GO UCONN!!!!!
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UCONN vs UCF
UCONN vs UCF
Day: Monday
Date: March 21st, 2022
Storrs, Ct.
Time: 9:00 PM
TV: ESPN
Playing a team like UCF is always a tough proposition. UCF will bring a bunch of pain to the Huskies with their physical defense.
UCF had a great season to date winning the AAC regular season, and the AAC tournament going 26-3 on the season. Their only two OOC games against ranked teams were a 49-41 loss to Tennessee and a 69-61 loss to Iowa. Their only other loass was to a weak Cincinnati team 61-57. Currently, they are on a 13 game winning streak. Pretty much all done with their stingy defense. Over those 13 games, they have only given up 38.9 PPG, even lower than their 47.2 PPG season average. That is some kind of defense, even if it's against the weak AAC teams.
Now, that defense looks pretty amazing. I can't imagine another team with that good a defense over at least a 10 game streak. Unless.....
The Huskies are on their own winning streak. Ten games. UConn has averaged giving up only 37.8 PPG, much less than their season average of 53.6 PPG.
It's pretty clear that this is going to be a low scoring game.
The interesting thing about this matchup is that there is a real history between these teams. UConn is 13-0 all-time against UCF but it is always a slugfest. In tthe 2019-20 season, the last time these two teams met, the results were low-scoring affairs with UConn winning 59-52 and 66-53. In the second game there were 20 fouls in the second half, including intentional fouls on the Knights’ Messeny Kaba and Diamond Battles. Kaba’s foul knocked Olivia Nelson-Ododa out of the game with a bloody nose.
There were several players on that team for UCF that are still playing. You can bet that that familiarity will be helpful in the Knights quest for an upset.
No. 5 Masseny Kaba is a 6'3" 5th year senior and two years ago, she played well in both games against UConn. She had 9 points and 10 rebounds in the first game and 14 points, 12 rebounds along with 3 blocks in the second game. This year she is averaging 9.9 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. She leads the team in blocks with 40 in 29 games.
No. 32 Brittney Smith is a 6'3" senior forward and second leading scorer on the team. In the two games against UConn, she had 7 points in both of them. She is averaging 10.7 points and 6 rebounds per game.
No. 3 Diamond Battles, a 5'8" senior guard is the leading scorer on the team at 14 PPG and a solid three point shooter at 35.8%. She started one game against UConn and scored 14 points total. But she got to the FT line 18 times in those two games. This season she is leading the Knight in FT attempts by a lot. And shoots them at 79%.
Those three started two years ago against the Huskies. UCF has moved Smith to the first player off the bench and like with Westbrook, it's improved their team.
Junior guard, No. 23 Alisha Lewis a 5'7" junior guard is the best three point shooter on the team at 41.7%. She is a transfer from Syracuse and has done a nice job off the bench. She also leads the team in assists with 107.
No. 1 Tay Sanders is a 6' senior guard in her second season for UCF. She transfered in from Chipola College and is the only player to start every game. She is the fourth leading scoer at 9.1 PPG.
No. 33 Destiny Thomas, a 6'2" junior and No. 31 Shania Meertens, a 5'8" redshirt senior round out the rest of the rotation.
They only shoot 41.3 percent overall and 31.4 on threes. They average 14 assists per game and 15.5 turnovers per game. Not very good. They are not a great rebounding team. They only average 37.5 per game. However the do have a +5.3 rebounding margin. That is pretty good.
Not only does UCF give up the least number of points in the country, but they have to be the most expereinced team in the tournament. They have 5 seniors and 2 juniors in their rotation.
UConn has only two players that saw minutes against UCF in the last two games they played in 2020.
Olivia Nelson-Ododa played pretty well with 17 points and 19 rebounds combined. She added a total of 7 assists.
Christyn Williams, on the other hand, would like to forget the nightmare of those two games. Geno played her a ton of minutes, a total of 78 our of 80. But she scored a total of 8 points on, get ready, 2-15 shooting and 1-10 on threes. Players have a long memory and I expect she will play her heart out in this game. That little extra motivation never hurts.
This UConn team is built to handle the physical play. And they can dish it out as well.
The comination of Dorka and Ewdards won't get pushed around. And UConn's size and strength in the backcourt with Muhl, Fudd and Westbrook will be a big advantage.
