No. 8 UConn Huskies at Unranked Minnesota 2-1 3-0
Date: Sunday
November 19th, 2023
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Time: 5:00
TV: FS1
Prior Meetings
MINNESOTA | UCONN LEADS 3-0
H: 1-0 | A: 0-0 | N: 2-0
12/15/90 #23 UConn 85, Minn. 60 Storrs, Conn.
04/04/04 #6 UConn 67, #24 Minn. 58 New Orleans, La.
11/20/21 #2 UConn 88, Minn. 58 Paradise Island, Bahamas
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Minnesota Season to Date
Minnesota is currently 3-0 winning against Long Island U 92-57, Chicago St 100-42, and North Dakota St. 75-53.
Massey has those three teams #346, #358 and #179.
You can see by the numbers below how skewed they are because of the weak schedule the Golden Gophers played.
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Comparative Team Statistics
(leader in bold)
UConn Minnesota
87.7 PPG 89.0
66.0 Defensive PPG 50.7
21.7 Scoring Margin 38.3
49.5 Field Goal % 52.7
37.3 Defensive FG% 32.4
35.4 Three Point % 34.4
32.8 Defensive 3PT% 31.6
76.2 Free Throw % 71.0
37.7 Rebounds/game 41.7
1.0 Rebounding Margin 11.0
18.7 Assists per game 17.7
12.3 Turnover per game 16.3
1.5 Assists/TO ratio 1.1
11.3 Steals per game 11.3
5.0 Blocks per game 1.0
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UCONN
The player and coaches names for both teams
are clickable to see their Bios
are clickable to see their Bios
UConn Starters
UConn Injuries
Day to Day
OUT FOR THE SEASON
Achilles Injury
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Minnesota Starters
Minnesota Bench
Game Analysis
It's really difficult to analyze games like this. It's an opponent without a lot of history with the Huskies. They did play two years ago in the Battle for Atlantis with UConn winning 88-58. But there are no players in this game for Minnesota that were in their regular rotation that is playing in this game. And they are not a ranked opponent so not much info out there on the details of this year's team. I do know from reading about Paige Bueckers is that one players was a teammate back in high school. Amaya Battle.
Starters first -
Mara Braun is a 6' sophomore guard. She leads the team in scoring my a lot averaging 21 PPG almost ten PPG more then the second highest scorer. She shoots a solid 39.3% from beyond the arc. She is taking around ten three pointers per game so UConn will have to stay with her from deep.
Amaya Battle a 5'11" sophomore guard, was two years behind Paige at Hopkins HS. They have a really close relationship. She is the second leading scorer at 11.3 PPG and leads the team in assists at 7.0 per game. She had nine in her last game.
Grace Grocholski is a 5'10" freshman guard/forward. She is averaging 9.3 PPG and takes the second most three pointers on the team. But she is only shooting 28% on those shots.
Mallory Heyer, a 6'1" sophomore forward, is the leading rebounder on the team almost averaging a double double at 8.3 PPG and 9 RPG.
Sophie Hart is the big on the team at 6'5". She had a big lower body and carves out space in the paint. She is averaging 8 PPG and 4.7 RPG. She shoots at a 52.9% clip from the field.
Minnesota has 9 players with double digit minutes so they have been playing four players off the bench. I'm not sure that will be the case in this game.
Janey Sanders, a 5'11" grad student guard, transfer from Appalachian State, comes off the bench for 17.2 MPG, the most of all the bench players. She gets to the free throw line around 6 times per game leading the in attempts shooting them at a 66.7 clip.
Maggie Czinano plays 16..2 MPG. The 6' junior guard is the sister of recently graduated Iowa center, Monika, who teamed with Caitlin Clark to reach the national championship game last year.
Ayianna Johnson, a 6'3" freshman forward is the only height off the bench. Johnson is only playing 10 MPG but is the leading bench scorer at 8 PPG. She is 10-15 on fields goals for the season to date. I would bet she will get more minutes in her future. Just not in this game. She won't help much on the boards averaging 1.3 RPG.
Niamya is a 6' red shirt freshman forward. She is shooting an amazing 10-13 from the field in her 15 MPG. I haven't seen her play but I would guess she doesn't shoot far from the basket. She has taken only 1 three pointers, missing that shot.
Ok....that's who is playing for Minnesota. Sorry, not a lot of info.
I did watch some highlights from their three games. Highlight videos only shows mostly scoring plays for Minnesota and defense against their opponents so of course the Golden Gophers look great. They play a similar defense that UConn does. A switching man-to-man. Their center leaves her man to help on drives to the basket. Offensively, I didn't see a lot of fast breaking. They like to try to drive the lane and kick out to an open shooter if the lane isn't open.
UConn will pressure the ball and Minnessota is not a great ball handling team so expect a lot of steals for UConn and turnovers for Minnesota. The Golden Gophers have no one to guard Edwards and if she can have a better game with the ball (less turnovers) she could go for close to 30 points.
I haven't heard yet but I expect that Fudd will miss this game no matter what the prognosis of her knee is. Hoping for the best. But her absence won't matter.
Final Prediction
This is a total mismatch. The talent gap is huge and that will show out in the final score.
But it will be a great day for Paige in her homecoming game. I have heard that this game could be a sellout. It will seem like a home game for the Huskies.
UConn by 45+.
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