Texas at Tennessee

All of Mooooo's points are particularly pointed and accurate. It worried me when Aston said something like, "When the freshmen see playing time depends on how stubborn they want to be in learning to play defense." The Rick Barnes comparison is so apt. Who is really the stubborn one here? I know I'm belaboring the point, but I feel for these highly ranked freshmen sitting there watching, even when our juniors and seniors are playing awful. All while Tennessee's freshmen are out there playing hard -- making mistakes, but getting to play and doing some good stuff. Were are freshmen so overranked that they just aren't good enough to play any? That seems doubtful. If that is the case, then I guess we just made poor recruiting choices. Now I'll belabor another point. In so many ways, Aston is a carbon copy of Jody -- great coach for the pressure defense, running game. But when that isn't working, there's not much in the way of a Plan B.

 

Maybe Booth or Littleton or Patterson could have given the Team a Spark.
Because the Veteran's were not getting it done.
We got to learn to Rebound better,and become much tougher.
Hookem'

 

Question for @BabHorn and those who have attended practice - how much do they work on setting effective screens? I was out of pocket yesterday and had to watch later in the evening. It’s a staple of basketball and can be used to do so many things to make an offense effective. So many instances where a token effort is made at a screen. Too often it seems like timing is off or the screening player doesn’t commit and almost shies away from solid contact.

The Horns couldn’t buy a 3 after shooting almost 50% from distance the first 7 games but were still in striking distance. I’m going to remain positive but there are things that have to get cleaned up mentally.

 

only been able to attend a couple of practices due to living out of town. They do work on screens. The twins are particularly effective in setting solid screens.

But that was not what we saw against Tenn. I have no idea where that team came from. Tight and very little movement in the first quarter. And yet, we were right there with a chance to win. Uncharacteristic TOs at very inopportune times really hurt. And, worse, Ariel going out in the second half for about four or five critical minutes when we had closed to one also hurt. I think we could have won if she had been in the game for those minutes.

At any rate, the poor play by the team was not something I have seen is quite some time, like a year or two. Hard to know what to blame it on as the vets have been in higher profile games, and have played well. Who knows. Those strange inbound plays that led to TOs and points by Tenn were nothing seen before.

Re the frosh, Tenn's frosh are playing because they don't really have a choice but to throw them out there. We don't need to do that. Still, I did expect to see Rellah play and possibly Chasity. I know it's a close game but with the foul problems we were having inside, I really expected Rellah to get some minutes.

We do practice the half court game. At least both practices I have been to, the team has spend time working on the halfcourt game. True, the team does not usually have to run it much in games, but they do practice it. This was a strange game.

 

Reading the first two pages of this thread I would have thought the final score was something like 96-65.

Yeah, that was a huge one.

and the defense, and the shooting, and the floor generalship....

 

With the upcoming schedule being the following:
NW State
FSU
@OU
WVU
OSU
@KSU
I'm afraid we've missed the window of opportunity to integrate the much-needed skills of.our freshmen. HUGE mistake IMO.

 

I wonder if the large (9651) and loud Tennessee crowd made it hard to communicate and even intimidated some Texas players.

 

All Access look into the Tennessee game...

https://summitthoops.com/2017/12/11...trip-tennessee/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

 

I would be hesitant to say it "intimidated them" because most of them had played and won there before so they should've known what to expect.

 

Great summary of thoughts so far. We do need to sometimes play zone but it remains to be seen if we will do this. A couple of my opinions on certain players on this years team (by no means am I bashing them).

McCarty- playing out of position at point, Coach V at Stanford did a great job last year at speeding her up on offense and making her defend and expend energy on defense and her shot and our team suffered for it.

This is the one thing I told a friend, if Aston is intent to play McCarty at 1 her shot will suffer and guards like Sug and Patterson will have a hard time getting game time experience because of it. Mc Carty is a shooter let her stay at the 2 spot and help the team by scoring.

Brooke logged 38 minutes and we have enough depth and talent that her minutes have to come down so she can rest at points and make it through this long season effectively.

Ariel is Ariel and I'm going to relax and enjoy her final go around. If we can find a true point guard who can defend, drive, and effectively share the basketball on breaks and in sets then I think we are in business heading into conference play.

Aborowa is the only big active enough (non freshman) currently to consistently be effective on the defensive end of the floor, in limited minutes she had 7 boards as well, 3 on the O glass. White does some nice things, but needs to come on stronger on both ends of the floor, she sometimes seems to lack confidence.

AACG needs to buy into doing the dirty work blocks, defending, rebounding, setting picks, etc. and get her points on put backs, we have a bevy of shooters but not enough focus on dirty work especially rebounds from our bigs.

The freshmen need to play and work out their experience and mistakes on the court. We will definitely need their scoring to cover some of our front court deficiencies. All for now.

 

You're right about Aborowa. Quick and strong and much better than I expected.

 

The biggest mistake Aston has made as a coach is not using Ariel as the center point of the offense. She’s the only complete offense player we have. Some may say well Brooke and LaShann can do this or that but it is not consistent. If you make Ariel the center point then she It would make the game so much easier for Brooke.

 

I disagree. You’re not asking them to come in and be super heroes. They can be very successful coming off the bench and playing their roles. Like Destiny and Chasity coming in and being zone busters or an infusion of offense if the team is struggling. With Rellah the same with scoring but also rebounding.

 

I agree with playing Brooke off the ball. I felt that the best line up this year would’ve been Sug starting at the point with Brooke at the 2 and bring Lashann off the bench because she’s been very good in that role. I felt Brooke was at her best two years ago when Celina was running the point and Brooke was off the ball.

 

HornsfortheWin--Welcome to the board. Great first post! Your perspective on the team is thoughtful and interesting. Please continue to stop by and provide your feedback.

 

Spot on!

 

I didn't say we needed them as superheros... I said we missed a window of opportunity where they could've and should've been playing MAJOR minutes in those blow-out victories in order for them to play through their mistakes, learn, build confidence, and integrate/settle into the roles you just mentioned... the roles in which they're capable of contributing at this point in their respective college careers. They've all three got some much-needed skills that the subs playing in front of them just don't have, and they are capable of more than just being inserted for a few minutes here and there in blow-out games. Like I said already... if you're not going to FIND a way to utilize them you've essentially got a team with the same skill set as last year's. Meanwhile, three highly-skilled, highly-regarded players sit on the end of the bench. Hope this decision doesn't end up coming back to bite...

 

Our games last season at Miss. State and OU, plus the home game against Iowa State were comparable stinkers.