Thursday, January 18, 2024

Doggy's Doghouse 1/18/2024

 





 



                                                                                                                       
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GO UCONN!!!!!



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It was another slow start for the Huskies. Seton Hall came out aggressive and on fire, building a 17-10 lead over UConn with three minutes left in the first quarter. In a portend of things to come, UConn outscored the Pirates 11-6 to end the quarter closing to 23-21. 

Early in the second quarter, it was still a close game, 27-26 in favor of Seton Hall with 7:34 remaining. Then it happened. UConn went on a 14-0 run to take a 40-27 lead. UConn outscored the Hall 30-10 in the quarter to take an 18 point lead at the half. Paige had 16 points, Nika had 7 assists and Aaliyah had 13 points. The upper classmen led the way.

It was an incredible offensive first half. They shot 71% from the field, 58% on threes, with 14 assists on 17 baskets.

And as good as they were in the first half, they were equally as bad in the third quarter. They let Seton Hall stay in the game and the Pirates closed to 10 points at going into the fourth quarter.  Paige got hit in the head/neck and went out for severla minutes and while that impacted the team it was not what caused that third quarter collapse. Just some all arournd  poor play and some really bad calls by the refs costing UConn a few baskets and possible three point plays. It appears this crew doesn't know what a block is. But it's mostly on the Huskies that caused the 18-10 Seton ahll advantage in the third quarter.

The game seemed to me get a a little rough in the fourth quarter. Seton Hall wasn't going to go down quietly. I was just worried about someone getting hurt. With around 7 minutes left  Edwards and a Seton Hall player got tangeled up and the refs look at a replay to see if there was an intentional foul. It was just a common foul but still, an ugly play. The Hall had closed to 9 points on another three pointer but Paige hit a big three pointer after an incredible offensive rebound to push the lead back to 15 points.  The Huskies just kept playing hard and Paige just kept making plays. The final of 83-59 was 24 points. I had predicted 35+. I'm blaming the refs!!!

No long player by player. It was a long day for me and a late game for the Huskies. 

Their percentages of course game down in the second half but they still ended up shooting 59% from the field, 45.5% on threes and 24 assists on 29 baskets. Really Really good. Too many turnovers with 18. But I love the team outrebounding Seton Hall 37-20. 

Paige had a season high 32 points on 12-17 shooting, 4-8 on threes and a paultry 4-7 on free throws. She added  7 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks. And countless hustle plays.  

Poor Aalliyah got bounced around like a pinball and maybe 25% of the contact by the Seton Hall players were called. I hate games like this. But she still managed 17 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists, none prettier than her give and go to Paige for a layup. 

Nika had a tough shooting night but a great floor leadership game. She had 10 assists, 6 rebounds and 5 points. Four turnovers is too many.

KK had a terrific game. The little fireplug loves the physical games. She constantly drove the lane either getting fouled or kicking the ball out to open players. Arnold had 15 points and it was great to see her hot from the outside going 4-6 on threes. She added 4 assists and some really good defense. I think she is looking for her 5th freshman player of the week!

Ashlynn didn't have her usual game but she did go 1-2 on threes and scored 5 points. She hustled like usual but just couldn't seem to get open. She added 2 assists and 2 rebounds.

The bench was quiet in this game. Brady only had 2 points but continued her good work on the boards with 4 rebounds. And Q is still in her efficient mode, going 2-2 from the field and 1-1 on threes for her 5 points. She also add and assist on UConn's last basket by Bettencourt and a block. 

The most important thing is that Paige is ok after KK knocked her in the head and no one was injured. It was that kind of game.

Up next is DePaul back at home in Gampel on Saturday at 2:00. It's SUPERHERO DAY!!!!         
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GAME HIGHLIGHTS



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** Designates Upset

Games Wednesday January 18th, 2024

No. 7 Kansas State TCU (TCU Foreit)
No. 16 Indiana 85 Minnesota 62
No. 18 Ohio State 84 Maryland 76
No. 22 Marquette 63 Villanova 66 **
No. 24 Iowa State 63 Texas Tech 71 **
No. 25 UNVL 67 San Diego State 60

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Cheli and Ziebel part of the midseason Naismith award list with 25 players left. 

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JUST A HS FRESHMAN??? WOW!!

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UConn '25 committ Mandy Malou-Mamel
Full Game. Just look for the really tall player

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Straight from the Dog



This week both Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark scored 32 points. To me the difference is in how they did it.

Paige was 12-17 from the field. Clark was 8-18.
Paige was 4-8 on threes. Clark was 6-14. 
Paige had 7 rebounds. Clark had 7 rebounds. 
Paige had 3 assists, Clark had 5 assists.
Paige had 1 steal, Clark had 4 steals.  
Paige had 2 blocks, Clark had 1 block.
Paige had 2 turnovers, Clark had 4 turnovers.

