Saturday, November 25, 2023

Doggy's UConn/Kansas Pregame Report Cayman Island Classic

                                          


            No. 6 UConn Huskies                         Kansas Jayhawks

                          3-2                                                     2-2

Saturday, November 25th
7:30 PM EST
George Town
Cayman Island Classic
TV: Flohoops


Matchup History

KANSAS | UCONN LEADS 2-0 

H: 1-0 | A: 1-0 | N: 0-0 

01/28/95 #1 UConn 97, #17 Kansas 87 Lawrence, Kan. 
12/21/96 #2 UConn 85, #17 Kansas 64 Storrs, Conn.

Kansas Season to Date

Kansas opened the season against a weak Northwestern State team winning 88-46. The Jayhawks then went on the road to play Penn State, always a tough place to play losing 91-85 in a very hard fought battle. 

Back home in their next game, Kansas beat a weak Kansas City team 70-61. And in the last game they almost pulled out a huge upset, losing to No. 9 Virginia Tech 59-58. 

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Kansas




Kansas Starters


6'6" Senior Center




Kansas Bench






Game Analysis

Not much time between games, so I'm rushing through this analysis.

First let me say is was painful to move Azzi Fudd to the "Out for the season" area along with Jana El Alfy. And to move Caroline Ducharme  to what I hope will be the Day-to-Day with Ayanna Patterson. Four players out for this game. And two that might not see minutes. That leaves an 8 player rotation. Talented but with 4 freshmen, very young.  

Kansas is a good team. They were only beat by an improving Penn State team and only lost by one point against ranked Virginia Tech. So based on those results, I would expect this to be a tough game for the Huskies. 

Their leading scorer is Holly Kersgieter, a 5'11" senior guard. She is scoring at a 15.3 PPG clip. And a very good three point shooter at 52.2%. She takes around 6 per game.   

Second leading scorer and leading rebounds and leading blocker is Tiayanna Jackson a 6'6" senior center. Another player that Edwards is giving up some size to. She is averaging 13 PPG and 8.5 RPG and 2 BPG and in only 22.6 MPG.   

However, Jackson is the only size that starts. The other three starters are 6' S'Maya Nichols, 5'7" Wyvette Mayberry and 5'8" Zakiya Franklin.

UConn matches up well with Kansas. The key is if Edwards can bounce back from a really tough game. I'm sure she will be extra motivated. But she is giving away three inches again. The good news is Jackson is not nearly as good as Betts, especially defensivly. 

I would imagine UConn will turn up the pressure defensively and try to keep the ball out of Kersgieter's hands. She is the key offensively for them.
    

Final Prediction


The Huskies finished strong in the UCLA loss scoring 25 points in the fourth quarter. They started to hit their three pointers and KK played really well. Can they carry that thru to this game? I think they will. Even with a limited roster, the Huskies are clearly the more talented team. The question will be can they clear their heads and play like they did in the 2nd and 4th quarters of that UCLA game. Again, I think they will. I'm looking for a good Huskie win. Better basketball on both sides of the ball.   

UConn by 10+

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