Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 11/27/2022

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GO UCONN!!!!!

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This game deserves a full Postgame Report and I'll work on that later. But just a few highlights that I'll probably repeat later in that report.

Iowa hits a three pointer at the 6:21 mark of the third quarter to take a 52-41 lead. Geno calls a time out. He is calm and cool when talking to the team. So what happens? UConn goes on an 11-0 run to tie the game forcing a timeout by Iowa. Seven points by Fudd ending that run with a three pointer. The freshman Patterson added the other four points.

Iowa bounced back from UConn going on a 20-5 run over the last 6:21 of the third quarter. Down 61-57, the Hawkeyes went on a 9-0 run to start the fourth quarter in the first 3:03 ro rkw 66-61 lead.

After an exchange of a few baskets to make the score 70-66, the Huskies went on another run, this time 10-0 behind Ducharme and Lou to take a 79-70 lead with 3:30 left in the game.

Clark did her best to get Iowa back in the game but even her two LONG three pointers weren't enough.

This is a classic UConn share the ball team. On their 38 baskets they had 30 assists. Tremendous!

Full credit to Iowa. They played a great game. They will be a tough opponent for anyone this year.

More on this game later!

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GAMES

UPSETS IN RED

No. 1 South Carolina 85 Hampton 38

No. 2 Stanford 68 Hawai'i 39

No. 4 Ohio State 105 North Alabama 67

No. 5 Iowa State 64 No. 8 North Carolina 73

No. 11 Virginia 89 Tech Longwood 28

No. 14 Maryland 87 Pittsburgh 63

No. 18 Oregon 86 Michigan State 78

No. 19 Texas 74 Princeton 50

No. 21 Baylor 75 No. 22 Michigan 84

No. 23 Villanova 72 South Florida 50

No. 23 Tennessee 105 Eastern Kentucky 71

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Straight from the Dog

You always hope that players improve from season to season. From what I can tell so far after 5 games, UConn is looking good in that regard.

Clearly Fudd has improved, most of that from being healthy. The Fudd we are seeing this year looks a lot like the sophomore Fudd from high school. She was just amazing that year. She is physically more mature than the 16 year old Fudd but compared to last year? No question how much better she is.

Edwards is another player that has improved from last year. She is looking more like the freshman player we all thought would be an All-American someday. Her sophomore season last year was very diappointing for her and the team. But this year? She is playing better than ever. And that's in all facets of her game. Shooting, passing, defending, decision making? Her double-double average so far are things that All-Americans are made of.

What can I say about Nika Muhl that hasn't been said already. She is clearly on her way to obliterating the UConn season record for assists at 11.2 per game so far. She is by far a better player in many ways compared to her play last year. She is physically stronger so that helps her on the defensive end. And her decision making is just unreal. She takes charge in the huddle so her leadship is off the charts.

I suppose if you sat out last year, you'd have to be better if you are playing this year. And that is so true with Aubrey Griffin. But she is also better than the last full season she played in 2020-21. She is shooting better, passing better and maybe even defending better.

It is yet to be determined if Ducharme and Juhasz will also be better than last season. Not enough games due to injuries to make that call. But I liked what I saw from Ducharme in the Iowa game to be hopeful.

UConn needed these improvements with Bueckers out and the graduation of Williams, ONO and Westbrook. Hard to believe but this team looks better than last years Championship Game team.

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According to Massey, UConn has the second best SOS in the country, just behind South Carolina. And I believe that will change after playing Iowa vs South Carolina playing Hampton. UConn has played and beaten three top ten teams.

What is disappointing is how many cupcakes some of the other top teams play early in the season. I already mentioned Hampton as South Carolina's opponent. No.2 Stanford is playing Hawai'i. No. 4 Ohio State is played North Alabama. No. 11 Virginia Tech played Longwood. Tennessee played Eastern Kentucky. I'm sure there are more examples.

I just don't see how a team benefits from these games.

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I hate injuries. It looks like last season's POY Aliyah Boston hurt her ankle early in the game against Hampton and sat on the bench with a walking boot for the remainder of the game. Hoping she recovers quickly.

Good news for Texas but sparkplug point guard Roty Harmon is back from her injury to score 11 points in their win against Princeton. Great to see!!

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The first UGGY award of the year goes to Longwood, who played against No. 11 Virginia Tech. I don't like to give the away in such mismatches, but these numbers were too hard to ignore.

The Lancers were able to get up 60 shots in this game. That is a lot! But they only made 10 of them for 16.7% from the field. Coincidentally they were 3-18 on threes for the same 16.7%. They were outrebounded 55-30 as well. At least they only had 17 turnovers.

The key to winning this award was the 28 points they scored in the game. You don't see under 30 very often!!

So, congrats to Longwood on their UGGY award. Well deserved!

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By PHIL

International players

1990 – 91 was an important year in UConn women’s basketball history. It was the first year that UConn made it to the Final Four. After (just barely) beating 11 seed Toledo 81 – 80, the Huskies took on North Carolina State. In that game, Orly Grossman scored 17 points to help UConn defeat NC state in its road to its first Final Four.

Orly Grossman was from Israel, the first player on UConn’s roster from outside the USA. She would not be the last, although it would be seven years before a second international player joined the roster. In 1997 Tihana Abrlic came to UConn and played for two years. She was from Zagreb, Croatia. (How many knew she wasn’t the first player from Zagreb?)

1997 was an auspicious year for international presence on the UConn team. In addition to Abrlic, UConn invited Svetlana Abrosimova from Russia and Kelly Schumacher from Canada to join the team.

Two years later, Christine Rigby became the second player north of the border to join the UConn team.

Despite the success with international players, when Abrosimova, Schumacher and Rigby finished their careers in 2001, no new international players were added to the roster until 2004 when Rashidat Sadiq became the first UConn player from an African nation, Nigeria. She played only one season with UConn.

Then there was a nine-year gap until Kia Nurse became the third Canadian to play for UConn. She was the only player from outside the US on the team through her career, but the following season we added Anna Makurat from Poland and Evelyn Adebayo from United Kingdom.

Then we opened the international spigot. In 2020, Nika Mühl became our second player from Croatia, Aiilyah Edwards became our fourth player from Canada. In the next season we added transfer Dorka Juhász from Hungary, and this year we added the Fairfield transfer Lou Lopez Sénéchal, who was born in Mexico but grew up in France. We also added Inês Bettencourt from Portugal.

While not yet on the roster, Jana El Alfy of Egypt will be a freshman next year.

Not only is the international presence at an all-time high, when Dorka returns to the lineup, we will have four international players in the starting lineup. I don’t know any easy way to check this, but I don’t think there are many other teams that can make this claim.

There are other teams with significant international presence. University of Maine has recruited internationally for a long time. The last three rosters included seven, six and seven players from outside the United States:

Maine 22-23 7 players from Luxembourg, Finland, Denmark, Spain (2), Canada, Israel

Maine 21-22 6 players from Luxembourg, Finland, Denmark, Spain (2), Canada

Maine 20-21 7 players from Luxembourg, Finland, Denmark, Spain (2), Sweden, Israel

The current roster includes four players from outside the United States who started, although I did not confirm whether all four started the same game.

Duquesne is another school with an international recruiting presence. They’ve had four and five players respectively on the last two rosters:

Duquesne 22-23 4 players from Bosnia, France, Kosovo, Sweden

Duquesne 21-22 5 players from Macedonia, Canada, Spain, Senegal, Sweden

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