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UCONN 84 VILLANOVA 39
I went to visit my cousins in New Jersey. We are all vaccinated and it is great just hanging out. A little normalcy in such a crazy 12 months. But that means I didn't get a chance to watch the game yet. I did follow the box score and a few things stick out.
Nika Muhl is one tough cookie. She didn't score form the field but she did hit 3-4 foul shots and had a couple of rebounds and an assist. More importantly she played 18 minutes. Hopefully another day of rehab on the ankle and she is even in better shape. Just a real pleasant surprise to see her play at all.
UConn's other European, Anna Makurat saw some real minutes in this game. She played 14 minutes and also didn't score from the field. And she also hit 3-4 foul shots. But it looks like she was pretty active with 4 rebounds and a steal. She will really help the rotation going forward. So exciting to see.
Christyn Williams had one of her best games this season with 26 points a 6 rebounds. She was 11-17 from the field and 3-5 on threes. I'll say it now. If this is the Williams UConn has for the rest of the season? Say goodnight Irene! (And I just looked at some of the game article. Geno said the same thing)
Of course, Paige Bueckers had her usual great game. 18 points and 8 assists. Also 2 steals and 1 block. Just another day at the office.
The team had some nice numbers shooting 55% from the field, 44% on threes, and a great 87% from the free throw line going 20-23. Nice!
And the defense was just incredible. They held Villanova to 24% from the field, 6-33 for 18% on threes.
Geno had to have been happy after this game. Speaking of Geno......
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UConn vs Marquette
Day: Monday
Date: March 8th, 2021
Time: 8:00
Location: Mohegan Sun Areana
TV: FS1
Here is a quick reminder of the Marquette players and how they fared against UConn the last two times they played this season.
Marquette is led by senior guard Selena Lott. She is clearly the best shooter on the team. Lott hit's 42% of her three pointers and she takes around 4 per game. Lott also get's to the line more than anyone else in Marquette. She has taken exactly the same amount of free throws as she does three pointers. And she hits 88% of her free throws. Just a really good shooter. Lott also leads the team in assists. She really struggled against UConn in the first game, scoring only 4 points going 1-7 from the field and 0-4 on threes. The second game she scored 6 points and was 0-4 on threes again.
Marquette's best big is No. 42 Lauren Van Kleunen. She is only 6'2" but is a wide shouldered young lady who knows how to use her body to carve out space in the post. She will take the intermediate jumper but of she gets the ball in the low post she knows how to finish. Her go to move is a little jump hook. Tough to stop. She was terrific in the first game, scoring 18 points on 9-13 shooting and grabbing 6 rebounds and handing out 4 assists. She had 12 points and 7 rebounds in the second game.
Cameryn Taylor is a a 6'2" forward who will physically remind you of Swin Cash. Certainly not as talented but to me her gait as she runs is so similar. She really runs the court well and is a good rebounder, using her jumping ability to grab rebounds out of her area. She had a double double in the first game, scoring 10 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. She had 19 points and 6 rebounds in the second game.
Jordan King is the other guard in the starting lineup. She is second on the team in assists but is not an offensive threat. Her shooting percentage across the board are really weak. Yet she still takes 10 shots per game. She had 4 points and 4 assists against the Huskies in the first game. She added 11 points and 3 assists in the second match up.
The final starter is 6'1" junior Chloe Marotta. A solid shooter, she doesn't take many out of her range, which is right around the basket. She is a pretty good defender as well. And she is the second best rebounder on the team. She had a team high 6 turnovers against UConn in the first match up. She handled the ball better but was 1-6 from the field in the second game for 2 points.
The bench give Marquette some solid minutes, but none of the three players that get minutes are going to come in and change the trajectory of the game. I would expect the starters to get more than their average minutes in this one. They had 13 points in total in the first game. They only had 3 points in the second game.
Defensively, they Golden Eagles play exclusively a man to man. That could be a disaster if they don't do a good job switching off the screens. They didn't do a good job doing that in the first match up when UConn won 87-58 in Marquette and did much better in the second match up when the Huskies only won by 10 points at home 63-53.
This should be an interesting game. Can Marquette defend a UConn team that just came off a very good offensive effort against Villanova? They can probably hold them to close to 70 points. But UConn's defense is playing at a great level. This game will be a 20+ point win for the Huskies.
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Late Season Top 15
Dana Evans Louisville
Rhyne Howard Kentucky
I pretty much eliminated Kiana Williams from Stanford and Aari McDonald from Arizona from consideration for the Wooden Award. And of course Williams had a great game tonight for Stanford hitting 6-7 threes to shut me up.
I'm going to eliminate two more player from consideration. Dana Evans from Louisville and Rhyne Howard.
Once considered a front runner, Evans has really struggled recently and in some very important games like the Florida State loss and the ACC championship game loss on Sunday. In the FSU game she was 5-21 from the field and 1-9 on threes. She did have 5 assists, but not a Wooden award winning performance. And in the ACC championship game she was 7-21 from the field, 1-6 on threes, with no assists and 3 turnovers. She is also 6 for her last 34 on threes. I don't know. She is a very good player, but she certainly hasn't played like a Wooden Award winner.
Rhyne Howard is an easy elimination for me. I've watched several Kentucky games and while she can dominate a game, when things aren't going her way, she tends to disappear. I hesitate to use the "Q" word, but it does appear she quits at times. In three of Kentucky's biggest games this season, 2 against Tennessee and one against South Carolina, she just didn't come through. Against Tennessee combined she was 7-29 from the field and 2-8 on threes scoring 22 points. And against South Carolina she was 2-11 from the field and 2-8 on threes, and scored only 12 points.
