Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 11/29/2023

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Even my daughter (mother to Logan and Barrett)

is looking for my Blog!!!

GO UCONN!!!!!

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Up early on Wednesday so my blog is a little short. Plus with so many days between games topics are slim pickins'. But, fear not, Phil has a great piece and I did find two articles to link. I especially enjoyed the one about the Fudds and the Arnolds hanging out together at the beach!

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** Designates Upset

Tuesday, 11/28

Scores and Links

No. 6 USC vs Cal Poly (Late Game)

No. 7 Colorado 85 Boston Univerity 55

No.12 Utah 100 Carroll (MT) 44

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No new news but here is some old news.

Morgan Cheli is really good!!

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Straight from the Dog

Only 3 games for the Top 25 Tuesday and it was a cupcake fest!

No. 6 USC took on Cal Poly in a late game. Massey has them No. 339.

No. 7 Colorado took on Boston University. Massey has them No. 280. It was a close game with Colorado only up four going into the fourth quarter. Then......Colorado went on a 29-1 run to open the fouth quarter. Crazy. They went on to win the game 85-55.

The worst though is Utah taking on NAIA-member powerhouse Carroll College. Well, they are ranked No. 37 in the Massey rankings. In the NAIA. Yes, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. That's the college athletics governing body for small college athletics programs.

So. Not even an NCAA team? I'm looking for why this was even on Utah's schedule. I did enjoy seeing they gave up 20 points in the second quarter. But the final was 100-44. Shocking.

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By PHIL

Strength of schedule

Measuring strength of schedule can’t be done too early, as a couple weird outcomes can skew the entire analysis, but I think we’ve reached the point in the season where the strength of schedule measures make some sense.

It won’t surprise anyone that Connecticut has a very good strength of schedule. At the moment, it’s ranked number two according to Massey. It won’t stay there, as the Big East schedule includes some relatively weak teams, so it is currently projected to end up at tenth in the country.

Maryland is a team that has not always played an aggressive schedule. In 2021 it was ranked 35, and in 2020 ranked 23. Neither of those are remotely LSU levels. In both years, their strength of schedule exceeded UConn’s, but they’ve gone from an unremarkable strength of schedule to a much more aggressive schedule. In other words, they’ve taken almost the opposite approach of LSU. Currently their strength of schedule is rated number 3, and because they are in one of the power five conferences, they are projected to end up at 4. I know many UConn fans aren’t big fans of Maryland but let’s give credit where credit is due.

Okay, you must be wondering who is number one? If I turn this into a quiz, I’ll bet I could give you fifty guesses, and if you didn’t look, you wouldn’t guess the answer.

The team is Southern University. How many of you can name a player on the team or even identify where they are located? They currently have the strongest strength of schedule in the nation. That will change by the end of the season; they are in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, which is rated by Massey as the 29th strongest conference (out of 34), so their strength of schedule will plummet when they get into conference play.

Plus, it’s not just number one it’s head and shoulders above number two. If you look at the metric used to calculate strength of schedule the difference between Southern and UConn (the number one and number two SOS right now) is the same as the distance between UConn and the number 13 SOS.

Not surprisingly, they are 0-5. They have two top ten teams on the schedule and their weakest opponent is ranked number 68. That will change dramatically starting Sunday when they take on Northwestern Louisiana ranked 348, then take on Louisiana Christian which doesn’t have a ranking but is much weaker. Massey projects the probability of beating Louisiana Christian is 100% which is a rare number.

After those two they returned to a loaded schedule with Oregon, Nebraska, Kansas State and Oklahoma.

In financial terms this would be called a barbell schedule. A handful of teams near the top of the pecking order and a large slug of teams ranked two hundred or weaker.

I have no idea what prompted them to put together the schedule. It is practically the opposite of the LSU approach. We’ll have to watch this team to see if the strategy turns out to help them in the remainder of their schedule.

Milestone watch

• Aaliyah Edwards had 1275 career points after the UCLA game. She scored 9 in the Kansas game bringing her total to 1284. She is now 41st and needs to reach 1298 to tie Morgan Tuck.

• Nika Mühl had 450 assists after the UCLA game. She recorded 6 in the Kansas game bringing her total to 456. She passed Katie Lou Samuelson and tied Shea Ralph to move into a tie for 18th place. Svetlana Abrosimova has 473.

• Paige Bueckers has 953 career points, so needs 47 to reach the 1000 point milestone.

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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.

UCLA 72 UConn 47. Rice 33.

Paige 19, Aubrey 16, KK 8, Nika 7, Ashlynn 3, Qadence -1, Amari -3, Ice -3, Aaliyah -6.
Yikes!

UConn 58 Kansas 37.

Aubrey 21, Paige 17, Nika 11, Aaliyah 10, KK 2, Ashlynn 1, Amari -1,
Qadence -2, Ice -4.

Season totals active players: Paige 107, Aubrey 85, Aaliyah 73, Nika 57, KK 48, Qadence 22, Ashlynn 21, Caroline 7, Ice 00, Ines -1, Amari -5.

Season per minute: Paige .63, Aubrey .58, Aaliyah .42, KK .35, Qadence .33, Nika .31, Ashlynn .27, Caroline .12, Ice 0, Ines -.10, Amari -.22.

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UCONN LINKS

Several links are pay sites. Sorry!

What's next for No. 11 UConn?

UConn families enjoy The Cayman Islands

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