Doggydaddy's Den

Saturday, April 1, 2017

DoggyDaddy's South Carolina/Mississippi State Pre Game Report

South Carolina vs Mississippi State

Day: Sunday

Date:April 2, 2017

Loc: Dallas, Texas

Time: Approx. 6:00
TV: ESPN2

1 Seed South Carolina 2 Seed Mississippi State

32-4 34-4

Overview

Prior Meetings this year

South Carolina leads leads 2-0

1/23/17 64-61 South Carolina over MSU

3/5/17 59-49 South Carolina over MSU

Stat by Stat Comparison

Leader is bolded

South Carolina Mississippi State

77.0 Points Per Game 76.8

57.0 Opp Points Per Game 57.2

.479 Field Goal % .450

.356 Opp Field Goal % .392

.338 3 Point Field Goal % .353

.269 Opp 3 Point Field Goal % .278

.718 Free Throw % .728

38.9 Rebounds Per Game 38.3

32.7 Opp Rebounds Per Game 31.4

15.2 Assists Per Game 15.0

12.7 Turnovers Per Game 12.8
1.2 Assists/Turnover Ratio 1.2

8.6 Steals Per Game 8.4

5.6 Blocks Per Game 4.0

MISSISSIPPI STATE BULLDOGS

Head Coach

Vic Schaefer

Schaefer, a veteran coach of 31 seasons, came to Starkville with the blueprints to crafting Mississippi State into a championship program. In just his third season he added a major building block as the Bulldogs enjoyed a record-setting 2014-15 campaign that earned him SEC Coach of the Year honors from the Associated Press, co-Coach of the Year accolades from his league peers and Naismith National Coach of the Year semifinalist honors.

If you want to see a show in a show, train your eye on Vic Schaefer on the sidelines. He is so intense, 100% of the time. When he extols his team to run after a rebound, he runs down the sideline, spinning his arm in a circle. And his looks when a ref makes a call he doesn't like is priceless. He always looks at the replay and then points to the scoreboard when yelling at the ref.

Mississippi State Starters

35 Victoria Vivians

6'1" Junior Guard

MPG 28.8, FG% .376, 3PT% .283, PPG 16.3, RPG 4.2, APG 1.5

2 Morgan William

5'5" Junior Guard

MPG 28.4, FG% .473, 3PT% .377, PPG 10.9, RPG 2.1, APG 4.6

15 Teaira McGowan

6'7" Sophomore Center

MPG 19.4, FG% .575, 3PT% .000, PPG 8.7, RPG 7.0, APG 0.2

3 Breanna Richardson

6'1" Senior Forward

MPG 22.2, FG% .521, 3PT% .278, PPG 5.6, RPG 4.9, APG 1.3

00 Dominique Dillingham

5'9" Senior Guard

MPG 28.3, FG% .383, 3PT% .368, PPG 6.7, RPG 2.7, APG 1.8

Mississippi State Bench

01 Blair Schaefer

5'7" Junior Guard

MPG 14.4, FG% .365, 3PT% .402, PPG 5.2, RPG 1.1, APG 0.5

45 Chinwe Okorie

6'5" Senior Center

MPG 18.9, FG% .558, 3PT% .000, PPG 7.7, RPG 5.5, APG .1

13 Ketara Chapel

6'1" Senior Forward

MPG 16.2, FG% .484, 3PT% .600, PPG 3.0, RPG 2.3, APG 1.0

11 Roshunda Johnson

5'7" RS Junior Guard

MPG 13.4, FG% .442, 3PT% .441, PPG 6.6, RPG 1.6, APG 0.6

MISSISSIPPI STATE TEAM STATS

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SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS

Head Coach Dawn Staley

At the helm of the Gamecocks over the last eight seasons, Staley has been named National Coach of the Year (2014, Basketball Times), a Naismith National Coach of the Year Finalist (2014, 2015, 2016), SEC Coach of the Year (2014, Coaches and AP; 2015, Coaches; 2016, Coaches and AP) and BCA Female Coach of the Year (2012). Under Staley's leadership, four Gamecocks have collected eight All-America selections, two have picked up three SEC Player of the Year honors, two have earned SEC Defensive Player of the Year recognition, one has been the SEC 6th Player of the Year and three were named SEC Freshman of the Year. She has coached 10 Gamecocks who earned All-SEC honors a combined 19 times, including nine first-team selections, and two Gamecocks have been selected in the WNBA Draft in the last two seasons, including 2016 selection Tiffany Mitchell who became the third first-round selection for South Carolina.

