Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 12/10/2022

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GO UCONN!!!!!

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UConn has more active streaks than any team in WCBB. Here are a few that were all on the line against Princeton with the new number after the win.

1,067 games without back-to-back losses dating back to 1993

94-game winning streak vs. first-time opponents dating back to 1996

77-0 vs. opponents with a former Geno player or assistant coach on their coaching staff. Big one?

Here is one more.

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Here is my update. Who the hell knows???

Muhl? - No word.

Juhasz? - Last word was not mentally ready. Cleared physically.

Lou? - Foot is sore but she has been playing with that issue for weeks.

Does that help? Not for me..lol.

Here is my best guess.

Muhl possibly will play. 40% chance.

Juhasz might give it a go. 60% chance.

Lou will be playing. 100% chance.

I'm actually hopeful on Nika playing. She went on an event with the team to the Children's Hospital and I'm not sure she would have been allowed if she was suffering from a concussion. Fingers crossed.

No, I don't have any inside info on this one. We will know more either late Saturday or sometime before the game.

This makes the Pre Game Report prediction I'm working on very difficult to do.

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12-9-99 KK Arnold:

27 points (11-27 FG, 3-10 3-PT), 6 rebs, 4 assists, 2 steals

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Friday night had a candidate for the UGGY. Thanks to my good friend PB for the heads up!

Jamelle Eliiots last coaching gig, Cincinnati, lost to Xavier 48-35.

Certainly the 35 points meets the point requirements. Let's look at the other categories I use to hand out this prestigous award.

Shooting Percentage - 10-56 for 17.9%.

3 Point Percentage - 1-11 for 9.7%.

FT Percentage - 14-22 for 63.6%.

Turnovers - 18

Yep...they qualify. Congrats to the Bearcats!!! The latest winner of the UGGY!!!!!

Other candidates were Omaha - 36 points, 22%, 19% and 17 turnovers.

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GAMES

UPSETS IN RED

No. 5 Notre Dame 108 Merrimack 44

No. 13 UCLA Cal State Fullerton

No. 15 Utah 76 BYU 59

No. 16 Iowa Minnesota

No. 18 Creighton 75 Drake 71

No. 24 Kansas State 78 South Dakota State 82

No. 25 Villanova 82 St. Joseph's 59

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Straight from the Dog

I linked a UConn/Maryland game preview from the Maryland perspective. It's funny how they looked at UConn in their write up.

The most amazing thing is they didn't mention Nika Muhl once. Not the fact that she leads the country in assists per game, and not the fact that she was knocked into Sunday with an elbow by the opponent and a knee by a teammate in the same play. It's like she doesn't exist.

Guess who else they didn't mention one. Yes, Azzi Fudd. Only their leading scorer who is out for this game. This writer went one and one about the UConn offense but with Fudd out and possibly Muhl? It's the weakness on the team.

And they call UConn's defense their weakness. Yes, 63 PPG is a little high for the Huskies to give up but their defensive shooting percentages are solid. And they fail to mention the difficult schedule that UConn has played to date.

Hey, at least they tried to put a pregame together. Now I have to go finish up mine. Hopefully i'm more accurate about Maryland than they were about UConn.

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Some great performances Saturday.

Notre Dame beat up on Merrimack and they were led by Oliva Miles. She had a really nice triple double - 13 points, 13 rebounds, 14 assists. Damn, I like symmetry. Can we take away an assists? This was her third career triple-double. Most of any ND player. She will have more.

One of my favorite non-UConn players Maddy Siegrist, from Villanova led the Wildcats to an easy win over St. Joseph's. She had 31 points and 8 rebounds. So efficient from the floor going 11-20 and 4-6 on threes. I just love her game!

Sophomore Superstar, Depaul's Aneesha Morrow scored 45 points against Northwestern in the Blue Demon's win. She scored her 1,000th point of her career in 43 games. The 13th fastest in NCAA history. Quite an accomplishment!

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I'm not sure why Kansas State is ranked. I guess they are living off their early season win over Iowa by one point. They really don't have any other significant wins. And Saturday, they were upset by South Dakota State 82-78. At No. 24, this loss will drop them out of the rankings.

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The Big East is just amazing this year. Saturday the conference went 5-0. The highlight

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Boy, that Kim Mulkey sure knows how to challenge her team. She continues the Cupcake Parade with a tough one against 1-5 New Orleans. Yes, it's a local game but still. Another 100 point outing for the Tigers? I'd bet on it.

