Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 11/18/2023

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Even my daughter (mother to Logan and Barrett)

is looking for my Blog!!!

GO UCONN!!!!!

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I usually just put the articles I find in the UConn Links section. Many times I don't read them in their entirety. I just link them for all of you.

But this article was different. It just gives you a picture of Paige Bueckers that we hadn't heard.

If you read any of the things I link, make sure you read this one!!

PAIGE BUECKERS

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A post shared by SLAM (@slam)

Check Out Slam Magazine. 140 pages about the UConn Huskies.

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Who's better, Bueckers or Clark???

This guy has an opinion!!

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** Designates Upset

Friday, 11/17

Scores and Links

No. 3 UCLA 77 Princeton 74

No. 7 LSU 73 SE Louisiana 50

No. 12 Florida State 79 Florida 75

No. 18 Indiana 112 Murray State 79

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I'm not so sure but I am sure I hope this guy is right!!!

It's the same guy who created the Bueckers vs Clark video. A definate UConn fan.

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Straight from the Dog

Angel Reese is not with the team tonight for LSU's game vs. Southeastern Louisiana, per the pregame report on LSU Sports Radio Network

Reese was benched for the second half of the Tigers' previous game vs. Kent State, what Kim Mulkey called at the time a "coach's decision"
— Alexa Philippou (@alexaphilippou) November 18, 2023

Wow, this after she was benched in their last game for the entire second half.

"Coaches decision" according to Mulkey. Looks like this hasn't been resolved yet. I will give Mulkey credit. Talking control of the team and letting the other players know who is in charge. It's the Coach, not a spoiled player.

This will either be good or continued trouble for this team. They didn't look great in their 73-50 win over SE Louisiana. The Lady Lions actually won the second and fouth quarters. Too bad they were blown out by the Tigers in the 1st and 3rd quarters.

Kim Mulkey on Angel Reese's absence:
"Angel was not in uniform. Angel is a part of this basketball team, and we hope she's back with the team soon. I'm not gonna answer any more than that." #LSU
— Reed Darcey (@byreeddarcey) November 18, 2023

I'm not sure what the hell that means! Maybe Reese has some shit to work out.

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Two more games that were unexpectidly close.

Princeton had a good chance of beating No. 3 UCLA. They were up in the fourth quarter before losing by my favorite score 77-74.

And unranked Florida at home came close to upsetting No. 12 Florida State in an in-state rivalry game. ''

This has been an amazingly competative season so far.

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By PHIL

Maryland Watch

(hat tip to the guru Mel Greenberg)

While UConn has the current active record for weeks ranked in the top twenty-five (566!), Maryland is in second place with 251 consecutive weeks over the last eleven seasons. They are currently ranked 20th, but that ranking was before the loss to UConn. They will play one more game against Syracuse on Sunday. If they lose that game, they will definitely drop out, but I don't anticipate that happening. If they win that game, I think they may retain their top twenty-five standing but it could be a close call. They would be the only team in the top twenty-five with two losses albeit two very high quality losses.

It may come down to how much they beat Syracuse by. While losing to both South Carolina and UConn is hardly unexpected, the margins of victory are breathtaking. Two single-digit losses would qualify as understandable and deserving of the top twenty-five ranking, but their two losses are by a combined 70 points. That may be too much for the pollsters to accept. Could beating Syracuse by twenty-five or thirty make up for that? Maybe but I'm not sure.

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Interesting stats from the Maryland game

The starting lineups consisted of 8.5 to 9 guards, depending on whether you count Aubrey Griffin (listed as a G/F) as a guard or only half a guard. Ironically if Azzi had started, it would've been a clean nine guards starting with only Edwards as a forward being something other than a guard.

Has this ever happened, I ask rhetorically because I don't think they keep stats on this phenomenon. This is not to say that Maryland is short. Every one of the starting guards is 6 feet or more. In fact, the combined height of the starting five for Maryland is 364 inches and the combined heights for the starting five of UConn is… 364 inches. (Had Azzi started UConn's total height would be 362 inches)

You might think that a guard dominated game would feature few blocks, but there were 10 in the in the game, 9 of which were by UConn and only one of those was by the non-guard Edwards. Griffin, whose status as a guard or a forward is arguable, had an impressive four of the blocks, but point guard Paige had two.

The South Carolina beatdown of Maryland was numerically worse in terms of points, with South Carolina prevailing by 38 points, while UConn "only" outscored Maryland by 32.

However, while South Carolina's offense outshone UConn's, the story of the defense was UConn. Maryland shot 40.8% from the field against South Carolina, undoubtably lower than they would like, but UConn held Maryland to 25.9% from the field. Maryland managed to hit 45.5% of the three-pointers against South Carolina, while only 26.1% against UConn.

Maryland did out rebound UConn by a single rebound 36 to 35, but sixteen of those rebounds but Maryland were all offensive rebounds. They took 58 shots and made only 15, giving them 43 chances for an offense rebound. The fact that they only converted sixteen of those into rebounds is a testament to UConn's dominance of the game.

Milestone watch

• Aaliyah Edwards had 1254 career points after the NC State game. She scored 12 in the Maryland game. Her 1266 points leaves her in 41st , 32 points behind Morgan Tuck.

• Nika Mühl had 444 assists after the NC State game. She recorded 5 in the Maryland game. 449 leaves her in 20th place, 6 behind Katie Lou Samuelson.

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By David in Naples

UConn's first three games have had something for every fan. High scoring (102 pts vs Dayton), defensive gem (held Maryland to 48 pts) and Paige on fire offensively (51 pts in last two games). Here are some other top stats, in no particular order. These are for 3 games, unless noted.

1. The three freshman (KK, Ashlynn & Qadence) have scored 63 points, grabbed 16 rebounds, delivered16 assists and purloined 10 steals. They are shooting a combined 54.5% on 24-44.

2. Paige is 24-42 or 57% from the field, including 57% (4-7) from three point range. She is 2nd in steals (8), 3rd in rebounds (15) and 3rd in assists (8).

3. Nika is shooting 50% from three range (3-6) and leads the team with 16 assists. She is 4th in rebounds with 11.

4. Minutes played are way down for the starters. Paige is at 27 minutes per game, Nika is at 26.7 per and Aaliyah is at 31 per game. Aubrey's at 18.7 minutes per.

5. In the Maryland game, the Terps had 15 baskets and 27 turnovers. They had as many shots blocked (9) as assists (9). Great defense by the Huskies.

6. One of the three freshmen has scored in double figures in each game. Q with 11 vs Dayton, Q again with 14 vs NC State and KK with 12 against Maryland.

7. Despite going 0-3 from three point range last night, Qadence is 7-16 or 43.8% from 3 pt range.

8. If you combine Nika and KK stats as point guards, they have scored 41 points (13.6 average/game), dished 29 assists (9.6 avg.) and grabbed 16 rebounds (3.2 avg.)

9. UConn is averaging 87.6 points per game, 263 points total. Last year they averaged 75 pts per game.

10. Every player has seen game action and 10 players are averaging 10 or more minutes per game. The 3 frosh (KK, Q and Ash) are at 19.7 per game, 16.3 per game and 15.5 per game.

Odd stats bonus: Nika has tried only 1 free throw & also has only 1 turnover in the three games.

Go Huskies..!!

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STATS

Plus one for every assist block point rebound and steal. I don’t add extra for offensive rebounds as it already seems to favor the bigs. Minus one for every missed shot (2, 3 or foul), turnover or foul committed.

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UCONN LINKS

Several links are pay sites. Sorry!

Gophers vs UConn game preview

Takeaways from the Maryland/UConn game

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