Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 3/25/2022

GO UCONN!!!!!

Logan says "read my PeaPaw's UConn and Indiana Pregame Report".

Really, he said that........

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Gutted out the W pic.twitter.com/IeD419Ha0r
— UConn Women’s Basketball (@UConnWBB) March 22, 2022

Come on fans, catch their excitement!!!

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A different side of Paige

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I added a link for every game this weekend. I'll change them each day until they play.

There are several really good articles by local media.

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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

Total Mortgage Arena

Bridgeport, CT

No. 1 North Carolina State vs No. 5 Notre Dame

Saturday 3/26 11:30 ESPN

No. 2 UConn vs No. 3 Indiana

Saturday 3/26 2:00 ESPN

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Wichita Region

Intrust Bank Arena

Wichita, KS

No. 1 Louisville vs No. 4 Tennessee

Saturday 3/26 4:00 ESPN2

No. 3 Michigan vs No. 10 South Dakota

Saturday 3/26 6:30 ESPN2

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Spokane Region

Spokane Memorial Arena

Spokane, WA

No. 2 Texas 66 No. 6 Ohio State 63

No. 1 Stanford 72 No. 4 Maryland 66

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Greensboro Region

Greensboro Coliseum

Greenboro, NC

No. 1 South Carolina 69 No. 5 North Carolina 61

No. 3 Iowa State 68 No. 10 Creighton 76

No. 1 South Carolina vs No. 10 Creighton

Sunday 7 or 9 ESPN

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Straight from the Dog

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In the Spokane region, the game between 1 seed Stanford and 4 seed Maryland was over quickly. Haley Jones was just tremendous in the first quarter leading Stanford to a 22-10 lead and they built on that behind Cameron Brinks for a 16 point halftime lead. Brink had 13 points and 7 rebounds in the first 20 minutes. Stamford didn't just hold on to the lead in the third quarter, they expanded it, outscoring the Turtles 20-13 to take a 59-36 lead going into the final 10 minutes.

Maryland finally started to hit their shots and Stanford stopped hitting theirs and the Terps outscored the Cardinal 30-13 to end the game but it wasn't nearly enough. Jones ended up with 17 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists to lead Stanford to the win 72-66.

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In the Greensboro region, 10 seed Creighton continued to show that they belong in the conversation with any of the so called Power-5 teams. They had a back and forth first half with Iowa State before ending up with a 30-30 tie after 20 minutes. Morgan Maly came off the bench for 14 first half points. The Blue Jays exploded out of the box in the second half by hitting 3 three pointers to take a 43-37 lead in the third quarter. Boy, threse two teams like to shoot three pointers. Iowa State used the long range shot to stay in the game but barely. Creighton hit more and at the end of a 29-21 third quarter, Creighton was up 59-51. The Blue Jays jumped out to a 7-2 fourth quarter to take a 13 point lead 66-53 and Iowa State was forced to take a time out.

Iowa State battled back and closed to 71-66 with 43.7 seconds left. And then after Creighton made only 1-2 free throws, the Cyclones closed to 71-68 with 36 seconds left. This time Creighton hit both their free throws to take a 5 point lead with 34 seconds left. Damn, the time was going way too slowly. A great Creighton defensive play (or foul on Creighton if you are an Iowa State fan) gave the ball back to Creighton and that was basically the game. The Blue Jays hit 6-8 free throws to blose out the game for the 76-68 win.

GO BIG EAST!!!!!!!

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In the Spokane region, 2 seed Texas and 6 seed Ohio State battled in a pretty evenly matched game. The first half was a lot of back and forth, but Texas was able to pull away behind senior Joanne Allen-Taylor 17 points for a 10 point lead in the fourth quarter. Ohio State made a great comeback behind Jacy Sheldon, closing the gap from 60-50 with a six point run of her own forcing a Texas timeout with 4:34 left in the game. The Buckeyes closed to 2 points but free throws by Lauren Egbo put Texas back up by four with 2 minutes remaining in the game. After Ohio State closed to 1 point, Texas was able to hold on for the 66-63 win. Gotta give Ohio State credit. They closed the game with a 13-6 run. It just wasn't enough.

