Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 2/21/2023

GO UCONN!!!!!

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UConn Huskies St. John's Storm

64 69

Well, it was a shock but not a surprise. They way they have been playing lately, this was bound to happen.

Fortunately for me, we were out tonight and I didn't get to watch the game. But following the internet on occasion and peeking at some UConn message board threads, I got a feel for the game. Even when UConn went on that 13-0 run to start the second half, they just didn't look right.

It's now several games in a row that the team is just struggling. Too many turnovers, too many missed shots and in this game they allowed too many offensive rebounds by St. John's. This is not a game I'm going to go back and watch. You don't need to hear from me about how bad they looked. I can tell from the gamecast and box score. The only good news is that this win might get St. John's back in the tournament with their 20th win. Geno gave them a ton of credit in his post game interview. Watch it to get some perspective on the loss.

UConn needs someone to spark this team. If not, it just feels like the final four streak is in jeopardy.

Villanova barely got by DePaul 67-64. The Blue Demons at home are going to be a handful.

Geno Postgame Interivew

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NEWS: after nearly five years at SNY, @mariacmarino is headed to @ActionNetworkHQ. She discusses the move, following in the footsteps of greats like @kevinburkhardt and @KerithBurke, and emotions in an exclusive interview with me @ForbesSports. https://t.co/slBAxfrwAW
— Howard Megdal (@howardmegdal) February 21, 2023

Gonna miss Maria. She has been a breath of fresh air and I just loved her halftime and postgame interviews. And she is adorable!!

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That spin move! Welcome back @MorganCheli! Open Division of @cifccs pic.twitter.com/eD3ACFdkmi
— Aaron Woliczko (@AWoliczko) February 18, 2023

KK Arnold

UConn Incoming Class of 23

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GAMES

Upset noted with red **

Monday

No. 3 Stanford 71 No. 17 UCLA 66

No. 12 Michigan 61 No. 16 Ohio State 74 **

Tuesday

No. 6 Iowa 68 No. 7 Maryland 96 **

No. 15 Villanova 67 DePaul 64

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Straight from the Dog

I watched the Stanford/UCLA game Monday night and while the Cardinal won 71-66, I don't believe they are better than Indiana, UConn, and even Iowa.

While Brink is a handful (she scored 25 points and went 15-15 from the line), she does get away with carving out space in the lane after the entry pass.

Stanford does play 8-9 players in their rotation. Aren't you jealous?? However, it's Brink and Jones and occasionally Jump that does most of their damage. Before tonight I thought a rematch from the Final Four game between Stanford and UConn would be a great game to watch. Now I'm not so sure.

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Lots of fans complaining about the officiating recently. But it's really not recently. It's been going on forever. It's what fans do.

I try to not do that if you read my post game reports. I focus on the players. But every once in a while a ref makes or doesn't make a call that just blows my mind and I have to comment.

Overall, the refs are doing the best they can. It's a fast moving game and you can't see everything. And I have met people that actually officiated games so I'm not going to bash the entire profession. Like any job, there are good ones and bad ones and even the good ones have bad games.

I wish they were perfect or at least perfect for UConn...lol.

However, I wrote this before the UConn/St. John's game. Intentional foul on Edwards? Refs Suck.

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What a great game between DePaul and Villanova. The Wildcats pulled out to a 14 point lead but behind Morrow, the Blue Demons were able to close to 2 points late in the game before closing it out.

Maddy Siegrist continues her march to Big East POY with 28 points, 16 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks. It did take her 27 shots, so once again she was not efficient.

DePaul's Morrow had a great game as well with 29 points, 19 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 blocks.

These two players show what UConn is missing with Fudd (and Bueckers) not available. Teams need a superstar.

DePaul can be a tough out and expect them to give UConn all they can handle on Saturday.

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Which is worse, losing to a decent St. John's team by 5 points or Iowa getting hammered by a top ten team like Maryland.

Iowa was beaten up losing 96-68 in a game that was a blowout from the start. The old bad defensive team Iowa showed up. And Clark really struggled in this outing. She only had 18 points on 5-13 shooting going 4-10 on threes. And she only had 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Great job by the Terps in holding her down.

By PHIL

Edwards as All-American

As the season winds down, the discussion of postseason honors will heat up. One of those discussion topics is whether Aaliyah Edwards deserves consideration as a first-team All-American.

I will start by confessing I haven’t followed this discussion closely. There are quite a few candidates for All-American and while Edwards is having an incredible season. I don’t think anyone thinks it’s a slam-dunk that she will earn this honor.

