At the scrimmage:
Got there a bit early. First time I had a chance to see the players in action. That first half was really good. Shots were falling, Horns were running, rotations were working well. Immediate good impressions from LaShanna, Danni, Jada and Audrey. Looks like Jada and Audrey will be interchangeable at the four and three (at least they were during the scrimmager, even playing together at times). Both tough players, solid rebounding form, good shooters and passers. Both very high effort players. LaShanna might be quicker than last season. Her ballhandling allowed her to penetrate and she was excellent in finishing at the rim—some straightforward layups, some “ooohh!” moves. Showed a good stroke from outside. Danni has a smooth stroke form BTA. Her passing was also pretty good. Easy to tell that she has a lot of good experience behind her.
I liked that all of our returners looked comfortable on both ends, especially in the first half when the Horns outplayed the practice team.
Still bothered that our posts are having trouble making layups. The shots are too low on the box, hitting the rim rather than rolling into the basket. This has been an issue for several years now. They have to put that shot up higher on the box to give the ball a chance to go in. On the positive side, our frosh are going to help up the FT %.
Texas is going to run whenever possible. When in the halfcourt, it looks like the posts will be quite involved. Lots of penetration by our guards. Defensively, it’s still a work in progress as far as rotation, help, etc.
Charli showed some good things. She badly rushed her first shot but seemed to settle down afterwards. Audrey was a surprise. I had expected her to be good, just not as dynamic as she was. She seemed comfortable playing the four as well as the three. She didn’t seem to have much trouble with the schemes. Due to the loss of Sedona, Charli may get more playing time but I think Audrey will be right there. Joanne is quick and fast. She is also not as slender as I had expected. All the frosh look to be in great shape. I was glad to see Shae there even though she was held out of the scrimmage. Probably still recovering from that incident at the first day of practice.
The second half had the practice guys take over. Shots pretty much stopped falling for the Horns for about one and a half quarters. Hard to keep up when you can’t score. Offense was still getting players open looks, just shots were not going in.
Considering the team had been together for about a week of practice as a full squad, it was a good showing. At the dinner, Coach Aston said that the team would scrimmage Arizona in a week or so. My hearing is not the best, especially when microphones and distance are involved.
I liked what I saw of the team. The offense is not going to change drastically with the departure of Ariel and Brooke. Sug will keep the team running full speed at every opportunity. Chasity will continue that when she gives Sug a break. That means rebounding to initiate the fastbreak. Our posts will get plenty of looks in the half court game.
Based on this scrimmage, LaShanna and Danni will be the primary 3pt shooters with capable backup from Sug, Chasity, Destiny, Jada and Audrey. All of our guards are capable of making the three. I hope to see Sug join LaShanna and Danni in becoming 3pt threats in the starting lineup with Destiny and Chasity providing that from the bench. We are thin at the post, one reason that Jada and Audrey may end up at the four at times with the other being when Coach Aston wants to go with a small lineup.
At the dinner:
Brooke made the wall! Disappointed that Ariel didn’t. Looking forward to seeing LaShanna up there after this season.
Nice talk with Audrey who sat at our table. She enjoys the whole basketball routine. I told her she impressed with her effort and play in the scrimmage. Her effort and work reminded me of Brady Sanders. Asked about playing the PF spot during the scrimmage, she expects to play there some at times during the season. I noticed she displayed excellent form in boxing out and got fouled several times when players went over the back. Won’t surprise me if she ends up as the frosh with the most minutes played. Audrey’s major is currently Education with plans to teach at the middle school level.
Also spoke with Jada since her listed major is the same as the one I got my degree in. I wanted to find out which track she was on: deaf education, audiology or speech therapy. She had been on speech therapy but has changed her major to psychology with a focus on child psychology, iirc.
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