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GO UCONN!!!!!
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My Bar Mitzvah, Dec. 11th 1965, 19 short of my 13th birthday. Ahhhh.....hair.....
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Concealer - A type of cosmetic that is used to mask dark circles, age spots, large pores, and other small blemishes visible on the skin.
That is what Paige was doing. Masking the blemishes on the team. Take that concealer away and you see all the dark circles, age spots, large pores and blemishes. It's not pretty.
Now, if you never had that concealer, you would know exactly what you had from the begining of the season. You find ways to adjust your look. But the difference right now is stark. And painful.
You can add back a few other products that are not as good as the Paige concealer. You have the Fudd dark circle remover leaving other blemishes. Add in the Muhl and Griffin color correctors and you don't look that bad.
But can you imagine when you get all your cosmetics back? You are ready for the Ball!!!!
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Geno says Paige Bueckers is considering surgery to repair her tibial plateau fracture. The timeline for her return would be 6-8 weeks from there if so, so possibly she’d be back mid to late February.
— Alexa Philippou (@alexaphilippou) December 11, 2021
Geno on @UConnWBB freshman Azzi Fudd, who is out with a foot injury. It was expected she'd be re-evaluated next week with the next game Dec. 19 vs. Louisville: "I'm not hopeful for anything before Christmas. We play one more game then don't play for awhile."
— carl adamec (@CarlAdamec) December 11, 2021
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No. 2 UCONN No. 25 UCLA
71 61
The 240 game without losing two in a row streak lives! Ah...who cares. They can go into the exam week on a high note, feeling much better about themselves.
It was a true team effort with all 5 starters scoring in double digits. It's what they will need every game until Bueckers is back.
For this game, you gotta give the game ball to Dorka Juhasz. She finished with 16 points, 16 rebounds and 2 steals in 29 minutes. She hit a HUGE three pointer in the third quarter to bring UConn to within one point. Check out this stat. She had 6 points and 9 rebounds in the fourth quarter. UCLA seemed to be able to tip away some rebounds away from the UConn players. Not Dorka. She has some strong hands!!
Ok, maybe the game ball goes to Evina Westbrook. She endd up with 17 point, 7 rebounds and 7 assists and only 1 turnover in 39 minutes. Wow. That pass fake and pass to Williams, who hit a three was perfection. She was the clear leader and there was no way she was going to let UConn lose. You could feel her presense and it was intense.
Christyn Williams didn't score until a rebound of her own miss and put back 23 minutes into the game. But from that point on, she scored 11 points and hit two big three pointers in her 36 minutes.
The unsung hero in this game was Caroline Ducharme. She scored 7 points in the 2nd quarter including 5 in the last two minutes of the half. She hit a huge three with three seconds left to bring UConn to within 2 points. She add 7 more points in the second half to end up with 14 points. She also hit all four free throws and added two block. All in 32 minutes. She is getting trial by fire and really coming through. Not bad for a freshman on national TV under some extreme stress.
Olivia Nelson-Ododa was again limited by foul trouble but still played 34 minutes. The good news is that this particular rotation has some depth up front. But she hit a couple of mid-range jumpers and one snakey move to the basket. Her back door pass to Williams was beautiful.
Aaliyah Edwards still doesn't have it quite together yet. She missed several shots that she made all last year. But her moved were solid, she is just not finishing. I believe that will come soon. She did have four big rebounds and one steal that led to her only basket in that 14-0 run. UConn needs more for her in her 24 minutes.
Amari DeBerry made another appearance and while she didn't contribute much in her 6 minutes (2 rebounds) the experience in invaluable. Great things ahead for this young lady.
It was great to see UConn have the ability to go on runs. That 14-0 run in the third quarter was a thing of beauty. Some old school UConn basketball.
Of course there are things they could have done better. They didn't defend Osborne well when it was clear she was going to carry the Bruins. They gave up too many offensive rebounds. And they missed 12 free throws. It got a little scary at the end and they could have coasted to the win. But that is small potatos. Lets just enjoy this one. It felt as good as any regular season win. It meant that as much for this team as for the fans.
Geno: "I think the change was let's try to play as a team. Instead of five guys running up the floor hoping something happens. Play through each other, make something happen for each other. And that happened today."
Second half from UConn:
— Megan Gauer (@megangauer) December 11, 2021
43 points
14-31 from the floor, 4-8 from deep
36% offensive rebound rate
77% defensive rebound rate
2:1 assist to turnover ratio
5 steals
Minus the free throws, an excellent half of basketball for the Huskies.
