Doggydaddy's Den: November 2022

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Doggy's Doghouse 11/30/2022

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GO UCONN!!!!!

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What a crazy 10 days. We flew home from Florida on 11/21 for Thanksgiving. It was a little weird after three weeks in Florida to be home in the cold in Connecticut. But it was great to see mt daughter and husband and of course my two grandsons Logan and Barrett. Thanksgiving was great but right around that Thursday both my wife and I felt sick. She had a sore throat and post nasel drip and I had a slight cough and a bad case of vertigo. I'm still feeling it somewhat but I'm powering through these blogs.

We flew back to the condo in Florida tonight (Wednesday) in a fairly uneventful flight outside trying to leave the plane behind to people that used wheelchairs to board the plane but decided to walk off on their own, blocking the people behind them. And the gentleman had a pants issue, displaying his butt crack for everyone to see. I will be having nightmares.

Ok, enough about me. On to WCBB and our beloved Huskies!!!

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The complete 2022-23 Preseason Wade Watch list:

Name	Institution	Position	Height	Current Year
Grace Berger	Indiana	G	6-0	5th Yr.
Aliyah Boston	South Carolina	F	6-5	Sr.
Cameron Brink	Stanford	F	6-4	Jr.
Caitlin Clark	Iowa	G	6-0	Jr.
Monika Czinano	Iowa	F/C	6-3	5th Yr.
Azzi Fudd	Connecticut	G	5-11	Soph.
Rori Harmon	Texas	G	5-6	Soph.
Ashley Joens	Iowa State	G/F	6-1	Sr.
Haley Jones	Stanford	G	6-1	Sr.
Elizabeth Kitley	Virginia Tech	C	6-6	Sr.
Olivia Miles	Notre Dame	G	5-10	Soph.
Aneesah Morrow	DePaul	F	6-1	Soph.
Angel Reese	LSU	F	6-3	Soph.
Jacy Sheldon	Ohio State	G	5-10	Sr.
Maddy Siegrist	Villanova	F	6-1	Sr.
Hailey Van Lith	Louisville	G	5-7	Jr.

* Three players from the Big East.

* UConn just beat a team with two players on the list.

* Not one player from Tennessee. Volnation will explode.

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Thanks Ken for the info - Great games on Thursday.

6:00 #6 North Carolina @ #5 Indiana on BIG Network & streaming on Fox Now

6:30 #20 Maryland @ #7 Notre Dame on ESPN2

7:00 Nebraska @ #9 VA Tech on ESPN / ACC Network

8:30 #12 NC State @ #10 Iowa on ESPN2

The 6:30 game will certainly be of interest with the Huskies playing Notre Dame on Sunday. A good scouting game for me in preparation of the Pregame Report.

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GAMES

UPSETS IN RED

No. 4 Ohio State 96 No. 18 Louisville 77

No. 2 Stanford vs Santa Clara (Late game Stanford up 40-29 at the half)

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Straight from the Dog

I always follow players that leave UConn for other schools. Some I was sad to see go and some I was ambivalent about them leaving. One player I hated to see go, but understood why is Mir McLean. She left the Huskies 2 seasons ago for Virginia and she is loving it there. And so far this season, the 5'11" junior guard/forward, has been terrific. She has three double-doubles and is averaging 10.4 PPG and 9 RPG. She is still playing much bigger than her actual size. She can certainly jump!! And her smile is the best! Virginia is 8-0 but the ACC is a touch conference. GO MIR!!!

* and on edit, Virginia stayed undefeated with an 89-68 drubbing of Penn State. And of course, as I pumped up Mir, she had her best game of the season with 24 points, 13 points and 5 assists. She was 1-1 on threes!! This bumped up her averages to 12.1 PPG and 9.5 RPG. WOW!!!

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Just an add on to my LSU comment in the previous blog. I mentioned that the Tigers will only play ONE ranked teams as the schedule looks right now. Maybe some SEC teams will creep into the Top 25 eventually. But I just looked at Massey and the LSU schedule is ranked 321st. That is just disgusting for a Div I power 5 team.

By the way, UConn has the No. 1 SOS. In addition to the improvement in the Big East, they still have Notre Dame, Tennessee and South Carolina in the OOC schedule.

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So, on the plane I was able to watch much of the No. 4 Ohio State visiting No. 18 Louisville. It was a really interesting game. But teams like to pressure the ball and turnovers were rampant. The Cardinals had 24 and the Buckeyes had 20. It was also a tale of two halves.

Louisville controlled the first half behind Haily Van Lith's 14 points and sloppy play by Ohio State. The Cardinals took a 45-37 lead at the half. I watched something else for a while and when I tuned back into the game, the Buckeyes had cut into the lead and soon were winning 65-61. I was looking forward to a fun finish, but Ohio State showed why they are ranked No. 4 and just hammered Louisville on their home court. The third quarter went Ohio State's way 28-18 and then just ran away with the game with a 31-14 fourth quarter.

