Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 11/7/2023

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Even my daughter (mother to Logan and Barrett) is looking for my Blog!!!

GO UCONN!!!!!

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Well, that didn't take long. Thanks to No. 20 Colordoa upseting No. 1 LSU, our very own UConn Huskies will move up to the No. 1 spot. It means nothing but I really like it. And I really like that LSU lost. By a lot!

No. 20 Colorado 92 No. 1 LSU 78

Boy, is LSU an unlikable team. Just watching them play against Colorado and it's annoying. I didn't like Van Lith's attitude with Louisville and I like it even more with LSU. Her "Kiss her three fingers and flip it to the fans" move after a three pointer is just obnoxious. Angel Reese is not easy to take either. I watched her just stand there and watch the fast break go the other way. No effort. And on two consecutive plays she just didn't move her feet, reached in for the foul. And here is one where she just watched the player drive to the basket. Oh, that was after both of the superstar transfers Van Lith and Morrow both let the Colorado player drive by them.

And now Reese and Morrow play zero defense as the Colorado player scores and is fouled.

Maybe they will learn to play together but it looks like 5 players playing their own game.

This bad play throughout the game doomed the Tigers in their opening game. There was just a lot of 1-1 play and some terrible help defense.

Clearly their Top 10 recruit 6'5" Aalyah Del Rosario, was not ready for prime time. They could have used her size in this game. She got in the game with 2 minutes remaining. Without her they go 5'7", 6', 6', 6'1, 6'3. Not a good look.

All the talk about LSU and their scary starting 5. I mean, Reese, Flau'jo, and transfers Van Lith and Morrow and of course their freshman guard Williams. UConn fans were shaking in their boots. Well in this game anyway, their performances were nothing to write home about.

Van Lith - 14 points. 4-11 from the field, 2-4 on threes (missed her last two). To her credit 7 assists but 4 turnovers.

Reese - 15 points on 6-15 shooting. 12 rebounds but many were on offesive rebounds of her misses. And her defense? Horrible.

Morrow - 6 points on 2-9 shooting. Only 4 rebounds.

Johnson - 3 points on 1-3 shooting. 1-1 on threes.

Williams - 17 points. 8-16 shooting.

Some good but mostly bad.

Credit to Colorado. They have a nice team. A super quick point guard in Jaylyn Sherrod some great outside shooters like Freida Foremann and a solid big in Aaronett Vonleh. They actually play well together. That is what happens when you have 8 of your top 9 players returning.

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No. 10 Notre Dame takes on No. 6 South Carolina at 1:00 on ESPN. Notre Dame is missing their start play Olivia Miles, whose season ended late with an ACL team. Her return date is unknown. But they had a really talented freshman point guard to fill in for Miles. That's Hannah Hildago, a 5'6" ball of fire. I'm really looking forward to watching her player.

She had a terrific game in the loss to South Carolina. She played 37 minutes!! In scoring 31 points, she was 10-24 from the field. Clearly not afraid to gake a shot. 3-6 on threes. 8-12 from the free throw like. She really dominated the ball, Good or bad. She also had 3 assists and 3 steals. A little out of control she added 6 turnovers.

As I mentioned the other day, South Carolina is restocking after all 5 starters graduated. We will see how good a job Coach Staley did. One player in particular, freshman Miliaysia Fulwiley, is maybe the most explosive scorer's among all the great freshmen in this class. She can shoot the three pointer from NBA range and will do it without fear. And she also has a great handle. A fun player to watch. Her behind the back stuff would make Geno crazy.

Fulwiley came off the bench for South Carolina and had a big impact although not that much in the scoring column. She played 27 minutes and scored 17 points going 8-14 from the field. She was only 1-4 on threes and 0-2 on free throws. But she is such a dynamic player. She had 6 assists and 6 steals. And only 1 turnover.

No. 7 Ohio State is taking on No. 21 USC. We all know about Ohio State as they knocked UConn out of the tournament last season. And they should be a really good team again this year. USC has the No. 1 recruit adding to their freshmen class in Judea Watkins. She is some kind of player. A physical guard at 6' tall she drives and finished hard at the basket. Her mid-range game is great and she is just so strong in the paint.

Wow. Watkins was the amazing player I described and MORE. No doubt well deserving as the No. 1 recruit in the 2023 class. She has changed everything for USC. In 31 minutes Watkins scored 32 points on 11-18 shooting. She was 1-2 on threes and got to the line often going 9-10. She added 6 rebounds and 5 assists. And the obligatory freshman 5 turnovers. A great opening game.

No. 1 LSU plays No. 20 Colorado. I'm glad the defending champ plays a reasonably tough first opponent before entering the "Cupcake Zone". It will be interesting to see how they have melded together with three new starters, although very talented. Yes, Angel Reese is joined by Hailey Van Lith, doing on the job PG training, and Aneesha Morrow, an undersized but effective power forward. But the most important addition could be 6' guard No. 2 ranked player in the 2023 class Mikaylah Williams. A similar game to Judea Watkins, Williams is a superior three point shooter to compliment the rest of he mature offensive game.

I said plenty about the LSU/Colorado game. But the one bright spot for the Tigers was that Freshman. Williams had nice game showing great promise. She scored 17 points and was 8-16 from the field and 1-2 on threes. She added 4 resbounds but like the rest of the team, had difficulty finding her teammates as she had zero assists.

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** designates Upset

Monday, 11/6

No. 1 LSU 77 No. 20 Colorado 92 **

No. 3 Iowa 102 Fairleigh Dickinson 46

No. 4 UCLA 92 Purdue 49

No. 5 Utah 104 Mississippi Valley State 45

No. 6 South Carolina 100 No. 10 Notre Dame 71 (Paris, France)

No. 7 Ohio State 74 No. 21 USC 83 (HOF game) **

No. 8 Virginia Tech 94 High Point 55

No. 12 Ole Miss 91 Queens University 44

No. 14 Maryland 98 Harvard 75

No. 17 Louisville 77 Cincinnati 59

No. 18 Florida State 99 Charleston Southern 63

No. 19 Baylor 85 Southern 53

No. 22 Creighton 75 North Dakota State 52

No. 24 Washington State 78 Cal Poly 61 (HOF game)

No. 25 Mississippi State 77 Alcorn State 42

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No news but we should hear on Roberson and Strong this week.

Roberson appears to be leaning to Duke. Strong? Did she watch LSU?

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Straight from the Dog

I just noticed that this was mostly an LSU blog...lol. Oh well, No. 1 LOST!!! I just had to say it again. On to UConn stuff.

The exhibition game is probably a good road map for how Geno will handle her playing time in the majority of their games.

In the first quarter she came into the game at the 5:25 mark and left at the 1:39 mark. Played a total of 3 minutes, 46 seconds.

In the second quarter she came into the game at the 5:34 mark and left at the 1:07 mark. Played a total of 4 minutes, 27 seconds.

She started both quarters in the second half.

In the third quarter she came out at the 5:23 mark. Played a total of 4 minutes 37 seconds.

In the fourth quarter she came out at the 4:50 mark. Played a total of 5 minutes 10 seconds.

So, four stints in the game, a total of 18 minutes. That's an average of 4 minutes 30 seconds.

Geno's 3-4 minutes is more like 4-5 minutes.

I think the fan's angst about limiting Aubrey's minutes is much ado about nothing.

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