Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 1/12/2023

GO UCONN!!!!!

************************************************

I just love this video. It's less than 2 minutes but it has some great highlights and shows the personality of this team. The more I see the more I feel they have a really good shot at the National Championship.

Big night in New York! pic.twitter.com/w3JSQVfuHO
— UConn Women’s Basketball (@UConnWBB) January 12, 2023

*************************************************

Just so you know what Phil is talking about when he said OMGB, here is the video that explains it all.

Gotta love Nika!!!

“Oh My God Bro” - @MuhlNika 🇭🇷 pic.twitter.com/KfSEYJXa0R
— UConnWBBy90 (@UConnWBBy90) January 12, 2023

***********************************************

GAMES

UPSETS IN RED

No. 1 South Carlina 95 Kentucky 66

No. 5 LSU 77 Missouri 55

No. 6 Indiana 68 No. 9 Maryland 61

No. 7 Notre Dame 86 Wake Forest 47

No. 11 North Carolina State 72 Florida State 91

No. 13 Virginia Tech 81 Louisville 79

No. 16 Duke 66 Clemson 56

No. 22 North Carolina 70 Virginia 59

**************************************************

Straight from the Dog

You know me, I just love to search the internet for interesting things to share for you. I was thinking about the upcoming UConn/South Carolina in three weeks from Sunday. The Gamecocks are undefeated and the favorites to win the Naational Championship again. It is certainly possible. Winning it last year is the past. Winning it again this year is the now. How about the future?

I took a peak at their roster and unless some players decide to take a covid year, South Carolina is losing a ton of points, assists and rebounds.

So, who will probably be leaving after this seasons?

SR Zia Cooke - 15 PPG, 1.4 RPG, 34 assists, 18 steals

SR Aliya Boston - 11.5 PPG, 9.3 RPG, 24 assists, 9 steals 20 blocks

SR Victaria Saxton - 4.6 PPG 3.1 RPG, 6 assists, 6 steals, 7 blocks

SR Bria Beal - 4.9 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 39 assists, 17 steals, 23 blocks.

SR Lateicia Amihere - 7.1 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 24 assists, 17 steals 20 blocks

GS Kierra Fletcher - 4.2, PPG 3.7 RPG, 30 assists, 20 steals, 3 blocks

The Cooke, Boston, Saxton, Beal and Fletcher start. Amihere is a key player off the bench.

South Carolina is an interesting team. Staley can see clearly that these 6 players are graduating and she needs to get the other players ready for next season. So the mibnutes are spread out. They have 13 players with 10.2 to 24.4 minutes player per game. That is just crazy. And as a fan of a team with only 6 players available in one game, I'm a little jealous.

So, how much in production does South Carolina lose?

Points - 750 of 1294 for 58%

Rebounds - 408 of 812 for 50.2%

Assists - 157 of 258 for 60.8%

Steals - 82 of 153 for 53.6%

Blocks - 82 of 139 for 59%

Minutes - 1909 of 3225 for 59% of the minutes. It kind of lines up with the other percentages. It makes sense.

Still that is a LOT of production. But it's really worse than that. In competative games, they play. Which aren't many. The bench players don't include Amihere as she is in the 6 players leaving percentages.

5 point overtime win against Stanford 70.6% of the minutes. 2 bench players with double digit minutes.

7 point win against Mississippi State 66% of the minutes. 2 bench players with double digit minutes.

9 point win against UCLA 74% of the minutes. 2 bench players with double digit minutes.

They have a good recruiting class coming in but we all know how freshman are. Will they be ready to contribute? They have No. 13, 17, 25 and 40 ranked recruits. You can be sure Staley will grab a transfer or two.

Will the recruits, transfers and returning players be enough to compete for a championship? I don't think so.

**************************************************

Some interesting games Thursday night.

No. 6 Indiana beat No. 9 Maryland 68-61. This doesn't help UConn's NET ranking but it doesn't really hurt it either. However, I'm always happy when Maryland loses.

No. 5 LSU beat what some fans (not me) thought would be a tough matchup in unranked Missouri. They beat them by 20 points. And Angel Reese had another terrific game with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Maybe it's time to consider that they are a pretty darn good team.

