Sunday, February 19, 2023

Doggy's Doghouse 2/19/2023

 














 




GO UCONN!!!!!

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No. 6 UConn Huskies                 No. 21 Villanova Wildcats   
                60                                                                  51

Bad officiating seems to be the story of this game. Based on all the posts on the internet about this game, the consensis  appears to be that the refs were just horrible. Even the post even tempered UConn fans I know thought so. Several hard fouls by Villanova players were not called. I did see this tweet as an example. 
I watched the game late last night and fast forwarded through it again this morning and I have a slitghtly different take on the refs.

Yes, they were terrible. Awful. But they missed plenty of calls on and for both teams.I'm sure if you could find a Villanova fan sight you would see plenty of complaining from those fans. Many of the questionable calls were the usual, charge or block, reaching in, displacing the post player with a forearm. Those are all opinion fouls and my problem is when they are not consistent. Players need to know what is a foul or not. 

Where I have a problem is the hold off the ball, mostly one Lou. The example I showed is just a tip of the iceberg. Maybe UConn puts together a video of all those non-calls and sends it to the NCAA offices. Its just constant.

The other issue in this particular game were the fouls that did everything to the player but draw blood. The uppercut to Edwards jaw where she was then called for a travel. The arm coming down by Maddy on Caroline's head sending her to the bench. No call and no review of the hit. I thought any blow to the head gets reviewed. There were others.

However the worst call of the day was the foul on Muhl, I believe it was her fourth. I wish I could find a video of that play. It was obvious that Nika was pushed from behind into the  player she pushed. There is no way that is a foul on Nika, it's the foul on player that pushed her. Three refs on the court and not one of them saw that? Pathetic. 

Ok, enough ref bashing. It was a great game between two terrific teams in a great environment. Let's talk about that!

The crowd!!! Boy, it was loud. The students were great and the UConn contigent did themselves proud. No issue with those fans and the Villanova team like happened in the Creighton game. Second sellout ever and first since 2004 when Nova beat the Huskies 59-56. 

The Game - Nova is a tough team. UConn had a 9 point lead in the first quarter and they came back. UConn had a 12 point lead in the fourth quarter and they went on a 10-0 to close to two points. No give up in that team. But once again UConn showed their own toughness and resiliancy in getting the lead and holding on for the win. 


The Huskies were led again by dynamic 5 year senior Lou Lopez Senechal. She is the only real shooter out there (until Caroline gets more time in to shake off the rust) and teams focus on her legally and illegally (see above). Yet she finds a way to score. That late jumper with a hand in her face was so clutch. The extra arc on the ball made it seem like it had helium in it. With her bad knee she played all 40 minutes, scored 22 points, hit UConn's only three pointers and in a very sloppy game for the Huskies, she only had 1 turnover. Great leadership! 


As the tweet says, Dorka played 35 minutes on that bum ankle and still had another double double. She ran the court well and she played big in the paint. Just an example of the toughness of this team. She ended up with 14 points and 10 rebounds. She did struggle from the foul line going only 4-8, and Dorka also had 5 turnovers. But her overall play was just outstanding.                     


This is an example of the attention that Aaliyah Edwards is seeing. If I remember correctly, she had the ball and no. 3 and no. 15 fouled her when trying to strip her of the ball. It worked. No call. While Edwards, in her 37 minutes, had another double double with 13 points and 14 rebounds, she is really struggling from the field. After being close to 60% on the season, her numbers are dropping fast. She was 5-16 from the field, missing shots she has hit all year long. Maybe fatigue or maybe the extra attention. She also had another tough day with turnovers with 6. More sign of mental and physical fatigue.    


While she didn't have an offensive outburst like she did against Creighton, Duchame had another impactful game. In her 22 minutes (2 more than last game) she had 6 points and 6 rebounds. It's just so good to see her on the court. Caroline only had 1 turnover! She took a blow to the head that I mentioned earlier but she felt well enough to re-enter game a few minutes later. Hopefully she is feeling fine for the St. John's game.

     
Griffin worked really hard on defense in this game but I don't think Geno was that happy with her play. She only played 26 minutes and opted for Ducharme off the bench at several big moments in the game. She had 5 points, 6 rebounds and only 1 turnover.


A Jekle and Hyde performance by Nika. She did a great job at times, handing out 8 assists, and looked lost at times, turning the ball over 7 times. And she never looked for her offense, only shooting 2 three pointers and missing them both. I am redicent to critique players. It's just not my thing. But I would love to see Muhl take the ball to the basket and try to get fouled or get to the rim. We have seen her do that many times, but in this game? She just wanted to pass the ball. Sometimes her UConn players. She played 40 minutes again. Maybe the best conditioned Husky.
   
The team defense was outstanding in this game. They held superstar Maddy Siegrist to 21 points, eight below her average and forced her into 8-22 shooting and 1-6 on threes. Yes, missed open threes are sometimes because of the overall defense that make her rush on the shot. They also did a good job on Olsen, who had 19 points in the first matchup and only 13 points in this one, going 6-14 from the field. They held Nova to 33% shooting and 20% on threes. And they outrebounded the Wildcats 47-25.

With games against St. John's at the XL on Tuesday, a visit to Depaul on Saturday and then Senior night at Gampel against Xavier on Monday, the Huskies pretty much clinched the Big East regular title with this win.

That is goal No. 1 every season. Next is the Big East tournament and then the NCAA tournament. One down, two to go!  
 
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Videos and Audios

Geno Post Game

Geno Audio Post Game

Aaliyah Edwards Post Game Audio

Dorka Juhasz Post Game Audio 

Lou Lopez Senechal Game Highlights

Game Highlights

Game Highlights - Long 

Full game replay

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Lots of speculation by this reporter but it makes a lot of sense. 

Fingers crossed!

Straight from the Dog

Maybe the worst non-call this year. Maybe in many years.

Ole Miss is tied with No. 1 South Carolina 55-55 and they have the ball with the shot clock off. The Old Miss player drives with South Carolina's Boston defending. I'm not sure but it looks like Boston's toe hits the Ole Miss player's foot. Incednetal contact? Ok...I'll buy that. But the Boston's arms on the back pushing down is a clear foul. It prevents the offensive player from regaining her balance and completing the move. It was so clear and the refs just blew it. Sadly the announcers totally ignored it. Pathetic homers. 

Foot on Foot

Both arms on her back

Close up

To me this taints South Carolina's undefeated season. The Ole Miss player might miss her foul shots but she deserved to take them.

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Oh my GOD!!! Bad enough she gets hit in the head but Nova stuck a ball over it. Great for Halloween but not so great to see the basket!

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Philly has great restaurants and LOVES Geno!!


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Huh???? SECreme is such an idiot.

1. He thought Nova should not be in the Top 16
2. Then he changed his mind.
3. Then Nova shot poorly against a top defense and changed his mind again.

All in two hours.

Time to recover? Losing to No. 6 UConn is going to hurt their .NET? Hell, it might even make it better.

Some really great comments on this tweet. 

Does he know how foolish he looks?

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