Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 1/31/2024

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GO UCONN!!!!!

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UConn/Villanova Pregame Report

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Our alums in the student section were a vibe 😂 pic.twitter.com/LQQ6yyKwDx
— UConn Women’s Basketball (@UConnWBB) January 30, 2024

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Wooden Award

Presented by Principal

2023-24 Late Season Top 20

Name	School	Conference	Height	Class	Position
Georgia Amoore	Virginia Tech	ACC	5-6	Sr.	G
Lauren Betts	UCLA	Pac-12	6-7	Soph	C
Madison Booker	Texas	Big 12	6-1	Fr.	F
Cameron Brink#	Stanford	Pac-12	6-4	Sr.	F
Paige Bueckers**	Connecticut	Big East	6-0	Jr.	G
Kamilla Cardoso	South Carolina	SEC	6-7	Sr.	C
Caitlin Clark*	Iowa	Big Ten	6-0	Sr.	G
Aaliyah Edwards	Connecticut	Big East	6-3	Sr.	F
Hannah Hidalgo	Notre Dame	ACC	5-6	Fr.	G
Mackenzie Holmes#	Indiana	Big Ten	6-3	Sr.	F
Elizabeth Kitley	Virginia Tech	ACC	6-6	Sr.	C
Ta’Niya Latson	Florida State	ACC	5-8	Soph	G
Ayoka Lee	Kansas State	Big 12	6-6	Sr.	C
Aneesah Morrow	LSU	SEC	6-1	Jr.	G
Te-Hina Paopao	South Carolina	SEC	5-9	Sr.	G
Alissa Pili	Utah	Pac-12	6-2	Sr.	F
Angel Reese	LSU	SEC	6-3	Jr.	F
Jacy Sheldon	Ohio State	Big Ten	5-10	Sr.	G
Jaylyn Sherrod	Colorado	Pac-12	5-7	Sr.	G
JuJu Watkins	USC	Pac-12	6-2	Fr.	G

# indicates player selected as 2022-23 Wooden Award All American

* indicates player selected as 2022-23 Wooden Award Winner

** indicates player selected as 2021-22 Wooden Award Winner

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WOMEN’S BRACKETOLOGY:

2024 NCAA TOURNAMENT

Charlie SECreme has his latest bracketology out and even with the UConn loss, the Huskies stayed in the No. 2 seed spot. I found this great breakdown of the brackets week by week.

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** Designates Upset

Games Tuesday January 30th, 2024

No. 23 West Virginia 84 UCF 43

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Sarah Strong put up a smooth 31 pts and made it look easy! @thesarahstrong pic.twitter.com/aOq1nAx0jg
— Ballislife Womens Basketball (@ballislifewbb_) January 30, 2024

Sarah Strong No. 1 Recruit '24

COME TO UCONN!!

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👀 No. 7 Gill St. Bernard’s picks up a 9th straight win following a dominant 84-55 victory over Trenton Catholic

🏀 Boston University commit Brooke Baisley finishes with 28 points + 7 rebounds while U-Conn commit Gandy Malou-Mamel had 13 points + 11 rebounds@GSB_WBB… pic.twitter.com/kowudNHiNj
— Jersey Sports Zone (@JSZ_Sports) January 30, 2024

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Now 6'6" Gandy Malou-Mamel came to the U.S. in August 2022. By December, she was starting.

In December, the team lost a starter to injury and [Coach] Gnapp promoted Malou-Mamel. She had improved just as fast, if not faster, than any player he’d seen in his three decades of coaching.

Malou-Mamel took advantage of the new role and blossomed. She became more than just a rim protector and learned how to get out of opponents’ double teams in the post. Gnapp was so impressed that he kept Malou-Mamel in the starting five even when the previous starter came back from injury. She finished her sophomore season, her first in the U.S., averaging 7.5 points and 6.9 rebounds in 27 games.

"She’s the kid that’s the reason why you love coaching," Gnapp said. "This year we had a lot of good players, so it was hard to give everyone the minutes they wanted and especially Gandy at the beginning. But she was a kid that never complained, just worked hard every day. So, that’s why we love coaching. … She impacted me by just making me love coaching even more."

I love hearing this. All the complaints about bigs but if she keeps improving, she could get minutes when she arrives in 2025.

UConn would then have 6'6" Gandy, 6'5" El Alfy, 6'4" Brady. I think they would have the middle covered! And 2026 6'3" Olivia Vukosa in the next season?