Clark is close to a shoo-in for NPOY, but even if she doesn’t learn that specific honor, I don’t think there is an individual think she wore the one of the All-American honorees. We all know that Reese’s name comes up in these discussions and will have nothing against her personally other than her over-the-top attention seeking antics, I hope the voters will recognize that stellar stats against cupcakes ought not to be rewarded. I see that Reese broke Sylvia Fowles record of consecutive double doubles. I don’t know whether Sylvia reached out to congratulate Angel, but if she did so I can figure her for doing it through gritted teeth. I haven’t looked up Sylvia’s opponents, but I bet there were some ranked teams on the list. When LSU finally played a ranked team, the streak ended. Why am I focusing on this? Because it helps illustrate that stats against quality teams to be worth more than stats against weaker teams.

I saw a tweet recently that I forgot to bookmark, so I will just summarize my recollection — the discussion was about whether Edwards deserved All-American status and someone was pointing out all of the more worthy candidates, and closed with a mention of Boston as if no one but no one could even consider viewing Edwards as more accomplished than Boston.

I’m not about to pretend that Edwards career is in the same ballpark as Boston’s, but the owner is an annual honor, so the question is how well the two players had done this season.

Boston is having a great season and deserves kudos for helping South Carolina to its number one ranking. It is very common for layers to get better over the course of their career. Edwards did not improve her scoring from her freshman to sophomore year, but she is more than made up for that this year. In contrast, while Boston started impressively as a freshman averaging 12.5 points per game, then improved that as a sophomore to 13.7, and made another leap up as a junior to 16.8 points per game helping her win multiple player of the year honors, points per game are 13.0 this year. Not exactly chopped liver, several hundred coaches would give their left arm for a player of that caliber, but a decided drop off from an impressive junior year.

Edwards is averaging 16.3 points per game. Someone is sure to point out that Edwards is playing 32 minutes per game while Boston is playing 25. While some people like to adjust stats to a 40-minute game, I think this can be misleading. (That adjustment does have some value, but I think it makes more sense when comparing 8 minute game player to a 14 minute a game player. Boston is playing 25 minutes a game because she can; it’s a wonderful luxury when you have 6’ 8” options. However, it does mean that the seven extra minutes played by Edwards ae played when she is close to exhausted, not fresh, and that’s likely to mean a reduction in effectiveness. If you want to see an example of what happens when you play tired, look at the recent game between South Carolina and Mississippi where Boston had to play 34 minutes. As regulation came to a close and the game was on the line, Boston went to the free-throw line twice in the final minute and missed three consecutive free throws. She made the fourth, which sent the game into overtime. I don’t want to make too much of a single incident, we know where things can happen in short stretches, but Boston going five for 10 from the free-throw line and only four for 14 from the field hope make that game close. Yes, she recorded a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds, but I don’t think the junior Boston would have let the game become that close.

There’s more to All-American honors then scoring. Boston does have more rebounds than Edwards (9.9 vs 9.0). Boston has more blocks (1.9 versus 1.1), while Edwards has more assists (2.5 versus 1.7) and four steals (1.1 versus 0.5). In doing this it has a slightly better field-goal percentage (58% versus 57%), and a better free-throw percentage (78% versus 75%).

Finally, while South Carolina’s strength of schedule is not remotely as bad as LSU’s, according to Massey they have the fourth strongest SOS in the country, I think it is interesting to note that South Carolina has played only five ranked teams this season. UConn has played nine ranked teams this season and has a Massey SOS rank of #1. In my opinion, that makes Edwards’ performance all the more impressive.

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By David in Naples

Some stats before the St. John's Game!

1. After 28 games and over 900 minutes of playing time, Aaliyah and Lou have both scored exactly 457 points to lead the team.

2. Aaliyah and Lou have reached their point totals in very different ways. Aaliyah has 1 three point basket and Lou has 61.

3. Lou has 73 defensive rebounds, while Liya has 73 offensive rebounds. (Liya has 251 total boards)

4. In the 4th quarter of the last two victories over Creighton & Villanova, UConn's defense held both teams to 30.7% combined shooting. At the same the time, the Huskies shot 60% from the field and 71% from the charity stripe.

5. Aubrey is 3rd on he team in scoring with 347 points. Dorka is 4th at 302 points.

6. The Huskies free throw % of 75.3% is the best since the 2017-18 season.

7. Against Creighton and Villanova, UConn took 40 free throws (made 29) and 105 shots from the field. That is 145 scoring chances in those 2 games.

8. Opponents took 118 shots vs 105 for UConn, but only 18 free throws. So those two teams had 136 scoring chances.

Note - If a player is fouled while shooting, the shot attempt only counts if the shot is made. The player would get a free throw as well. But if the shot misses (due to the foul) the player doesn't get the missed shot attempt, just two free throws. Keep this in mind when lamenting the total shot attempts comparisons.

Go Huskies..!!

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