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GO UCONN!!!!!
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From my cousin Ellie's house.
Happy second night of Chanukah!!
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My daughter only looks at my blog to see the pictures of her sons Logan and Barrett and gets upset when they are not there. So in this blog I'm posting a picture of her. Happy????
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From @AlexaPhilippou: @UConnWBB sophomore Paige Bueckers is the first NCAA student-athlete to sign a name, image and likeness deal with Gatorade. https://t.co/3b7LMebURq
— UConn Insider (@UConn_Insider) November 29, 2021
I have a few links with more the details in the UConn Link section, but wow, Paige signed a contract with Gatorade!!
The Wall Street Journal is reporting she could be making an estimated $1-million a year in endorsements between Gatorade and another deal with Stock X. I'll say it now. Paige just love to play basketball and with that kind of money in her bank account, don't be surprised if she uses that extra Covid season to play 4 years with her best friend Azzi Fudd.
There are plenty of great college players, including the men, but there is something very special about this young lady. Her basketball skills are one thing but her personality is special and unique.
Congrats to Paige. More endorsments coming in her future.
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After a week of upsets, there is no surprise that the Top 25 is all shook up!!!
South Carolina was undefeated and held on to the No. 1 slot.
Maryland is now No. 8 dropping a big 6 spots. No surprise there. Even though they had injuries and played other top teams, two losses is two losses.
UConn moved into the No. 2 spot, up one even though they didn't play a game. But by not playing they couldn't influence any of the voters so formerly No. 5 North Caorlina State was tied with UConn at 704 points.
Maryland's big move down was not the biggest. Oregon State dropped 7 places to No. 23 and Florida State dropped 8 spots to No. 25.
But the biggest hit, and deservedly so, was UCLA who dropped from No. 19 to clear out of the Top 25 and to the 29th spot.
Two other teams dropped out of the Top 25. West Virginia moved from 22 to 26 and Virginia Tech went from 24 to 27.
Teams entering the Top 25 were Notre Dame at 25 and BYU at No. 21.
On the plus side South Florida is as high as I can remember, rising 5 places to No. 23. And Texas A&M made a big jump, up 7 spots to No. 17. And fellow SEC team Georgia rose 6 spots to No. 20 entering the Top 25.
I long ago stopped trying to figure out the voters. I'm sure they really don't look deeply into the strength of schedule our margin of victory.
What a crazy week!!!! And Phil has his take on the poll. He makes some great points even though he was nice to Tennessee. BLECH!!!
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UPSETS IN RED
MOST SCORES HAVE CLICKABLE LINKS TO A GAME STORY
Boy oh Boy.....after a slow start South Carolina's Boston has really turned it on. Against a small North Carolina A&T team with only two players over 6' tall, she had 29 points and 14 rebounds in the first 3 quarters. 13-13 from the field, 1-1 on threes and 2-2 from the foul line. A perfect shooting night.
She really is a great player. She is no Bueckers (just ask Gatorade), but still darn good.
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By Phil
I think the voters were very generous to Maryland. The first five opponents were a cupcake fest; a combined record of 10 and 18 and only Villanova weighing in at Massey ranked 99 were not triple digit ranked opponents.
That means there season today consisted of five warm-up games, not a single one of which presented a serious challenge to a team that deserves to be ranked in the top 25. The very best whin of those five opponents was the win by James Madison over number 146 Virginia.
That means the serious part of their season consist of three games, one of which qualifies as a win (by a scant three points) and the other two are not just losses but blowout losses. That's what passes for the eighth best team in the country? Massey ranks them at 13 which itself seems a little generous but is a little more reasonable than 8.
I almost (emphasis on almost) feel sorry for Tennessee who scheduled today is right sixth best in the country and they are 6 - 0.
Even with those last three teams Maryland strength of schedule is number 51. Why have they been rewarded?
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Funny Quotes from Vol Nation
After I read these posts in Volnation.com I knew there would be some great posts complaining about the AP Top 25 poll.
"I think we could come in as high as 7th in the polls this week. Certainly expect to break into the top ten."
"Based on Voepel’s article it looks like we will be #7 in the AP poll."
Yep......
"Looks like we didn't move in the AP poll totally ridiculous but whatever."
"Total BS!"
"They don’t believe in us smh"
"Yeah I’m annoyed. We’re the only team that totally took care of business and we didn’t move at all. Stanford had two quality wins but also a loss and moved up 2 spots. Riddle me that?"
"Its the disrespect factor. The grade tennessee much harder than other teams and refuse to put them in the Top 10 until they prove more than others have to prove smh sad."
I just love how they believe that Tennessee gets treated differently than any other team.
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By David in Naples
Olivia Nelson-Ododa had 5 blocked shots in the Huskies' loss to South Carolina last week. That brought her career total to 217, good enough for 8th place all time.
Next up for Liv is #7 Naphessa Collier at 251 blocks and #6 Stef Dolson with 254. Both are in reach for Liv, but 5th place all time is a stretch with Tina Charles at 304.
At the top of the blocked shot list is Breanna Stewart at 414 total blocks.
Go Huskies..!!
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UCONN LINKS
Sorry if some links need a subscription
It you want to see what a big deal this is just count all the articles out there. There were over 20.
Too many for me to list.
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