.
TCU and Tulane featured two teams with double-digit rankings and one team that we might have interest in due to the American Athletic Conference affiliation. TCU was predicted to win a close call; Tulane won by 10, but that qualifies as an upset so always fun to watch.
Jacksonville State versus Sanford qualifies on some counts — predicted to be about a three-point game, ended up as a three-point game, turned out to be an upset by Jacksonville State, but with the teams ranked number 170 and number 230 respectively, it’s hard to get too excited.
If you restrict your interest to teams who have the potential to make the tournament, Oklahoma State and Missouri State, ranked number 36 and number 54 qualify, and Oklahoma State won 44 – 40, so a reasonably close game but it’s hard to get excited about teams that can’t break 50 points. That can be interesting if it’s truly good defense but it’s more often weak offense than great defense.
Nebraska versus Creighton wasn’t supposed be very close, but Nebraska won 67-62, so may have been an interesting game to watch.
Ohio State blew away Bowling Green by 31, Kansas won by 25, South Carolina won by 31, Louisville had a laugher against Tennessee Martin winning 62 – 30, Georgia Tech had a 23 point victory, North Carolina outscored their opponent by 45, Texas had a 41 point margin. Hard to get excited about seeing these games.
One potentially interesting result is Oregon State over Cal Baptist. Predicted to win by 24 Oregon State won by only 8.
One oddity is Campbell versus St. Andrews. I confess I know nothing about either team, but Campbell is ranked number 316 so one of the weakest teams in the country. I don’t know anything about St. Andrews but Campbell won 117 – 33. Heaven help us if St. Andrews takes on a decent team.
I hope Wednesday was an anomaly. Almost nothing worth watching.
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No. 3 Maryland 108\ UNC Willmington 66
Maryland - Angel Reese 23 points 12 rebounds 5 steals 2 blocks
Maryland - Katie Benzan 22 points 6-11 on 3's
No. 14 Iowa State 98 Drake 76
Iowa State - Ashley Joens 31 points 10 rebounds 5-11 on 3's
Iowa State - Aubrey Joens 18 points 5-11 on 3's
No. 17 Florida State 64 Jacksonville 39
Florida State - Valencia Myers 15 points 7 rebounds
No. 20 UCLA vs CSU Northridge Late Game
No. 24 Texas A&M 82 Stephin F. Austin 75
Texas A&M - Kayla Wells 24 points
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Funny Quotes from Vol Nation
"Coach Harper probably wouldn't lose the recruiting battle to top schools if many of you so called fans wouldn't bad mouth her, the players we currently have and the ones we are currently recruiting. Whether many of you want to believe it or not, prospective players, their families, and opposing teams keep eyes on these boards and what is said on here is definitely being used accordingly!"
I always find it funny that any fan would believe that what they say on a message board will impact a recruits decision to come to that school. And if it did, would you want a player that let the idiots on message board impact their decision?
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By David in Naples
UConn's victory over Arkansas kept their streak of opening game wins at 26 years in a row. It also kept the games without back-to-back loses intact at 1,024 games. That is 10,470 days and puts the Huskies last back-to-back loss way back in March 17, 1993. Paige wasn't even born yet... 
For those who felt the UConn performance against Arkansas was sub-par, try looking at Arkansas' stats.
1. Gave up 95 points.
2. Missed 46 shots, made only 29.
3. Made only 5 threes, 22%.
4. Fouled the Huskies 21 times creating 25 free throws.
5. The Hogs were outscored, outrebounded, and outplayed in every quarter.
6. Had only 11 assists and six players had 1 or 0.
7. Two best players missed 20 of 34 shots. (41% accuracy)
Go Huskies..!!
1. Gave up 95 points.
2. Missed 46 shots, made only 29.
3. Made only 5 threes, 22%.
4. Fouled the Huskies 21 times creating 25 free throws.
5. The Hogs were outscored, outrebounded, and outplayed in every quarter.
6. Had only 11 assists and six players had 1 or 0.
7. Two best players missed 20 of 34 shots. (41% accuracy)
Go Huskies..!!
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By Phil
Must-see TV. Not Wednesday’s theme
I didn’t pay close attention to the games played Wednesday evening because I spent all evening at a fundraiser (it was a fundraiser for my organization so I felt I had to be there.) I did glance at the ESPN top 25 scores, and I got the impression I wasn’t missing much. DoggyDaddy had a nice summary of the South Carolina game, but it sounds like it wasn’t interesting in the first half although moderately close, with more action in the second half but no drama.
I haven’t done a formal analysis, but it felt like the top teams were playing mostly cupcakes. I took a look at Massey’s list of all games to see if there were some close ones, and the answer is they were, but unless you are a fan of a particular team, most of the close games were not “must see” games.
Massey thought there should be some interesting games. UCF was at Virginia, and he had UCF as a 1.5 point favorite, so it had potential, but UCF won 59-38. There were some other predicted close calls, but my rule of thumb is if both teams are ranked in triple digits, it’s hard to get excited about the outcome of a game unless you have a personal rooting interest. So, for example, Eastern Illinois was predicted to have a close call at Indiana State, and it ended up being a nine point game, but with the stronger team ranked 137, it’s hard to care.
BYU and Arizona State had more potential, with a predicted 1.5 point margin and the teams rated number 44 and number 63 respectively, but BYU won 55 – 44. Close enough to be mildly interesting but not exactly a nail biter.
TCU and Tulane featured two teams with double-digit rankings and one team that we might have interest in due to the American Athletic Conference affiliation. TCU was predicted to win a close call; Tulane won by 10, but that qualifies as an upset so always fun to watch.
Jacksonville State versus Sanford qualifies on some counts — predicted to be about a three-point game, ended up as a three-point game, turned out to be an upset by Jacksonville State, but with the teams ranked number 170 and number 230 respectively, it’s hard to get too excited.
If you restrict your interest to teams who have the potential to make the tournament, Oklahoma State and Missouri State, ranked number 36 and number 54 qualify, and Oklahoma State won 44 – 40, so a reasonably close game but it’s hard to get excited about teams that can’t break 50 points. That can be interesting if it’s truly good defense but it’s more often weak offense than great defense.
Nebraska versus Creighton wasn’t supposed be very close, but Nebraska won 67-62, so may have been an interesting game to watch.
Ohio State blew away Bowling Green by 31, Kansas won by 25, South Carolina won by 31, Louisville had a laugher against Tennessee Martin winning 62 – 30, Georgia Tech had a 23 point victory, North Carolina outscored their opponent by 45, Texas had a 41 point margin. Hard to get excited about seeing these games.
One potentially interesting result is Oregon State over Cal Baptist. Predicted to win by 24 Oregon State won by only 8.
One oddity is Campbell versus St. Andrews. I confess I know nothing about either team, but Campbell is ranked number 316 so one of the weakest teams in the country. I don’t know anything about St. Andrews but Campbell won 117 – 33. Heaven help us if St. Andrews takes on a decent team.
I hope Wednesday was an anomaly. Almost nothing worth watching.
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UCONN LINKS
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