Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 2/7/2022

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GO UCONN!!!!!

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UConn and Marquette have rescheduled their previous postponed game to Wednesday at 7:00, February 23rd at the XL Center. I'm pretty sure all the tickets for the December 29th game will be honored.

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UConn/Tennessee

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No surprise here. A well deserved award for Azzi. I would bet she might make 1st team freshman in the Big East. 25 points against Tennessee, 6-6 in the second half, 7-9 on threes for the game. She was just amazing.

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My words, @ClarkWade34’s video, @GraceHollars’ photos from the Sectional 8 final, wherein @AshlynnShade scored 16 of her game-high 22 points in the fourth quarter to rally @MillerNationAD to its second straight title. “Ashlynn was freaking ridiculous.” https://t.co/fQlmh3NE6a
— hank 🇰🇷 (@Brian_Haenchen) February 6, 2022

Incredible game 🏀
Incredible atmosphere 🗣
Incredible night 💫

Our ear drums are still recovering from a loud and wild night in Westfield! @AshlynnShade’s fourth quarter surge helped @NHSGirlsBBall secure a Sectional 8 Championship win 🏆

(Highlights courtesy @ihsaatv) pic.twitter.com/s2IMHdMVpL
— ISC Sports Network (@iscsportsnet) February 6, 2022

Really? Wow! Just wow!!! ⁦@ayannap34⁩ ⁦@Homestead_Bball⁩ pic.twitter.com/8BXSxZAvxi
— HHS📷Photog (@HhsPhotog) February 6, 2022

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GAMES

MOST SCORES HAVE CLICKABLE LINKS TO A GAME STORY

UPSETS IN RED

No. 5 North Carolina State 59 No. 11 Georgia Tech 48

No. 14 LSU 68 Ole Miss 64

No. 21 Ohio State 61 Rutgers 57

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Straight from the Dog

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I'm still worked up after that stirring victory by UConn over Tennessee. The Huskies were just so good. In fact, I watched a lot of it again tonight. What a great 8 point run by Muhl in the third quarter. I don't want to lose track of that. It was the second three pointer that was the back breaker for Tennessee.

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I don't know if you remember when I said that Tennessee was had the worst offense of any undefeated team? I believe I said that twice. And I can also say that when they were revealed to be a No. 1 seed they were the worst offense of any No. 1 seed. Maybe ever.

So, let's look at those numbers now, after the Lady Vols lost three of their last four games.

They are down to 70.1 points per game. 75th in the country.

Field goal shooting is now 41.5%. 113th in the country.

Three point shooting is 29.9%. 206th in the country.

After going 19-21 against UConn, their FT shooting is up to 64.4%.

Most telling, their assists/TO ratio is 328/403 for .8. 181st in the country.

14.3 Assists per game. 104th in the country.

17.5 Turnovers per game. 261st in the country.

Really really bad. Worst offense in the Top 25.

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Did LSU change their uniforms to look like Women's Volleyball?

It was just so surprising to see this look. She was the only one on the team with the short short appearance. I'm not a fan. I'm a traditionalist. Come on Mulkey. Oh wait..she has no taste.

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By PHIL

Two seed watch

At the first reveal, UConn was ranked 11th, so needed to move up three spots to earn a two seed.

Let's look at how the 10 teams ahead of them did. First, recall that technically Tennessee was one of the top four seeds and Louisville wasn't, but before the ink was dry on the reveal, Tennessee had laid an egg, so I'm treating the top four teams deserving of a one seed as:

• South Carolina

• Stanford

• NC state

• Louisville

How did those four teams do? Collectively they were 12 -1 since the last reveal, with only NC State's stumble against Notre Dame keeping the group from perfection. That might move NC State down a bit but not very far.

That leaves six teams listed ahead of UConn.

We know how Tennessee did. They are 1–3 since the last reveal, just barely pulling out one win in overtime, and losing badly to a team who was winless in the SEC, then by 25 to Florida, and 19 to Connecticut. They are dropping below Connecticut and the only question is how far.

Texas did even worse in terms of record, losing all three of their games since the last reveal. That performance wasn't as embarrassing, as it included losses to highly ranked Oklahoma, and Baylor twice, but a team that loses three consecutive times must move down a few spots. While Oklahoma and Baylor are very good teams, they didn't make the top 16 in the first reveal, so over-ranked Texas is going to be moved down closer to their true ability.

We still need one more team to move down beyond UConn. Michigan is 3-0 since the last reveal, including a win over the sixth-ranked team, so they are more likely to move up than down.

Iowa State is 3-0 since the last reveal. It's going to be a tough argument to say that UConn's three victories are that much better than Iowa State's victories, but while Iowa State's opponents were decent and none of the wins were close calls, none were as impressive as shorthanded UConn's win over Tennessee.

That leaves Arizona, who did have a loss. They were 2-1 since the last reveal, with wins against UCLA and an impressive win against Oregon, while losing only by six to Stanford. One can argue on both sides of the question whether their 2-1 record is better than Connecticut's 3-0 record. However, even if you argue that 3-0 including a 19 point win over Tennessee is the better performance, is that enough to change the relative rankings by three spots? I'm tempted to say yes but I also suspect I have a bias.

It's worth making a distinction between arguing what the committee will do versus arguing what's right. The committee is going to take their first reveal as a fact, and then look at what's happened subsequently. That's essentially what I did in the discussion above, and I think that makes it a very close call for whether the committee moves Connecticut into the second seed group or leaves them at the three seed.

However, if you look at Massey ratings (and when I write this the Tennessee game isn't reflected), Connecticut is ranked just a hair behind Arizona, but ahead of Michigan and Iowa State. I think we are going to wake up to find Connecticut in fifth spot in Massey, which ought to be solidly two seed. We will have to wait to see what the committee decides.

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By David in Naples

Azzi Fudd had quite the game versus Tennessee on Sunday. Not only did she score 25 points, but she had 7 threes, at just the right time. For example, her first three came just 10 seconds into the game. 3-0 UConn, just like that..!! Her 2nd three came late in the 1st period and the Huskies holding a 12-10 lead. That three raised the lead to 5 points and the 1st period ended w/ UConn up 15-10.

In the 2nd period, Azzi hit her 3rd three with Tenn closing the lead to 4 points. The lead was back up to 7 and the Huskies were off to the races. Fudd added a 4th three at the 4 minute mark of the 3rd period. It killed any hopes Tenn had of making a comeback, giving UConn a huge lead. In the 4th period, UConn fans got nervous with a furious Tenn rally that cut the lead down to 14 again. Azzi hit three 3's in 3 minutes to bury the Vols. The last basket was a wide open three with 1:27 left in the game. It was the final punch in an epic beatdown.

Azzi added two regular baskets, 4 assists and 4 rebounds. All this while playing 38+ minutes and having 0 turnovers. Oh, she also had a blocked shot. Quite the debut in her first start.

Go Huskies..!!

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