New individual pics are up on the Texas Sports WBB site. The season gets closer! 2021-22 Women's Basketball Roster - University of Texas Athletics
So, I didn’t want to read through 6 pages to see if this was answered but from you folks that follow the women’s bb closer, Expectations for the upcoming season?
I’m expecting a bumpy, inconsistent start. The team lost a lot of starts to the WNBA, graduation and transfer. Based on Vic’s comments, last year’s team took a while to buy into his expectations when it came to work and effort. After getting to the Elite 8, I’m guessing they know it pays off. Hopefully we see a similar progression for this year’s squad.
To aUTfan......reading through hundreds of pages of expert comments, thereby wasting never to recovered valuable time, THAT is the fun. I sure don’t want to ruin that for you by giving my fair and biased answer to your question in two sentences. A secondary benefit is you quickly figure out who knows what they are talking about. I CAN summarize that list very quickly. Wait....I could have already gave your answer in the time it took to type this.
In a word, we will be much better than last year! We will have much more depth, yet inexperienced, at the guard position. Aliyah Matharu (a Junior transfer), Rori Harmon, and Kyndall Hunter are freshmen but highly ranked recruits. These to go with the experience of Joanne Allen-Taylor, Ashley Chevalier and Shay Holle give us a lot of depth. Kobe King-Hawea at guard is an unknown to me. She comes to us as a Junior College All American but even at that she doesn't appear to be as athletic as our other recruits. Our Power Forward position will be much improved with the return of dependable Swiss Army knife Audrey Warren and Deyona Gaston who showed brief signs of being very good before an injury finished her season and the addition of Aaliyah Moore who looks to be a can't miss elite Freshman. Our biggest weakness will be at post where Charlie Collier will be hard to replace. Lauren Ebo is not a stand alone replacement for Charlie but she did show some solid play last year. Femme Masudi at 6'5" and another Junior College All American is another unknown with a lot to prove but appears to be very mobile and athletic. Precious Johnson at 6'5" appears to have lost some weight, put on some muscle and trimmed up in the off season weight program. She came with very little renown from Baytown Sterling and was a reach recruit by the previous coaching staff. She may contribute some day but don't think it will be this year. All this said the team has a year's tutelage under Vic Schaffer's system and understands the exceptions and style of play. I do not expect to see us lose games like what happened last year with the aggies, Tech, OU (oh what a disaster) or Okie State. We will certainly lose some games but we will not be dominated by anyone. Specifically West Virginia or Baylor. Vic had said they were having a hard time filling the schedule because of their style of play. I took this to mean none of the non power 5 teams we played in the past want to come to Austin. I'm sure North Texas won't come back or even host after the beat down they took last year. Look forward to seeing our schedule announced with Stanford and Tennessee already being confirmed. Going to be an exciting year!!
I agree with what you said, but think Audrey Warren will predominantly play the 3 spot with Kobe. She’s too undersized for the 4 spot and only played it last year out of necessity. While Kobe may not be as athletic, she is a polished scorer and can light it up. I also think we will be considerably better this year and think we may challenge for the Big 12 crown!!!
Can't wait to see what our non-conference schedule looks like. Baylor has released theirs and it's the typical yawner they're so notorious for, with the exception of Maryland who I expect will pose quite the challenge for any team this coming season.
If Vic can make it to an elite 8 with all the challenges last year including having most of the team out due to covid and injuries not to mention the team building aspect that was non existent I think this team will do great things. It's quite obvious this year's team will be better defensively than last year and that's saying a lot considering how great we were on the defensive end. Add a couple of lights out shooters and I expect great things this season!!!!
From a recruiting standpoint, I don't think we will lose much. Don't get me wrong Johnnie was elite at what she does but coach Aphil is as well. Adia Barnes had great momentum in recruiting and could've snatched almost any coach she wanted to join her staff but she chose coach Aphil so that told me all I needed to know. Also the fact Vic took a two month search and hired her even though she was just hired at Arizona says he trusts her so if he likes it then I love it
Good points! Also, Johnnie was a great position coach at the post. However, like I've said before, any position coach is going to have to coach that position the way Vic wants it done to fit his system. I'm sure coach April Phillips is more than competent at that also.
ACC/Big Ten release their match-ups for their challenge. Two games I'm looking forward to: NCSt @ IN (back together again after IN eliminated NCSt in the NCAA). IW @ Duke (be interesting to see transfers Celeste, Lexi Gordon, Jordyn Oliver, Nyah Green against Caitlyn Clark) Big Ten Conference Announces 2021 Big Ten / ACC Women's Basketball Challenge Matchups
I'm curious what's going on with our schedule. The men's team has released updates as they come out and I have not heard of one opponent we play this season besides Stanford.
Looks like this will be the first time in 7-8 seasons UTSA will not be on the Longhorns’ OOC schedule… Edit: UT did not play UTSA last season (I thought they did) but had played every previous season since 2013-2014.
Every so often I have to remind myself of how nice it is to have good point guard play. Where the points actually take care of the ball, make good decisions, get you into your offense if the fast break is not there and simply don’t throw the ball to the other team or into the stands. For what seems like decades it seemed we didn’t have that. It made watching my anxiety on steroids. Starting with McCarty and continuing last year......we had good point guard play. And I understand McCarty didn’t play point all the time. Going into this season, Chevalier gives me extraordinary comfort knowing she is that playmaker and calming influence. And a tremendous pest on defense. I guess Harmon will bring similar but with her flair. I’m looking forward to our point guard play. Coach is tough on his point guards. I think we have the makings of what he demands. Will the season ever get here?
Agree Flash 34. But I'll add without Brooke, the point guard play took a step down with Sug who was prone to make too many errors and turnovers.
Sug improved over time but could be wildly inconsistent from game to game. She’d string together games with 6-8 assists with 1-2 turnovers and then have a game with 2 assists and 6 turnovers. Didn’t help that she lost out on probably 1-3 assists per game from missed bunnies.
In my old age, Sutton’s inconsistent play evaded me. Maybe I try to put painful memories out of my head. The Duke transfer(whatever her name was) was a godsend.....and I’ll miss watching her manage the game. I think Chevalier learned from her and is ready to provide a similar steady hand. Keep me straight.
It appears Ashley is throwing down the gauntlet, drawing a line in the sand saying that the point is “my”position and nobody is going to take it from me. God I love this kid! She is going to be so much fun to watch this year. The whole team will be exciting. Gosh I am so ready for November to get here!
