Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 4/5/2024

GO UCONN!!!!!

The Boys and their Dogs -

Under the UConn blanket!!

GO UCONN!!!!!

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Only a few days left!!

Naismith fan voting has started. You can vote once a day. Paige and Aaliyah are on the ballot.

VOTE HERE

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UConn/Iowa Semi-Final Pregame Report

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Geno talks Paige, Caitlin

and the rise of women's basketball

UConn full Pregame Press Conference

Iowa full Pregame Press Conference

Caitlin Clark on Paige Bueckers

Paige on Caitlin

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Ready for the Wall of Honor!!

We’re so unbelievably happy right now

🥹 pic.twitter.com/o2XtsWaWQ5
— UConn Women’s Basketball (@UConnWBB) April 4, 2024

GO Aaliyah!!!!

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We’re just in a silly goofy mood pic.twitter.com/mfHstVBIH4
— UConn Women’s Basketball (@UConnWBB) April 4, 2024

Girls just having fun!! Interesting height comparison!

Either Ayanna Patterson has grown, or Ice has shrunk or

Ayanna is wearing high heel sneakers!

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Paige Bueckers was asked what she remembers about playing Iowa as a freshman. She begins her answer then turns to Geno:

“I think that was the game I slapped you on your butt.” pic.twitter.com/zIQSlCq5xu
— Daniel Connolly (@DanielVConnolly) April 4, 2024

I SO remember this when it happened. I'm sure I posted about it. It was just hysterical. This precocios freshman at the time just grabbed our hearts and Geno's as well.

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Azzi Fudd gets some dribbles in before practice pic.twitter.com/nh2HuM4JIq
— Maggie Vanoni (@maggie_vanoni) April 4, 2024

It's a begining!!!

I'm feeling pretty confident she will be ready by November

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Geno on Jana El Alfy

"There's nobody that is enjoying life more than she is, that is totally engaged in what we're doing," Auriemma said. "Everything we do as a team, she feels as though it's happening to her.

"I can't say enough about her as a person. Nobody has seen her play. No one at UConn nation has seen her play, and they don't anything about her. All they know is what they see. Myself, the staff, the players, and everyone associated with our program has been really truly, truly blessed that she's come into our life because I can honestly say in 40 years I've never coached anybody better at Connecticut, never, in my life."

That is some high praise for Jana. I think UConn fans will be happy with what she brings to the table next season. She is a true 6'6" and has the game of a small forward.

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Women’s College Hoops (@wcollegehoops)

Maybe the most anti-climatic awards

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Hailey Van Lith has entered the portal for the second straight year. Will she go back to Jeff Walz at Louisville for her final season? Louisville-LSU-Louisville?

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Great Game @thesarahstrong hope to play ⛹🏽‍♀️with you in college 🤞🏾💙!!#ChipotleNationals pic.twitter.com/ritvc2tM7D
— Kelis Fisher✨ (@FisherKelis) April 5, 2024

Me too Kelis. Me too....

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By PHIL

Caitin, Paige and others

We are probably going to be subjected to in inordinate amounts of Caitlin versus Paige media coverage over the next few days.

So, let’s add to it.

I’ve been trying to work out how to properly express how I feel about Caitlin Clark.

I guess the easiest short summary is to say that I think she is an incredible talented, and unquestionably deserves to be in the discussion of the greatest women’s basketball player of all time.

That said, there are a lot of rabid Caitlin Clark fans who don’t think a debate is necessary. In their mind, Clark is not simply the best wbb player in history, but so far above the others that it not worthy of a serious discussion to consider other players. I’m not there.

The media attention starts with her logo threes, understandably. The media also talks about her ability to drive to the basket and her ability to contribute jaw-dropping assists. These latter two points aren’t missed but in my opinion are slightly underappreciated. There is a lot of talk about her career scoring, which of course is quite warranted but the media didn’t go this crazy over Kelsey Plum.

