Spokane Regional

I saw a few posts wanting Ebo to get pulled. Guess, what? She played her *** off for 38 out of 40 game minutes. Only Rori and Joanne played more. Ebo gave it all she had tonight; I don't know if fatigue kept her from finish strong on some shots, but Vic knows he can rely on her on defense.

I get that Ebo wasn't scoring, but neither were Gaston or Lattimore. If A-Mo hadn't have gotten in early foul trouble, then perhaps Vic could have rested Ebo some more. Ebo stepped up compared to our other post players simply by not getting into foul trouble; she gave it everything she had tonight. Hope she returns for her super-senior season.

 

Amen!

 

Great season ladies!!! Vic got everything he could out of this group. We can all share our opinions about WHY, but I expect Vic will address those issues in the portal and further development of players. We made the elite 8:and played great defense all year in spite of having no rim protector or much offensive production out of the 3 spot. In spite of our deficiencies, this was definitely a winnable game. When this team becomes more balanced on the offensive end and begins to put more pressure on the opposing team’s defense, watch out. Thank you Texas WBB for a great year!!!

 

Prior to the game tonight, I checked out the stats from our game against Stanford in November. They had 10 blocks against us that day. Then I remembered what a tough time we had against them so close to the basket. And, I'm sure some of those blocks were out on the perimeter simply b/c their guards are so much taller than ours.

Tonight, it happened again. And, that's disappointing because our coaches and players knew what didn't work against them in November, and we kept doing it again, over and over. in the rematch That's my biggest frustration; we didn't learn from our first go-round with them; conversely, Stanford learned from the first game and was better tonight, especially on the offensive boards.

 

Great season ladies!

 

The question is, what would you have liked to have seen them try to do to combat Stanford's length/size?

 

@kurupt said it best... Vic and his staff got the most out of this team. We can't ask for more than that. It was a great season, and it ended with a loss to a great team. No shame in that especially considering we were right there with them the entire game.

 

Well, I'm not the coach, obviously.

Our dribble drive seemed to be allowing Joanne and Rori to pull up and shoot some mid-range jumpers in the first half. For a while there, we looked like Louisiana Tech from the Barmore days. I didn't see enough of that in the second half. Seemed like Rori and Joanne got a lot less shots compared to the first half.

Audrey was having success from beyond the arc. So, she had the hot hand offensively. She also didn't get enough shots in the second half, IMO.

We just got no "easy" shots. If we had rebounded better, perhaps we could have released Rori or Joanne down the court for an easy layup or two. We got no fastbreak points at all tonight that I recall; zero. Our defense just didn't create any easy transition buckets.

 

Texas-Stanford Elite 8 post game starts around 28:00 for Texas.



congrats to an amazing season.

 

Joanne and Rori were named to the Spokane Region All Tournament Team

 

Great press conferences by both squads. Very impressive that the Stanford players were so complimentary of our team. I hope either Stanford or NC State win the whole thing.

 

Well, we had a great year and grew so much. I agree with Mooooo, that we didn't seem to learn many lessons from the first game as to what would work and what wouldn't. There are a few people who take any so called "negative" commentary as bashing the team and Vic. I wouldn't enjoy this board if all I could do is be a constant cheerleader. Trying to analyze what is going on, and what we think our best points and problem areas are part of the fun of it for me, along with praising the things that are really wonderful. On the whole, we were damned good last night against a very outstanding team.

My personal biggest question is why Matharu didn't get more minutes, at least in the second half. Someone said because of "defensive reason." Well, she happens to be an outstanding defensive player. When she did have openings for tries at the three, she turned them down two or three times. She is best when she just follows her instincts. I hope Vic hasn't gotten her second guessing herself too much.

On the praise side, I have just been gobsmacked by Warren lately. She rose to the occasion tonight, hitting those threes confidently, a shot she doesn't take very often. And JAT has just been so strong, keeping us in the game when we seemed to be on the brink of getting way behind. I have little questions about some of Vic's decisions, but you can't argue with back to back elite eights. He has brought us right into the rank of top teams. He is an amazing defensive coach. (Still wish he would be flexible enough to use a zone strategically, but I've spent enough time on this board voicing my complaints about that.) I am looking forward to next year, and also feeling sad about losing the seniors, if they do go.