Game Replay
Game Highlights
More Game Highlights
UCLA Post Game Interview
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UPSETS IN RED
MOST SCORES HAVE CLICKABLE LINKS TO A GAME STORY
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Straight from the Dog
"I'll admit it. It's tough writtig about this team right now. There isn't a lot of positivity coming from the program. And it's difficult for me to write TOO many negative things. But like I've been saying, it's just the reality of the situation."
Now, who the hell wrote that? Oh yeah. Me, while I watched UConn fall behind UCLA 17-9 in the first quarter and then 28-19 in the second. So, you can thank me for UConn's ability to come back and win this game. Yes, I'm taking credit for the reverse jinx!!!
And of course, as soon as I wrote that thinking UConn had the game in the bag, UCLA went on a big run to close to 3 points. Thankfully I just wrote this and UConn closed it out.
You don't have to thank me this time....lol. I have such POWER!!
Good for Geno for getting a technical in the fourth quarter. Yes, UCLA hit both to close to 2 points, 50-48, but this team right now more than ever needs to know he has their back. They went on a 12-1 after that technical to take a 12 point lead. It was hysterical to see the Chris Dailey do her "hold me back" routine with Geno. She failed this time, but it was a valient effort.
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Lots of Top 25 games on Sunday. In fact, 14 games and 17 teams are playing. Some really great games to watch if you can get them on your cable.
There is the battle of Kentucky, No. 7 Louisville invites in to the Yum Center No. 14 Kentucky. The Wildcats are coming off an upset loss to an unranked team from the Big East, DePaul. Their only other loss this season was to then No. 8 Indiana. The Cardinals lost their first game of the season to then No. 22 Arizona but since have run off seven wins with the best against at the time No. 12 Michigan. Louisville is the next game for UConn in 8 days after playing UCLA on Saturday.
In a game of interest for Big East followers, No. 23 Oregon State comes east to take on unranked Villianova. OSU has had an up and down early season. Villanova is really struggling this year. They are 4-5 so far. A home win would do wonders for their NCAA chances. But I wouldn't count on a win for the Wildcats.
The big game is on ESPN at 3:00. No. 8 Maryland visits the No. 1 team in the country South Carolina. Can the Terps flashy offense score enough points against the Gamecocks stingy defense to pull this one out? Doubtful. Maryland has shown that against weak teams they can be explosive but against better defensive teams, they are way too streaky. I rarely root for Maryland. I'm just not a Breanda Freese fan. But in this game? I'd love ot see the No. 1 team lose. If anything maybe the arrogant South Carolina fans will be knocked down a knotch.
One more ranked vs ranked game. No. 10 Indiana goes into No. 20 Ohio State in a Big Ten matchup. Gotta go with Indiana in this one. I love how they play. Ohio State? I'm not impressed. The Buckeyes have a really weak schedule and their one loss was to Syracuse. Syracuse? Are you serious?
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Here is a follow-up from yesterday's blog about the lack of transparency with Rae Burrell's injury from the Tennessee programs. They said they would have a clearer picture next week. Well, here is a quote from that article. Looks a little more muddy -
"We met this week, we're still trying to figure out kind of what's next for her," Harper said. "She's got another appointment this week. So I'm hopeful that maybe next week we'll have a little bit clearer picture on where we want to go, where she wants to go with this and what we can do. I know I'm being vague, but unfortunately I literally I don't have the info. This has been an unusual one."
Huh?????
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By David in Naples
What a difference 2 days makes..! UConn looked like a team with a mission today at UCLA. The 71-61 victory was a come-from-behind, gut check win with everyone contributing. Even Geno, with some good strategy and a timely technical foul on the non-call against Evina.
Consider:
1. The starters scored the following points, 10, 11, 14, 16 and 17. Balance...
2. UConn scoring by quarter was 13, 15, 22 and 21.
3. Dorka with a 16-16 double double in points and rebounds.
4. In the 2nd half, UConn scored 43 points, 14-31 from the floor, 50% from 3 range, had 5 steals and twice the assists as turnovers. They looked like the Huskies we know.
5. Caroline started, played 32 minutes and scored 14 points. She also blocked 2 shots, had 2 assists and grabbed 2 rebounds.
6. UConn had 50 rebounds and more assists than turnovers.
Great win, now a week off for rest and finals.
Go Huskies..!
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UCONN RELEVANT LINKS
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Message Boards
UConn Territory - The best UConn women's message board ever!!!
Vol Nation - Tennessee women's basketball board
ND Nation - Notre Dame women's basketball board
Rebkell - WCBB for everyone that thinks they are smarter than everyone else
I'm always open for suggestions. Just please reply to this blog or email me at:
Doggy, the 240 was the Unranked streak, the non-consecutive streak was 1,030 depending upon how you count. Typos occur.
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