I can’t quite put my finger on why it is happening, but despite all the media discussion of Caitlin, they still managed to under-appreciate some staggering statistics — it’s not just that every single home game was sold out, but every single away game. How often does that happen in women’s basketball? The Albany regional was sold out, and not just the Iowa region — fans weren’t sure which region Iowa would be in, so they bought tickets to both regions. That’s incredible fan support, which also shows up in the TV viewership, which is smashing records. That not just Clark, but she deserves much of the credit.

She’s fun to watch.

If you want to treat women’s basketball as entertainment, which is a legitimate point of view, the argument that she’s the greatest of all time may be warranted. However, you want to treat women’s basketball as a sport, and talk about how good she is as a basketball player, she’s incredibly good and belongs in the discussion but I don’t see her as the obvious greatest of all time.

Believe it or not, this is leading to praise of her performance in the game against LSU.

Anyone who’s reading this already knows that Clark gets a lot of points, but she gets so by taking a lot of shots. If you look at her efficiency rating, it’s very good but it’s not off the charts good.

Earlier this year I looked at all the games where a player recorded 30 points. Not surprisingly, Clark had several of them, four in fact. However, if you look at the stat known as true shooting efficiency, which doesn’t just look at total points, but adjusts for shots taken in the ability to get to the free-throw line, none of her 30-point games were in the top 10 True Shooting stats.

Paige Bueckers “only” had three entries in the list, but in each of those cases Paige’s true shooting statistic was better than any of Clark’s.

On to the 1 April games.

Clark’s true shooting percentage in the game against LSU was 63.9%

That’s excellent.

For comparison, the value for Paige Bueckers 57.6% also very good but not as good as Clark.

Clark’s result was better than her game against Michigan State or Virginia Tech although not as good as her game against Michigan or Ohio State. While that kind of makes it middling for her, when you consider the strength of the opposition, it arguably qualifies as one of her best if not the best performance of the season which is a high bar.

For additional perspective, JuJu Watkins true shooting percentage was 50.1%, so not as good as Paige and definitely not as good as Clark.

In case you were wondering, Reese’s true shooting percentage was 34.7%.

I think the media is under-appreciating Flau'jae Johnson, who deserved inclusion on the region team ahead of Reese. Her true shooting percentage was 60.9%, so I ahead of Paige and just a little behind Clark.

Milestone Watch

• Aaliyah Edwards had 24 points in the USC game! which brings her to a career total of 1833 points. She is in 16th place all time, and needs 17 points to tie Christyn Williams.

• Aaliyah Edwards now has 1012 rebounds with 6 against USC. She passed Gabby Williams to take over 7th place.

• Nika Mühl has 679 assists after her 8 assists in the USC game. She extends her record as the all-time leader in career assists

• Mühl is now the holder of:

o Single game assists record 15 (against NC State 20 November 2022) surpassing Paige Bueckers

o Single season assists record 284 (2022–23) surpassing Sue Bird’s 231

o Career assists record surpassing Moriah Jefferson

Paige Bueckers now has 837 points this season. She is now in 2nd place, behind only Maya Moore who had 868 in 2010–11.

• Geno now has 1213 wins.

• UConn now has 136 NCAA wins, more than any other school.

• UConn now starting a new Final Four streak

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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 77, USC 55.

Net positives/minutes played: Paige 32/40, Aaliyah 14/40, Nika 11/40, Ashlynn 5/21, Qadence 4/14, Ice 4/19, KK 0/26. (Juju 21/39).

What a team, what a star. Ice especially but also Qadence came through. Play seven, foul trouble or not.

McDonald’s summary: Sarah, come play with Paige!

Most amazing stat: starting with freshmen who arrived in 1987, every single freshman class if they stayed four years has gone to final four, 1987-2023, 37 straight classes.

Food for thought, net positives per minute played for the season so far: Paige .753, Aaliyah .674, Nika .330, Qadence .322, Ashlynn .319, KK .211, Ice .207.

Go UConn, beat the Hawkeyes!

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