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By PHIL

And then there were 12

As I write this, there are 12 undefeated teams in women's basketball Division I

South Carolina
Indiana
Virginia Tech
Ohio St
Utah
Arkansas
LSU
Kansas
USC
Virginia
St John's
Rice

There were 13 when I first started writing this, but Villanova knocked off St. Joe's to knock them from the list of the undefeated

The first five are ranked in the top 10 of Massey and all have strength of schedule ranking in the top 50. I’ll return to them later.

Then we have Arkansas, 11 – 0, one of two SEC teams I cheer for (the other, of course, is Vanderbilt). The strength of schedule is 103, so not quite as solid as the teams ahead of them. They beat Kansas State by 16, now ranked in the top 25 with their only losses being to Arkansas and today against S. Dakota State. Still, they need to face a few more decent teams before we can be sure they are for real. That won't happen right away with their next game against Arkansas State, but a week from today they face Creighton, and three days later face Oregon, both of which will challenge their undefeated status.

Next on the list is LSU team about which much ink has been spilled. They haven't faced anybody, and after briefly challenging one team who didn't have triple digits in the ranking, they will return to weak teams like New Orleans (337) and Lamar (243). Expect their undefeated streak to last a while longer.

Kansas is undefeated but that may change soon. The strength of schedule isn't anywhere near as bad as LSU's, but they didn't really play anybody of consequence until Thursday when they played Arizona. The signs were there when they played Texas A&M, not a current powerhouse but ranked 89th. Kansas beat them 74 – 42 which may have opened some eyes. For the remaining people yet to be convinced, they took on previously undefeated and 12th -ranked Arizona and didn't just win but beat them soundly 77 – 50. That knocked Arizona out of the list of undefeated teams and is likely to propel Kansas into the top 25. They should be able to coast through their next two games against Wichita State and Tulsa, but they follow that with a string of 11 teams, nine of which are in the in the top 50. Despite being higher ranked than all of them, they are only favored to win three of them. While they may well win several, the likelihood that they can run the table is very slim.

USC is undefeated, but let's face it, only the game against 91st rank San Francisco was a game against a team without a triple digit ranking. They face UCLA next Thursday their toughest test to date. If they survive that, they'll have several more tests shortly thereafter.

Virginia's 11 – 0 start is a nice start but also largely an artifact of a less than stellar schedule. Only three opponents with better than triple digit ratings and Wake Forest at number 69 is the best of the opponents to date. That will quickly change with a game against Duke at Duke on Wednesday, and if they manage to win that game, January will be tough with three consecutive opponents in the top 10.

It's nice to see the Big East St. John's with an undefeated record. Their claim to fame is a win against highly ranked Creighton last Sunday but that's it so far. Every other opponent has a triple digit ranking. They don't face an opponent with less than a triple digit ranking until January against Seton Hall. They might still be undefeated after that game, but in mid-December they've got Connecticut, Villanova and Marquette in consecutive games. I think their undefeated streak will end against one of those three if not before.

Rice is also undefeated thanks to a less than stellar schedule. However, they only have two games against Middle Tennessee home and away with better than triple digit rankings, so if they could manage to get by Middle Tennessee twice they'd have a shot at extending an undefeated streak. Even though they are favored in a lot of their games, they are almost certainly going to stumble at least once and probably several times.

So back to the top five.

South Carolina has an expected winning probability in all but one of their remaining games at 76% or higher. The only exception is Connecticut, and that's going to be highly dependent on who is available and how well they play. It's far from inconceivable that they may go into postseason without a loss.

Indiana is favored in many of the remaining games, but they will face several tough tests, including Maryland at home, Michigan at Michigan, Ohio State at home, and Ohio State at Ohio State as well as others.

Virginia Tech isn't getting a lot of buzz, but while they are favored against both Notre Dame and North Carolina, seems hard to believe they will win both.

Ohio State is looking the best they've looked in years, but the going to face a lot of challenges in their conference. Although conference play starts tomorrow, it looks like they could be safe until mid-January, when they face Nebraska, Iowa and Indiana in a relatively short stretch.

Utah is only 7-0 but they have faced a little tougher schedule than some of the other undefeateds. It doesn't look like they'll be seriously challenged until January and then all have to deal with some of the bluebloods in the Pac 12

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