[81alum]

Write up at the top.

Yes, the end of the game was bad--two really bad decisions.  But long before that:
1) We shot very poorly.
2) We gave up 19 Oboards.  That is poor boxing out.
3) Texas figured out how to disrupt our offense.  It looked disjointed and we hoisted up contested treys.

As I pointed out in the Tennessee win, even as dominating as it was, there were still issues that left me unsatisfied with that victory, such as the 19 offensive rebounds we gave up in that game as well and the hiccups in offense. I was happy that we won, but also concerned about what we needed to work on. I don't think a victory like the one we had against Tennessee should cover up or minimize the weaknesses we had that would bite us in the future, which it did in the Texas loss today. I remembered one possession early on where Texas snatched four offensive rebounds in a row and I was literally yelling at my screen. We cannot simply continue to allow so many second-, third and even fourth chances to our opponents to score. (I took a quick look on our games this year and in only two of our games did we not give up double digit offensive rebounds to the other team - Buffalo had 21 offensive rebounds and Syracuse had 18 as notable games where we gave up a ton of o-boards and even though we eventually won both games by double digits, that kept both games pretty competitive until the fourth quarter)

Despite all that, it was our offense that ultimately failed us. Our defense kept us in the game for most of it until the fourth, but we couldn't hit anything, even layups, it seems like. Everything seemed off and it looked like we found the FT line to keep us in the game; I would have liked us to get something going in the first half.

Even though it was in Austin and Texas has talent, the Longhorns has losses to 7-6 South Florida and 6-6 Hawaii and they got destroyed by Arizona at home (McDonald had 44 points in that game and single-handedly outscored Texas in the first half). Arizona is a good and much improved team, but you would think that if Arizona can come into Austin and dominate Texas, we could at least beat them as well.  McDonald is an incredible player, but would you take the rest of the Wildcats' roster over ours? This is one of the unfortunate head-scratching losses we've had over the last few years (Western Illinois in 2017, Santa Clara in 2015, Arizona in 2015) that left you wondering how we played so poorly.

Our inability to box out and reduce the opponent's O-boards is indeed a weakness and contributed mightily to our loss.  It seems our freshmen are having a hard time learning how to box out at the college level.  The loss of Carrington hurts most--she was the best rebounder on the team, but we have not replaced the rebounding of Smith or Dodson either.  Lexie had as many rebounds as the rest of the starters put together.

Despite our inability to shut down our opponent's o-boards, Texas had fewer second chance points (15) than we did (16).  Another point worth mentioning is that after we had a dreadful first quarter with a scad of turnovers, we kept the turnovers down to 11 for the game--a respectable number and a point of emphasis in recent practices. 

As I mull this loss over, I think I am most concerned, as you are, about the offense.  We did get 14 fast break points--as did Texas--but it is the Princeton in the half court that Texas figured out how to defend so well.  I don't think we are going to win many games with only 10 assists--and our point guard making just 1 of them.   That was the point of praise that Andy Landers made--how well Texas was prepared for our offense.

So a worry is that Karen Aston has put a blueprint out there for how to stop the Stanford offense.  Every Pac 12 coach is going to be studying this game, so we need to fix the problem fast.

[81alum]

Write up at the top.

Yes, the end of the game was bad--two really bad decisions.  But long before that:
1) We shot very poorly.
2) We gave up 19 Oboards.  That is poor boxing out.
3) Texas figured out how to disrupt our offense.  It looked disjointed and we hoisted up contested treys.

As I pointed out in the Tennessee win, even as dominating as it was, there were still issues that left me unsatisfied with that victory, such as the 19 offensive rebounds we gave up in that game as well and the hiccups in offense. I was happy that we won, but also concerned about what we needed to work on. I don't think a victory like the one we had against Tennessee should cover up or minimize the weaknesses we had that would bite us in the future, which it did in the Texas loss today. I remembered one possession early on where Texas snatched four offensive rebounds in a row and I was literally yelling at my screen. We cannot simply continue to allow so many second-, third and even fourth chances to our opponents to score. (I took a quick look on our games this year and in only two of our games did we not give up double digit offensive rebounds to the other team - Buffalo had 21 offensive rebounds and Syracuse had 18 as notable games where we gave up a ton of o-boards and even though we eventually won both games by double digits, that kept both games pretty competitive until the fourth quarter)

Despite all that, it was our offense that ultimately failed us. Our defense kept us in the game for most of it until the fourth, but we couldn't hit anything, even layups, it seems like. Everything seemed off and it looked like we found the FT line to keep us in the game; I would have liked us to get something going in the first half.

Even though it was in Austin and Texas has talent, the Longhorns has losses to 7-6 South Florida and 6-6 Hawaii and they got destroyed by Arizona at home (McDonald had 44 points in that game and single-handedly outscored Texas in the first half). Arizona is a good and much improved team, but you would think that if Arizona can come into Austin and dominate Texas, we could at least beat them as well.  McDonald is an incredible player, but would you take the rest of the Wildcats' roster over ours? This is one of the unfortunate head-scratching losses we've had over the last few years (Western Illinois in 2017, Santa Clara in 2015, Arizona in 2015) that left you wondering how we played so poorly.

Our inability to box out and reduce the opponent's O-boards is indeed a weakness and contributed mightily to our loss.  It seems our freshmen are having a hard time learning how to box out at the college level.  The loss of Carrington hurts most--she was the best rebounder on the team, but we have not replaced the rebounding of Smith or Dodson either.  Lexie had as many rebounds as the rest of the starters put together.

Despite our inability to shut down our opponent's o-boards, Texas had fewer second chance points (15) than we did (16).  Another point worth mentioning is that after we had a dreadful first quarter with a scad of turnovers, we kept the turnovers down to 11 for the game--a respectable number and a point of emphasis in recent practices. 

As I mull this loss over, I think I am most concerned, as you are, about the offense.  We did get 14 fast break points--as did Texas--but it is the Princeton in the half court that Texas figured out how to defend so well.  I don't think we are going to win many games with only 10 assists--and our point guard making just 1 of them.   That was the point of praise that Andy Landers made--how well Texas was prepared for our offense.

So a worry is that Karen Aston has put a blueprint out there for how to stop the Stanford offense.  Every Pac 12 coach is going to be studying this game, so we need to fix the problem fast.