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In the Greensboro region, 1 seed South Carolina beat 5 seed South Carolina 69-61 behind a player of the year performance by Aliyah Boston. Boston ended up with 26 points and 20 rebounds. She was pretty much unstioppable in the paint. She had 12 offensive rebounds and hit 12-13 from the free throw line. Wow.

The Gamecocks had an 8 point lead at the half behind some hot shooting from their starting backcourt, Henderson and Cooke. They were 6-11 from deep, something that has been missing. But they reverted back to form in the second half going 0-6 and that hurt South Carolina and allowed the Tarheels to close to 4 points with 2 minutes left in the game. Boston score the last 4 points in the game for the final margin.

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I posted an article from the Indiana Daily Sutdent about the game and I'm not sure the have a clue about UConn.

In mentioning key players, they only mention Fudd and Nelson-Ododa. I'm not sure how they could miss Christyn Williams, who only leads the team in scoring. Not a key player?

"The Huskies are known for posting blowout wins, averaging 74 points per game while holding opponents to 53 points. However, they are also just as capable of playing games decided by one or two possessions. UConn fought a defensive battle with UCF, and it has had other games in the season where it failed to score 60 points, including a 57-73 loss to top-ranked University of South Carolina in November. "

Ok, you don't average a nation's second best margin of victory if they are just as capable of playing games decided by one or two possesions. Not saying that couldn't happen this game but let's not distort history.

UConn has had four games decided by one or two possesions. Louisville (lost by 5), DePaul (won by 2) , Villanove (lost by 3) and UCF (won by 5). And the first three was when they were missing a few players.

"UConn’s point total is often influenced by whatever team it plays, and since Indiana prides itself on its defense, Saturday could be a low-scoring game for both teams."

I suppose that first sentence is true. But isn't that true of every team? I agree with the second sentence. It could be a low scoring game.

"the Hoosiers have seen increased consistency in bench production as the season has progressed, and they can now call on players like sophomore guard Chloe Moore-McNeil to score off the bench."

I'm not sure that this writer knows her own team. Bench production is better. But there is only ONE player off the bench. She made it sound like there were multiple players like Chloe Moore-McNeil. And increased consistency is true. But the first 17 games she averaged 3.5 PPG and the last 15 she averaged 7 PPG. Yes. doubles. But still only 7 PPB

It was a nice try but her article is lacking in consistency.

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Geno Auriemma said he told Caroline Ducharme that she'd have a "hell of a game tomorrow" ("not that anybody listens to what [Geno] says anymore" 😂)

"We know what Caroline has done. She carried us for the longest time" pic.twitter.com/SjSLszPVoS
— UConn Videos (@SNYUConn) March 25, 2022

For all those fans that complained about Ducharme's minutes against UCF, here is what Geno said about that.

"Geno said Caroline Ducharme's lack of playing time wasn't a reflection on her, it was just how the game went. He added that she'll have a big role in tomorrow's game and going forward, if they win."

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Imteresting look at the Indiana box scores from the first Iowa and Princeton.

IOWA GAME

PRINCETON GAME

As you can see, like I said in my pregame report, they only go 6 deep into their rotation. They don't his a lot of three pointers, and in the Princeton game they had only ONE offensive rebound.

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By David in Naples

UConn meets Indiana tomorrow in a Sweet Sixteen matchup. It is possible that Indiana's game against Princeton may offer some clues about Indiana's weaknesses. For example, the Hoosiers had only 1 offensive rebound all game. They had 32 boards overall, but just the one at the offensive end. Princeton, on the other hand, had 10 offensive rebounds. 10 of their 29 total boards. Indiana also had 17 turnovers. Doggy already indicated that may be key on Saturday.

Indiana was only 4-12 from three point range. They may be forced to take more than 15 threes if they can't get inside on the taller Huskies. Indiana also had only 4 fast break points against Princeton. Don't expect them to run, but maybe UConn will. Finally, Indiana uses only 6 main players. In the Princeton game, the Hoosiers scored only 6 points in the 3rd period and 11 in 4th period. Those 18 total 2nd half points compare to 17 in the 1st period and 22 in the 2nd. UConn has better players and more of them..!!

Go Huskies..!!

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