Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 11/8/2023

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

GO UCONN!!!!!

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Finally, it's game day. The Dayton Flyers are coming into the XL Center to take on our very own UConn Huskies. I'm not sure why but this off season seemed longer. Wait.....it was longer. They lost in the Sweet Sixteen instead of getting to the Final Four. Sorry to bring that up again.

But this year is going to be so different. Lots of players back from injury including the best player in the nation Paige Bueckers. With her sidekick Azzi Fudd, UConn has two of the best long range shooters in the game. Add in Caroline Ducharme and wow!! And running the show and letting Bueckers play off the ball for some of the game, Nika Muhl. I dare teams to leave her open.

Aaliyah Edward and Ice Brady are manning the post and these are two big and mobil players.

Off the bench with Aubrey Griffin and the freshman PG KK Arnold. Fans are going to love her. And hopefully soon Ayanna Patterson will be available to help down low.

It's just a really strong roster and an exciting roster. Great shooter and playmakers.

Geno just said that Caroline Ducharme will be starting along with Paige, Nika, Azzi and Aaliyah. What a team!!

Here is my UConn/Dayon Pregame Report in case you haven't seen it. Enjoy!!

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** designates Upset

Monday, 11/7

No. 11 Tennessee 91 Florida A&M 69

No. 23 Illinois 81 Morehead State 61

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NEWS: 5⭐Arianna Roberson (@aroberson2024) has cut her list to 5️⃣

🏀Oregon
🏀Utah
🏀Duke
🏀USC
🏀UConn

She averaged 23.0 points, 13.0 rebounds, 4.0 blocks and 2.5 assists on 61.5% shooting last season @TheAthleticWBB @WorldExposureWB pic.twitter.com/E5rd2EmcN3
— Tobias Bass (@tobias_bass) October 10, 2023

Arianna will be announcing her college choice on Wednesday at 6:30.

Last week she took an unofficial Duke visit. So much chatter on what that actually means.

We will know soon enough!

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Straight from the Dog

Tennessee opened their season with a 29 point win over Florida A&M 93-64. On the surface you might say "Well done Lady Vols", but there is always the dark clouds.....well....you know I will find them.

First the good. Transfer Spear was terrific in her 17 minutes scoring 20 points. She was 7-12 from the field and 5-10 on threes for 20 points. She looks like a really good scorer and Tennessee really needs her to perform. They other star, Rickea Jackson had a so so game. In her 24 rebounds she had 13 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists. Off the bench Karoline Striplin had a terrific game. She was 8-9 from the field, 1-1 on threes and grabbed 7 rebounds. All in 19 minutes.

The bad? The point guard position was shared between Jasmine Powell (played plenty there last year) and transfer Destinee Wells. In total they had 9 points, 8 assists and 3 turnovers. Good numbers for one player. They will need more.

And sadly, Tamari Key only played 7 minutes. To me she just doesn't look good. Slower than ever. Can she improve her conditioning? It will take time. Hollingshead didn't have a great game either with only 5 points alhough she did snag 12 rebounds.

Massey had Tennessee as 50 point favorite. They were short by 21 points.

They take on a talented Florida State game. It will be a better indicator of how good Tennessee is at this time.

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By PHIL

Winning streaks

Most winning streaks during a season get extinguished at year-end. Everyone that goes to the NCAA tournament, with one obvious exception, and the season with a loss. Those that don’t get invited to a postseason tournament typically lose in their conference tournament with the obvious exception of the conference winners will all go to the NCAA tournament. Years ago, there was a special exception for Ivy League teams who did not have a postseason conference tournament, so occasionally there would be a team not good enough for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, but who managed to win their last game or two, so might enter the next season on a short winning streak.

The other teams entering the new year with a winning streak are the winners of the WNIT, the winner of the WBI and the third-place and fifth place team. The WNIT is a winner go home tournament while the WBI has the loses playoff two seed everyone, which means the first, third and fifth place team all end the season with a win. The third and fifth place teams end the season with exactly one win.

The NCAA stats site typically keeps track of active winning streaks, but I’ve been unable to find that page so I hope I’ve reconstructed the results correctly.

When the current season started, there were five teams starting the season with an active winning streak:

• LSU 6-0
• Kansas 6-0
• Cal Baptist 3-0
• East Tennessee State (ETSU) 1-0
• UIC 1-0

Despite the challenge of playing a real team in game, it seemed that LSU was in the driver’s seat for continuing a winning streak, but as we all know they stumbled against Colorado.

Kansas has the current longest active winning streak at six games, inputs that

Against Northwestern LA on Wednesday. Massey’s prediction for a win is 100% probability in favor of Kansas, so that streaks likely to extend. They will follow that up with a non-gay game against the state they survive that their toughest challenge will be against Virginia Tech in the Cayman Islands. Should they win that game they face Connecticut.

Cal Baptist has already won their first game against UC San Diego so has the second-longest active winning streak at four games. They play San Diego State on Friday where they are expected to lose but it’s potentially a close game.

ETSU puts their one-game winning streak on the line against Kentucky on Tuesday. However, there are over a hundred teams who won their first game, so the carryover of a single win isn’t particularly notable. Plus they are almost certainly going to lose against Kentucky.

UIC won their first game to extend their winning streak to two games. The next game is against Northwestern on Thursday and likely to end their streak.

Milestone watch