Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 12/20/2022

GO UCONN!!!!!

Sad to say Geno is under the weather again and will miss the Seton Hall game. As Geno and I are around the same age, I'm worried about his future health. Hopefully he just has a cold or at worse, a mild case of the flu. But you just don't bounce back like you do when you are younger. And by "you", I mean me....lol.

It's been a tough few weeks for Geno. She has lost several players to injury and it's not easy to handle that game after game. As a fan I get stressed from this, so I can only imagine how Geno as coach has to deal with it.

On top of that, Geno's mom passed away. I certainly know how he is feeling about that. It's a difficult time and he barely has time to really mourn as one would like to do.

Sending healing thoughts to Geno and I'm sure he could use this break as much as the players. Hopefully everyone comes back invigorated for Creighton in their first game and the rest of the Big East schedule along with the last two OOC games against Tennessee and South Carolina.

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Here is my UConn/Seton Hall Pregame Report if you haven't seen it. Enjoy!!

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It's time for me to give a shout out to the UConn men's basketball team. They are ranked No. 2 behind Purdue but No. 1 in several other rankings. Wow. I was a men's team fan before getting hooked on the women's team way back in the Yankee Conference days.

Tuesday night the Huskies had a big challenge from Georgetown and were outscored early in the second half to lose their 9 point lead. But this team is something special and they were able to come back and pull away at the end for the 84-73 win.

GO UCONN!!!

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And while I'm on Men's basketball, I just love all the upsets you get...several Tuesday!

Unranked Drake beat No. 15 Mississippi State.

Unranked Wake Forest beat No. 14 Duke.

Unranked Providence beat No. 24 Marquette.

So much fun!

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GAMES

UPSETS IN RED

No. 2 Stanford vs No. 21 Creighton (Late Game)

No. 3 Ohio State 88 South Florida 86 OT

No. 6 North Carolina 68 No. 19 Michigan 76

No. 11 UCLA vs Fresno State (Late Game)

No. 12 Utah 88 Weber State 52

No. 16 Oregon 85 No. 17 Arkansas 78

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Straight from the Dog

I have to say, I just love reading the Tennessee message for for entertainment.

The fans there post on board like the Battling Bickersons. Constantly arguing amongst themselves. It's the "fans who can't find anthing wrong" vs the "negavols". So funny.

The latest dust up is about how the Stanford loss was either "the team is getting better" or "the team is the worst Tennessee team in 40 years". No in-between.

In a thread called "The Lady Vols Need to ....." two posters really got into it. I'll share a little.

This poster has an inflated opinion of the Tennessee roster. Talking about Coach Harper -

Poster 1 - "All but maybe 3 teams would kill to have her roster!"

Poster 2 - "This roster isn’t a Top 4 roster"

Poster 1 - "Had the number 1 portal class this year. You can ignore because it wasn’t high school recruits but she got a great “class”."

Poster 1 - "Name the better rosters."

Poster 2 - "If we have better rosters then we are getting out coached by lesser talented teams. Is that where this is going?"

Poster 1 - "No, you name them. There are many things that go into winning games including chemistry and playing together for significant amounts of time. You think there are better rosters out there let’s hear it."

Poster 2 - "UCLA, Gonzaga, VT, Ohio State, Indiana off the top of my head"

Poster 1 - "No, those teams did beat us but they do not have better rosters. They have kids who have played together longer. You said they had better rosters. You obviously can’t back up your claim."

Poster 2 - "W > L No reason to debate rosters if you can’t win. IU had no problem with portal players and winning"

Poster 1 - "You said better rosters! Perhaps you owe our players an apology."

Poster 2 - "Better roster won. We "might" have better players in Horston and Jackson. That does not mean we have a better roster. There is a difference. A roster is more than 1-2 players on a 15 player bench. Sounds like you might be stepping into the boundaries of Kellie is getting out coached by lesser talented teams."

Poster 1 - "I’ll take our 1-15 against almost every other program in the country, not just the top two players."

