Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Doggy's Doghouse 2/21/2024

 







 

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GO UCONN!!!!!

The Boys and their Dogs - 
Under the UConn blanket!!

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Well, we are at the end of the regular season schedule. Three games left, two on the road and one in Storrs. 

On Sunday, UConn takes on DePaul on the road. Always an interesting trip to Chicago, this season, DePaul is weaker than usual. The Huskies beat them 88-51 in the first match up. 

After that they play Villanova at home in the last regular season home game. UConn beat the Wildcats handliy in the first match up 81-60. 

In the last regular season game, UConn travels to Providence in what has been the occasional tough game. UConn just destroyed the Friars 85-41 in the first matchup.

I'm pretty sure you can put three more victorys in the win column for the Huskies going into the Big East Tournament. That would make them 26-5. Add in the expected win of the tournament title and going into the NCAA tournament they would be 29-5. 

Does that get them off the 3 seed line that SECreme has them sitting? Maybe. If SECreme is correct and the tournament was starting today and the favorite won their games, UConn would be playing 14 seed Chattanooga and then 6 seed Baylor.    

After that in the sweet sixteen they would be matched up with 2 seed USC and then if they win, 1 seed Ohio State.

All doable. Time will tell if this bracket is even close the end results. 

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It's good to see Caroline doing events. She was on the bench at the Creighton game with a very loud crowd. She didn't have any earplugs in that I could see. Don't count her out for next year. She is NOT ready to hang it up!!

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** Designates Upset

Games Tuesday February 20th, 2024

No. 23 Oklahoma 95 Cincinnati 87
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I'm so glad to see that Geno is still in  on Strong. He certainly hasn't hear "no" yet. 

She is worth the effort.




So happy for Morgan Cheli. She is gonna be a great player for the Huskies!!

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Straight from the Dog


Since Paige and Aubrey said they would be coming back, there has been lots of chatter of the rotation for next year. So many talented players. 

The biggest question seems to be who plays the middle. Of course Ice Brady is one possibilty and she will see plenty of playing time there. But let's not forget 6'5" Jana El Alfy. I watched most of her games for the Egyptian National team before she tore her achilles in her last game. 

Here is a good look at her skillset.


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In typical "latest shiny object" fashion, some fans are so far on the Caitlin Clark bandwagon they got splinters when jumping on it.

Granted, Clark is an amazing talent. And will win another POY award and well deserved. But historically, folk just have to slow down in awarding her the greatest of all time title.

Clark is for sure a volume shooter. Nothing wrong with that with a player as talented as her. But there are other players that stats don't rise to that level because they don't dominate the ball. For example, Maya Moore. She could have easily averaged 30+ points if that was her goal and Geno was ok with it. Here is a video that many UConn fans remember when he let her go off against Syracuse, a  team that really pissed Geno and the team off.


   She did everything in this game. What a talent!!

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By PHIL


Why UConn should be ranked higher

Let’s walk through why the AP voters have some teams ahead of UConn and why they are wrong.

Indiana

When the voters made the decision, Indiana had an impressive resume.

• Only three losses, all to teams in the top 5, that’s impressive

However, once you get past looking at the most impressive quality loss list in the country outside of South Carolina, the pickings get slim.

Let’s list their wins over ranked teams:

Princeton number 25

Hey, a win over Princeton’s not nothing, they are solid team, but a nine point win at a Thanksgiving tournament is your only win over a top 25 team. Your strength of schedule is okay (number 16) but not at UConn levels. UConn plays a tougher schedule, and has three wins over ranked teams each of which is stronger than Princeton.

That’s before discussing the 20 point loss to an Illinois team not likely to make it to the tournament. Yes yes, that loss wasn’t in the books with the AP voters voted. They got it wrong but understandably wrong and that will be fixed next week.

LSU

The voters thought process is easy to understand. LSU is the defending national champions, and on paper seem to add a lot of firepower. They started out the season number one understandably, but laid an egg in their first game. The voters punish them each time they have another loss, but ratings tend to be sticky, so it took some time to drift down to where they belong. They are currently at number 13, and I’m not going to argue that the voters have them too high. That’s probably about right – the issue is that they place UConn below LSU, not that LSU is too high.

LSU only has four losses and UConn has five, but UConn plays a much tougher schedule. LSU strength of schedule in an absolute sense isn’t horrendous (Massey rank 36) but that’s worse than almost all ranked teams (Syracuse, Creighton and Princeton are worse – did I miss anyone)?

Moreover, each of UConn’s five losses is to a ranked team, while LSU’s loss to Auburn and Mississippi State. LSU is only played three ranked teams and lost two of them. Which means they have exactly one win over a ranked team on their resume. UConn has done far better and deserves to be higher.

UCLA

This seems like an easy one for the voters. Both UCLA and UConn have five losses, UCLA plays the tougher schedule and beat UConn head-to-head. Case closed.

I get it but not surprisingly I see it differently. They head-to-head when was a Thanksgiving tournament and both teams are different now. While UConn has lost an unprecedented number of players, we seem to be a Timex, taking a licking but still ticking (who’s old enough to remember that ad?)o

UCLA is very good but they lost to unranked Washington State, something UConn has not done.

How have they been doing recently? They lost to Oregon State, even when OSU lost their best player early in the game. Oregon State is in the same ballpark as Creighton, but UConn won that game by 20. I understand the voter’s decision, but I think UConn is currently playing better than UCLA.
Milestone Watch

• Aaliyah Edwards reached 1704 career points with her 20 points in the Creighton game. She is in sole possession of 18th place. She passed Ann Strother and now needs 93 points to catch Stefanie Dolson.

• Aaliyah Edwards now has 938 rebounds with 8 against Creighton. She passed Peggy W sole possession of 10th place. She needs seven more to catch Peggy Walsh.

• Nika Mühl had 604 assists after her 7 assists in the Georgetown game. She passed Crystal Dangerfield, is in 5th place and needs 28 more to tie Renee Montgomery.

• Geno now has 1203 wins, placing him second overall, ahead of Mike Krzyzewski.

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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 80, Creighton 34.

Net positives/minutes played: Paige 27/39, Ashlynn 21/40, Aaliyah 13/27, Nika 12/39, KK 1/37, Qadence 0/4, Ice -1/13, Ines -1/1.

Paige stepped up, Ashlynn 3 solid games in a row, KK struggled past two, Ice a step backwards. 

Great crowd! Beat DePaul!

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UCONN LINKS

Several links are pay sites. Sorry!

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Message Boards

UConn Territory - The best UConn women's message board ever!!! 
Vol Nation - Tennessee women's basketball board
ND Nation - Notre Dame women's basketball board
Rebkell - WCBB for everyone that thinks they are smarter than everyone else

UCONN Information

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

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