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GO UCONN!!!!!

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No. 8 UConn Huskies VS Villanova Wildcats

15-4 (9-0) 15-6 (9-3)

Wednesday, February 9th, 7:00

XL Center, Hartford CT

TV - SNY

VILLANOVA | UCONN LEADS 38-17

H: 18-6 | A: 17-8 | N: 3-3

01/22/00 #1 UConn 79, VU 46 Villanova, Pa.

02/04/01 #2 UConn 75, #24 VU 39 Storrs, Conn.

02/18/01 #3 UConn 61, #25 VU 43 Villanova, Pa.

01/19/02 #1 UConn 93, VU 60 Villanova, Pa.

03/04/02 #1 UConn 83, VU 39 Piscataway, N.J.

01/29/03 #2 UConn 58, #20 VU 38 Storrs, Conn.

03/11/03 #18 VU 52, #1 UConn 48 Piscataway, N.J.

02/28/04 VU 59, #1 UConn 56 Villanova, Pa.

01/15/05 #16 UConn 73, VU 57 Storrs, Conn.

12/08/05 #8 UConn 72, VU 56 Villanova, Pa

02/24/07 #3 UConn 92, VU 49 Hartford, Conn.

01/03/08 #1 UConn 88, VU 38 Villanova, Pa.

02/24/09 #1 UConn 74, VU 47 Storrs, Conn. 0

3/09/09 #1 UConn 72, VU 42 Hartford, Conn.

01/23/10 #1 UConn 74, VU 35 Villanova, Pa.

01/05/11 #2 UConn 81, VU 35 Storrs, Conn.

01/14/12 #3 UConn 72, VU 49 Villanova, Pa.

01/29/13 #3 UConn 76, VU 43 Hartford, Conn.

12/22/20 #3 UConn 90, VU 52 Villanova, Pa.

03/07/21 #1 UConn 84, VU 39 Uncasville, Conn.

I only listed games this century, which included two Villanova wins in 2003 and 2004.

More recently probably makes more sense to look at. UConn pretty much destroyed the Wildcats in both games winning 90-52 and then 84-39 in the Big East Tournament. I probably should have given out an UGGY award to Villanova in both games. The UConn defense was just outstanding.

UConn/Villanova Highlights 12/22/2020

Big East UConn/Villanova Highlights

Both UConn and Villanova come into this game on a roll.

The Huskies have won six games in a row ending with their huge win against Tennessee.

The Wildcats have won their last seven games and twelve out ot their last thirteen games, including wins over at the time No. 23 Oregon State 56-52, Marquette 58-55 and Creighton 74-64. In all 13 games, their leading scorer was 6'1" junior forward Maddy Siegrist. To show how important she is for the team, three of their losses came with her out with an injury early in the season.

Maddy is a real candidate for Big East player of the year. She is such a great talent. Certainly one of the players I would have loved to have seen in a Husky uniform. She is averaging 25.7 PPG and 9.5 RPG. UConn did a number on her last year when they played and you can bet she will be getitng plenty of attention in this game.

Lior Garzon is a 6'1" sophomore forward who is second at scoring on the team at 14.2 PPG. She doesn't hesitate to shoot long distance as she averages around 7 three pointers taken per game. The good news for UConn is she only makes 31% of them.

The only other double digit scorer is Brianna Herlihy, a 6' graduate student forward. She is averaging 10.5 PPG and 8.5 RPG.

Lucy Olsen, a 5'9" freshman is one of the starting guards. She has a terrific assists/turnover ratio with 56 assists and only 24 turnovers.

The final starter is Brook Mullin, a 5'11" junior guard. She leads the team in assists with 57 and only 32 assists.

Bella Runyan, a 5'11" sophomore guard and Kaitlyn Orihel, a 5'10" freshman guard are the two players we will see off the bench.

As you can see, this is one of the smaller teams UConn will face. And one of the worst shooting teams they will face as well. The Wildcat shoot only 39.9% from the field and 29.7% on threes. And they certainly take plenty of them at 25 per game. They really take care of the ball averaging only 13.2 turnovers per game. And they get to the line 15 times per game.

UConn has looked great their last 6 quarters of play including the last two against Creighton and of course the wonderful effort against Tennessee.

The Huskies will look to limit the damage done by Siegrist. Not an east task but the Huskies were able to do that in last years games. I don't see why this years match up would be any different. The Huskies will exploit their size advantage and I can see the bigs kicking the ball out to Fudd and Ducharme (if she is playing) for open threes.

Villanova is a better team than last year so this game might be close early if UConn is a little hung over from the big Tennessee win. However the Huskies will pull away for an easy win.

UConn by 20+.

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Congrats to Christyn Williams!!

Named to Naismith Trophy midseason team

Damn, she is buff!!!

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A friend of mine asked why when people talk about missing players this season for UConn, Aubrey Griffin's name hardly ever shows up. It's a great question. But I have mentioned her a few times and in case people of forgotten what the 6'1" Griffin can do, here are highlights from her 2020-21 season.

When you talk about the roster next season, don't forget that she will be back and available for 2 years. Maybe three with the Covid year available.

I have to say that after watching this entire video, even I forgot how good she is.

