Sunday, January 23, 2022

Doggy's Doghouse 1/23/2022

 






 








                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
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GO UCONN!!!!!

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The No. 9 UConn women’s basketball team will no longer play No. 1 South Carolina on Thursday and will instead travel to DePaul to play the Blue Demons on Wednesday at 8 p.m., a make-up date for the teams’ previously scheduled matchup in December that was canceled due to COVID-19 issues.

Coach Staley called Geno and asked to do this so they can make up postponed SEC games.

I linked an article in the UConn section. 


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          No.  9 UConn                                                 St. John's
            75                                                               57

First I want to thank SNY and Fox Sports for teaming up to allow people out of the SNY area to watch the game live. So great to see!

UConn didn't win by the big margin I thought they would but an 18 point win on the road against St. John's is a great win. Especially with only 6 available players and really only two true guards. 

It was another solid performance for this short handed team. There was one shot of the bench with Williams, Bueckers and Fudd sitting there and like Geno said, that is 45 points on the bench. 

I was feeling good for most of the game, even when St. John's took a first quarter lead. UConn took control after the Johnnies took a 17-16 lead and was up 14 points going into the fourth quarter. Yes, I swallowed hard after a quick 7-0 St. John's run to start the fourth quarter but the co-star of the game, Carolina Ducharme, hit some timely shots, and before you knew it the big lead was secured. 


Ducharme scored a career 28 points on 13-22 shooting. Still a little off from long range, she only went 2-8 on threes. She played all 40 minutes.


I said co-player because Oliva Nelson-Ododa had a double double. It was not her usualy points and rebounds, it was 18 rebounds and 10 assists. Talk about a point-forward. She is the best passer outside of Paige on the team. And maybe the best passing big-man in the country. Yes, she is that good. She also added 2 blocks, but I think they missed a few in the box score. I counted at least 4.


Dorka Juhasz had a nice game as well. In her 28 minutes, she scored 16 points and at one point hit a clutch three pointer with only 2 seconds left on the shot clock. She was one rebounds short of a double double with nine.

The two guards played very well in this game.


Nika Muhl looks to be in great game shape and 100% healthy as she played 40 minutes again. She had 9 points, 3 assists and 4 steals. The only weak spot was her 4 turnovers. 


Evina Westbrook played 39 minutes and scored 11 points. She didn't shoot great, but did go 2-5 on threes. She added 3 assists but again, not great with 3 turnovers.


The only player off the bench in this game, Aaliyah Edwards was solid in her 21 minutes. She scored 8 points on 4-7 shooting and had 2 blocks. She does have to do a better job finishing down low. She should have been 7-7.

I thought the defense was not as good as it was against Seton Hall, but they did hold St. John's to 17 points less than their season average. And forced them to shoot 42% from the field and 5-18 on threes. It was a little spotty as the Johnnies were able to score in spurts. Geno said that St. John's is much better than their record shows. Got to agree with that. They sure passed the eye test.

Still a great win and importanat in the conference. And puts UConn in a good frame of mind before heading to DePaul for a really tough and important conference game. 

I expect Christyn Williams will be back for that game and that is huge in regards to the Huskies chances to beat the Blue Demons. Maybe a Fudd surprise? You never know.     

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UCONN VIDEOS


Dorka Juház and Caroline Ducharme: UConn Women's Basketball Postgame 

Geno Postgame

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Well, lookie here. UConn is No. 1 in social media interactions on their official team account. Not surprising with the interest in Paige Bueckers and now Azzi Fudd along with the team being so successful. 


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Straight from the Dog


The AP poll will be out tomorrow afternoon and as usual, there are many questions about where teams will land.

I'm sure that where UConn will land after their loss to Oregon is on everyone's mind. It's a little complicated. 

How good do the pollsters think Oregon is? They were 28th last week.  No. 23 Kentucky lost twice so they are long gone. No. 22 Colorado lost twice so they are gone. And No. 27 Virginia Tech lost. They will fall behind Oregon. No. 20 North Carolina lost. So I'll predict that Oregon, with everyone healthy, gets lots of respect and settles in at No. 23. The loss will not be a big impact to UConn's ranking.

