Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 1/11/2022

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GO UCONN!!!!!

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BIG BOY BARRETT!!

Never too young for good dental hygiene!!

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No. 10 UCONN Butler 7-3 1-11

Wednesday, January 12th

7:00 PM EST

Indianapolis, Indiana

Hinkle Field House

TV: SNY

Matchup History

BUTLER | UCONN

HUSKIES LEADS 2-0 H: 1-0 | A: 1-0 | N: 0-0

01/19/21 #3 UConn 103, Butler 35 Storrs, Conn.

02/27/21 #1 UConn 97, Butler 68 Indianapolis, Ind.

UConn came off a four game absence because of Covid issues to beat Creighton 63-55 in their first game back. We all know how rusty they looks. Now it's Butler's turn as they are coming off a 4 game layoff because of Covid. They haven't played a game since losing to Xavier 77-55 on December 29th. Not quite the 21 day layoff but 14 days is still a lot of time to miss.

The difference is this is not a very good Butler team. They have only won one game so far this season and that was 75-67 win over Evansville. There are no mutual opponents so far this season, so I can't use that to see how Butler might do against the Huskies. But they lost 87-63 to No. 6 Indiana and 101-64 to DePaul. Probably the two best teams on their schedule to date.

The Bulldogs are led by 6'3" grad student Celena Taborn, who can really carve out some space in the paint. She averages 14.4 PPG and 5.1 RPG. She is shooting an amazing 50-67 from the field for 74.6%. I have a feeling she doesn't take many jump shots.

Alex Richard is a 6'1" freshman forward who is the only other player with double digit scoring. She shoots a solid 51.2% from the field and hasn't taken a three pointer all season.

They have 5 players who do take three point shots and while they take around 20 per game they only make around 5 of them.

Not much more to say about this game. UConnwill be looking to knock off more rust, play solid defense and keep working on improving their offensive continuty. It's all about getting in game shape.

UConn by 25+.

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Things are looking really good for UConn. I know I've posted about the 2022 recruits Isuneh "Ice" Brady and Ayanna Patterson along with 2023 recruit KK Arnold. And I will have a few videos of recent play for you to enjoy. But there appears to be some good news on the 2023 class.

What was thought to be close to a lock for Tennessee, Ashlyn Shade, a 5'10" guard from Indiana, is looking more like a good shot for the Huskies to pick up. It's all guess work based on circumstantial evidence, but it appears to be all good news.

Shade was at the Creighton game with her dad on her own dollar for an unofficial visit.

Ashlynn Shade, the No. 5 recruit in the class of 2023, is here at Gampel today

(📸: @Ian_Bethune) pic.twitter.com/coWhkSRHhc
— Daniel Connolly (@DanielVConnolly) January 9, 2022

Ok...that is always good news. But there is more!!!

It was always thought that she was a Tennessee lean as her brother is being recruiting by the Vols for their baseball team. Ashlyn took a visit to their campus with her brother and was there a few other times. However from my friend David -

According to a poster on VolNation Ashlyn Shade may be narrowing her schools of interest.

"A few of the other schools on Shade's list have reported on their message boards today that their coaches have stopped following Shade on social media. Perhaps she was in contact with some coaches last night or this morning."

And this from another poster there regarding the Lady Vol recruiting coordinator;
"Looks like Coach Sam unfollowed her as well. Welp. A little disappointing."

It also appears that on the Lady Vol recruiting site, they have removed Shade's name from their list of players of interest.

One last clue.

"The only high school players currently followed by UConnWBB's Instagram account are Ayanna, Ice, KK and now Ashlynn Shade."

She would be a great pick up. Care to see how she plays?

If there is one player she reminds me of it's Shea Ralph. One tough cookie!

And as promised, here are some new videos of the players who have already said they are coming to UConn.

Ayanna Patterson

KK Arnold

Ice Brady

These kids are GOOD!!!!!

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GAMES

MOST SCORES HAVE CLICKABLE LINKS TO A GAME STORY

UPSETS IN RED

No. 15 Georgia Tech 63 Pittsburgh 52

No. 9 Iowa State 73 No. 25 Kansas State 70

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Straight from the Dog

UConn is back in the Top 10! Mostly because No. 8 Michigan lost to unranked Nebraska and dropped to No. 11 allowing UConn to move up one slot. None of this matters, but it feels good to see UConn back in the top 10.

No.1 South Carolina solidified their spot at the top with 2 Top 25 wins. They picked up 3 votes that went to previously undefeated Arizona and one vote from Louisville. I'm still not sure how Louisville has any No. 1 votes but they still have 4. However, it doesn't push them past No. 2 Stanford.