South Carolina Starters

22 A'ja Wilson
6'5" Junior Forward

2016-17: MPG 28.0, FG% .592, 3PT% .000, FT% .749, PPG 17.9, RPG 7.4, APG 1.7

52 Tyasha Harris

5'10" Freshman Guard

2016-17: MPG 25.8, FG% .435, 3PT% .333, FT% .667, PPG 5.5, RPG 1.9, APG 3.2

20 Allisha Gray
6' Junior Guard

2016-17: MPG 28.5, FG% .512, 3PT% .321, FT% .725, PPG 12.9, RPG 4.7, APG 2.7

3 Kaela Davis
6'2" Junior Guard

2016-17: MPG 27.6, FG% .385, 3PT% .358, FT% .804, PPG 13.0, RPG 3.7, APG 2.3

1 Bianca Cuevas

5'6" Junior Guard

2016-17: MPG 23.1, FG% .387, 3PT% .371, FT% .788, PPG 8.4, RPG 1.8, APG 1.9

South Carolina Bench

4 Doniya Cliney

6'0" RS Sophomore Guard

2016-17: MPG 18.0, FG% .425, 3PT% .318, FT% .568, PPG 2.9, RPG 2.9, APG 1.1

21 Mikiah Herbert Harrigan
6'2" Freshman Forward

2016-17: MPG 16.8, FG% .466, 3PT% .250, FT% .706, PPG 5.0, RPG 3.4, APG .5

OUT FOR THE GAME

41 Alana Coates

6'4" Senior Center

Coates has missed the entire NCAA tournament.

2016-17: MPG 26.8, FG% .670, 3PT% .000, FT% .651, PPG 12.9, RPG 10.7, APG 1.6

South Carolina Stats

Game Analysis

This game is really a toss up to me. Mississippi State is playing their best ball of the season and clearly are coming in off a huge high after upsetting UConn (and all their fans). They also have enough size to keep A'ja Wilson somewhat under control.

In the first matchup, SC won 64-61 and the game came down to a few plays at the end. A missed free throw by Vivians rattled out and MSU rebounded the miss. They missed a chance to go ahead when Schaefer missed a three pointer and Wilson added to her season high 26 points with 2 free throws for the final margin. That game could have gone either way.

The second matchup MSU had a 5 point lead heading into the fourth quarter and then forgot how to score. They were outscored 19-4 in the quarter by the Gamecocks. Great fourth quarter defense but seriously? Four points?

This game should be an interesting matchup. Wilson has been terrific in both games. South Carolina's Davis was the hero of the second game with 23 points, in one of her best performances of the season.

MSU's McGowan has had her way in the paint against SC. She had 15 points and 12 rebounds in the second game. But foul trouble has hindered her performance.

William vs Cuevas Moore should be great. Two small and quick guards. But I love William's game and leadership skills in this one.

Vivians has been terrific in the tournament. My guess is that Davis covers her. Can she do it without foul issues?

Final Prediction

This is a tough game to call. You have evidence in the fact that SC is up 2-0 this year on MSU. But it's really hard to beat a team three times in a season when they are evenly matched.

I'm going to go with MSU in this one in another low scoring affair. The first one to 60 will win

DoggyDaddy's UConn/Mississippi State Post Game thoughts

Wow........the sun came out this morning. Although I couldn't see it with the snow flakes coming down in APRIL!!!! Truly, life goes on. And my life gets much less complicated. As you probably can figure out, this blog takes up a ton of my time. No complaints. I wish I was writing a pregame report for UConn playing South Carolina. But it was just not meant to be.

I suppose the fact that UConn hasn't lost their final game in 5 years makes this a little weird. I was certainly very confident that they would win, so the loss was really shocking to the system. But as this morning has moved along, doing my normal errands, talking to Logan on FaceTime, and just realizing that this really happened......I'm feeling really good about this team.

It was an amazing season, it game us more than we could ask for less the NC. I'm so proud of the team, in awe of the great job Geno and the coaching staff did and appreciate every minute I watched the great basketball they played.

So no, I'm not going to do a full analysis of the game. I'm sure you all saw it and have your own thoughts about the game.

It was clear in this game that the largeness of the moment was a little too much for this young team. Because of how they won game after game, we all fell into the trap that UConn would be the team that could handle the big spotlight of the Final Four. I did have a concern that this was the semi-final game where Geno is now 5-3. This did remind me of the loss that UConn had to Notre Dame during Maya Moore's senior season.

They missed shots they normally make, had several uncharacteristic turnovers and just seemed out of sorts. That being said, I will not take anything away from the terrific game that Mississippi State played.

Vic Schaefer had his team prepared and his players responded with a terrific effort. And we can't forget that this was one of the most exciting Final Four games in recent history.

I will post the links here for the game. I won't be reading them, but some of you might like them.

So, will I keep doing my Dailies? I did last year after a few days off. I wrote about the WNBA, had links to their games, followed the UConn alumni and any UConn related links I could find. I'll see if I will do that again. I might need a longer break.

But you can bet I will be posting about next years team and expecting another long winning streak to happen. Not 111 games, but who knows?

Lastly, I want to thank all of you for being such loyal readers. I do this for you!

