Monday, February 5, 2024

Doggy's UConn/Seton Hall II Pregame Report

 





No. 11 UCONN HUSKIES                                         SETON HALL
  19-4 (11-0)                                                                 13-9 (5-6)


Date: Wednesday 
 February 7th, 2024
XL Center
Hartford, Connecticut  
Time: 7:00
TV: SNY


SETON HALL | UCONN 

UCONN LEADS 58-10 
H: 27-4 | A: 27-4 | N: 4-2 1

Last 10 Games
 
12/09/11 #2 UConn 70, SHU 37 South Orange, N.J. 
02/23/13 #3 UConn 90, SHU 30 Storrs, Conn. 
12/08/18 #1 UConn 99, SHU 61 Hartford, Conn. 
12/05/19 #2 UConn 92, SHU 78 South Orange, N.J. 
12/15/20 #3 UConn 92, SHU 65 South Orange, N.J. 
02/10/21 #2 UConn 70, SHU 49 Storrs, Conn.
12/03/21 #2 UConn 74, SHU 49 Storrs, Conn.
01/21/22 #9 UConn 71, SHU 38 South Orange, N.J.
12/21/22 #9 UConn 98, SHU 73 Hartford, Conn. 
01/17/23 #5 UConn 103, SHU 58 South Orange, N.J.
01/17/24 #9 UConn 83, SHU 59 South Orange, N.J.

Seton Hall Season to Date

It's been a pretty uneven for Seton Hall. They started the season 4-3 with easy wins over Iona 75-32, Bryant 73-45, Rutgers 82-63 and East Carolina 68-57.  They lost to Columbia 72-61, at the time No. 8 USC 64-54 and to then ranked No. 23 Princeton 75-71 in double overtime. Well battled losses against two really good teams.

They didn't let the loss to Princeton get them down and went on a five game winning streak beating Maryland Eastern Shores 78-54, Central Connecticut 77-46, Fairleigh Dickenson 67-27, in a huge upset, hammered then No. 23 UNLV 84-54 and then beat Georgetown 57-49.  

The Hall then went 2-3 with wins over the two weakest Big East team Butler 64-50 and Xavier in their last game 61-47. The three losses were to Providence 51-46, Villanova 50-45 and No. 23 Marquette 75-54. 

After losing to UConn 83-59 they then beat St. John's in overtime 74-66 OT, lost to No. 21 Creighton 57-49, defeated Georgetown 71-54 and in their last outing were hammered by Villanova 69-41.  

Like I said, uneven.

 Comparative Team Statistics
(leader in bold)

                                                    UConn                                     Seton Hall

                                              83.2        PPG                            64.1
                                              60.0        Defensive PPG            56.4
                                              23.2        Scoring Margin             7.7
                                              51.7        Field Goal %               42.0
                                              37.5        Defensive FG%           39.9 
                                              38.0        Three Point %              31.4
                                              30.4        Defensive 3PT%          32.1
                                              74.7        Free Throw %             74.8
                                              37.0        Rebounds/game           33.7
                                                4.8        Rebounding Margin        .3 
                                              20.1        Assists per game          13.3
                                              13.2        Turnover per game       14.1
                                                1.5        Assists/TO ratio              .9
                                              10.3        Steals per game              9.6
                                                3.4        Blocks per game            2.8





Seton Hall Starters


Seton Hall Bench



Game Analysis

Not much has changed since the first game where UConn beat Seton Hall on January 17th. My writeup on the players might look familiar as it will be the same as I wrote from the first game. I will update the stats and comment on how each player did in the first matchup this season.

For the first time in a few years UConn will not be facing that mini-speed demon Lauren Park-Lane as she transferred to Mississippi State. She has had great games against UConn and bad games against the Huskies. The Pirates have no one on the roster with her skill level. 

Sydney Cooks is also gone. At 6'4",  she was the only real height on their team and did a great job in the middle. To continue the theme, Seton Hall has no one to replace her contiburtions to the team either. 