Yeah, that's enough...lol.

I don't about what teams have better rosters. I don't know them all. I can tell you that other than Horston and Jackson, the rest of the roster has just mediocre players. The incredible "portal" class is really not that good.

Rickea Jackson has pretty good stats. But their coach benched her for some unknown reasons and is just getting back in the lineup. It appears she has some issues that impact her ability to stay in the lineup. She is averaging 16 points, but if you don't play, you are averaging zero.

Jasmine Powell is the point guard transfer from Minnesota who lost her starting position the last few games. She is a small guard who is struggling against the better teams. Shooting 36% from the field and 32% on threes and only 6.8 PPG. Not exactly the answer.

Jasmine Franklin is a forward transfer from Coach Harper's old school, Missouri State. UConn fans know how bigs from small schools struggle in the better conferences. And she has a bad knee from surgery last season. She is only managing 13.7 MPG and 5.6 PPG.

Last, Jillian Hollingshead is a 6'5" transfer from Georgia and with Key now done for the season, you'd think she would be a big part of the rotation. Against Stanford, where the Cardinal big Brink was dominating, she only saw 9 minutes. Really?

So there you go, the great Tennessese portal recruiting. Meh.......

I bet there are 10 rosters better. Maybe more.

Ok, enough about Tennessee. For now.

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What a game! No. 3 Ohio State beat South Florida 88-86 in overtime. The Bulls had a good lead in the fourth quarter but the Buckeyes were able to tie the game late. It went back and forth in the overtime. Taylor Mikselle hit a big three to tie the game with 15 seconds left, and then Eboni Walker had a big block on a layup attempt by USF. Taylor Thiery hit a layup with 6 seconds left and after a South Florida turnover, the game was over. Great effort by the Bulls on the road but it was just not meant to be.

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In a big upset, No. 19 Michigan went on the road and beat No. 6 North Carolina 76-68. I love upsets.....well, unless it's UConn being upset. Then I hate it.

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By PHIL

Chris Dailey as Head coach

Chris Dailey recently filled in for Geno Auriemma when he was under the weather and stayed away from the arena under an abundance of caution. As reported in the media accounts, her win at the helm makes her 14 – 0 lifetime when filling in for Geno. I thought it would be an interesting walk down memory lane to review the prior times she’s needed to fill in especially since Geno is going to miss the Seton Hall game on Wednesday as well.

Geno became a head coach in 1985 and made it until 1989 before missing a game. In the 1988 – 89 season, UConn played a preseason scrimmage against Division III Eastern Connecticut State. While the game was not intended to be part of the regular season schedule, there were some questions about whether it qualified as a preseason game or as a regular-season game. If it qualified as a regular-season game, it would mean that UConn was guilty of scheduling more regular-season games than permitted. If they played all those games, they would not be eligible for the Big East tournament. UConn found out about the issue while the season was in progress. Syracuse was gracious enough to cancel the regular-season game against UConn. Yes, you can tell that this is an old story. Even though that solved the problem and permitted UConn to participate in the Big East tournament, UConn administrators decided to impose a suspension for Geno. He would not be permitted to coach the final regular-season game against St. John’s or any games in the Big East tournament.

Chris Dailey stepped in as head coach in the regular-season finale against St. John’s on 25 February 1989 and the team helped her earn her first win 73 – 58. (Technically, in situations like this, the NCAA awards the victory to the head coach not the fill-in coach, but both media and fans keep track of results when Chris Dailey is at the helm).

She was still acting head coach as they played their first game in the Big East tournament against Georgetown. Present-day fans have a recollection of Big East dominance but remember this was a different time. When Chris Dailey took the court as acting head coach, UConn’s record in the Big East tournament was a less than stellar 1 – 6, with the lone victory being a 52 – 51 win over Boston College in 1984, before Geno was coach. Geno’s record as a Big East tournament coach was 0-3.