They both player 33 minutes. 

On the season Paige is shooting 55.9% from the field, 48.8% on threes and only 26 turnovers on the season.  

Clark is shooting 48% from the field,  40% on threes, 81 turnovers.

Paige is just a more efficient player. It's not even close. 

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By PHIL

Continuation of a theme

Two days ago I talked about Tennessee's chances of making the tournament, but I talked more generally about what it takes to earn an at-large invitation. I noticed a Lady Vol fan who made generally astute comment about the Tennessee results so far but suggested that beating a ranked team would be necessary to make the tournament.

My quick reaction was that the thesis was flawed, because it wasn't hard to find teams who earned at-large bids but did not have a win over a top 25 team. I'm going to revisit that thought.

However, first I'm going to remind you that yesterday I noted that 48 was an important number four Massey ranking, as teams with that ranking or better had a great chance of getting invitations and teams with a worse ranking were very unlikely to. I noted two exceptions, Illinois and St. John's, both of whom were invited to the tournament despite Massey rankings significantly weaker than 48. Each of those teams had a signature win, Illinois beating Iowa and St. John's beating UConn.

When I looked at Creme's latest bracket, one name jumped out at me – Auburn

Auburn has a Massey ranking of 59, and in NET ranking of 68, either value remotely close to the possible cut off of 48.

Creme did not pick Florida to make the tournament with a slightly better Massey ranking (58) and is significantly better NET (49). Nor did he pick Tennessee, which has a better Massey ranking in a better NET ranking than Auburn.

So why does he have Auburn in the tournament? Because they have something that neither Florida nor Tennessee have — a signature win. Florida's best win is Michigan, not a terrible team but a team not only not ranked, but not even getting votes. Tennessee's best when is Oklahoma who was ranked at the time, but who has fallen on hard times and is ranked 45 by Massey and not in the AP voting.

In contrast, Auburn beat LSU, the team arguably a little bit over ranked at number 10 in the AP but definitely in the rankings closer to the top than the bottom.

It's worth noting that both the Massey and the NET rating system reflects the win over LSU, and the ranking values are still a long way away from what one might expect for an at-large team, so essentially we are saying Creme believes (or more accurately, Cremes assessment of what the committee believes) that a win over a top 15 team is worthy of extra credit.

I haven't explored this notion with other teams, but now that grandkids are no longer underfoot, that may be worth looking at some of the teams just barely making the tournament to see if this helps explain why they are on his list.

Going back to my earlier point, while Tennessee is currently ranked 32 in Massey, they are ranked 64 in NET. Perhaps the label fan was making the arguably sensible point that the selection committee doesn't directly look at Massey but they do directly look at NET, and if the 64 ranking doesn't materially improve, the best way for Tennessee to earn an at-large invitation is to get a signature win. I haven't yet determined whether simply being in the rankings qualifies as a signature when or if it has to be something like top 15. At the moment that doesn't have to be determined. Tennessee's remaining 12 games include to against South Carolina and one against LSU. A win in any one of those three games would definitely qualify. Alabama and Texas A&M are in shouting distance of a ranking, but one of the other would have to become ranked and lose to Tennessee to determine whether beating a ranked team in the bottom grouping qualifies as a signature win. That may be a tough needle to thread, as both Alabama and Texas A&M would have to do well in the remainder of their schedule to move up into the rankings and losing to Tennessee would put a crimp in that plan.

I now wonder if that lady involved in wasn't simply saying that one has to beat a ranked team to make the tournament, but saying that Tennessee (in light of an NET 64 ranking) needed a win over a ranked team to earn an invitation. I personally think that Tennessee can get an invitation even with the losses to LSU and South Carolina but we will see soon enough.

Milestone watch

• Aaliyah Edwards reached 1498 career points with her 17 points in the Seton Hall game. She needs 4 points to tie Ashja Jones, but ony 2 foor the 1500 point milestone.

• Nika Mühl had 543 assists after her 10 assists in the Steon Hall game. That moved to past Laura Lishness into sole possession of 13th place. She needs 2 more to tie Kelly Faris.

• Geno Auriemma now has 1195 wins and needs five more to reach the 1200 plateau.
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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 93, Seton Hall 36.

Net positives/minutes played: We have Paige and they don’t 32/33, Oh Canada 17/37, Croatian Sensation 14/37, Special KK 13/35, Q baller 8/10, Ice is nice 4/16, Portugal 1/2, Made in the Shade 0/28, Big Enigma-1/2.

That was a pain in the neck! Can’t wait to see Paige win a national championship this year, next year and/or the year after. 

Go UConn, Rampaige over the blue demons!

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UCONN LINKS

Several links are pay sites. Sorry!


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UCONN Information

UConn 2023-2024 Statistics (updated after 1st game)


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