Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 3/6/2022

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GO UCONN!!!!!

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Another championship for my granddaughter Noa's cheer team!

She is right over the "O" in National

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No. 7 UConn Huskies Marquette Golden Eagles

71 51

I hate second halves like this one. UConn played great early basketball, running out to a 33-6 lead early in the second quarter. Then Marquette outscored the Huskies 45-38 for the rest of the game.

Geno said it best in his post game interview. When you run out to a big lead sometimes you lose your intensity. And that is exactly what happened. But no reason to dwell on that. I'm sure the message boards are flashing with the same comments every time this happens - "Oh boy, can't do this against the better teams" and "UConn will be in big trouble if they play like this in the finals". Thank you all, Captain Obvious. But they won't do this against the better teams and they won't do this in the finals. Please....

Anyway, there were some nice individual performances so let's talk about that!

First, team wise, they held Marquette to 31.3% from the field and 5-17 on threes. Excellent numbers. And offensively they shot 50% from the field and 38.9% on threes. After 6 turnovers in the first quarter, they only had 8 more the rest of the game.

I thought Evina Westbrook had one of her better games. She kept the Huskies cool when Marquette made a run and scored 14 points, hitting 3-4 three pointers. She added 2 asssist and 1 steal.

Christyn Williams was the early star with 11 first half points before settling for 13 for the game in her 27 minutes. Williams was strong and forceful in going to the basket and that set the tone.

Dorka Juhasz was terrific in this game, and found her range from deep. In 19 minutes, she scored 13 points. She also was 3-4 on threes. It was a complete game for Juhasz with 4 rebounds, 3 assists (one nice back door pass) and a steal.

Aaliyah Edwards was really good in this game in playing a team leading 30 minutes. She bodied up Marquette's terrific inside threat helping hold her to 4-16 shooting. And she scored 8 points and great 11 big rebounds. She really played strong on both ends of the court.

Let's not forget Olivia Nelson-Ododa. She had a nice game in her 22 minutes. She had 8 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists and a few more imtimidated shots by Marquette.

Nika Muhl had a nice floor game in her 22 minutes. She was 3-3 from the field, and 1-1 on threes for her 7 points. She only had 1 assists but the big number was zero. Zero turnovers. She was a settling force out there. This picture tells you why she is a starter. She is an extension of the coach on the court.

Paige Bueckers did not look very good in this game. Fatigue? Or just an off performance? I don't think we should make much of this. I would imagine her playing Monday with more determination. She played 18 minutes and only had 2 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists Deuces wild!

Azzi Fudd had one of her worst shooting games. Doubtful this will continue. In her 28 minutes, she was 1-9 from the field and 0-5 on threes. Add in her 2 free throws and you get four points. She did hand out 3 assists. Geno must had seen something he liked on defense to play her so many minutes.

Carolina Ducharme just seems off. Either she is still recovering from her head injury or she hasn't figured out her place in the new rotation. She played 15 minutes and scored only 2 points. She did have a great assist to Juhasz but that was the highlight of her game.

So, Villanova is next. They beat Seton Hall 64-55 behind BE POY Maddy Siegrist's double-double with 24 points and 14 rebounds. They looked a little tired, kinda like the Huskies did in back to back games.

UConn will be looking for redemption after losing to the Wildcats for their only conference loss in a ton of years. I'll just take a win and then they can start preparing for the NCAA tournament.

Geno, Dorka and Evina

Postgame Interview

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No. 8 UConn Huskies VS Villanova Wildcats

24-5 (17-1) 23-7 (15-4)

Monday, March 7th, 8:00

Mohegan Sun Arena

Uncasville, CT

TV - FS1

Well, here it is. The rematch that I'm sure UConn and their fans are looking forward to. It's the first game on the redemption tour, with hopefully several more in the NCAA tournament.

Villanova beat UConn 71-69 in early January. No Ducharme, no Olivia Nelson-Ododa, No Bueckers. That game was maybe the worse defensive effort in several years. I can't remember a UConn team giving up 51.8% shooting from the field. UConn was outrebounded by the smaller Wildcats 37-21 and the Huskies were outrebounded by Siegrist and Herlihy who had 12 and 10.

Even with a great comeback try outscoring Villanova 24-10 in the fourth quarter, they couldn't make up for all the bad play earlier in the game. The Huskies actually cut a 16 point lead with 5:50 left in the game to 3 points but with 2.1 second left and the ball, UConn could not get shot off to tie the game.

Fudd was terrific again with a career high 29 points in this game and Williams added 24 points. But the rest of the team was really disappointing.

