Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 12/17/2023

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Even my daughter (mother to Logan and Barrett)

is looking for my Blog!!!

GO UCONN!!!!!

UConn 86 Louisville 62

That game was like being in a time warp. Crisp passing, great ball movement, three point shooting, outrebounding the other team, shut down defense in the second half. Three players 20+ points.

Ahhh....I remember it well.

Offensively, the Huskies looked really good from the start scoring 28 points in the first quarter. Unfortunately, their defense was not so good giving up 27 points as the Cardinals shot 11-15 from the field and 2-4 on threes.. UConn shot 11-16 in the quarter and 3-5 on threes. Great passing as they had 9 assists and only 2 turnovers.

It was a close second quarter. At one point UConn had a 9 point lead but Louisville took advantage of the Huskies sloppyness with the ball (especially Nika) and they were able to close to four points at the half. Not as clean a quarter with 7 assists and 5 turnovers. But they did shoot 8-13 from the field and 2-4 on threes. But the held Louisville to 41.2% from the field.

The third quarter was all about defense. They held Louisville to 9 points on 3-15 shooting. Awesome job!! Unfortunately, this was a pretty sloppy quarter with 6 turnovers (4 by Nika) and only 3 assists. But they still managed 19 points to expand the lead to 14. It was their worst three point shooting quarter going 0-5 but they were 9-10 on two pointers. Crazy.

UConn continued the onslaught outscoring Louisville 21-11 for the final of 86-62. A nice comfortable win. Not a great shooting quarter going 4-10 from the field but they were 2-4 on threes. They were not playing with the same efficiency but that is understandable when you are trying to just hold on to a nice lead to finish the game. They were 11-12 from the line as the Cardinals fouled often.

Just a great game for the entire rotation. Even though they played only 6 players extended minutes, the 8 minutes by Q and Ice helped keep the other six players fresh.

Ya gotta give Aubrey player of the game. I'm sure Geno thinks so too. This picture is just as Geno was saying something private to Aubrey. And she broke out with a huge smile. It was so great to see. She played 29 minutes off the bench and scored 25 points. 9-11 from the field and she hit her only three pointer. She added 5 rebounds and 2 assists. And her 5 steals were huge. She just needs to do this consistently. More games like this and UConn will be just fine.

Most games Paige would get the player of the game from me. But Aubrey was so deserving. That doesn't take anything away from Ms. Bueckers. In her team leading 35 minutes she was 7-12 from the field and deadly from deep going 4-6 on threes in scoring 20 points. That is so huge for this team. I'm sure she is disappointed with her 2-4 from the FT line. She added 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 5, yes, 5 blocks. We will have to start calling her Marvin Webster. For you that don't know, his nickname was "the human eraser". Her leadership on the court is just fantastic as well. Always talking and directing in the huddle.

Not a double double but UConn will take 22 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block and a steal every game. Her shooting percentage was 10-12 from the field and 2-2 from the free throw line. I loved her variety of shots, finally hitting a high percentage of her mid-range jumpers. She is getting closer to 60% from the field on the season at 58.2

This may be what UConn gets from Nika. A large number of assists (10) and a large number of turnovers (8). That is really not ok. The assists I love and many were really sweet. But the assists were just trying to do too much. Geno still played her 30 minutes so he understand what she brings to the table. I'm sure he would like her to drive to the basket more. It's just not always her mind set. She did add 7 rebounds and went 1-2 on threes. Sometimes sloppy but a good game for Nika.

To Paraphrase some famous coach, the best thing about freshmen is they become sophomores. And game by game KK is getting closer to making that happen early. She is still driving into trouble and would do better picking her spots. But she makes some great plays. She played 28 minutes going 3-7 from the field, missing her only three pointer and shot 5-6 from the FT line in scoring 11 points. She added 5 assists and 3 steals and only 3 turnovers.

Not the best game for Ashlynn, but still she was able to contribute in her 28 minutes. She did hit a three pointer and scored 5 points on the game. More to come from this young lady.

She only played 8 minutes but filled in nicely for Edwards when she was in. She grabbed 3 rebounds in that limited time and was constantly trying to free up teammates with strong screens. You can see one above in the Paige picture I posted.

No matter what, if Q is open she will shoot. But she has to add more on the defensive end to get more minutes. 8 minutes and 5 shots. She didn't hit any.

Hey, they took a picture I put it in my blog. Two great teammates.

The Seniors!!!!

