UT-Baylor game

For those of you going to Waco for Thursday's game, are there going to be any pre-game festivities, such as tailgating? I'll be there and might like to join.

 

Went a few years back. Most unkind and obnoxious fans I have ever met. Made my daughter cry. Never again.

But I hope you have fun!

 

Anyone going on the bus? I understand we have 2 bus loads going to the game. One leaving from Manor Garage and the other from the Walmart on I35 in Round Rock. I am really expecting a fun trip. Lots of Longhorn talk and a Great game!

 

I am driving down from Carrollton. Unfortunately, with a couple of Bear grads. They are excited to show me the culinary highlights of Waco......at Luby’s. They promised to protect me in the parking lot but wouldn’t guarantee inside. I am sure hoping it will be a quiet ride home due to a Horns victory. Rebecca Lobo and announcers were sure extolling the virtues of the Bear posts on tonight’s feature game. Can’t disagree.......they will be a handful. They also highlighted Holmes struggles. Should be a barn burner. Hook ‘Em

 

Looking forward to the challenge. To coin a phrase "to be the (wo)man you have to beat the (wo)man" and those women certainly reside in Waco Texas. Heres to taking back the B12 Mantle

 

We really need to get to the free throw line more than Baylor; not easy as we haven't in most of our games this season. Our post players have to give some pump fakes and get Brown/Cox to leave their feet and draw the fouls; of course last season, they fell onto our players several times and the refs were afraid to blow their whistles.

While both teams score a lot of points, I really hope we can run the floor as much as possible and exhaust Brown/Cox; they have no one else on the bench to give them a breather.

Last year in Waco, Mulkey did not play much (if any) zone defense against us. Forget which defense they played in Austin. Will be interesting to see if they stick to a man-to-man defense on Thursday.

Our experienced guards have to control the game. Baylor is pretty young in the backcourt; so, I hope we exploit that early and often.

 

Baylor has been playing a zone defense more than usual this year. I suspect it's because of their young backcourt not being able to contain better guards one-on-one. Also having Brown and Cox in the middle to block shots. Hope we set up Ariel, and Lashann to get looks at the corners and the 12 foot jumpers to exploit the zone if that's what Baylor wants to play defensively.

 

I think the game is going to come down to the obvious but very important areas, post defense and rebounding. Coach Aston has to decide how she’s going to guard Brown. Will she play her straight up or come with doubles or maybe even fronting the post.

Coach Aston also has to make sure that she forces Brown to play defense on the other end by getting Jatarie touches in the post. Our guards have a tendency of forgetting about Jatarie and being jumpshot happy at times.

 

Great to hear that they got two busloads of fans going.

 

I believe the key will be if our posts can make Brown and Cox move .........if they play zone. Our posts simply have to be able to make those 8-10 foot shots from short corners and elbows. This is a situation where White and AAG can’t make money on the blocks. I think it is a little unrealistic to think we will get them in foul trouble. Hope I am wrong but White and AAG have the ability to shoot those face-up medium shots. Not so much Holmes. Perhaps Holmes steps up and gets a few fouls on them on drives or rebounds. Fun speculating.

 

Krupt.....good points. Every team that plays Baylor.......the first thing they have to do is decide on how to defend Brown. Unfortunately most teams don’t have the personnel. I don’t think you can play her straight up or she will get 30+ points. I think we double but do it several ways to keep them guessing where the double is coming. Then hope the guards can’t make the kick-outs. Brown is simply that good.

 

Oklahoma managed to get Brown into foul trouble and held her to 15 mins and 9 points. Anyone see that game? Was it a fluke or did OU have a plan that worked?

I have no doubt they are a good team, but they have only played one game against a currently ranked team and they lost that one. Of course, Brown scored 33. Yikes. Here’s hoping they are overrated and we punch them early and hard.

 

If you take foul trouble out of the equation, it seems logical that Baylor will do their normal damage in the paint. But, what's not for sure is how well our post players will do offensively. Logically, our 3-4 guards should have the upper hand; but, they have to play smart, in control, drive to the basket, make their open shots, and make good decisions all game long.

 

Sorry to hear about fans here not treating people right. There's bad ones everywhere. But I've traveled to many a game over the years and haven't had any problems with anybody really. I've had a few TX Tech fans give me a look that would freeze alcohol but they they didn't say anything. If any of you want to get with me before the game I'll treat you in so many ways you'll have to like some of them. Waco has a great selection of places to eat. We basically have one of everything. I'll be in town today if any of you would like for me to pick up some tickets for you. I'm sure it will be the largest crowd this year.

