Well a disappointment to be sure, but Tara does have a way of taking these kinds of games and building from them. The back-to-back losses last year began our undefeated run to the championship--partly because they provoked some lineup changes.
In writing about Morgan State, I said:
"Tara will be concerned about 21 turnovers. If we do that against Texas we will lose--and Texas is better equipped than Morgan State to force turnovers. Wilson with 1 assist and 3 turnovers, Jones and Lexie with three turnovers each as well. Many of them were "trying to do too much" sorts of turnovers--trying to zip the ball in for a spectacular play. If Morgan State got deflections imagine what Texas will do."
We had 20 turnovers to Texas's 10. When you give the other side 10 more chances than you have, it is hard to win. Many of those turnovers were unforced.
The other factor, that many have pointed out, was our misses of wide open treys. We were 4 of 27, and few of the misses were closely contested. The misses went left, they went right, they were hurried when there was no need, etc.
So we lost because of unforced turnovers and missed open shots. What does that mean? It says to me that our team was tight. Perhaps playing in front of a crowd actually was harder than playing in empty gyms--so many expectations to win and so much disappointment not to. The Texas defense was good, but not that good.
I also observed from the first open scrimmage that our defense was excellent and far out in front of the offense. Today we held Texas to 61 which should normally have been more than enough to win. That is less than half what they scored on Tuesday. This loss is on the offense more than the defense.
Rori Harmon for Texas is a freshman--a McD AA. She certainly looks like the next Ari McDonald, and will probably get there before her college career is done. Eiliyah Matharu we have played before--she was on the Mississippi State team Schaeffer coached in the Victoria tournament. She was 4/4 from three point range, and Texas went 4/4 from three point range in the 4th quarter. They needed those points.
Haley Jones had 5 turnovers. She has been plagued with turnovers her whole career. I am not sure what needs to happen to reverse that. She is the person who tries to make something happen when nothing is happening--and 5 times it backfired.
Our point guards Anna Wilson and Lacie Hull were collectively 0/9 from three point range. That has to change or, as has been pointed out, the defense will just collapse on the bigs and destroy the inside game. We had only 22 points in the paint--with some of the best inside players in WBB. Brink and Belibi were severely limited.
If I were looking for positives, I would say our free throw shooting was respectable, and we out rebounded Texas by a substantial margin.
Now, as for Tara's strategy, I think she was determined not to play any of the freshmen today--that this early season game belongs to the returners from the national championship. My guess is that this loss may help her to justify giving the freshmen more playing time. The player who mostly beat us, after all, was a freshman no more highly ranked than ours.
In writing about Morgan State, I said:
"Tara will be concerned about 21 turnovers. If we do that against Texas we will lose--and Texas is better equipped than Morgan State to force turnovers. Wilson with 1 assist and 3 turnovers, Jones and Lexie with three turnovers each as well. Many of them were "trying to do too much" sorts of turnovers--trying to zip the ball in for a spectacular play. If Morgan State got deflections imagine what Texas will do."
We had 20 turnovers to Texas's 10. When you give the other side 10 more chances than you have, it is hard to win. Many of those turnovers were unforced.
The other factor, that many have pointed out, was our misses of wide open treys. We were 4 of 27, and few of the misses were closely contested. The misses went left, they went right, they were hurried when there was no need, etc.
So we lost because of unforced turnovers and missed open shots. What does that mean? It says to me that our team was tight. Perhaps playing in front of a crowd actually was harder than playing in empty gyms--so many expectations to win and so much disappointment not to. The Texas defense was good, but not that good.
I also observed from the first open scrimmage that our defense was excellent and far out in front of the offense. Today we held Texas to 61 which should normally have been more than enough to win. That is less than half what they scored on Tuesday. This loss is on the offense more than the defense.
Rori Harmon for Texas is a freshman--a McD AA. She certainly looks like the next Ari McDonald, and will probably get there before her college career is done. Eiliyah Matharu we have played before--she was on the Mississippi State team Schaeffer coached in the Victoria tournament. She was 4/4 from three point range, and Texas went 4/4 from three point range in the 4th quarter. They needed those points.
Haley Jones had 5 turnovers. She has been plagued with turnovers her whole career. I am not sure what needs to happen to reverse that. She is the person who tries to make something happen when nothing is happening--and 5 times it backfired.
Our point guards Anna Wilson and Lacie Hull were collectively 0/9 from three point range. That has to change or, as has been pointed out, the defense will just collapse on the bigs and destroy the inside game. We had only 22 points in the paint--with some of the best inside players in WBB. Brink and Belibi were severely limited.
If I were looking for positives, I would say our free throw shooting was respectable, and we out rebounded Texas by a substantial margin.
Now, as for Tara's strategy, I think she was determined not to play any of the freshmen today--that this early season game belongs to the returners from the national championship. My guess is that this loss may help her to justify giving the freshmen more playing time. The player who mostly beat us, after all, was a freshman no more highly ranked than ours.