Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 3/5/2022

****************************************************

GO UCONN!!!!!

**************************************************

No. 7 UConn Huskies VS Georgetown Hoyas

22-5 (16-1) 10-18 (4-15)

"UConn shouldn't get off to a slow start this time. I expect them to run out to a big early lead and rotate their new NINE player rotation before we see DeBerry and Gabriel in the fourth quarter. UConn by 40+."

Yeah, pretty much right on. However, UConn did get off to a little slow start. Georgetown had a 6-3 lead, and then it was over. The Huskies went on a 19-0 run to end the first quarter.

The defense continues to be smothering, holding the Hoyas to 9 first half points. UConn was hot on offense in the first half as well, goint 9-20 on threes.

Guess who led the team in scoring for the first time in 3 months? Yep, Paige Bueckers. She led the team in the Notre Dame game on December 5th and exactly 3 months later, she did it again against Geogetown. She had 16 points on 6-9 shooting and 4-5 on threes. It took a little while for her to get started. She deferred on shots she would usually take but once she hit that first three pointer, well, she looked like the Paige of old. She had 16 points and 5 assists. In only 18 minutes.

Christyn Williams was outstanding in this game, especially in the first quarter when she had 11 of her 15 points. She was hot early from beyond the arc. When she is hitting three's the team is impossible to guard. She led the team in minutes again with 29. Her defense set the tone with her 5 steals.

Aayilah Edwards continues her great play. She is playing loose and free. In her 25 minutes, she was 6-7 from the field and 2-2 from the foul line for 14 points and added 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals.

The final double digit scorer was Azzi Fudd. She played 25 minutes and scored 11 points. Azzi was colder than usual, going 3-10 on three. But teams pay special attention to her and it helps everyone else.

Everyone else just did their job. Nika Muhl played great defense and handed out 6 assists. And while no one else had standout stats, they all played great.

This is a TEAM. And every game it could be any one of the 9 players in the rotation that could be the ONE. No other team has that depth.

The Huskies held the Hoyas to 27.5% from the field, 26.7% on threes and forced 23 turnovers. And Uconn had 24 assists and only 13 turnovers after having 8 in the first quarter.

Ok, on to the Semi-finals and UConn takes on Marquette who had an easy time beating DePaul 105-85. The Golden Eagles shot 65% from the field. Wow! Some good offense and some really bad DePaul defense.

Geno Post Game Interview

Team Post Game Interview

Paige Bueckers Highlights

Game Highlights

***********************************************

No. 7 UConn Huskies Marquette Golden Eagles

23-5 (16-1) 21-9 (14-7)

Day: Sunday

Date: March 6th, 2022

Time: 3:00

Location: Mohegan Sun Arena

Uncasville, Ct

TV: FS1

UConn beat Marquette in their previous meeting this season 69-38 in a real slogfest. And in the first game they played this year, UConn only won by 14, 72-58.

Here is a review of what I wrote about Marquette before the last game they played.

Marquette's best big is No. 42 Lauren Van Kleunen. She is only 6'2" but is a wide shouldered young lady who knows how to use her body to carve out space in the post. She will take the intermediate jumper but of she gets the ball in the low post she knows how to finish. Her go to move is a little jump hook. Tough to stop. She leads the Golden Eagles in scoring at 14 PPG.

5'7" guard, Purdue transfer Karissa McLaughlin is the second leading scorer at 12.7 PPG. She is the only, and I mean ONLY three point threat on the team. But she is a good one at 44.6% and she takes around 6 per game. UConn will have to watch her coming off screens to get open.

5"11" Senior Jordan King is the other guard in the starting lineup. She leads the team in assists And she is the only other double digit scorere on the team at 11.5.

Lisa Karlen, a 6'2" sophomore forward brings some rebounding to the team and leads Marquette in blocks. She is averaging 8.9 PPG. She was really good against UConn in the first matchup.

The final starter is 6'1" junior Chloe Marotta. A solid shooter, she doesn't take many out of her range, which is right around the basket. She is a pretty good defender as well. And she is the leading rebounder on the team.

Defensively, they Golden Eagles play exclusively a man to man. They did a good job in the first game, holding UConn down for three quarters. As Geno says, Marquette makes it difficult to run your offense. But the Huskies are at full strength with Bueckers back and I'm not sure that Marquette can hold the Huskies much lower than 80 points.

I don't think Marquette will be able to score like they did against DePaul in scoring over 100 points. In fact I would take half of that as the over.

UConn should take this game by 30+ points.

***********************************************

The ladies get their awards!!

***********************************************

GAMES

No.1 South Carolina 61 Ole Miss 51

No. 3 North Carolina State 70 No. 21 Viginia Tech 55

No. 8 Iowa State 74 West Virginia 57

No. 9 Texas 65 Oklahoma State 50

No. 12 Iowa 83 Nebraska 66

No. 14 Indiana 70 No. 13 Ohio State 62

No. 18 Tennessee 74 Kentucky 83

No. 19 Oklahoma 67 Kansas 73

No. 20 Notre Dame 54 Miami 57

**************************************************

Straight from the Dog

More upsets. It just doesn't stop.

