Friday, February 23, 2024

Doggy's Doghouse 2/23/2024

 







 

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GO UCONN!!!!!

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

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** Designates Upset

Games Thursday February 22th, 2024

No. 1 South Carolina 72 Alabama 44
No. 2 Ohio State 82 Penn State 69
No. 4 Iowa 69 No. 14 Indiana 86 **
No.  6 NC State 70 North Carolina 80 **
No. 12 UCLA 82 No. 18 Utah 52
No. 13 LSU 71 Auburn 66
No. 16 Gonzaga 74 San Francisco 48
No. 17 Syracuse 45 Duke 58 **
No. 19 Notre Dame 74 Clemson 47
No. 20 Louisville 80 Georgia Tech 62
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ESPN’s Shane Laflin provided this scouting report on UConn's 2024 incoming freshmen.

Morgan Cheli 

“Cheli is a swiss-army knife type of perimeter player. Over the course of the last 18 months, she has gone from a slashing wing with a nice pull-up jumper to an all-around guard that often carries the lead guard duties for her No. 1 Archbishop Mitty squad. She has added some wiggle to her handle and dramatically improved her effectiveness from 3 with her high release shot and elevation. The 6-2 future Husky is an excellent passer, quality rebounder and very versatile on the court. She'll see some minutes at the guard and forward position at UConn when she gets to Storrs for next season.”

Allie Ziebell

“Ziebell is a silent assassin. She has a tough unflappable quality about her and nothing rattles her on the floor. She is adept at getting to her spots -- whether with the ball in her hands or moving without the ball off of screens and actions -- and knocking down shots at a high percentage. Ziebell makes quick decisions with the ball and as a result is a quality facilitator for her teams. She will fit in with coach Geno Auriemma and the UConn style of play -- skilled and smart and ready to counter what the opponent throws at her.”

I know it annoys some UConn fans but Ziebell's description could be used for any of the Mabrey sisters. Mostly like the best one which I believe was Marina. Allie is going to be a great addition to the roster.

Full disclosure - Hamilton Neill is a huge UConn fan and has been saying Strong will pick UConn for months. I hope he's right. I'm sure he is about the two programs that are fighting for her. UConn and South Carolina.  

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Kaleena Smith is only a freshman. 

She has offers from several schools including UConn. 

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Straight from the Dog


No. 1 South Carolina took on Alabama in an SEC clash without their center and leading scorer and rebounder Kamilla Cardoso. The team said that the 6-foot-7 Cardoso was a “little sore” after Sunday's 70-56 victory over Georgia.

“Given all the travel and additional playing she did in Brazil, we decided to give her a rest this game,”.

We UConn fans know that South Carolina is more that Cardoso. And Alabama found that out in the first half of their game. It was all defense for the Gamecocks as they held Alabama to 13 first half points shooting 5-32 from the field and 0-8 on threes. They also turned the ball over 12 times. 

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Three top 25 upsets tonight. 

No. 17 Syracuse got a does of reality with a 58-45 loss to unranked Duke.
No. 6 NC State lost to unranked North Carolina 80-70.  
No. 4 Iowa lost to No. 14 Indiana 86-69. 

I'm sure SECreme's head is exploding with what he will have to do with the Iowa, NC State and Syracuse losses.

Syracuse was a 4 seed. 
NC State was a 2 seed.
Iowa was a 1 seed.

It's so much fun to see so much parity!!

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Wow, the best player of all time in WCBB, Caitlin Clark, almost had a triple double but she shot like crap. 8-26 from the field and 3-16 on threes. She was even 5-8 on free throws. And she had 5 turnovers. Bad games happen. But this is her second game in Iowa's last two losses where she played poorly. Against Nebraska two games ago she was 10-25 from the field, 5-15 on threes, 6-9 on free throws. And was scoreless in the fourth quarter when Iowa was outscored 27-10. 

These two games don't take away from her greatness. She still is an amazing player. But she is not the greatest. No way. No how.      
   

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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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