When it's a contest of very good players, it's the little things that matters. And performances in the big games go a long way.
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Tournament starts 3/8
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Tournament starts March 11
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(See UConn section for game links)
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Tournament starts 3/9
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What a great sight today seeing Nika warming up and playing after what many fans thought might be a much more serious injury. Add in Anna playing again, for the first time in weeks, and the pre-game vibe was good. The game was almost better as UConn crushed Villanova from the first minute, to the last second. Top 5 stats:
1. Holding Siegrist to 1-10 shooting. She had more fouls (4), than points (3).
2. Christyn exploding for 26 points, including 3 threes.
3. Edwards, Griffin and Makurat playing 50 of the 200 minutes in today’s game. 16 points and 13 boards.
4. 20-23 from the foul line. That is 87%..!
5. Defense giving up 13 points in the first half, holding Villanova to 15 points and grabbing 37 defensive rebounds.
Go Huskies..!
1. Holding Siegrist to 1-10 shooting. She had more fouls (4), than points (3).
2. Christyn exploding for 26 points, including 3 threes.
3. Edwards, Griffin and Makurat playing 50 of the 200 minutes in today’s game. 16 points and 13 boards.
4. 20-23 from the foul line. That is 87%..!
5. Defense giving up 13 points in the first half, holding Villanova to 15 points and grabbing 37 defensive rebounds.
Go Huskies..!
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By Phil
Another discussion forum took up the issue of the Maggie Dixon award, given to the best first-year coach. They suggested five names, and I started doing a little research. I decided to write up my results but (spoiler alert) I don't have a winner.
Lindy LaRocque deserve some credit for taking a very weak program and improving it. They ended with a Massey ranking 170 last year, and that team did manage to beat # 57 St. John's and # 67 S. Florida. This year's team is ranked 118 which is a material improvement, but they don't have any particularly notable wins. All but two of their wins are over triple digit ranked teams. Their best wins are over #95 Colorado State and #85 New Mexico, so in the signature wins category they actually regressed a bit. They lost to # 166 Nevada, which qualifies as a bad loss.
Kyra Elzy has a good and rare fortune to take over a team that's one of the bluebloods. That can be a mixed blessing. Obviously, any brand-new coach would be thrilled to have a national player of the year candidate, a high-quality transfer and a ton of other talent to work with. On the other hand, the bar has been set high. Kentucky was ranked # 20 in 2020 and is currently ranked (by Massey) #20. Not an improvement, but one could argue that when you are ranked that high, just maintaining level is a significant accomplishment. However, Kentucky was ranked 11 in the preseason poll, climbed as high as ninth, and has drifted down to #20, and recovered slightly. There have been a few nice wins, Indiana, Arkansas and Georgia, but then losing twice to Mississippi (admittedly a team on the rise, but starting from a low level). They lost to DePaul, who were ranked at the time but that loss is looking a little weaker now. They face Georgia today. Even though Georgia is technically the higher seeded team, losing to Georgia will be a disappointing end to a regular-season. A win probably gives them a shot at Texas A&M. Beat Texas A&M and she probably deserves the award.
Niele Ivey inherited the program that's been one of the top teams in the last couple decades. Normally when you inherit a top-level team the bar is set high (see Kyra Elzy), but Neile had the odd circumstance of taking over a powerhouse program that had fallen on its face. Notre Dame had a long consecutive run of invitations to the NCAA tournament, a streak was almost certainly going to be broken in 2020, with a 14 – 18 record and a Massey ranking of 54, but they were bailed out by cancellation of the tournament. That resets the bar. This year's team is stronger than last year's team.
Does the credit go to Neile? Obviously, it will, but the question is whether she deserves it. She might, but it might be that 2020 was a weird aberration. This year's team isn't below 500 but they are at 500. This year's team did beat Virginia Tech twice, as well as Wake Forest and Florida State, but there are not really any signature wins to hang your hat on. Losses to Ohio, and Boston College earlier in the year are significant black marks on the resume, but at least the Ohio loss was early in the season. Losing to Clemson may be a nail in the coffin.
Brooke Wyckoff also inherited a top-level program. While not quite in the same league as Kentucky or Notre Dame prior to 2020, Florida State has been in the hunt for postseason hardware for many years. unfortunately, while the team is having a decent season, with a record of 10 – 7, and a notable win over Louisville, their overall massive ranking dropped from # 18 to # 38, and their impressive wins, have been more than offset by inscrutable losses to Notre Dame and Miami. Brooke, like Kyra, faces the enormous challenge of starting with a high bar, but two steps backward don't count as award-deserving.
Kara Lawson probably isn't in the running because they decided to end their season after four games, which is unfortunate because she probably was on track to win this award going away.
When I started writing this, I fully expected that one name would stick out as the clear winner, but that doesn't seem to be the case. In the case of three candidates, each of whom had the challenge of starting with a relatively high bar, they each regressed. Arguably Notre Dame is slightly stronger than last year but they are ending on a sour note. Lindy and Denise both can point to improvements but moving from lower mediocre to middle mediocre is a hard sell for an award. Villanova is a little better than that but the gain is also barely more than a rounding error.
I took a glance at some other possible names, Amy Mallon at Drexel, Krista Gerlich at Texas Tech, Delisha Milton-Jones at Old Dominion, but I didn't see any signs of an improving team. I'm hoping I'm missing some clearly deserving candidate. Any thoughts?
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Regular Season Games
No non-tournament games
UCONN LINKS
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