As we all know, Maddy Siegrist is Villanova's leading scorer. The 6'1" junior forward won the 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. In the first game, Siegrist played all 40 minutes and had a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

Lior Garzon is a 6'1" sophomore forward who is second at scoring on the team. She doesn't hesitate to shoot long distance as she averages around 7 three pointers taken per game. She was great against UConn, scoring 19 points and going 5-10 on threes, all in 35 minutes.

The only other double digit scorer is Brianna Herlihy, a 6' graduate student forward. She is averaging 10.5 PPG and 8.5 RPG. And against the Huskies in 37 minutes, she had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. She almost had a triple-double with 8 turnovers.

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. And in Villanova's win over UConn, she scored 11 points and handed out 7 assists in 35 minutes. Only one turnover for the freshman. Unflappable.

The final starter is Brook Mullin, a 5'11" junior guard. She leads the team in assists with 57 and only 32 assists. She played 34 minutes and scored 8 points against UConn.

Bella Runyan, a 5'11" sophomore guard was the only player who got minutes off the bench against the Huskies playing 16 minutes. She scored only 2 points. She is more there to spell the starters.

Villanova shot way over their season averages the first time at 51.5% and 45.5% on threes. I don't expect anything close to that.

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. The Huskies will exploit their size advantage this time. Edwards and Juhasz had one rebound each in that loss. I can't imagine anything close to that. And Geno will remind the team that they were outrebounded by 16.

Villanova is a better team than last year and it has shown in their performance so far this season. And you know that when you believe you can beat a team, it can carry a team in a rematch.

However, this is a different UConn team that faced Villanova and lost. With their 9 player rotation UConn will grind Villanova down. The Wildcats were able to limit their 6 player rotation to around 30 minutes each in the first game, but not so much against Seton Hall. Their rotation played 39, 38, 38, 35, 30 and 12 minutes. You would think there would be a fatigue factor. UConn had one player at 30 minutes in their two games. Everyone else was under that. It will make a difference.

Villanova is still a really good team. so it won't be a blowout.

UConn by 12+.

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GAMES

No. 1 South Carolina 62 Kentucky 64

No. 2 Stanford 73 Utah 48

No. 3 North Carolina State 60 Miami 47

No. 5 Baylor 82 Texas Tech 57

No. 12 Iowa 74 No. 14 Indiana 67

No. 22 Florida Gulf Coast 71 North Florida 60

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Straight from the Dog

Well, we had the upsets of all upsets.

Unranked Kentucky erased a 16 point third quarter deficit to defeat No. 1 South Carolina 64-62.

Not only No. 1 in the SEC South Carolina, it's also the No. 1 AP poll, No. 1 Coaches Poll and more importantly No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Boy, was this a fun game to watch. I'm not a Kentucky fan and when they went 1-8 in the middle of the season, I hammered them pretty good on this blog. But they have now won ten games in a row and are SEC Tournament champs. Crazy.

Kentucky had the ball with 16 second left and the Gamecocks fouled them with 11.6 remaining in the game. It was then I noticed that was their first foul of the entire quarter. Really? One foul?

Anyway, Kentucky inbounded and with three fouls to give I figured they would use them to run down the clock. But surprisingly, they didn't, Kentucky made a couple of passes and Massengill found Edwards for an open three pointer. It went down with 4 seconds left. South Carolina had no timeouts left and inbounded the ball. A prayer from just inside half court missed and that was it.

I must admit, I gave a big shout when that three pointer went in. What an exciting comeback by the Wildcats.

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Tennessee was a 1 seed in the first reveal.

At that time they were 18-1 and 7-0 in the SEC.

Then was a 3 seed after the second reveal.

At that time they were 19-4 and 8-2. 1-3 record for that span.

Then was a 4 seed after the third reveal.

At that time they were 22-7 and 11-5. 3-3 for that span.

So, what will they be at the final brackets?

Well, they are now 23-8 and 12-6. 1-1 in that span.

My guess is they remaina 4 seed, but being 5-7 since the first reveal, I don't think they deserve even that seed.

5 seed seems more appropriate.

Talk about dropping like a stone.

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And what would a Tennessee discussion be without pointing out some Orange Idiot?

"Danny White needs to have a serious conversation with SEC officials!! His athletic department,across all sports,is seemingly getting the bad end of most calls. White needs to stand up for his department. Find what the issues are and clear them up!! We are a top revenue producing program for the conference and should be treated that way. If this problem is not solved it is going to effect recruiting,if it isn't already. Even our girls softball team gets lousy calls way to often. Time to take a stand and end it!! Heck,I will put together a video of the atrocious calls or no calls Tennessee has gotten if he needs it!!!"