How about the teams around UConn in the rankings? That will impact where UConn lands.

No. 7 Iowa State lost twice.
No. 11 LSU lost to an unranked team.
No. 12 Maryland lost to an unranked team.
No. 13 Georgia lost. 

I can't see UConn falling behind any of those teams.

So, No. 8 Michigan will move up one spot to No. 7.

No. 10 Arizona will move to No. 8.

That leaves the the No. 9 spot next. So who should be there?

Iowa State? No way they only drop two spots with two losses.

No. 11 LSU, No. 12 Maryland and No. 13 Georgia all lost.

So, my prediction? 

UConn will remain No. 9 and everyone's head explodes!!!   

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It was great to see Aubrey Griffin at the game, even with having to use a cane to get around. As someone who had 7 hours of back surgery (I'm crazy, went golfing 2 weeks later), I can tell you that she is feeling SO much better. It's only a matter of time before she is back on the court. Count on her to be playing next season! 

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Kansas State’s Ayoka Lee breaks NCAA single-game scoring record with 61 points. Lee shot 23 of 30 from the field and 15 of 17 from the free throw line. She also added 12 rebounds for a double-double. She has great post moves. A big lower body to carve out space and finish from either side of the basket. Good for her and good for WCBB.

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Of course the Orange Idiots had something to say about the Social Media numbers where UConn is No. 1. They can't be happy that they are No. 4 in spite of not being a very good team until this season (to be determined). 
"Beuckers effect. Even the circus around her injury creates traffic. Kellie doesn't publicly feud with other coaches and just wins ball games. Numbers might shoot up if she threw some birds at Auriemma but don't expect that to happen."
Yeah, Social media numbers are because McGraw attacked Geno. And at least spell her name right. It's B-U-E-C-K-E-R-S.   

"ESPN effect is more like it. That’s why Oregon is #2 still as well. They still post Sabrina I a lot."

Their hate for ESPN and UConn is palpable. 
 
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I haven't done one of these in a while, but one team deserves to be acknowledged for their really really bad offense Sunday. No. 20 North Carolina? Come on down and accept your UGGY!!!

The fact that they were ranked made it easy.

In their loss to No. 18 Georgia Tech, they only scored 38 points. They shot 29.1% from the field, 3-15 on threes and a killer 3-11 from the free throw line. Bleeeeech!!!!!
   
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No. 23 Kentucy lost again and are now 8-7 on the season. They never should have been ranked in the first place. This time they lost to unranked Ole Miss, 63-54. This is their fourth loss in a row. 

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So, here is something to chew over. UConn lost to unranked (at the time) Georgia Tech. Tennessee beat No. 15 (at the time) Kentucky. Now Georgia Tech is ranked No. 18 and rising and Kentucky will be so far out of the top 25, you will never see them again.

Which game should have more of an impact to the seeding? Beating a team that was clearly overrated by a lot? Or losing to a team that was unrated, by clearly a lot. I wonder how the committee will look at these situations.  

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UConn is playing really really hard and all you had to do was watch this game to know that. When you play that hard, good things happen. In case you need some proof, here are a few pictures.











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By David in Naples

Very nice victory today over St John’s, 75-57.  SJU was scoring 74 per game, so once again some great defense. 

Stats of note include:

1. Caroline scoring 28 points on 22 shots. Once again trouble hitting from 3 but couldn’t miss in closer.
2. Olivia with 18 rebounds and 10 assists. Playing the point center.
3. UConn 20 assists on 32 baskets.
4. A decent day from long range, 7-23 or 30%. Bad from the charity stripe, 2-4 or 50%.
5. St John’s missed 31 of their 54 shots, 42%. Only 5 threes.
6. Huskies rebounding advantage 45-22. Thanks to Liv & Dorka.
7. Nika with 4 baskets, 4 assists, 4 steals and 4 turnovers. Also 5 rebounds...

Big game Thursday with South Carolina. Hopefully, some of the walking wounded are back in action.

Go Huskies..!

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UCONN LINKS

Several links are pay sites. Sorry!


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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

UCONN Information



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