Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 1/2/2023

GO UCONN!!!!!

UConn is taking on Butler on Tuesday in one of my favorite venues, Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis Indiana. The game is at 7:00 and will broadcast on SNY. This will be an abbreviated pregame report.

Hinkle Fieldhouse, of course, is famous for the court where they filmed "Hoosiers" staring Gene Hackman. A great movie.

We won't be seeing this kind of competition with Butler taking on No. 5 UConn. The Bulldogs are having a tough season. Right now they are 6-8 and 1-4 in the Big East. Too many bad outings to mention. In their last game, they lost to Seton Hall 79-45.

When you can their team stats you can understand why they are who they are. Their only really plus stat is their three point shooting. As a team they are shooting 37.5% from deep. That is an excellent number.

Leading the way is Rachael McLimore, a 5'10" guard. Very experienced as a Grad Student, she is one of two double digit scorers with 11.8 PPG. She shoots 37.4% on threes and takes the most on the team.

They have several three point threats with four other players making double digit threes on the season. This includes Anna Mortag, a 6'1" junior forward, Caroline Strande, a 5'11" junior guard, Tenley Dowell, a 6' senior guard and Shay Fredrick, a 5'7" grad student guard.

Their leading rebounder and only big on the team is Sydney Janes, a 6'3" sophomore forward.

Other than a good three point percentage, the team is really stuggling in the other parts of the game. They only average 64.7 PPG. They do only give up 63.4 PPG but that is not enough to produce wins.

Where they get killed is their inability to hold on to the ball. They only average 12.9 assists per game and turn it over as much as UConn with 17.1 per game. The overall numbers just look really bad, 181 assists and 239 turnovers.

And their lack of rebounds compounds the turnover issues. They only average 34.8 per game and that just won't cut it.

Not much to say about this game other than I'm just hoping UConn has their full complement of available players. I'm pretty sure that Aubrey will be playing and I'm pretty optimistic that Fudd will get some minutes.

I have several predictions for this game. Many are just obvious.

UConn will come close to the 100 point mark.

Butler will struggle to reach 50.

UConn will outrebound Butler by 20.

UConn will have less than 15 turnovers (if Fudd plays)

UConn will win the game by 45+ points.

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UConn's Aaliyah Edwards made the Big East Weekly Honor Roll after averaging 16.0 points and 14.0 rebounds in two games.
— Daniel Connolly (@DanielVConnolly) January 2, 2023

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GAMES

UPSETS IN RED

No. 1 South Carolina 68 Georgia 51

No. 2 Stanford 73 No. 15 Arizona 57

No. 13 Maryland 78 Rutgers 67

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Straight from the Dog

Here was my prediction for the Top 25 poll that came out today. The new rankings are in parentheses.

1 - South Carolina (1)

2 - Stanford (2)

3 - Ohio State (3)

4 - Notre Dame (4)

5 - UConn (5)

6 - LSU (7)

7 - Indiana (6)

8 - UCLA (12)

9 - North Carolina State (10)

10 - Virginia Tech (9)

I missed in a few spots. UCLA lost a game after my prediction so they dropped 3 spots.

I flip-flopped LSU and Indiana. Good to see the weaker LSU schedule impacting the voters a little.

Flipped NCST and Viriginia Tech. It was a flip of the coin.

Just happy to see UConn in the top 5 again.

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Georgia gave No. 1 South Carolina some trouble in the first half with their physical play but the Gamecocks were just the better team and pulled away in the second half. Not even Coach Abe's rough play could stop South Carolina. I really don't miss the games UConn used to have against UCF. Hated them. I'm not a fan of that coaching style.

South Carolina really turned up the defense, holding the Bulldogs to 11 points in the third quarter to turn a 29-26 deficit into a 47-40 lead. They continued to pull away in the fourth quarter and had another 21-11 advantage for the 68-51 win.

Once again I'm not overly impressed with the Gamecocks. Their defense is tough and seems to be able to turn it on when they need to. But their offense will be their downfall. In this game, it was all Zia Cooke. She scored 31 of their 68 points. She took 19 of their 50 shots. She took 12 of their 17 threes. She pretty much dominated the ball and the rest of the team was secondary. No one else score double digits. No one else took double digit shots. Supposed POY candidate Aliyah Boston was 1-6 from the field and had 4 points, rebounds and 3 blocks.

There might not be an SEC team that can beat them but I know of a team that resides in Connecticut that just might do it.

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By PHIL

#1 Seeds

It’s time to revisit the number one seed discussion.

Half of this discussion is easy. I don’t think there is a serious player in the country who would disagree that South Carolina is the overall number one seed, and Stanford is in the second position.

Now I realize there are a few people, myself included, who might point to the Massey rankings, and note that Stanford and UConn are virtually tied for second place, but we also realize that realistically, a two-loss team is not going to win any tiebreaker over a one loss team, especially when that single loss is a close game to the number one team in the country. So, let’s just accept that the first two slots are obvious. Moreover, while is not really much doubt which of the two is number one it doesn’t really matter. South Carolina will be going to Greenville and Stanford to Seattle.