So, how will this game play out? Well, I wouldn't be surprised if UCF can hold UConn to under 70 points. In fact, the 69 points by Iowa was by far the most points given up by UCF.
On the other hand it's hard to see the Knights scoring more than 45 points. They are not a very good scoring team. And UConn is playing some helacious defense.
UConn should win this one by 20+ points. The talent gap is just too great for UCF to keep it closer than that. But this is March Madness. I'm not as confident in my prediction as I would like to be.
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Follow along and view the Group standings
Doggy's Doghouse and the password is doggydaddy.
Just click on the link.
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Time and TV
Bridgeport Region
Reynolds Coliseum
Raleigh, NC
Gampel Pavilion
Storrs, CT
Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall
Bloomington, IN
Lloyd Noble Center
Norman, OK
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Spokane Region
Maples Pavilion
Stanford, CA
Pete Maravich Assembly Center
Baton Rouge, LA
Xfinity Center
College Park, MD
Frank Erwin Center
Austin, TX
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Greensboro Region
Colonial Life Arena
Columbia, SC
Carver Hawkeye Arena
Iowa City, IA
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Wichita Region
Thompson-Boling Arena
Knoxville, TN
Ferrell Center
Waco, TX
KFC Yum Center
Louisville, KY
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Straight from the Dog
Lauren Jensen gives the Jays the lead! #MarchMadness x @CreightonWBB pic.twitter.com/cFfuJXftTX
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) March 20, 2022
Wow....what a great win by Creighton. Way to represent the Big East.
The look of joy on the Blue Jay players was just glorious. And the fact that Jenson transferred from this very Iowa team and hit that game winner in front of 15,000+ Hawkeye fans was just icing on the cake.
I'm thinking that all the Big East bashers all season long (yes, you Orange Idiots) can just shut up now and forever more.
The Final seconds of a SWEET UPSET!
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) March 20, 2020
DANCE CREIGHTON DANCE 💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃#MarchMadness x @CreightonWBB pic.twitter.com/5wOwas5VR0
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In one of the worst offensive performance by a No. 1 seed, South Carolina beat Miami 49-33.
How bad was it?
The Gamecocks shot 29% from the field, 4-18 on threes for 22% and 9-16 on free throws for 56%. They also have 16 turnovers. Only because Miami was more inempt on offense was South Carolina able to use their rebounding to win by 16 points.
Creighton would beat them. And we just might find out if I am right! They would match up in the Elite Eight if they both win their next games.
And one more time South Carolina made sure that Boston's streak of double-doubles continued. They kept her in the game long enough to get her 10 points and then they put the ball in her hands instead of a guard to get fouled when Miami was fouling to get back in the game. All of this with a 15 point lead and under 2 minutes left in the game. I'll say it again, several games ago, when she threw the ball off the ball off the backboard and grabbed it to get to ten rebounds was NOT a rebound.
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So, as bad as South Carolina was offensively, Baylor had the worst 1st quarter of any 2 seed ever. That is NOT hyperbole.
They scored 4 points, 2-13 from the field, 0-6 on threes, 0-1 on free throws. And 10 turnovers.
Now, that is stinky!!!
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This sure has been the season of the upsets. One 2 seed went down when 10 seed Creighton beat Iowa. That was followed up with 10 seed South Dakota beat Baylor 61-47.
It this doesn't get fans of 2 seed UConn nervous, I don't know what will.
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It was a bad day for the three POY candidates.
Caitlin Clark - 4-19 from the field and 3-10 on threes.
Aliyah Boston - 4-15 from the field and 0-2 on threes.
Nylissa Smith - 4-10 from the field. 10 points.
Boston was lucky her team came away with the win. Clark and Smith weren't that lucky.
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Records watch
You all know we won our opening game in the NCAA tournament. The players were happy, and I know Geno was especially happy for the true freshman, winning their first ever tournament, as well as senior Dorka Juhasz, who was also appearing in her first NCAA tournament game.
For jaded fans it wasn’t as much of a celebration, more of an expectation. There’s over 300 D1 teams, and only 32 teams managed a first round win, less than 10% of all teams. But let’s face it, we don’t compare ourselves to all teams, we consider ourselves one of the elite teams. So we have to look beyond the single win to find something notable to celebrate. Opening-round wins may be routine for UConn and other teams, but it wasn’t just another opening-round win, it’s the 28th consecutive opening-round win. While many teams have opening-round wins and a small handful have a number in a row, nobody else has 28 in a row. This win surpassed the old record held by Tennessee with 27 consecutive opening-round games.