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Straight from the Dog

"We" definition - used to refer to the speaker and another person or group of people as the subject of a verb.

Yet, fans constantly talk about the UConn women's basketball team as WE. And I can tell you this, I find it really really annoying.

A UConn fan posted this - "We should have been jacked, pumped, stoked and had a double digit win. "That's why we play the games...." I know, but our aspirations were really shaken by that game."

Some people can't separate themselves from the team. I don't know if they truely believe they are part of the team, or that all fans are part of the team. As much as fans support and love the players, the fans are not the part of the team.

And for sure MY asperations were NOT shaken by one loss. Talk about overreacting to a single game.

More of my favorite word "perspective". This team lost FIVE players that were huge impact players. FIVE. Whatever they do this season, they have already exceeded my expectations based on the roster they have right now. I just hope the team plays their best and learn from their struggles.

GO HUSKIES!!

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By PHIL

Alternative ranking

Some time ago, I proposed an alternative way to rank teams. Here is another one. Your task to figure out how these teams are ranked.

This time should be easier because I’m going to provide some hints.

• As before, this is a derivative ranking and requires access to some ranking system. The first list uses Massey
• While the prior example was motivated by the criteria used by the selection committee, that’s even more true of this one
• the metric doesn’t quite work for South Carolina but I don’t think anyone will quibble with my arbitrary placement

Frankly, my initial guess was that UConn would be a little higher on this list but 5th is pretty darn good. It’s not quite as high as their NET (3), or their Massey ranking (4), but it’s well above their AP ranking. I see this as good news as the selection committee doesn’t officially consider AP ranking but they will consider this metric.

1. South Carolina
2. Kansas State
3. Indiana
4. Iowa
5. UConn
6. Colorado
7. Stanford
8. Oregon State
9. Gonzaga
10. UCLA
11. Notre Dame
12. Texas
13. Virginia Tech
14. NC State
15. Ohio State
16. Louisville
17. Baylor
18. Utah
19. USC
20. LSU
21. Texas A&M
22. Washington State
23. TCU
24. Marquette
25. Auburn

For anyone I’m interested in looking at Massey rankings. I also did the same exercise with AP rankings.

1. South Carolina
2. Kansas State
3. Indiana
4. Iowa
5. UConn
6. Oregon State
7. Colorado
8. Stanford
9. Notre Dame
10. Gonzaga
11. UCLA
12. Texas
13. Virginia Tech
14. USC
15. NC State
16. Ohio State
17. Louisville
18. Baylor
19. Utah
20. LSU
21. Texas A&M
22. Washington State
23. TCU
24. Marquette
25. Auburn

If you haven’t memorized the selection criteria, shame on you (just kidding), here they are:

Criteria used by the Division I Women’s Basketball Committee to evaluate a team includes (alphabetically):

• Bad losses
• Common opponents
• Competitive in losses
• Conference record
• Early performance versus late performance
• Head-to-head
• NET ranking
• Non-conference record
• Observable component
• Overall record
• Regional rankings
• Significant wins
• Strength of schedule

Milestone watch

• Aaliyah Edwards reached 1549 career points with her 23 points in the Notre Dame game. She passed Moriah Jefferson, Cathy Bochain, and Jennifer Rizzotti. She needs three points to tie Wendy Davis in 24th place

• Aaliyah Edwards now has 856 rebounds with 11 against Notre Dame. She is in sole possession of 14th place, and needs 41 more to catch Olivia Nelson-Ododa

• Nika Mühl had 559 assists after her 3 assists in the Notre Dame game. She is in sole possession of 8th place. She is tied with Bria Hartley for 7th place.

• Geno Auriemma now has 1197 wins and needs three 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.

Notre Dame 78, UConn 55

Net positives/minutes played: Hidalgo 31/40, Westbeld 23/40, Citron 15/40.

Aaliyah 32/40, Paige 11/37, Ashlynn 8/40, KK 3/39, Nika 1/19, Qadence -1/7, Ice -3/18.

Citron Nikaed Paige. Hidalgo spectacular, but look at Aaliyah’s numbers! Were we outcoached?

The ESPN play by play doesn’t show substitutions, but I bet we won during the time all five starters were playing together. Missed Aubrey tonight.

Silver lining of Covid: prevented me from being there. Looking forward to the rest of the season, with the exception of one game.

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UCONN LINKS

Several links are pay sites. Sorry!

UConn set to take on Villanova in Philly

Uconn needs dominant performance against Villanova

Uconn travels to Villanova Wednesday