The next two slots are tougher. Ohio State, Notre Dame, and UConn all have their eye on the next two number one spots, but LSU and Utah have legitimate claims for consideration.

Virginia Tech might think they are still in the hunt, but they struggled recently, admittedly without Owusu. It will take her returning soon and strongly; even running the table might not be enough.

It’s been easy to be critical of LSU’s schedule, but the criticism, at least by me, is not a claim that LSU’s no good, simply that it’s hard to tell when they played nobody. Now that they have played a couple decent teams and looked very solid, they will be in the discussion for the fourth number one seed especially if they run the SEC table, but maybe if they beat everyone else and have a strong showing against South Carolina. However, with only two SEC teams in the top 25, one being LSU itself, that means if they run the table except for South Carolina they still won’t have much of a resume. I have a feeling that the voters will manage to overlook that and give LSU a number one seed if they go into the decision process with a single loss.

Utah is the team that snuck up on everybody. Of course, by everybody we mean AP voters who managed not to look at Massey where Utah is the fifth rated overall team. Yes, that means they are ranked ahead of both Notre Dame and LSU, yet how many are talking about them as a serious contender for an one seed? Their strength of schedule is not stellar, yet it is far better than LSU’s.

If Utah can come close to running the table in the Pac 12, even if they can’t beat Stanford they will have a better resume than a one loss LSU. My guess is that’s not going to happen, there are too many chances for a stumble against an Arizona, UCLA or Oregon, but they are a team that needs to be watched.

If both Utah and LSU stumble, that leaves Ohio State, Notre Dame and UConn vying for the two remaining number one spots.

UConn can survive a loss to South Carolina not to Tennessee.

Ohio State may be in the catbird seat. Not too long ago, Ohio State looked a little shaky beating number 49 Michigan State, and both Indiana and Iowa were vying for top dog in the conference, but both Indiana and Iowa stumbled recently, with Indiana just barely surviving yesterday and Iowa falling to Illinois. In contrast Ohio State has looked stronger with a convincing victory over Oregon and a solid win over Michigan. If they run the table, they’ll almost certainly get a number one seed, but they could probably survive one upset and still deserve one.

Notre Dame has a tougher path than Ohio State with games at NC State and Duke remaining. Luckily, they do not have to face Duke at Duke. Even if they manage a single loss, they do have the win over UConn which would give them the nod in a close call between Notre Dame and UConn.

But I started writing this I was thinking I could see a clear path to UConn getting a number one seed. Now I'm not as convinced and I’m not even sure that’s what I want. Getting the third number one seed would likely slot UConn in Greenville, but getting the fourth one might send them out to Seattle. I think I prefer the two seed in Greenville (not in the South Carolina bracket) to a trip to Seattle.

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By David in Naples

When Christyn, Evina and Olivia graduated, the Huskies lost the #1, #2 and #3 (tied) scorers from the 2021-22 season. Those three scored 1,094 points for UConn a year ago. Add in the loss of injured Paige and her 248 points, and the Huskies "lost" 1,342 points from their lineup for this 2022-23 season. Of course, graduation, transfers and injuries happen every year and fans always want to know who will replace the scoring. But 1,342 points was 51% of the total points from last season. That is high..! By comparison, when Stewie, MoJeff and Tuck graduated, UConn "lost" 48.7% of their scoring. When Napheesa and Lou left, 45.2% of the poins went with them. The scoring has been replaced (it always is) in some unusual ways.

Consider:

1. The team leader in scoring has only played 13 games for UConn. Lou Lopez Senechal has scored 225 points in the first 13 games. That is 17.3 ppg. That covers Christyn's 14.2 ppg last season.

2. Aaliyah is the 2nd leading scorer at 224 points. Her 17.2 ppg this year, covers last season's 7.9 ppg for her and makes up Olivia's 9.2 ppg.

3. Before her injury, Azzi was on fire with an average of 20.6 ppg and 144 points in 7 games. That is an improvement on her 12.1 ppg from last season. Kind of covers Evina's scoring.

4. Aubrey did not play or score a point last season. Her recovery from back surgery has been nothing short of a miracle. Her 140 points are 4th on the team and average 12.7 ppg.

5. Also adding 12.7 ppg is Dorka, although only appearing in 6 games. She is the 5th Huskie to average in double figures vs three a year ago.

Players graduate every year and point production is replaced, somehow & someway. This year has been unusual since two of the four leading scorers didn't play at all last year. Add to that Azzi's pre-injury scoring bonanza, Aaliyah dominating in the lane and Dorka having her best string of games as a Huskie and the result is 81.3 average per game. That compares favorably to the 73.8 ppg from last season for 36 games.

Also of interest, 7 different players have either led the team in scoring in a game, or finished 2nd. Azzi, Lou, Aaliyah, and Aubrey have all been leading scorers in at least one game and Dorka, Caroline and Nika have been 2nd at least once. Good balance in scoring with any of the 7 players capable of "going off" on a particular night. When everyone gets healthy, that should help immensly at Tournament time. Opinions?

GO Huskies...!!

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