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VIDEOS

Game replay

Game Highlights

Halftime Feature on UCONN

(Great for recruiting)

Geno Postgame Interview

Paige, Aubrey and Aaliyah

Postgame Interview

Paige Postgame Sideline Interview

Hysterical Back and Forth

with Geno and Jeff

Two UConn fans talking UConn

Full Jeff Walz Postgame Interview

These guys really like each other

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Up next for UConn is a game at home against Butler. UConn has beaten them by 40+ points since UConn re-entered the Big East. UConn won't be overlooking them and should continue that trend. More on that game tomorrow.

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Geno said on his radio show that Caroline Ducharme is "doing okay." He said the focus isn't on basketball right now, but on 10 years from now.

"It's not worth winning a couple more games if you're going to put a kid's future in jeopardy. I'd rather not do that."
— Daniel Connolly (@DanielVConnolly) December 16, 2023

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** Designates Upset

Wednesday, 12/14

Scores and Links

No. 1 South Carolina 99 Prebyterian 29

No. 3 North Carolina State 66 South Florida 54

No. 4 Iowa 104 Cleveland State 75

No. 10 Baylor 75 No. 24 Miami 57

No. 11 Utah 96 Southern Utah 60

No. 12 Kansas State 79 North Florida 53

No. 23 UNLV 54 Seton Hall 84 **

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A new Coach Valley Follow. Cydnee Bryant is class of 2026, high school is Sage Hill in California.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Nico🎬⭐️ (@nicobeannn)

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Straight from the Dog

As promised, Paige with the 1000 point ball!!!

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The stats are getting better. As a team the Huskies are shooting 48.9% from the field. The top 6 players though are shooting 53.3% from the field. They are up to 36.1% on threes. And they are now scoring 78.6 PPG.

I'm sure by the time the BE regular season schedule is close to over they will be over 50% from the field and 80 PPG.

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I'm sure that Phil will have more to say on this, but yesterday he questioned UNLV.

"Charlie Crème has them as a 4 seed in his latest Bracketology, which, if it holds up, means they get to host which is a big deal. There were not a lot of changes between this version and the last, with UNLV being the only change in the top four seeds, yet this big deal received exactly zero coverage."

"I’d say the last two games make them a team worthy of watching, although I’d like to see a few more before penciling them into hosting in my bracket. The next game is against Seton Hall. They are not favored but they are only two-point underdogs. "

Well, how did they do as two point dogs against Seton Hall? Final score 84-54. No, they didn't win. They lost to a middle of the pack Big East team by 30 points. Say goodbye to the Top 25 and for sure that four seed. Good call Phil.

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They are No. 1 for a reason

What a joke. That was ESPN's title of the video of South Carolina beating Presbyterian by 70 points. It's more like they didn't want to be out done by LSU who won theirh last game by 89 points.

Now, UConn is playing a team in Toronto that could be that bad. But that was the only game Geno could get to honor Aaliyah Edwards.

No, beating an overmatched team by 70 is NOT why South Carolina is No. 1. A really dumb headline.

In an article about the game they said "South Carolina coach Dawn Staley had no worries about seeing freshman MiLaysia Fulwiley start at point guard while giving junior regular Raven Johnson a rest."

Against a team that they held to 29 points and scored 99 points? I could have played point guard.

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Speaking of No. 1, Caitlen Clark scored 38 points Saturday for fourth ranked Iowa as they beat Cleveland State 104-75. She does love her three pointers. She was 9-16. And 13-21 from the field. As good as she is, she did have 9 turnovers.

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By PHIL

Milestone watch

• Aaliyah Edwards has 1362 career points after the Louisville game. She is in 39th place. She needs 3 points to catch Charde Houston, 16 to catch Sue Bird, and 19 to catch Carla Berube.

• Nika Mühl had 481 assists after the Louisville game. She is in sole possession of 16th place. She recently passed Svetlana Abrosimova (473) and Ketia Swanier (479). She needs one more to tie Gabby Williams (482) and two more to tie Tiffany Hayes (483).

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SPIDER 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.

UConn 100 Louisville 34

Aubrey 30, Aaliyah 25, Paige 25, Nika 12, KK 10, Ashlynn 1, Amari 0, Ines 0, Ice 0, Qadence -5.

Paige Blockers: 5 blocks.

Look out, Butler,the storm is comin' through
And it's runnin' right up on you
Look out, Toronto, there'll be thunder on the hill
Bye bye, baby, don't you lie so still

Could Paige get a quintuple half double? Can Aubrey bring it every night? Fun team to watch!!

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UCONN LINKS

Several links are pay sites. Sorry!

The Sky might not be falling after all

UConn runs to easy win over Louisville

UConn tops Louisville behind Griffin's 25 points

No. 17 UConn dominates No. 18 Louisville

UConn vs Louisville: Cards and Jeff Walz fall

UConn blows past Louisville 86-62

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Here is an option for any contributions for my time in putting together this blog.