Unranked Miami is heading for the ACC tournament finals with a 57-54 win over No. 20 Notre Dame. I still love when the Irish lose, although it's not the same with Muffet retired.

Untranked Kansas beat No. 19 Oklahoma 73-67 in Kansas' last regular season game. Will they make the NCAA Tournament. I think this win gets them in.

Not really an upset but No. 14 Indiana beat No. 13 Ohio State in the Big Ten semi-finals 70-62, sending the Hoosiers to the championship game against Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes. Clark had 41 points in their win over Nebraska.

And my favorite upset, Kentucky beat No. 18 Tennessee 83-74 in the SEC semifinals. The Wildcats will play No. 1 South Carolina for the championship. It's the first time Kentucky is in the finals in eight years.

********************************************************

By PHIL

Here's what Charlie Creme is missing

He, understandably, didn’t move UConn up, he moved some teams with losses down. He didn’t think Louisville’s loss in their first game, to 43 ranked Miami, with 11 losses, was worth moving down a single line. I disagree but I get it.

He did move Michigan down. Makes sense. But he didn’t move LSU down a single line. He didn’t move them down to a 3 seed, he didn’t move them down to a four seed, which Massey’s number 18 would suggest, nor did he move them down to a five seed which the NCAA’s own NET at #20 would suggest, and just barely a 5 seed at that.

He said the following were two seeds:

• Iowa State
• Baylor
• UConn
• LSU

Now we have to slot them.

Under the old S-curve, the strongest 2 seed, presumably Baylor, gets the weakest one seed, obviously Louisville and would go to Wichita. The weakest to see would get the strongest 1 seed, so UConn would go to Greensboro. But that’s not what they’re using. I think, but I’m not 100% sure, that they do a two-pass assignment. The first is to take the four teams in order, and place them in the geographically best order without thinking about selecting the regional by strength.

If Baylor is the fifth overall team, Wichita makes sense. If Iowa State is the next best seed, they want Wichita but that’s not available so Bridgeport makes sense. If LSU is next they go to Greensboro so perhaps he has LSU behind UConn and says UConn geographically would go to Greensboro and LSU has to go out West. As I said I think it’s a two-pass approach so then they look and see if any changes could be made that would improve overall geography. They may be tempted to move Iowa State to Wichita. Charlie didn’t do that but I bet the committee would consider that. And I think they’ll decide that putting UConn in Bridgeport is worth the geography credits, and put Iowa State or LSU in Greensboro. If they then consider strength, they might choose LSU in Greensboro.

If UConn is the fourth of the two seeds the one pass geography model would put them in Spokane. Creme didn’t do that, and I don’t think the selection committee does that. Unless UConn lays an egg in the tournament, and by laying an egg I mean winning a close game (losses not impossible but then a two seed is out the window), I think enough has happened so that the committee will put UConn in Bridgeport.

There may be a few more wrinkles. The big 12 is still playing regular-season, and I don’t expect any regular-season upset at the could be some surprises in that tournament as well as others.

___________________________________________

OK Selection committee, you didn’t doubt that we would win, and you’re probably playing attention to many other teams understandably. Some note that Massey had UConn beating Georgetown by 34. They reach that by halftime, and no offense Georgetown, but then Geno decided to run a practice. He needed to work on getting the ball into the post players, you want to rest some players, the fourth quarter started with only one starter on the floor, and they won by 42. The question in your mind should be whether you can justify elevating UConn to a one seed or you going to put them in Bridgeport as a two.

And remember, Paige is still on a minutes restriction - played only 18 while scoring 16.

********************************************************

By David in Naples

Imagine you are the Georgetown coach and the score a few minutes into the game is 6-6. Then you look over to the UConn bench and see Paige, Dorka, Evina and Caroline waiting to play. Those four scored 848 points this season, grabbed 371 rebounds and handed out 217 assists. And they are not even in the game. Minutes later the 1st quarter is over and you’re down 22-6.

For the game, those subs scored 34 points vs G’town whole team getting 38. They grabbed 17 boards and passed out 9 dimes. Add in DeBerry’s 4 points and UConn’s bench tied Georgetown. Other interesting stats are:

1. G’town had 23 turnovers and 14 baskets.
2. Their starters scored 20 points total.
3. The Hoyas had 9 points at the half.
4. UConn won by 46, but only shot 50%.
5. Fudd and Ducharme were a combined 6-21 or 28%.
6. Paige had 16 points in 18 minutes on 9 shots.
7. No Huskie played more than 29 minutes (Christyn). Starters had either 20 or 25 minutes.

Next up for UConn is Marquette, tomorrow at 3 pm.

Go Huskies..!

**************************************************