The first game was against Georgetown, and UConn prevailed 85 – 73, resulting in the first Big East tournament win in the Geno era, and Geno wasn’t even on the floor. The next day they played Boston College and won easily 65 – 45. This brought them to their first ever conference final game and with Chris at the helm they beat Providence 84 – 65, giving UConn the first ever Big East tournament champion title.

It would be eight more years before Geno would miss another game. In 1997, Geno’s father passed away, the Friday before the Big East tournament. Chris Dailey again stepped in to take over the head coaching duties. UConn easily won the first game against Villanova 63-45. In the semifinal game, UConn faced Miami, who were leading 16 – 15 seven minutes into the game, but UConn responded with a 17 – two run to take control of the game. The Huskies ended up winning 98 – 71. The championship game was against Notre Dame. It was a three-point game halfway through the first half, but UConn ran off 11 consecutive points and Notre Dame never seriously threatened the remainder the game. The final, in favor of UConn, was 86 – 77.

Geno then went 22 seasons without missing a game. To put the 22 seasons in perspective, there are 356 Division I head coaches. Only 13 of these coaches have been coaching 22 (or more) seasons. In 2019, Geno was ill and decided not to make the road trip to Tulsa and Wichita State. Chris again stepped in. On 24 February 2019 UConn defeated Tulsa 68 – 49. Although Tulsa had a 14 – 9 lead early in the game, UConn took the lead late in the first quarter and the margin was in double digits for all of the second half.

Two days later, UConn play Wichita State and Napheesa Collier scored 32 points to help UConn to an 84 – 47 win to keep Chris’s streak alive.

In December 2019, Geno missed a game due to scheduled surgery. Chris took over at the Basketball Hall of Fame Showcase in the Mohegan Sun against Oklahoma. Olivia Nelson-Ododa had 27 points, 15 rebounds and seven blocks to help ensure that Dailey remained undefeated when taking over for Geno. The final score was 97 – 53.

The following season the world was dealing with Covid, and Geno tested positive just before the beginning of the NCAA tournament. It was a first-round game. UConn typically has not had difficulty with first-round opponents, and this was no different. With Chris coaching the team UConn beat High Point 102 – 59.

The second-round game was against Syracuse with Chris still taking over the head coaching duties. Syracuse was within two points early in the second quarter, but UConn opened a 16-point lead by halftime and ended up winning 83 – 47.

During the last season UConn faced Creighton on 2 February 2022. UConn was ranked 10th in the country and Creighton was unranked, so on paper, it didn’t seem like this should be a tough test. However, Creighton ignored DoggyDaddy’s analysis, scored the first six points of the game and pulled out to a 12-point lead 18-6 late in the first quarter. This was the toughest challenge to date for Dailey’s streak. UConn responded but was still down at halftime. The Huskies outscored the Blue Jays 19 – 8 in the third quarter and then cruised to a 76 – 56 win. They were closer final scores, but this probably qualified as the first game where the outcome seemed in doubt.

Finally, at least so far, we all know that Geno missed the Basketball Hall of Fame Showcase game this year. The game against Florida State was almost the opposite of the game against Creighton. UConn was up by 15 at the end of the first quarter and stretched the lead to 23, seemingly on the way to an easy win, but Florida State did not cooperate and cut into the lead, getting the margin down to four, before UConn finished up with an eight point win 85 – 77, bringing Chris Dailey’s unofficial record to 14 – 0 lifetime.

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By David in Naples

Per Carl Adamac:

1. Chris Dailey is now 14-0 as a head coach.

2. UConn has now gone 1,069 games without losing two in a row.

3. The Huskies are 75-0 against Florida schools, since thier last loss to Miami in 1993.

4. FSU is 0-10 against UConn.

Per me:

1. Lou and Aaliyah are the only players to start all 10 UConn games.

2. Lou leads the team in scoring with 179 points. Aaliyah is 2nd at 169.

3. Nika has 90 assists in 9 games. That is 43% of the total.

4. Lou has scored in double figures every game this season. Only one..

Go Huskies..!! Beat Seton Hall & get healthy..!