Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 12/8/2023

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Even my daughter (mother to Logan and Barrett)

is looking for my Blog!!!

GO UCONN!!!!!

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Big time performance for Ashlynn Shade last night!

New career-high 17 points for the freshman pic.twitter.com/mosYKFJ6it
— UConn Women’s Basketball (@UConnWBB) December 7, 2023

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Here is my UConn/North Carolina Pregame Report

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** Designates Upset

Wednesday, 12/06

Scores and Links

No. 2 UCLA Cal State Northridge (Late Game)

No. 11 Utah 74 St. Joseph's 48

No. 20 Florida State 99 Jacksonville 73

No. 23 Gonzaga California (Late Game)

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She is being followed by Coach Valley

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A post shared by Utah Lady Prospects 3SSB (@utahladyprospects)

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Straight from the Dog

Two great freshmen!!

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Tennessee has been to every NCAA tournament. Does it come to an end this season? If Jackson comes back for them it changes.

They have three OOC games left and they should, yes should, win them call.

How do they do in the SEC? Forunately for them the conference is down this season. Right now there is only two ranked teams. That could change with how volitile WCBB is this year.

So, that means 7-5 coming into conference play.

8-8 means 15-13

9-7 means 16-12

10-6 means 17-11

11-5 means 18-10

12-4 means 19-9

13-3 means 20-8

I'd guess that even 8-8 gets them in because the committee wants them in. But maybe not.

Is it possible they miss their first NCAA tournement ever? It is possible but not probable.

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By PHIL

Conference strength

I have written before about conference strength, which is always tricky to analyze. There are lots of issues, but I’ll only mention one — do you look at the overall strength of the conference or the strength of the top teams? I lean toward the former, but I was glancing at some numbers and realized that it might be interesting to talk about conference strength is measured by the top teams.

One of the most common measures of top teams is top 25. However, top 25 according to whom?

Let’s look at three options — AP ranking, Massey ranking, NET

Teams AP

6 Pac 12
5 B10
5 ACC
3 B12
3 BE
2 SEC
1 WCC

Teams Massey

6 Pac 12
6 ACC
4 B10
4 B12
3 BE
2 SEC
0 WCC

Teams NET

5 Pac 12
4 ACC
4 B10
4 SEC
3 B12
3 BE
1 MW
1 WCC

Takeaways:

• To no one’s surprise, the AC 12 is the big dog, although I confess given their overall dominance, I thought the disparity might be even more pronounced

• The big surprise to me was that the Big East has more teams than the SEC in both Massey and AP. Top to bottom, the SEC is stronger than the Big East, but if you look at the top, there’s a couple names in the SEC that dominate the ratings and the news but then quite a drop off.

• The SEC will probably want to point out that the NET is what is used as one of the primary metrics two seed teams in the tournament. What they may not wish to point out is that it’s still early in the season for NET ratings so let’s see how they shake out in a couple months. For example, UNLV is ranked 11 in the NET ratings. I think they are more likely to move down than up or even remain the same.

• The ACC does very well in the Massey rankings, tying the Pac 12 for teams in the top 25

Milestone watch

• Aaliyah Edwards has 1324 career points after the Ball State game. She is in 39th place. She needs 41 points to catch Charde Houston.

• Nika Mühl had 460 assists after the Ball State game. She is in sole possession of 18th place. She needs 15 to tie Svetlana Abrosimova.

• Paige Bueckers has 981 career points, so needs 19 to reach the 1000 point milestone.

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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 99 Ball State 32

Hana 7, Nika 5.

Aaliyah 28, Paige 20, Aubrey 16, Ashlynn 9, Ice 8, KK 6, Nika 5, Qadence 3, Amari 1, Ines -2.

Heard Azzi’s grandfather talking about all the help Steph Curry is providing for her recovery in addition to UConn.

Caroline also not on bench- hope she does everything needed to protect her brain and stay safe.

By giving more time to the freshmen, the seniors shone in their fewer minutes. Keep it up even against the top teams!

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UCONN LINKS

Several links are pay sites. Sorry!

UConn uses fast start to sink Ball State

UConn freshman Shade making an impact

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