I love Texas WBB but we CAN'T lose to teams we are supposed to beat and then turn it on for the Baylor's of the world. I just didn't see anything TOUGH about TCU last night. We seemed confused at both ends of the floor. Something I hadn't thought of till now was maybe we didn't deal with the Andrew Jones news well, cause we are all Family at Texas. I still trust this team and Coach KA. We just gotta get back to playing good basketball. Texas Fight!!
For the record, yesterday was one of the very few times I created the game thread. And, we lost. So, I'm not doing it again!
Look, in our heart-of-hearts we never thought we were going to beat UConn. We hope to keep it competitive and not be an embarrassing blowout. We hope to go 1-1 with Baylor this year and....a 2-0 record against the hated Bears would mean "TEXAS IS BACK!!!" (to steal from football hyperbole). It's just that we're all pissed off that we should be going into the UConn game 17-1 and not probably.....16-2. And then UConn will make it 16-3 and then.... Yeah, I'm a downer. I think I look at the glass half-empty so that if a gallon of water drops into it, I'm pleasantly surprised. Karen, great recruiter....has some gaps in strategy and doesn't seem to adjust well to obvious problems during the year (zone, zone, zone). But, I don't think there's any coach in the Big 12 I'd trade her for. I'll still gripe about some of her decisions, but still, glad she's our coach. But good Lord, giving up a key 3 at the end of a game? Still haven't learned from last year.
Great coaches and great teams don’t lose to teams like TCU. This is what separates Baylor from Texas in the Big 12. I would be shocked if Baylor dropped a game like this - Kim won’t stand for it. Neither should Karen. It seems sometimes when the game is tight/on the line Karen just disappears and quits coaching as if she’s paralyzed. No timely timeouts - just expects the players to pull through. How a team of 10 McDonald’s AA’s performs like this is beyond my comprehension. Play like this Monday and it will be a 30-40 point loss. Maddening.
It looks like we will not even be a no. 1 seed in the big 12 tourney. Tonight was a loss, but the team has looked awful the last 2 or 3 games. They have had to come from behind to beat much less talented teams while Baylor rolls those same teams. A priority needs to be to get Holmes back as a starter and playing a lot of minutes. Look at White's stats. We are weak in the post and that allows the 3 point shooter to be closely guarded. You are not looking at a nat'l seed. The way they are playing, a top 4 seed is now in question.
TCU, for the season until last night, shot .337 from distance. Last night they were 9 of 11 from BTA (.818). 12% points better than they were from the FT line (.700). That’s not all on Texas playing lax perimeter defense - TCU could’ve drop-kicked the ball from 3 and they probably would’ve had a better than 50-50 chance to make it in last night. That being said, in terms of the relative talent on the rosters, TCU should have to shoot 80% from 3 just to finish within 10 points of Texas. In the short term, if the coaching staff can't figure out how to deal with a straight-forward 2-3 zone defense, Texas will have a long season and short Big12/NCAA tourneys. Long term? This gives TCU a 'signature win' to use when recruiting. I'm sure Reagan Pebley won't mention the 3-point shooting aberration or the fact TCU would have to win the next 37 matchups with Texas to even the series but UT should not be affording lesser programs the opportunity to just chip away.
I can't think of much to say that other haven't. We can only hope things go up from here. Their three point shooting was other- worldly. They made so many points in the paint. I don't understand why we could not defend them better in the paint, or why we didn't try a zone to break things up. Brooke had several opportunities to shoot the three, but seemed to have given up on her shot going in, so just passed it off. Joyner hasn't had many minutes, but has been disappointing in the minutes she has had. Her shooting hasn't improved one bit. I don't like her shooting form, and wish they had worked with her on changing it. Atkins and Higgs were very good. I don't know why Karen doesn't use her time-outs more. Either this will be our low point and we'll go up from here, or we'll just slump along. At least no one will expect much from us on Monday. Maybe we will surprise.
12/30 was not NCAA. And that year OSU was 21-10 http://www.okstate.com/schedule.aspx?schedule=215&path=wbball. So YES, I am comparing.
Just heard on the radio that Rellah didn’t make the trip due to “Coaches’ Decision”. They had no other information.
If I recall correctly, wasn't that a 20+ win OK State team that made the tournament? Doubt this TCU team hits either of those bench marks, so probably not a fair comparison.