I'm not sure who will win this game (and of course nobody else is either), but I have watched every game they have played this year and there are times it's unreal how good they are. Yet nearly every game, especially when they play a cupcake they seem to go into a 5 minute funk and play like a dog. I suspect both teams will be up for this one as each team will understand what they're up against. If the TX team that played UConn shows up I doubt BU will win. Obviously that same team did not show up at TCU or Tennessee. That TCU loss is still a mystery to me. In fact as a result of it TX is almost facing a must win here as a loss will put them two games down. When the season started I really thought TX had a stronger team this year because Baylor lost a lot of depth last year. But with Rella not playing and Joyner not showing what I expected from her I am thinking a little differently now. But guess what ? That's why we play the game, to put all the predictors in their place. Looking forward to the game.

 

Ok lets run Baylor off the court, neither Brown nor Cox can run, so lets run them off the court.

 

#6/#6 Texas will travel to Waco this Thursday to take on the #3/#3 Baylor Lady Bears in a top ten matchup. This will be the only top ten matchup during the week. The Horns (15-3; 6-1) and Lady Bears (17-1; 7-0) will meet for the 95th time Thursday. Texas owns a 58 to 36 edge in the series. Texas broke a 14 game Baylor winning streak last season when they split the series with each winning on the other’s home court. Baylor has not lost a home league game since Texas beat them last season 85-79 on Feb. 06, 2017.

BAYLOR LADY BEARS
Baylor has the Big 12’s top offense in league play. They are led by Kalani Brown (#21, 6-7 Jr. C) at 21.1 ppg, Lauren Cox (# 15, 6-4 Soph. F) averaging 15.4 ppg and Dekeiya Cohen (#1, 6-2 Sr. F) at 11.3 ppg. That’s 47.8 of their league leading 83.6 ppg or 57.2% of their offense from their starting frontcourt. As expected, those three take the majority of FG attempts for the Lady Bears. Cox (13.0 FGA per game), Brown (11.7 FGA per game) and Cohen (6.7 FGA per game) take 31.4 FGAs per game of the team’s average of 64.7 FGA per game. Brown, at 67.1% from the field, is the top shot maker for Baylor. Both Cohen (55.3%) and Alexis Morris (#11, 5-6 Fr. G) at 53.7% join Brown in hitting over 50% from the field. Natalie Chou (#24, 6-1 Soph. G) fills the role of their main 3pt shooter (11-31; 35.5%) with Juicy Landrum (#20, 5-9 Soph. G) joining Chou in taking over 2/3 of their shots from BTA. The most accurate 3pt shooter, however, is the frosh Morris, who has connected on 56.3% of her treys (9-16). Baylor has gotten to the FT line 136 times in conference play. Their starting frontcourt has attempted 101 of those. Brown (38-46; 82.6%), Cox (18-28; 64.3%) and Cohen (16-27; 59.3%) are joined by Kristy Wallace (#4, 5-11 Sr.) who has made 12-16 (75.0%) as the only players to reach double digit FT attempts.

Cox (10.9 rpg) and Brown (10.1 rpg) average double doubles. Other strong rebounders include Cohen (6.2 rpg), Wallace (5.4 rpg) and Didi Richards (#2, 6-1 Fr. G) at 4.7 rpg. Brown is one assist short of double digits which would give the Lady Bears a starting five who all have double digit assists. Wallace with 30 (4.3 apg) leads the pack while Cox has 25 (3.6 apg) and Chou 23 (3.3 apg). Baylor has four players in the top ten in blocked shots. Cox (2.7 bpg) is first. Brown at 1.7 bpg is 6th. Cohen (1.2 bpg) is at number 8 while Richards (1.1 bpg) logs in at ninth. Chou is the team leader in steals with nine while Cox and Richards are tied for second with eight steals each.