Taylor Mikesell led Ohio State with 26 points hitting 4-8 threes and the Buckeyes shot 59.7% from the field and 8-15 on threes. They are a really good team.

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By PHIL

LSU’s schedule one more time

Check out the following list and tell me which one does not belong?

South Carolina 4
Stanford 10
UConn 12
Ohio State 9
Indiana 9
North Carolina 10
Notre Dame 7
Iowa State 7
Virginia Tech 6
Iowa 9
LSU 1
NC State 8
Creighton 9
Arizona 8
UCLA 8
Utah 7
Michigan 8
Louisville 7
Oregon 7
Maryland 10
Baylor 8
Texas 6
Gonzaga 3
Marquette 8
Villanova 9

I trust you recognized the list as the current top 25 teams according to the AP in order. The number following the name of the team is the number of top 25 teams on their schedule. As you can see, the average top 25 school has 7.6 top 25 opponents on the schedule. (For the pedantic, I am counting an opponent as top 25 if they were ranked in the top 25 at the time the game was played, and if they are listed in the top 25 currently for all future opponents.)

When DoggyDaddy reported in his recent blog post that LSU had only one top 25 team on the schedule, I confess I was momentarily taken aback. They play in the mighty SEC. Then I realized quickly, that there are only two top 25 teams in the SEC and whether or not they should be, LSU is one of them so they only have one top 25 SEC opponent on the schedule. They didn’t manage to schedule another top 25 team in any of their out of conference games. I cut them a little slack if they had gone to a tournament with a top 25 team and that team was upset in early round, but that’s not the case.

I and others have railed about LSU’s unbelievably weak schedule, and this is just another way of looking at it.

I also looked at teams getting votes in the ranking, beyond those in the top 25.

Oklahoma 7
South Dakota State 3
Arkansas 6
Kansas State 7
Kansas 7
Tennessee 7
Virginia 8
Duke 9
UMass 1

You have to go all the way down to UMass to find a team with only a single top 25 opponent. I think we can understand UMass’s challenge in talking top 25 teams to play them, but that’s not a challenge that Kim Mulkey has. I don’t begrudge her thinking this might be an off year and scheduling a somewhat weaker than usual schedule, but this schedule is unbelievably weak.

I’m well aware of the expression “beating a dead horse” but that expression is only apropos when everyone knows the horse is dead. It’s pretty clear the media and the voters in the poll either don’t share the view that this schedule is abysmal or have some reason to keep it to themselves. I wonder why?

By the way, I’m a firm believer that if someone feels free to criticize others for flaws, they ought to also be equally quick to praise them when those flaws are corrected. I’m sure I am joined others in being critical of Brenda Frese’s scheduling in the past. I can see strength of schedules ranked in the 60s a few years ago, so her current number of top 25 teams on her schedule in double digits, in second place behind only UConn is worth applauding. Massey has her current strength of schedule at number 6, and the strength of schedule of the unplayed games is tops in the nation, so kudos to Brenda.

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By David in Naples

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Here is an option for any contributions for my time in putting together this blog.

I'm not requiring the contribution in order to read the blog. It's totally voluntary. And I'm not recommending how much to donate or how often.

Thanks to all my loyal readers!!!

If you don't have Venmo, you can sign up here

or add the app to your iPhone or iPad.

And here is another option that is being pushed by Paige!!

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UCONN LINKS

Several links are pay sites. Sorry!

No links today!

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Message Boards

UConn Territory - The best UConn women's message board ever!!!

Vol Nation - Tennessee women's basketball board

ND Nation - Notre Dame women's basketball board

Rebkell - WCBB for everyone that thinks they are smarter than everyone else

UCONN Information

UConn 2022-23 Online Media Guide

UConn 2022-2023 Roster

UConn 2022-2023 Statistics

UConn 2022-2023 Schedule

I'm always open for suggestions. Just please reply to this blog or email me at:

doggydaddy.UConn@gmail.com

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Doggy's Doghouse 11/29/2022

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GO UCONN!!!!!

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Making that NIL Money!!!

More on 🎯than @azzi_35‼️ Nerf tested our skills with the Elite Motoblitz 2.0 - loser gets soaked with a Super Soaker 👀 watch til the end https://t.co/gx5DsW0znT #nerfpartner #nerf #itsnerfornothin #ad @hasbro @MurphFromNerf pic.twitter.com/TOwCBJPBzz
— Paige Bueckers (@paigebueckers1) November 29, 2022

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She is going to be a star at UConn. Unbelievable skills. The Huskies won't miss a beat with her on the roster eventually running the point.

Brady Peterson

@BradyJ_Peterson

5'10 2023 G and UCONN commit KK Arnold (@Kamorea_2023
) never siezes to amaze me. The way she navigates traffic in the paint is unreal, her change of direction and vision is matched by very few in the country.