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WOMEN'S BRACKETOLOGY 2022 NCAA TOURNAMENT

BY CHARLIE CREMEUPDATED: 2/8/2022 AT 10:30 A.M.
BRIDGEPORT

RALEIGH
1NC State - aq
16Fairleigh Dickinson - aq/
Campbell - aq
8Florida Gulf Coast - aq
9Missouri
AUSTIN
5Georgia
12Marquette/
Oregon St.
4Texas
13UNLV - aq
KNOXVILLE
6North Carolina
11Kansas
3Tennessee
14Charlotte - aq
STORRS
7Ohio St.
10Princeton - aq
2UConn - aq
15Holy Cross - aq

Ya gotta love SECreme's latest Bracetology and I really hope it's a preview of the more important bracket reveal that we will see at halftime of the Kentucky-South Carolina game on Thursday night.

UConn now a No. 2 in the Bridgepost Region.

They start with Holy Cross. And if "chalk" holds, they would play Ohio State in the round of 32, Tennessee in the Sweet Sixteen and North Carolina State in the Elite Eight.

I like there chances if everyone is healthy!!!

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Coach Blower been working on this since 5th Grade. pic.twitter.com/VKr2E6A3s7
— Matt Shade (@IGB_PUM_FIT) February 8, 2022

Boy, does UConn 2023 recruit Ashlynn Shade had a nice pull up jumper?

She has UPS!!!!

𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊 @ayannap34

The 5-star recruit & UConn commit put on a show last Saturday pouring in 32 pts & 14 rebs to help the Spartans clinch the Class 4A-6 sectional championship.

JWS Next x @UnderArmour
— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) February 8, 2022

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GAMES

MOST SCORES HAVE CLICKABLE LINKS TO A GAME STORY

UPSETS IN RED

NO TOP 25 GAMES TUESDAY

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Straight from the Dog

If you read this blog from top to bottom and don't skip around, you will read Phil's section next. And he wrote a terrific entry for this blog. His take on the SEC vs the Big East is spot on. Thank you Phil!!!!

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Check out this article on grading the Tennessee Lady Vols on their performance against Florida and UConn. It just hammers Tennessee. I'll just give you the grades if you don't feel like reading the detail.

Backcourt - Grade: C-

Frontcourt - Grade: D+

Offense - Grade: D

Defense - Grade: D+

Coaching and overall - Grade: C-

Actually, this guy was pretty generous....lol.

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By PHIL

Big East

Tennessee fans are going on about how bad the Big East is and how good the SEC is. Make sure to read between the lines. When Tennessee was a number one seed on the first NCAA reveal, and UConn wasn’t in the top 10, it was all about Tennessee versus UConn. Now that UConn is looking like a two seed, and Tennessee is probably a three seed and heading in the wrong direction, suddenly the discussion is more about conferences than teams.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not about to argue that the Big East is comparable with the SEC. I follow the sport long enough to remember when the SEC was the top conference in the country, and the Big East was called the big least with good reason. When SEC fans were touting the SEC, and making fun of the Big East, there was some truth to those comments, even when UConn as a team had surpassed Tennessee.

The odd thing is the fans continue to refer to the Big East as the big least even when the Big East became the dominant conference in the country. The SEC fans had to point to history rather than the present, and then quietly backed off the crowing a bit. The Pac12 took over as the top conference and the SEC dropped considerably.

SEC fans are happy that the SEC is back, although as is typical of fans, they are convinced that the SEC is back to the top dog, even though it isn’t true. Massey rates the Big 12 as the top overall conference followed by the Pac 12. The SEC is solidly in third, which is an improvement from earlier years but hardly the king of the hill.

LV fans try to disparage the Big East, and by extension UConn, by claiming the Big East is essentially UConn, DePaul and nobody else.

I think there was a time this year that the expectations were that those two teams would make the tournament and probably no one else, but Charlie Creme came out with his new bracketology, and it has four Big East teams on the list. Earlier it was UConn, DePaul and Creighton, but today Marquette has moved on to the list. I can count and I know that SEC fans will point out that they have nine teams on the list and nine is greater than four, but again, not claiming the Big East is better than the SEC, I'm simply pointing out that referring to the Big East as UConn and DePaul nobody else is factually challenged.

Massey has Creighton ranked number 40.

That’s better than:

1. Texas A & M
2. Missouri
3. Mississippi State
4. Florida
5. Kentucky
6. Alabama
7. Vanderbilt
8. Auburn

Yes, more than half of the SEC is weaker than a team that the LV fans don’t even think counts.

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By David in Naples

Azzi Fudd's 25 point scoring outburst against Tennessee was her career high. She led the Huskies in scoring that game, but her effort ranks only 4th this season. Three other Huskies have scored more than 25 points in a game this year. Here is the high point total for each player. Imagine if they were all healthy and playing together...!!

Paige - 34 points
Christyn - 31 points
Caroline - 28 points
Azzi - 25 points
Olivia - 19 points
Evina - 17 points
Dorka - 16 points
Aaliyah - 14 points
Nika - 11 points

Clearly, there are at least 6 players capable of leading UConn in scoring in a particular game. As a team, the Huskies have now scored 1,364 total points this year. That comes out to 71.8 per game. The last 5 games have seen UConn score 75, 80, 69, 76 and 75 points. Imagine when a healthy Paige joins Christyn, Azzi and Caroline..!!

Go Huskies..!!

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