Baylor has started the following lineup in six of the seven Big 12 games: Brown, Cox, Wallace, Cohen and Chou. Cohen sat out the 01/17/18 ISU game to rest a sore foot with Richards getting the start in that game. The Lady Bears have nine players available and eight of them average double digit minutes. Only Moon Ursin (#12, 5-7 Fr. G) averages less at 8.2 mpg although she has gotten into six of the seven conference games. Cox is the only player averaging over 30 mpg at 30.3 mpg. Wallace (29.9 mpg), Brown (27.9 mpg), Chou (26.9 mpg), Cohen (25.5 mpg) and, off the bench, Morris (24.7 mpg) log mpg in the 20s. Key reserves Richards (16.9 mpg) and Landrum (14.7 mpg) are in the teens.

TEXAS LONGHORNS
Texas comes into this game with three players in double digit scoring during conference. LaShann leads with a 20.3 ppg average which is good for 3rd in the league. Ariel’s 15.9 ppg is good for 12th in the league while Brooke’s 12.4 ppg ranks 21st in the Big 12. Those three, joined by Alecia, are the primary 3pt shooters for Texas. Brooke has attempted the most with 31 treys but has connected on only six for 19.4%. FWIW, she has gone 4-11 (36.4%) in her last two games (UConn & Tech) after going 4-27 (14.8%) in her previous six games before UConn (2-7) and Tech (2-4). LaShann has been the most accurate, hitting 40.0% from BTA (8-20). Ariel (7-22; 31.8%) is the second most accurate three pt shooter. Alecia (3-16; 18.8%) is the only other player to take at least ten treys in conference games. Texas is hitting a good 75.7% from the FT line in Big 12 games. Five players have taken 83.5% of the FTs: LaShann (28-35; 80.0%), Ariel (18-19; 94.7%), Brooke (15-17; 88.2%), Jatarie (7-13; 53.8%) and Alecia (9-12; 75.0%).

Texas continues to be a strong rebounding team without a dominant rebounder. Ariel tops the team with 7.3 rpg. Jatarie is second with 6.0 rpg while Brooke adds 5.9 rpg. Audrey-Ann contributes 4.5 rpg and Joyner pitches in with 4.3 rpg. Brooke is second in the league with 5.7 apg. Ariel averages 3.1 apg. LaShann (2.0 apg) and Alecia (1.4 apg) are the other primary distributors. Audrey-Ann is second in the league with 2.2 bpg. Ariel is second on the team with 0.9 bpg. Ariel (21/3.0 spg) and LaShann (17/2.4 spg) are the only Horns that have reached double digits in steals. Those numbers place Ariel at tied for second and LaShann at fifth in the league.

Texas has used the starting lineup of Ariel, Brooke, LaShann, Audrey-Ann and Jatarie six times in seven Big 12 games. Alecia got the one start that Audre-Ann missed due to an injury. Only Brooke (32.6 mpg) and Ariel (30.7 mpg) are averaging over 28 mpg. Of the 14 players on the roster, 13 have seen action in league games. Khaléann played in her first game versus Tech after missing the previous six with an injury. Destiny has yet to be cleared to play. Rellah has missed four games and has not played since the KSU game on 01/07/18. LaShann, Jatarie, Alecia and Audrey-Ann all average over 20 mpg while Rellah, Joyner and Jordan are in the teens in mpg.

LINEUPS
Projected starting lineups are based on the last game played.


Baylor starts the three posts on their roster: Brown, Cox and Cohen. Texas will counter with Audrey-Ann and Jatarie with Ariel matching up with Cohen and Joyner, Jordan available as well. Jada and Khaléann can provide minutes at SF for the Horns. I am looking forward to a physical battle inside between Audrey-Ann and Jatarie and BU’s Cox and Brown. The pair that can stay out of foul trouble will have the advantage. Audrey-Ann and Jatarie should be able to switch between Cox and Brown as needed although each is likely to get one of the BU posts as her primary defensive assignment. Brown and Cox have been almost unstoppable, especially with Cox passing down to Brown.

For Baylor, the Texas backcourt should be a difficult assignment, especially if Ariel can stay out of foul trouble. Neither Chou nor Cohen should be able to match the quickness of Ariel and LaShann, especially on a fast break. For Texas, the issue will be one of height. The Lady Bears’ backcourt is taller than the Horns. Speed and quickness will need to negate that Baylor advantage. Morris will be the one Baylor player that should be able to match the Texas speed. It will be interesting to see if Chasity gets a chance to match up with Morris.

STATS COMPARISON
Team stats are for Big 12 games only.