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GAMES

UPSETS IN RED

No. 1 South Carolina 73 No. 15 UCLA 64

No. 8 Iowa State 93 SIU Edwardsville 43

No. 11 LSU 63 SE Louisiana 55

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Straight from the Dog

This team's resolve in the face of adversity is just something to behold. It's just hard for me not to imagine what the backcourt rotation would be like with Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd, Nika Muhl, Lou and Caroline Ducharme. Unreal. But it was not to be.

However, we can imagine what it will be like with this version of Caroline and the double double center in Dorka Juhasz.

I'm pretty sure Geno will return Aubrey Griffin to the bench when Dorka is ready. That leaves a bench of Griffin, Ducharme and Patterson. I can't imaging a better bench in the country getting even better as Patterson improves.

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I love to read the Tennessee message board. It usually gives me plenty to write about. But there is an added attraction there. A South Carolina fans who is over the top about their team. Rooster1, as he/she goes by, says some outrageous things.

Rooster1 likes to use season stats about how deep SC is. But as we know and what I constantly say, you have to look at the competative games to understand the truth about depth. In all of the games outside of Stanford, the Gamecocks won by 70, 25, 54, 43 and 47. Of course in those games, the team can play every player and I believe they have 13 on the roster.

But in the Stanford game, they really only went 8 deep with double digit minutes and two starters went 38 and 37 minutes each.

They have a nice rotation and we will see how deep Dawn goes into the bench when there are competative game. I would guess no more than 8.

Ok....I wrote the above earlier today. The South Carolina/UCLA game just verified my thoughts. The Gamecocks went only 8 deep in double digit minutes. And only 4 players contributed to the offense.

Now, there is nothing wrong with a team only playing 8 players. In competative games, most teams whitle down their rotation to the best players and therefore the best chance to win. But please, let's not go overboard Rooster1 about the depth of your team.

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Gotta hand it to South Carolina. They were tied with No.15 UCLA going into the fourth quarter and behind Cardosa, their backup 6'7" center, won the game by 9 points. The Gamecocks had an amazing 15 blocked shot, contributing to the 32.3% shooting for the Bruins. But the low numbers for South Carolina was just bad shooting. They shot 39.7% from the field and 1-14 on threes. And only 66% on free throws. Eventually that kind of shooting will contribute to a loss for South Carolina and great outside shooting teams can avoid the blocks. Hmm....sounds like a team I know.

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No. 11 LSU continued their run of cupcakes this season, taking on a directional school, SE Louisiana. The Tigers started the season scoring 100+ points in their first 5 games. They only scored 80 in their next game but bounced back with 99 in their last game. But a funny thing happened on the way to the final buzzer. LSU didn't score 100 points, or 90 points, or 80 points, or even 70 points. They were only able to beat the Lady Lions 63-55. They shot only 41% from the field, 5-20 on threes and 57% on free throws. Very unimpressive. Sadly, they only play ONE ranked team for the rest of the entire season and that is fellow SEC team South Carolina. Come on Mulkey. This is pathetic.

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By PHIL

Nancy Lieberman Award watch list

There is some social media discussion about the omission of Nika Mühl from the Nancy Lieberman award watch list. Rather than simply join the chorus, I thought it be interesting to look at history and see what that tells us.

In 2022, Caitlin Clark was the national leader in assists per game, was on the watchlist and went on to win the award.

In 2021, Tiana Mangakahia of Syracuse ended up being the national leader in assists per games and was on the watchlist. UConn’s Paige Bueckers ended up winning the award.

In 2020, Sabrina Ionescu of Oregon ended up being the national leader in assists per games and was on the watchlist. She went on to win the award.

In 2019, Amy O'Neill of St. Francis (Brooklyn) ended up being the national leader in assists per games, but she was not on the watchlist. Sabrina Ionescu of Oregon won the award that year. What can we conclude from the fact that the nation’s leader didn’t make the watchlist? I don’t want to be overly critical of St. Francis – a family friend and neighbor played there for four years and was good enough to go on and play in Europe, but realistically St. Francis is not a top-tier team. In 2019, Massey the team at #280 with a strength of schedule ranked 339. Numbers put up against opposition like that can’t realistically be compared to numbers put up against a more challenging schedule (are you paying attention Kim Mulkey?).

2018 is quite interesting. When the 20 player watchlist was initially revealed, the eventual winner Sabrina Ionescu was on the list (along with UConn’s Kia Nurse), but Tiana Mangakahia of Syracuse, who would go on to lead the nations in assists per game was not on the list. However, in February when the list was narrowed to 10, Mangakahia had been added to the list. They do emphasize that the initial list will be narrowed in February but note that while deletions are necessary, additions are possible, so maybe talking Nika up will help.

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By David in Naples