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A blog on UConn women's basketball.

Thursday, December 08, 2016

UConn/Notre Dame game a ratings hit

Last night's UConn/Notre Dame game drew some impressive ratings.

I heard back from ESPN earlier this evening and was told that the ESPN2 broadcast had live viewing audience (counting TV viewers and those who checked out ESPN3's live stream) of 739,000.

The highest market was Hartford/New Haven with an 8.9 rating, which is the highest rating for a women's basketball game in this market so far this season according to ESPN. It should be noted that ESPN only had four of the first eight UConn games and it is unlikely that a non-UConn game would outdraw one involving the Huskies in the state but it is still a noteworthy number.

I also did a little checking and going back to the 2002-03 season, the only players with at least 10 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 steals in a game are Maya Moore (16 points, 14, rebounds, seven assists, five steals vs. Syracuse on Mar. 7, 2010), Kelly Faris (13 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists, five steals against Georgetown on Jan. 5, 2013), Stefanie Dolson (12 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, five steals against Memphis on Jan. 22, 2014) and Gabby Williams (19 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and five steals against Notre Dame).

I spent a few extra minutes with Williams after the game and got some stuff from her about being more than just a dynamic player and athlete. I'm going to turn it into my advance for Sunday's game at Kansas State so stay tuned.

A couple of other notes that I never got around to posting.

First, since I spent plenty of time researching how many games and shots it took Katie Lou Samuelson to reach 100 3-points and where it ranks in program history, I did get her reaction to needing fewer shots than anybody not named Sue Bird to reach triple digits in made 3-pointers.

"It is really exciting, my teammates pass me the ball so it is on them so hopefully I will continue to shoot more 3s," Samuelson said.

Finally, as I was watching the 5-foot-11 Williams and 6-foot-1 Collier combine for 39 points, 17 rebounds, 6 assists, 6 steals and 2 blocked shots in the win over Notre Dame, I couldn't help but wonder how things will look next season with 6-foot-5 Azura' Stevens and 6-2 Batouly Camara eligible after sitting out this season per NCAA transfer regulations as well as the Huskies adding highly-touted 6-1 signee Megan Walker.

I spoke to Camara last month after the National Letters of Intent were signed by Walker, Mikayla Coombs, Andra Espinoza-Hunter and Lexi Gordon since Camara was a former teammate of Espinoza-Hunter's at Blair Academy. I also asked her about what it is like not being able to play this season.

"It was more and everything that I expected," Camara said. "It is as challenging as I thought it would be but that was exactly what I wanted, I am excited about the season.

"Going through preseason and you started in practice, you see the competition that we have so we want to do our best for our teammates so we try every day to make practice as hard as we can. We go to war with them every day in, you can watch the games and support them."

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