For the first time in their history, No. 11 Virginia Tech beat Louisville. The score was 81-79 in a game that was close throughout. The Cardinals are now 13-6. I don't see them beting ranked anytime soon.

No. 22 North Carolina was down 51-42 heading into the fourth quarter but the Tarheels used a 28-8 fourth quarter to beat Virginia. The Cavaliers were minus Mir McLean, who was lost for the season with a knee injury the prior game.

Finally, No. 11 North Carolina State was beaten by unranked Florida State 91-72. The Seminole used big 1st and 3rd quarters to create a big lead that the Wolfpack had no chance to oversome. They are now 2-3 their last 5 games. Both were former UConn opponents that the Huskies were able to defeat.

**************************************************

Well, how embarrassing is this. While Tennessee did beat Texas A&M in the Aggies house, it was a terrible performance by the Lady Vols.

First, let's look at Texas A&M so far this season. They are 5-9 overall and 0-4 in the SEC. They average 52 points per game. Really. They shoot 36% from the field and 23% on threes. They have 148 assists and 259 turnovers. They also shoot 59% from the free throw line. you know, the place where no one is guarding you?

Tennessee had an 8-7 lead after one quarter, 23-17 at the half and 41-32 after three quarters.

The final was 62-50 as Tennessee was able to hold on in the fourth quarter in a game that the Lady Vols should have won by 30+ points.

Tennessee fans sure thought so. From Volnation.

@Coach Jumper 99-55
@volfan2012 80-52
@37620VOL 78-58
@Orange Maniac 72-55
@Vols2015 87-60
@travis929 70-62
@glv98 75-54
@Ladyvol777 79-49
@J-Dog 1313 87-46
@Rooster1 76-45
@VolBalls33 77-53

@chuckiepoo 75-58

I am looking forward to seeing UConn with a full compliment of players kick their butt.

**************************************************

By PHIL

Perfect Storm

I don’t usually write game summaries because DoggyDaddy typically does it better and faster, but this was an amazing game, so perhaps it’s worth another few paragraphs.

I totally agree with DD that Azzi’s return is the main storyline. They said she would be limited to 10 minutes per half and the box score says she played exactly that, 20 minutes. She was better than 50% field goal shooting and exactly 50% on threes, hitting two of four. And they looked good. And she didn’t just take threes. It would’ve been easy to understand if you wanted to ease back into the game, hung around the perimeter and took a few longshots when available, but seven of her 11 shots were inside the arc, with four of them going in. Not just a pull-up jumper either, some great drives.

So how constrained would you be of someone said you had to write an article about the game and not talk about Fudd?

Turns out, you have a lot to choose from.

Edwards was very impressive, hitting more than half her field-goal attempts, and on a night when the team free throw shooting wasn’t overly impressive, she hit five of six. Her minutes were a bit limited due to foul problems, but she still managed to play good defense and record 15 points.

The other big was even better. Juhász at 8 of her 14field-goal attempts and recorded a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Let’s not overlook seven assists. She’s a 6’ 5’ post. One assist is nice, two is worth remarking on and seven is awesome.

Nika had five assists which isn’t a top storyline because she set the bar so high. She had three of the teams five steals, but let’s face it, her top storyline is her new addition to the English lexicon — OMGB

if you don’t know that means you weren’t paying attention.

I’ve just gotten started.

Low recorded about as efficient a 20 point output as you can manage. She took nine shots hitting eight of them, hitting all four two-point shots and all but one of her three-point shots. Players earn conference player of the week for stats like that, and she’s struggling to break into the top storyline for one game!

It’s always easier to talk about offense than defense but let’s not miss what happened when Geno said it was time to shut down Everett. I think she scored two points after that request and Griffin was the main reason why. Everett did score 10 points which is respectable but I think she is the fifth leading scorer in the Big East at 17 points a game, so Griffin played a large role in keeping her well below that mark.

Then there’s team stats.

The most obvious one is 10

Let’s face it, in years past, noticing that the team had 10 turnovers would generate a “well not bad”, but this year that qualifies as 20% better than the second-best result.

And in other best results — the team hit 62.3% of their field goals. They’ve exceeded 60% twice, but against Providence and Seton Hall neither of which are as good as St. John’s.

**************************************************