Mya Bembrey is another starter that is not on the team this season. The 6'1" forward was the second leading rebounder on the team.

On to this seasons team - 
Starters

Azana Baines, a 6'1" grad student forward is the leading scorer and rebounder at 15.4 PPG and 6.3 RPG. A decent three point shoot at 33%, she doesn't take many. But she does get to the free throw line often, around 4 times per game and shoots them well at 81.6%. She had a good game in the first matchup with 16 points and 6 rebounds and 3 blocks.

Micah Gray is a 5'8" sophomore guard. The second leading scorer on the team at 12.5 PPG. She's an ok three point shooter at 33.8% and takes around 8 per game. In the first matchup she had 7 points on 2-8 shooting and 3 rebounds.

Kae Sattterfield, a 6' grad student, is the third leading scorer on the team at 8.7 PPG. A wide body, she carves out space under the basket and is shooting 61.1% from the field. She is not an outside threat taking only four three pointers all season and making one. In the first matchup she came off the bench and had 4 points.      

A'ja Davis is a 6'1" grad student transfer from Northern Illinois. She was All-MAC for her last three years there. Davis started the first 16 games of the season but didn't start against Xavier and only played 2 mibnutes. I haven't been able to find info on why. If she's ok I would expect her to start again. She is averaging 5.6 PPG and 5.6 RPG. She is a really bad FT thooter at 38.9%. UGGY! In the first matchup she had 4 points on 2-4 shooting and 2 rebounds.   

Amari Wright is the point guard on the team and does a nice job controling the action. She is no Park-Lane. She can't shoot a lick (5-23 on threes) but does a nice job distributing the ball. The 5'9" senior averages only 5.2 PPG but she does have 131 assists and 66 turnovers. Nice ratio. She also leads the team in steals with 54. In the first matchup Wright had only 2 points but she distributed well with 8 assist. On the negative side she had 5 turnovers.

Bench

Sha'Lynn Hagans, a 5'6" Grad Student started last season was the only other double digit scorer on the team and she does return. Oddly she is coming off the bench this season. She is not even close to playing as well as last season averaging 2.9 PPG and shooting 36.2% from the field and 23.1% on 3's. She is only playing 11.4 MPG. I wonder if she is happy she came back. In the first matchup she played 1 minute. 

Savannah Catalon is a 5'8" freshman from Texas. The best three point shooter on the team, she is shooting them at 37.5%. In her 20.4 MPG, she only has taken 40 threes. Catalon is avergaing 5.9 PPG and has a positive assist/turnover ratio of 34 assists and only 17 turnovers. In the first matchup she had 3 points, 2 rebounds and 3 steals.

l'yanna Lops, a 6'3" grad student transfer from St. Bonaventure, is the biggest player on the team that sees minutes. However, she is only playing 15.0 MPG. In those minutes she lead the team in blocks with 22.  In the first matchup she started and she had 7 points and 2 steals. 

In the first matchup, Paige had a game high 32 points on 12-17 shooting and 4-8 on threes.  Nika had 10 assists and 3 steals. KK had a terrific game with 15 points and was 4-6 on threes. Edwards had a quiet 17 points and 9 rebounds. It was an off game for Ashlynn with 5 points. She only took 5 shots.
Prediction

Similarly to St. John's, Seton Hall is a totally different team than last year. With Park-Lane and Sydney Cook gone, there was a ton of scoring and rebounding to make up. I'm not sure they did a very good job of that. They did bring in a few transfers but they haven't been able to transfer their skills to a higher level of basketball.

In the first matchup the Huskies started slow and was only up 23-21 after one quarter. But they stormed ahead with a 30-10 second quarter. Another even slower start in the third quarter where the Pirates outscored the Huskies 18-10 but UConn put it away in the final quarter with a 22-8 advantage. It was a pretty uneven performance by UConn but at home I'm thinking they will would together a more complete game.  

UConn by 35+.

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