Thursday, February 23, 2023

Doggy's Doghouse 2/23/2023

 









 




GO UCONN!!!!!

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Straight from the Dog

Whew. If this is the way the final seedings go, UConn will have a tough time getting back to the final four. 

They would have to beat Notre Dame, who already beat them, and a very good Indiana team. Not sure if it's the toughest bracket, but the way the Huskies have been playing, any bracket would be a tough bracket.

"The way the  Huskies are playing".  There is no denying that over the last 8 games, where UConn has gone 5-3, the Huskies are really struggling. They did play an inspired game against South Carolina, losing by only four points, but in the other games they haven't scored over 67 points once. A combination of bad shooting and way to many turnovers seem to be the issue. David has some great stats in his write up about this exact thing.

So, while it's the way they have been playing NOW, does that mean it will be how they play the rest of the season? If so, every game will be a struggle including DePaul and even Xavier. The Big East Tournament? No longer a lock to even get to the final game. The NCAA tournament? The Elite Eight might be the max we will see.

But as usual, I'm the eternal optomist. I just can't believe that this is the way they will continue to play. This is the same starting five that looked so good, even without Azzi Fudd for so much of the season. Is it fatigue? Both mentally and phiyically? It sure seems like it. 

Having Carolina back helps with the minutes. The three days before the DePaul game helps. The last game against a weak Xavier teams helps. Hopefully the No. 1 seed in the Big East Tournament  gives them a weak opponent in the first round with four days rest before that game. 

And of course the 11 or 12 days rest before their first NCAA tournament. That will be huge.

The last two games of the regular season and hopefully the three games in the Big East tournament will give Ducharme more court time to get back into game shape and form. 

And last, the wild card is Azzi Fudd. No one knows when she will be back but if she can come back and bring some offense to a team that is struggling to score, who knows? Maybe the final four will be back in play.

I know Geno said he doesn't think it's fixable. That's Geno being Geno. All I can say is I'm staying optimistic until the final buzzer sounds on their final game. Hey, that's just me.           
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While I was pissed of with how South Carolina stayed undefeated in their overtime win over Ole Miss, I was certainly rooting for them to kick some Tennessee butt. And for the most part that is what happened. 

Tennessee ran out to a 26-16 lead after a Jordan Walker three pointer with 6:38 left in the second quarter. From that point until a Karoline Striplin three points with 10 seconds left in the first half, South Carolina went on a 17-0 run. It coincided with "not long for the job" Coach Harper taking out their best player Rickea Jackson with two fouls and not calling a timeout to stop the run until it was 15-0.

South Carolina poured it on to start the third quarter, starting with a 13-4 run to take a 46-33 lead half way through the quarter. Tennessee closed the gap to 10 points with 2:39 left in the quarter but the Gamecocks went on 9-0 run to take a 59-40 lead entering the fourth quarter.

Only a calf cramp by Boston let Tennessee get back into the game, closing to 8 points 65-57 with 5 minutes left in the game. But Boston came back and South Carolina closed the game on an 8-3 run for the final 73-60 win.

I'm sure that the Tennessee fans will find some silver lining. It ain't there.     

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There were only two Top 25 games on Tuesday that I didn't have a chance to write about. One in particular 
caught my eye. No. 25 Illinois lost to unranked Nebraska 90-57 at home no less. As usual, I linked an article about the game for you to look at. I don't always read them but the headline caught my eye. 

"Nebraska beats short handed Illinois".

Being a fan of a team that has been short handed all year, I had sympathy for them. And in the article it said -  

"The Illini were without two frequent starters because of injury, the team announced shortly before tipoff. Sophomores Jayla Oden (hand) and Brynn Shoup-Hill (foot) have combined to start 40 games for Illinois this season." 

So I looked up the stats. Only Shoup-Hill started every game. Oden They only play 40 minutes between them, and average 10 points and 7 rebounds TOTAL. 

So, cry me a river Illini. You don't lose be 33 points AT HOME against an unranked team because you were missing two low contributing starters.   

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I just wrote about the unimpressive win that Stanford had over UCLA the other day and then they get lucky to beat No. 21 Colorado in double overtime. Talk about struggling to score, they only had 48 points after  regulation and it took 25 points in the two overtimes to win.

Haley Jones was the star in this game with 23 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals. She also played all 50 minutes. Iron woman!! Brink had one of those games that tells me Stanford might not get to the Final Four this year. She fouled out in 21 minutes scoring only 8 points. That is possible any game. Sometimes for an extremely bright young woman, she plays like a dummy. 

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By David in Naples 

With Tuesday night's 64-69 loss to St. John's, the Huskies have now failed to score 70 points in 5 straight games. That is the first time since 1962 that UConn has not reached that mark for 5 consecutive games. What is the reason for the scoring drought? I examined the last 10 games, the last 5 w/ not reaching 70 pts and then the previous 5 before those games. Here's what I found.

1. Points scored - In the last 5 games, UConn has scored 64, 60, 62, 67 and 52 points. (most recent to five games ago). That totals 305 pts or 61.0 per game. In the prior 5 games to those games, they scored 77, 64, 63, 84 and 94 points. That totals 382 or 76.4 per game. So, clearly the scoring is way off, almost 15 pts per game. But why?

2. Scoring chances - How many shots and free throws did UConn get per game? The most recent 5 games they had a total of 359 shots + free throws for an average of 71.8 per game. The prior 5 games, the Huskies had 369 total scoring chances or 73.8 per game. So the problem appears NOT to be scoring chances. It must be shooting %...

3. Shooting % - Tuesday night, UConn shot 35.5% from the field. In the prior 4 games the shooting % was 42.6%, 37.9%, 44% and 40.4%. The 5 games before those five the shooting % was 51.9%, 50.9%, 42.9%, 55% and 54.4%. There is the problem..!!

Conclusion - The Huskies are getting chances to score at about the same rate over the last 10 games. However, the shooting % for the last 5 games is down dramatically. Hence, a five game streak of not scoring 70 points. In fact, the high for points in the last five games was 67 vs Georgetown. I looked quickly at individual players shooting stats and let's just say the blame can be spread around. I'll post more on individual stats later...

Look for the non-70 point streak to end Saturday vs DePaul.

Go Huskies..!!

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