Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 12/25/2022

GO UCONN!!!!!

I hope everyone that celebrates had a wonderful Christmas and got plenty of goodies under their tree! Here is one from me.

Here is my UConn/Creighton Pregame Report.

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After watching this video, I'm thinking Fudd will be back on the sooner than later end of her timeframe.

there’s not one of these videos where azzi doesn’t have a big smile on her face and i love it pic.twitter.com/XhT6XtQpn3
— azzi fudd npoy (9-2) 🤫⏳ (@bueckers_) December 21, 2022

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🗣️ Don’t play with ya food KK! @Kamorea_2023 🎥: @Midwest_Ballers pic.twitter.com/yegCw8gAl3
— Ballislife Womens Basketball (@ballislifewbb_) December 24, 2022

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GAMES

UPSETS IN RED

I missed the last few days last week but there were only two games, so here they are!

No. 2 Stanford 90 California 69

No. 12 Utah 90 Southern Utah 56

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Straight from the Dog

Here are some stats from two players. Who would you pick for your team?

Player 1 - 12 PPG, 9.6 RPG, 20 blocks, 19 assists 61% FG, 0-7 3's, 74% FT

Player 2 - 17.5 PPG, 9.1 RPG, 13 blocks, 32 assists, 63% FG, 1-1 3's, 74% FT

Player 1 is Alayah Boston.

Player 2 is Aaliyah Edwards.

It's not only first names they have in common. But I'd take Edwards right now. Yes, she has played more minutes to somewhat inflate her stats. But she has had the better season so far.

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By PHIL

And then there were six

It seemed like it was just the other day I was talking about the 11 team still undefeated in women’s basketball Division I. In fact, it was way back on 18 December which is… checking calendar… four days ago.

How quickly that list has changed.

The current list of undefeated teams includes:

South Carolina

Ohio State

Indiana

Utah

LSU

St. John’s

Virginia Tech is the highest (Massey) ranked team to bite the dust. They took on Notre Dame but lost by double digits.

Arkansas had played a relatively weak schedule, which got tougher with a game against Creighton, which they one but then they ran into Oregon will be done by seven. They follow that up with an overtime loss to South Florida, so they went from undefeated to a two-loss team in less than 48 hours.

Kansas is the closest to staying on the list. They took on unranked Nebraska took them to overtime. In a weird scoring pattern, both teams scored exactly 2 points in the first overtime, then both teams scored exactly 8 points in the second overtime, then Nebraska outscored Kansas 15-9 in the third overtime. One more free-throw in regular time and we’d still be talking about them as an undefeated team.

Virginia is another team that was on the undefeated list mainly due to a weak schedule. Wake Forest ranked number 69 was their toughest opponent in the first 12 games. When they finally played a team good enough to earn an invitation to the NCAA tournament, Duke, they went down in flames by 14 points 70 –56.

Rice was also on the undefeated list due to following the Kim Mulkey school of scheduling. While their strongest opponent SF Austin was one position better than Virginia’s toughest opponent, all but two of their first nine opponents were ranked in triple digits. Then they faced MTSU at number 49, still not strong enough to be sure they will earn an invitation the NCAA tournament but strong enough to beat Rice.

Who will be the next to fall?

South Carolina has a probability of winning exceeding 80% for the next nine games. Only the 10th game against Connecticut will be a challenge and South Carolina is still favored in that game. If they win that game they will probably run the regular-season table.

I thought Ohio State might be a little over ranked, but they beat a decent Oregon team by 17, so maybe they are for real. They are favored in most of the remaining games, but they do have challenges at Indiana and Maryland.

Speaking of Indiana, they are also undefeated, so by definition both they and Ohio State can’t remain that way past their next meeting, but Indiana has some interesting challenges against Maryland and Michigan before that game.

Utah must be one of the quietest undefeated teams in sometime. I don’t hear a lot of chatter about how they are doing. They are in the Pac-12 so are going to facing challenges. I expect them to stumble but I don’t know whether it will be against Washington state or Colorado, or whether they can keep the streak alive until either Arizona or Stanford.

St. John’s is the team that doesn’t really belong on this list. Their schedule is ranked 206 in the country which if you can believe this, is even worse than LSU’s. With the Massey ranking of 50, they aren’t good enough to earn an at-large invitation to the NCAA tournament. They did beat Creighton, but in the next seven games their opponents of favored in five of them, so I don’t see this winning streak lasting much longer.