This will be the first of two, possibly three, matchups between the teams. Both will run and push the tempo. Neither team is that good from BTA although Baylor is slightly better. Texas has the slight edge from the FT line although the Lady Bears get there a few times more than the Horns do. Baylor’s strength is their post play. Their weakness is the lack of post players after their starters, basically none. Texas experienced guards will go against Baylor’s taller but less experienced backcourt.

Unless their defense dominates, this should be an exciting up and down game for fans to watch. Two top teams that will be battling for the league’s top spot and jousting for positioning in the NCAA playoffs. There is little to separate the two. The last two games between these two teams were decided by an average winning margin of 4.5 points. This game should be just as exciting.

Baylor will be running two promotions at this game. There will be tee shirts on chairs to “stripe” the Ferrell Center in the school colors. In addition, wristbands and glow sticks will be given out to simulate the “Where the Lights Shine Bright” atmosphere done earlier at a Baylor men’s Basketball game.

The game will be on Thursday, Jan. 25 at 6 PM. It will be carried on ESPN 2 and broadcast on 105.3 FM.

 

Baylor started out the season with 10 players on the roster, including 4 true freshmen. One freshmen tore her ACL, and is out for the rest of the season. So, the roster is down to 9 players. I'm very surprised that Mulkey has gone with Brown, Cox, and Cohen as starters in the frontcourt as that leaves no frontcourt depth on the bench (unless you count Didi Richards).

I don't expect our starting lineup to change. So, the biggest mismatch, IMO, is going to be Baylor using Natalie Chou to try and guard either Lashann Higgs or Ariel Atkins. Chou's defense will be tested severely if Higgs or Atkins drive on her all game long. Obviously, we need AA on the floor as much as possible; she needs to play smart and stay out of foul trouble.

Chou only played 3 minutes in our game last season in Waco; and, only 5 minutes in the rematch in Austin. Only attempted one shot, and didn't score a point. Whoever guards her (Lashann, I'm guessing) needs to just keep a hand in her face as she seems to stay outside the arc most of the time.

 

Chou has gone deader'n a doornail the last two games. 0 points each game. But she's had a lot of 12 -17 point games too.

 

JMO, I think Lashann will guard Wallace on defense. Wallace is Baylor's biggest threat to score from beyond the arc.

 

Great point. Baylor hasn’t really played anyone and had a lot of adversity during games in non conference or in conference thus far like Texas has. But I would feel a lot better about our chances if it weren’t on the road first.

 

I agree. I think that Coach Aston has to try and send double teams at Brown early and often from everywhere on the court including from the PF position and force their guards to try and knock down shots.

Talking about the double teams, this is were having small guards really comes into play. I watched some of the game against Oklahoma and didn’t understand why Coach Aston was sending Brooke to double on Louise because her lack of height and length wouldn’t be as effective.

 

If you read some of the interviews after her 30 point games, she talks about expecting to be doubled and even tripled so she has gotten used to it and isn’t bothered by it. Let’s hope she just hasn’t been doubled by a good duo yet and we’ll be different.

 

One thing Brown is so good at is finding the open player when she is doubled. Again, I am not sure she has been doubled before by two 6-4 players. If a guard doubles down, they need to do it when she starts to dribble, giving them a better chance of swiping the ball.

 

Maybe so she could strip the ball if it is dribbled before a shot? Brooke is pretty good at that.

 

looks like the game will also be on WatchESPN (ESPN 3).
http://texassports.com/news/2018/1/23/no-6-womens-basketball-preview-no-3-baylor.aspx

 

I think Baylor has been starting 5'11 Wallace and 6'2 Chou in the backcourt. Brooke has to guard one of them if that is the lineup. Guessing she will guard Wallace and Lashann guards Chou.

When Alexis Morris is in the game, seems like Brooke would guard her, and vice verse.

 

That was a surprise (10 players). Transfers out? Retirements?

 

I'm no Baylor expert, but I expect Morris to get a lot of minutes, maybe more than Chou, because she looks quick and fast. People on the Baylor board make it sound like Ursin and Landrum don't play very much.

 

Mulkey!

 

I would really like to see some token pressure on the Baylor ball handlers (Wallace or Morris) as they bring the ball up the court; didn't see it against OSU, and I really think it could have helped slow down Goodwin.

Against Baylor, I think the token pressure would take some valuable time off the shot clock and not allow them as much time as they'd like to run their offense.