Congrats to Tennessee for moving into the Top 5 for the first time this century. Ok, not that long ago but it's been a while. They did that on the tail of a win over at the time No. 25 Texas A&M and against unranked Ole Miss. The Aggies also lost to unranked Florida in double overtime to drop out of the Top 25. They got ZEROS votes. So in retrospect, why would Tennessee move up over a team that is just not that good like Texas A&M and also a weak Ole Miss team? Maybe they get special treatment now that UConn is such a bad team???

Ok, what would a blog be without some Tennessee fan trashing. If you remember correctly, Tennessee fans (and to be fair, UConn fans) were all over Geno for keeping Paige Bueckers in the game with a big lead where they couldn't lose and then she got injured. I'm not one to believe in that. Players play. It was just back luck. But in their last game, a win against Ole Miss, Tennessee had FOUR starters in the game with a 12 point lead with thirty seconds left in the game. Of course a UConn fan posted on Volnation.com that Coach Harper basically did the same thing as Geno did. I'm sure you can imagine the response from the Tennessee fans. This one was especially nuts!

"If you’re trying to relate this to Buecker’s you’re just looking stupid and showing your a**. She was still in and it was a 20 point deficit. There was zero reason for her to be on the floor. A 12 point lead in the SEC is something that can evaporate in 30 seconds."

My favorite poster on that board, a supposed Rutgers fan, had a great response.

"I don’t know which is more insane. That you actually believe this or that 5 other posters liked it. A 12 point lead with 30 seconds left is just as secure as UConn’s 20 point lead. And your two best players were just as vulnerable to injury during those 30 seconds as Bueckers was."

Someone scoured the internet to actually find two men's games where teams lost 12 point leads in the last minutes. One in 2005. Morons. Apples and Oranges.

One more from the Orange idiots.

They are talking about their three point shooting expertise.

"The emergence of Darby and Puckett as legit three point threats"

Yep, 36% and 35% is solid. But then someone added this....

"Horston can make the three as well.."

Uhh.....6-31 for 19.4%. What a dope.

Not that UConn is the same as Pittsburgh, but Georgia Tech got lucky again. They played the Panthers without Pitts top scorer, like UConn was minus theirs when they played GT. Good timing.

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By David in Naples

Nobody on the Huskies has been hotter these last three games than Caroline Ducharme. Consider:

1. Points - In three games against UCLA, Louisville and Creighton, CD4 has scored 55 pts. That is 18.3 per game.
2. Rebounds - A total of 15 in the 3 games or 5 per game.
3. Blocks - Six blocked shots in 3 games. Three in the last game vs Creighton. Her total of 8 for the season is 2nd on the team.
4. Steals and Assists - 6 assists and 3 steals to complete an overall wonderful run.
5. Minutes - Total minutes of 110 in the three games for ama verage of 36.6 per game. Never stops moving..!

Very sweet 3 game run for Caroline. This next stretch of games in the Big East should result in more stats for this up and coming freshman..!

More from David -

Me: UConn outrebounded Creighton in their game on Sunday!!
Casual fan: No they didn't, you lying dog..!
Me: Wait, let me explain...

In basketball, EVERY shot that doesn't go in the basket has to have a rebound. These are usually individual rebounds by the player who gets the ball. Sometimes, a "team" rebounds is assigned, not in the individual numbers in the box score. For example, when Caroline Ducharme blocked a lay up attempt out of bounds, Creighton got an offensive rebound. Why? Because EVERY shot that doesn't go in the basket creates a "rebound." Since there was no change in possession CU got a "rebound." Same thing with some missed free throws. Miss the first free throw (of two) and your team gets an offensive rebound. Creighton had at least two shots that were "air balls" that missed everything. UConn got a "team" defensive rebound, but no player got credit.

How do I know this is all true? Because there is a "team rebound" stat in the box score. UConn had 4 team rebounds and Creighton had 7. In fact, the player totals favor UConn 29 to 27. So the Huskies outrebounded CU on actual rebounds, but blocked shot rebounds and missed free throw rebounds made it look like UConn was outrebounded.

Now you know...!

Go Huskies..!!

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UCONN LINKS

Rare signs of fragility for UConn AP

"We are missing a quarterback" CT Insider

Geno hopes getting back to game action will find it Courant

UConn finally returns to action UConn Blog

If UConn hold to much influence, what next? Yahoo

Change in mindset allows Ducharme to flip switch Courant

5 things to know about Ducharme Ct Insider

Ducharme seizing opportuny Ct Insider

Ducharme gets defensive for UConn Bristol Press

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