Another trip to the Sweet 16! Who will the opponent be?.. The old nemesis KM or the Ohio State team that couldn't play us in Vegas? We'll find out this evening.
Love it. Even our little board is getting better “attendance”. One tourney thread for all games and all teams not enough. Haven’t watched either team. Mulkey can do more with less than most coaches but my impression is our much greater roster depth would be too much for LSU to overcome. The way Vick successfully rotates the front court players to change the game is a real weapon. Ohio State appears to have a deeper roster with some talent. My impression over the years is that McGuff is only an adequate coach.
The LSU team and ours are very similar... haven't watched enough of Ohio State myself to sum them up. I mostly watch B12, SEC, and ACC games.
Well that was obvious. What’s not obvious to you is that Ohio State was in LA for a game against UCLA that got cancelled. They were asked to come play us in LV but declined...
LSU has great guard play but their front court doesn’t hold a candle to Texas in talent and depth. I’ve not watched Ohio St play this year, but they were co-champions of the Big 10 but it’s my understanding games got canceled and it helped them in the standings (anybody know if that’s correct?).
I'm all good here... looking forward to playing whomever is next. Surely you didn't think I was so uninformed that I didn't know Arizona was our originally scheduled opponent in Las Vegas. However, after Arizona had to cancel, we tried to get Ohio State to substitute for them because they had a canceled game in relative proximity (LA). They declined and we were able to get San Diego. Okay then?
I was feeling pretty good about our chance of a deep run going into the tournament, but A-Mo has me feeling great. Our defense is stellar but her play elevated our offense. I had assumed we wouldn’t see much from her until next season. So happy to be wrong about that. So many good things to say about so many players right now. It’s a shame starting lineups are limited to just 5. Our second five would be the starting five for most teams. If only we had a few All Big 12 First Teamers…
Ohio State looked good tonight, but they needed 9 threes to get that win. We tend to do well against teams that rely on the three. Our A game wins. Our B game could go either way.
I'm seeing Ohio State had 20 turnovers to LSU's 11 (music to my Longhorn ears) and LSU had 14 offensive boards to Ohio State's 9 (more music to my Longhorn ears). The reason Ohio State won despite LSU gaining more possessions is because Ohio State made 10-22 3-pointers. Sounds like we've seen this before with Iowa State and Kansas State.
And Utah. Realized what made LSU look so ordinary was that Kim didn't have an effective Big as she's had so many years: Queen Egbo, Lauren Cox, Kalani Brown, Brittney Griner Gusters followed her to LSU, but...didn't see too many buckets or rebounds from her.
I've already written about how impressed I was with OSU on the other thread, so won't repeat it here. They do look really good to me. I'll try to go with the confidence people here seem to have. Boards will be crucial (and everything else, especially if our shooting is hot or cold).
You also posted about how scary Utah was in advance of that game. We have to take every opponent seriously from here out; a team doesn't make the Sweet 16 by fluke very often. But we do not have to build every team up so much they appear to be unbeatable by all save the Olympic Dream Team. That goes for how we look at our own team too.
Seeing how LSU almost came back to win based on excellent press and penetration drives (and getting to the FT line), should help motivate us. We do those things well.
I'm honored that someone remembers any of my posts. Probably better for the team to be confident and determined, not overly worried but not overconfident. (Doesn't matter as fans what we think. We each just play out our own psychological tendencies.)
This board is a hell of a lot more fun when we are winning! I can think of at least a couple of posters who must be freaking out not having a loss to bemoan. The sky didn’t fall after all. Tonight the Tower will be lit to honor the WBB team. Take a moment and soak it all in. Texas WBB is a force to be reckoned with. The burnt orange has been in 6 of the last 7 Sweet Sixteens.
It’s getting close to Friday. Getting in my game mode. Lots of good information on the other threads. But I’m moving all my Ohio S comments here now. I suddenly realized we don’t really have a history with Ohio S in WBB. Unless you count them not wanting to play us in Vegas in fall. But I can’t stand OS. I don’t even refer to them with their desired initials. It’s only OS to me… sometimes in lower case. It started with football and how terrible they were in the two games back in the early 2000s. Then their habitual poaching of our state’s top football recruits. So I dislike OS and it needs to extend to Friday’s WBB game. I’m hoping Schaefer puts a total whoopin on the buckeyes. And doesn’t let up. Buckeyes are toxic to people and squirrels don’t even like em. Me either. TEXAS FIGHT!
And Utah WAS scary, at least Offensively. Their players had great basketball IQ/skill and ran beautiful read and react offense. If I'm not mistaken they shot 53% from the field.
51% but still… in most games, that would have sunk us. But thanks to Moore and Matharu we shot 64% However, we took 10 more shots so we only needed to shoot 49%
Ohio State is very similar to Utah. They also run beautiful offense, but Ohio State has a little bit more athleticism and even more offensive skill. You can't give their guards space or they will pull up from anywhere on the court. Kevin McGuff was known for the dribble drive motion offense when he had Kelsey Mitchell but has done a great job tailoring his offense to his players high offensive skill/shooting abilities. And although they're not great defensively he does a really good job of mixing up defenses with the pressure that they use. Texas' lack of size on the perimeter has been an issue at times with rebounding and Ohio State has size and great offensive skill on the perimeter. With great x's and o's from McGuff, I think Vic might have to play small in the post to prevent their big's from shooting the 3. Texas is going to have to hope that they can shoot the ball like they did against Utah or that Ohio State has an off shooting night.
We do have some history with OSU. For those of us old enough to remember, I think they were one of the teams we had to get by in our run to the championship in '86. They gave us a tough game, seems like it was about a 10 point game. I have a friend who went to Ohio State. He says they have always hated Texas, even though we don't have much history with them in any sport.