UConn loses to Mississippi State in buzzer-beater fashion Carl Adamec
Sophomore Collier's WNBA dream can wait Carl Adamec
UConn's surprising run ends with stunning Final Four loss Jim Fuller

MSUstuns UConn 66-64 in Final Four to end Huskies' 111-game win streak Free Republic

Dak Prescott was among those who lost their minds when Mississippi State upset UConn Fox Sports

UGone! MSU Wins Stunner, Ends Streak Sports on Earth

A 5-foot-5 guard led MSU to the greatest upset in women's basketball history USA Today

5’5” Morgan William leads Mississippi State to huge upset of UConn The Comeback

Mississippi State and UConn gave us a Final Four finish we'll remember forever SBN

Mississippi State shocks UConn women, end streak at 111 USA Today

How Mississippi State stunned UConn in an epic semifinal ESPN

OK....that's enough.

GO HUSKIES!!!!!!

DoggyDaddy's Dailies 4/1/17

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Sad for UConn. Happy for Mississippi State. I'm not up to much more than that. I wrote the South Carolina/Stanford game write up before this game ended.

Exhausting!

Congrats to a wonderful Coach in Vic Schaefer and to his classy players. They deserved it.

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Quite the unimpressive first quarter for both teams offensively. They were fortunate to get to a 14-12 score with South Carolina ahead. Stanford shot only 35.8% from the field going 5-14 and 0-3 on threes. The SC defense was all over Samuelson and her two missed threes were from 5 feet beyond the arc. Not her comfort level.

South Carolina was 6-17 from the field and 2-8 on threes. A'ja Wilson forced several shots, looking to win this game single handed although she did have a nice dump down pass to Gray for a layup.

As ugly as the first quarter was the second quarter was even worse. Stanford was a little better offensively scoring 17 points and going 8-15 from the field and 1-3 on threes. But it was their defense that totally messed up the South Carolina offense. The Gamecocks only managed 6 points in the quarter. They were only 2-14 from the field and 0-2 on threes. Stanford sagged in the paint to defend the post and Wilson and the guards refused to take the open shots.

29-20 at the half with Stanford in front. Wow. Talk about making WCBB look bad.

The big news was the ankle turn for Karlie Samuelson. I'm sure that the Stanford fans were crossing their fingers that she could return. Tara said she had no idea about her in her halftime interview but hoped they could tape her up and she could return.

I was not surprised that South Carolina turned up the defensive pressure in the third quarter. They were all over Stanford. Samuelson played but she was pretty hobbled. The Cardinal struggled to score like the Gamecocks did in the 2nd quarter. SC took the lead and extended it to six points, 39-33 when Wilson went out with a poke to the eye in a skirmish for the ball. Stanford scored a quick two points to close to two when SC used an offensive rebound and put back for the 41-37 lead after three quarters after outscoring Stanford 21-9 for the quarter.

Wilson took over in the fourth quarter as she should being the only AA in the game. Her size just wore out the Stanford players. Stanford was game and tried to keep it close. They closed to three 53-50 before South Carolina put it away. It was clear that the Gamecocks were going to pull away at the end. And they did. Wilson had 12 points and 19 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks in a terrific game. And Gray led them in scoring with 18 points and had 9 rebounds. The Gamecocks didn't get much from anyone else. Davis and Harris combined for a 5-25 night. Overall they missed 40 shots, 10 three pointers and 8 foul shots. Not good. But good enough.

McCall led Stanford with 14 points and 14 rebounds. And Smith came off the bench with a double-double of her own with 14 points and 12 rebounds. The rest of the team really struggled. The Stanford starters were 13-40 from the field and only 2-10 on threes. Can't win many games shooting that poorly.

I found myself torn between wanting Stanford to win because I wanted to see the two sisters play each other and wanting South Carolina to win because I know UConn will beat them. South Carolina shot only 36% from the field and had only 10 assists on their 23 baskets. I was amazed at the amount of really bad plays they had.

South Carolina and Stanford played a really really ugly game. But South Carolina was able to out-ugly the Cardinal.

Poor Karlie ended up scoreless going 0-2 from the field, both three pointers. She just couldn't move well enough to get free and was a real issue on defense.

The final? 62-53. Congrats to Dawn and her players for getting to the final game!

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By David in Naples!!!!!

Milestones for individual players and the team that might be reached tonight. Watch and see...

1. With 2 steals Gabby goes over 100 for the season.
2. Saniya has 49 threes and could pass 50 for the year with her 1st three.
3. UConn has 1,190 baskets so far, the next 10 puts them over 1,200.
4. If Crystal scores 13 points, she will go over 200 for the season.
5. Katie Lou needs 5 threes to tie Kaleena for most in a single season.
6. The Huskies' 852 assists is already a record. Look for it to increase.
7. As a team, UConn has 295 three point baskets. The next 5 puts them over 300.
8. Natalie needs 5 points to get to 200 & 21 rebounds to reach 200.
9. Molly and Kyla have 99 combined points. One more to reach 100.
10. UConn has won a Final Four semi final game 11 times. In each case they won the NC.

Go Huskies..!!

* This was written before the game.

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