My observation: Jatari is not athletic enough. She has a vertical jump of about 6". The problem I see on defense is we press up so tight on the perimeter, which is terrific, but that allows opposing guards to counter with penetrating drives and Jatari isn't athletic enough to provide rim protection (and the rotation to help the helper is late). I'd like to see Olamide get more minutes. Though she isn't as proficient offensively as Jatari, Texas gets enough production from Lashann, Ariel and Brooke that Olamide doesn't need touches and is able to clean up the boards for offensive put backs and change the dynamic defensively leading to more transition.
One would think conditioning and being in playing shape would have been foremost on Joyner's mind while away from the team.
I think Coach Washington mentioned that she was in much better shape physically than he was expecting when she was allowed to practice with the team. I think the issue is being "banged around" with arms and bodies playing near the hoop - that's the issue.
I get your point, but you are exaggerating. We will be a #1 seed in conference tourney if we win out; we control our own destiny. Not saying we are playing well enough to do it, but lots of games to be played. The only common opponent with Baylor thus far is Kansas Staten in Manhattan. Baylor did get ahead very early, and rolled them based on the final score. We started out very slow. But, we had a 20 point lead with like 2 minutes left and then let KSU run off some garbage baskets so the final score was only 11 points.
Missed the game in real time because I was watching the Men take care of business. But I immediately went home and watched the game. I didn't want to post last night out of anger, so I slept on it. Moved on from the anger phase and I am now in the "acceptance" phase. I have accepted that KA will continuously be out coached. What I am hoping is that we will amass such a cabinet of talent that X's & O's don't matter. For example, Geno said a few of his teams were so good he "stole his paycheck". No team ever came close. Not saying we will be Uconn, but we can certainly stack talent. If we're ever in a position that a coach can effectively deploy X's & O's, we will lose. Those are just the hard facts. Great coaches just don't drop games like this consistently. "Consistently" meaning at least once a year. Micro picture, its only one game. Macro picture, this sh&* keeps happening every year. Get a tactician on staff or we will always be on the outside looking in with it comes to being ELITE and having legitimate national championship aspirations.
Anger Fact: We really have 10 - 2 [Destiny, Rellah] = 8 McDonald's All Americans at our disposal. Anger Question: Do some of these questions ever get posed directly to the coaches? I never make it to the pre-game, where I know the coaches will stand up and ask for questions. This year, I haven't made it to the post-game. I know it's VERBOTEN to stand up and asking insulting questions like, "Coach, everyone knows they just have to throw a 2-3 zone at the Horns. What are going to do about it?" Has anyone attended any of those Q&A sessions and asked: 1) are you practicing to beat the 2-3 zone? 2) why do you not call timeouts to cool down runs by the other team? 3) isn't switching players in-and-out killing the momentum during games? 4) ....all the other gripes we had..... I guess you can ask these questions in a highly modified manner that is non-insulting....anyone heard these questions asked of the coaches? 1) Coach, I know you realize that teams know to throw the 2-3 on you. How's the work against that defense going? 2) Coach, are you letting the players work it out to gain experience rather than call a timeout during games when the other team is on a roll? 3) Coach, what factors do you consider when inserting a player when we're on a roll? I was hoping this thread would diffuse my anger, but it has not.
That was the only conference game they loss that year. Also starting point guard Niya Johnson the nation's leading assist leader did not play.
I’m sure Coach Aston knows all of these things and it’s her responsibility to address and correct these issues. It’s been the same issues since she’s been at Texas.
That is the pattern I am concerned about. My other main point is that this team needs to get Joyner Holmes back in the starting lineup. She is the player that is a match up nightmare. Our opponents have to collapse on her with leaves a wide open 3 after the kick out. That aspect has been missing this year. That is why Brittany has a low percentage on her threes. If they don't collapse Holmes scores inside because no one has a player that matches up one on one. We have to get her back in the line up or we will not go far. I think this is realistic, not just negative. I could be wrong, I am a lot.
At this point I think running four guards and Joyner would be a good combination. Let Sutton help run the point to take some load off of Brooke and she can float out off the ball for shots. Stop jerking folks in and out. To attack a zone you need a skilled post with passing skills, shooters to overload one side, penetrators to attack the seams, BALL MOVEMENT, and flashes to the middle. You have to attack a zone inside out. Our guards are good rebounders and have quick hands to be effectively disruptive playing SOME zone and switching it up back to man, full court pressure, etc. Play Holmes into game shape both physically and mentally because we aren't going very far without her. We look like a highly-talented, yet underdeveloped, team that is poorly coached. Period.