Tournament wins
The win was notable for two other reasons. First, coming into the tournament, the record for most tournament winds had Tennessee in first place and you come in second:
• 126—Tennessee, 1982-2021
• 125—UConn, 1989-2021
See page 20 of fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/w_final_four_records_book/2022/Tourney.pdf
The win by UConn temporarily pushed Connecticut into a tie with Tennessee with 126 wins apiece. Of course, a couple hours later Tennessee won and retook the lead. This is a record to keep our eye on, as is obvious, we will stay one day behind if we both win, take over the tie we win one more than Tennessee, take over the lead if we win two more. Tennessee has the early game on Monday, so win gives them a slim two-game lead, but I like our chances over the course of the tournament.
All time winning percentage
A third stat isn’t technically a record, but it may be interesting to watch. If you look at the all-time winning percentage (minimum 350 victories), the overall leader is FGCU, with 519 wins, and 98 losses for a .841 winning percentage. That’s due to Karl Smesko. (I predict a major team will scoop him up someday, and the FGCU percentage will return to earth, but maybe he stays there forever and cements this record.)
See page 45 of fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/w_basketball_RB/2022/D1.pdf
In second and third place are, you guessed it, Tennessee and UConn.
Tennessee had 1401 wins with 351 losses for a stellar .799 winning percentage. (The hashtag indicates that there are two ties that are ignored in the calculation)
UConn was .001 behind with 1210 wins, 306 losses for a .798 winning percentage.
That was before the season started.
When the NCAA tournament started, Tennessee had a 23 and 8 record. Not a bad record, but their percentage slipped a bit to .79865. It still rounds to .799 but you’ll see we need to keep track of more digits.
UConn’s record of 24 and 5 is better than their all-time winning percentage, so their current winning percentage is now .79871.
Yes, you must go to four decimal places, to see that, with the win over Villanova in the Big East tournament, UConn took over second place in all-time winning percentage.
Obviously, both UConn and Tennessee won their opening-round so their percentages inched up a tiny amount, but the numbers are close enough that if UConn exits the tournament before Tennessee, they will retake the lead.
Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen.
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By David in Naples
The Florida vs UCF game gave UConn their next opponent. UCF won decisively (by 17) and faces the Huskies on Monday. Here are some weird stats from that game for your consumption.
1. UCF had 1 player make a three point shot. And, only 2 tried from outside the arc.
2. UCF played two kids all game (40 & 37 minutes) and a third 33 minutes.
3. UCF was out rebounded 44-36.
4. Florida had 18 offensive rebounds. (They missed 42 shots, so.....)
5. UCF was 2-9 from three.
6. UCF had three players with 4 fouls and 18 overall.
7. UCF blocked 9 Florida shots.
8. Thomas for UCF took 0 shots in 17 minutes. Sanders went 1-9 in 33 minutes.
9. The Golden Knights went 11-17 from the charity stripe. (65%)
Very winnable game for UConn if they rebound, hit their threes and play a swarming defense.
Go huskies..!!
1. UCF had 1 player make a three point shot. And, only 2 tried from outside the arc.
2. UCF played two kids all game (40 & 37 minutes) and a third 33 minutes.
3. UCF was out rebounded 44-36.
4. Florida had 18 offensive rebounds. (They missed 42 shots, so.....)
5. UCF was 2-9 from three.
6. UCF had three players with 4 fouls and 18 overall.
7. UCF blocked 9 Florida shots.
8. Thomas for UCF took 0 shots in 17 minutes. Sanders went 1-9 in 33 minutes.
9. The Golden Knights went 11-17 from the charity stripe. (65%)
Very winnable game for UConn if they rebound, hit their threes and play a swarming defense.
Go huskies..!!
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UCONN LINKS
Several links are pay sites. Sorry!
Former AAC foes have history The Day
UConn to face familiar, physical foe in UCF CT Insider
UCF ready for physical game against UConn Orlando Sentinal
Geno proud of UConn coaching tree Middletown Press
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