 

Stanford is the defending national champion with 80% of their starters back from that team, and the all-time winningest head coach in the game on their bench. Let's give Tara and her team a little more credit than "good but definitely beatable".

If that is what it takes to oust a Texas team with a few great Seniors, but much more overall youth and tournament inexperience, then I say our future looks really, really bright.

 

Good points. My only complaint is that when it was obvious that Ebo was struggling and not effective, I would have just went with one of the fowards at the center position. But the tournament is about matchups and Stanford's length and size exposes Texas' main weakness which is lack of overall size.

 

It’s too raw right now. I need awhile. Tremendous season from this team. TEXAS FIGHT!

 

During saturdays presser, Tara basically begged the officials to call the game tight and seeing coach Jackson address it on Twitter only heightens my curiosity. Wish someone had asked Vic if he thought that impacted the way the game was called.

 

I'll go back once again to that ticktack foul called against Gaston at the beginning of the game. If I'm not mistaken Dee Kantner made that call. What I find particularly interesting about it is that she did not call that way when she officiated the Big 12 Championship. The entire game was "overly officiated" IMO. While Dee is one of the best we have to choose from, yes, I do believe the pre-game begging influenced the way the game was called. That's women's college hoops for you... The officiating is terribly inconsistent.

 

Disappointed with the outcome but, as Vic often says, I couldn’t be prouder of this team. They played their hearts out, kept the score close and didn’t give up. Lots of positives we can appreciate about this season that can be built on next year. Texas Fight!

 

I didn't know she did that. That is disturbing, for coaches to start trying to influence the refs before the game has even started. I guess this could become a normal thing for coaches to do --- with us, the other coach will be asking for tightly called games. I guess Vic or whoever could come back with "let the kids play, don't stop the game every 10 seconds with ticky-tack calls." Maybe there would be a better way to lobby, can't think of any. That first call on Gaston could well have been a response to Tara.

 

i don’t get how this isn’t the case for men’s basketball. 40 min of hard nose defense is embraced but for some women’s coaches it’s “rugby or football,” quality. Shame on Tara. Maybe don’t be so damn soft!

 

Exactly! I am not in favor of any rules that make the women's game too much different (if any) from the men's. I'd rather keep building the interest and fanbase by keeping the two as parallel as possible.

 

Make free throws.

Far too many missed FT's. They had to hit some late to get to 11 of 18 or something like that which was posted with a few minutes remaining (finishing 11 of 20). At the time, they trailed by three. Stanford was 18 of 22 on the game, including the ones late that likely don't exist but for the 'trailing in waning minutes' strategy.

 

Yep. It's the only thing that I don't like about basketball. The refs in how they call the game have so much of a say in who wins or loses more than any other sport.

 

I look at free-throws in terms of whose shooting them. A guard or perimeter player missing free-throws always bothers me more than a post player. That's obviously an area that they need work on. But it really makes you appreciate a post player that shoots free-throws well like Charli.

 

Great point. Not saying that the men's coaches don't complain because they obviously do. But I didn't hear anyone complaining about a team like Houston who plays great, physical defense that Kelvin Sampson is known for.

It does remind though of how Phil Jackson would complain about the Knicks under Pat Riley and other physical teams before games to influence the refs.

 

Jordana’s mom seems to like the style of play.

 

We lost the game on the boards.
Stanford was 12-33-45 on O rebounds, D rebounds. and Total rebounds
We were 6-22-28

Stanford had twice as many second chance rebounds and 17 more total rebounds.

Harmon was our leading re bounder. Lattimore only played 6 minutes yet was the leading re bounder of our "bigs".

 

Well...the average height of our team is certainly increasing. All three '22 recruits are 6'1 or taller, as are our two verbals for '23, with 5'8 (Jo) and 5'9 (Audrey) likely leaving . Fetus is going out of style.

 

Vic INHERITED the smaller players and obviously wants more length on the perimeter. However, that obviously did not apply to Rori who he is thrilled with. He has always had smaller, quicker point guards throughout his career. You can get away with it at the 1 and 2 positions for the most part, but the 3 is another story. Next year we will have the length to guard multiple perimeter positions. Would be nice if they bring some offensive firepower as well as improving our 3 point shooting is paramount to our offensive production. We must get better production out of the 3 and 5 positions to improve offensively and defensively.