In case you didn't know, Danny White is a former Tennessee quarterback and Dallas Cowboy quarterback as well. Two reasons for me not to like him...lol. And he is the current Athletic Director at Tennessee.

This poster just took referee complaining to a new level. Not only is this moron saying that the SEC officials make bad calls against the women's basketball team, but they do it to all their teams. ALL of them. And then he insults the "girls" softball team by saying "even they get lousy calls.

Orange Idiot!

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By PHIL

Seedings watch

(n. b. This was written before Sunday’s games)

I decided to read the thread about the Tennessee Kentucky game on Volnation.com, and they were talking about what they needed to ensure a hosting seed (four or better). One poster opined:

“…they must win 1 game in the SEC tourney to ultimately get a top 16 seed, but more realistically, probably need 2 wins”

Another:

“We'll do it with one guaranteed. Two would probably get us a three seed.”

My knee began to jerk and my mouth began to splutter. Luckily, I restrained myself and decided to think rather than react. I was stuck in day after mode, and I then realized this thread was started before the tournament. Their (reasonable) expectations were that Tennessee would meet ranked Georgia (though maybe not for long) and LSU. Knocking off a ranked team perhaps ought not to be enough, but it would give the committee enough cover to give Tennessee a four seed, and beating Charlie’s bff LSU would certainly be enough: maybe not a three seed but solidly in the top four group.

Of course, Alabama prevailed over Georgia, so Tennessee’s win over Alabama meant they added a notch in their belt over a team not good enough to get an at-large bid the tournament. Better than a sharp stick in the eye but not much. Then Kentucky stunned LSU, not with a miracle circus shot at the buzzer, but by 15 points. Who can figure out Kentucky? They can lose to Vanderbilt (sorry Shea) then lose to LSU badly?

Still, that’s good news for Tennessee, who were not going to beat LSU, but they thumped Kentucky by 26 points in January. It won’t help the resume as much as Georgia and LSU, but the selection committee can ignore the opponents and just give credit for two wins in the tough SEC conference. One sticky detail remains —they still must beat Kentucky.

Tempted to discuss the game that I see the title is “seedings watch”, so I’ll just note that Kentucky hitting 12 of 24 threes covers up a lot of warts. An unranked Kentucky beats Tennessee.

It didn’t hurt them much in Massey, they are still ranked 15, virtually tied with 16th -ranked Oregon. This may be the one time I hope the selection committee doesn’t look at Massey. I don’t think beating Alabama, then losing to Kentucky is going to move them up in the AP poll where they are 18th. They dropped from 14 to 18 in NET. That’s where the selection committee starts. Some of the LV fans think the metrics suggest a five seed but the name on the jerseys will bump them up to four. I will not be surprised if they are right.

As for UConn, we endured a few stomach-churning days where Crème and the reveal had us as a three seed and changing that was not in our control. We had to pray for losses and our prayers were answered. A lot of losses put us back in the driver’s seat, and while we are not facing world beaters, Let’s play well (because the committee cares about the eye test), beat the expected margin of victory, and the selection committee will see we are number four in NET (which would justify a one seed, but that's not going to happen) and only move us down to a two seed but not down to a three seed.. I don’t hear if the initial pass has us as the two seed in something other than Bridgeport, geography will prevail.

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By David in Naples

Marquette scored 105 points yesterday in their victory over DePaul. Today, they only managed 51 points and that took playing the starters all game. UConn took their foot off the gas petal or MU might not have reached 40 points. So how do you score 54 fewer points on consecutive nights?

Consider:

1. Marlene, who scored 26 against DePaul on 12-15 shooting, was 1-11 today. That’s 4 points.
2. Van Kleunen’s 20 points vs DePaul on 9-14 shooting went down to 4-16 or 9 points.
3. Interestingly, turnovers actually went down from 19 to 11. Steals also went from 14 by DePaul to 5.
4. Most important, what really went down was MU’s shooting %. From 65.7% yesterday to 31.3% today. That is the story.

Was DePaul just tired or having a bad night? Neither. It was a relentless, in your face defense by the Huskies. Marquette missed 44 shots today. Yesterday, they MADE 44 shots. Today they were out rebounded 41-33. UConn’s bigs grabbed 22 boards. MU’s bigs had 11 boards.

UConn ‘s defense only gave up 6 free throws vs 16 by DePaul. Marquette made 5 threes, but took 18 shots to make them. The Huskies blocked 2 shots and added 5 steals. MU just did not get out in transition. Everything was a slow, contested, half court set offense. The result was 18 points at the half and a 21 point UConn lead. Game over...

Defense for UConn is running at peak performance. Forcing bad shots and rebounded the miss. A good formula for a win tomorrow night.

Go Huskies..!

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