[joemontes]

Well that was a letdown.  Agree with those who said even with all the other issues if we just shot threes half decently, heck a quarter decently, we probably win.  I do think this was a tough game due to several factors - pressure of being defending champs, ring ceremony on their minds perhaps, very tough defensive opponent early when the offense has not yet gelled and we don't have a clear picture of how the guard spots will go, and early season good defense being ahead of offense.  But we should have won, and I think Texas did out-coach ours in this one.

First of all, I hate Jones bringing up the ball up like that.  I don't get why she is tasked with that.  We need her to score and rebound, not spend energy doing something others can do.  We did best when someone else brought the ball up.  Jones needs to be free to receive the ball to score and to create, not spend her time up top directing the offense.  She can't pass to herself.  She only took 6 or 7 shots I believe, and most were off her own dribble, not from a pass to her.  She needs to get more shots and better ones.  If someone is going to turn the ball over running the point, let that be someone else.  In fact, I think it is better to live with a few turnovers from Hamilton, Wilson, Van Gyntenbeek (why did she not get a shot??) and free up Jones, which might improve the offense overall and may not even cause the TO total teamwide to be worse.  

Second, why did we not try harder to get the ball inside?  Like maybe some high-Low action between maybe Prechtel and Brink or some such?  How many shots did our bigs take?  Brink had what 3?  With such depth inside why did we not manage to get the ball inside more?

Third, the offense was stagnant, with too much standing around, too many dribble into a corner or side and pick up the dribble only to get hounded into a TO.

Every inbounds was an adventure all game.  We never really got that sorted.  

I did not get some of the line-up choices.  I do understand why the frosh may not have been ready for this sort of game.  I don't get why we disrupted our own offense by not really having a pg out there.  If Jana is not good enough at this point we are in trouble. next year perhaps and maybe this year too.  She does move the ball quickly and is a floor general.  I wish she had been given a shot.  If the worry was turnovers, well we had 20 so what we were doing was not working.  I do think that this pg by committee thing is not good.  It will be fine against most teams, it will not work well against top teams with strong defenses.  Yes, Texas plays very tough D, more than most.  But we were our own worst enemy on offense.  Our defense was ok but too many unnecessary fouls, fouls not near our basket where they attempt to do whatever it was, was not necessary and resulted in a foul.

Now to the not so bad - it was game 2 and a tough one for reasons outlined above and things will improve.  The pressure is now off.  We already blew a game we should have won and all the chatter about repeating will lessen, which is probably a very good thing.  And hopefully the coaches will change strategy on who is doing the ball handling.  I don't know that Wilson is quite up to it.  I don't know if Hamilton is.  I don't know if Jana is.  Or Lacie.  But someone needs to be given the keys and allowed to settle in as the pg, or we will have games like this.  Ok, that was not a "to the good" sort of statement.  I know it is tough to replace a 4 year starter as Williams was.  But someone, not a changing group of someones, needs to do the job.  I recall plenty of teams where they lost their pg for some reason and someone who was expected to not be that great did a great job.  Maybe nobody is winning the job right now.  Pick the best of them and lets see if she steps up to the plate.  Tara said "young team"in the post game.  But this is not a young team.  The core group who played today were mostly upperclass players.  Youth was not the issue.  Lots to fix...

You're right and Tara is wrong, this Stanford team is a veteran team, returning 12 of their 13 players from their championship season last year. Tara was simply outcoached, plain and simple.  The defensive pressure of Texas got into her players minds (including the theatricals of Audrey WARREN), resulting in them playing uptight throughout.   On the other hand, the much smaller Longhorns played loose, like they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

[joemontes]

Well that was a letdown.  Agree with those who said even with all the other issues if we just shot threes half decently, heck a quarter decently, we probably win.  I do think this was a tough game due to several factors - pressure of being defending champs, ring ceremony on their minds perhaps, very tough defensive opponent early when the offense has not yet gelled and we don't have a clear picture of how the guard spots will go, and early season good defense being ahead of offense.  But we should have won, and I think Texas did out-coach ours in this one.

First of all, I hate Jones bringing up the ball up like that.  I don't get why she is tasked with that.  We need her to score and rebound, not spend energy doing something others can do.  We did best when someone else brought the ball up.  Jones needs to be free to receive the ball to score and to create, not spend her time up top directing the offense.  She can't pass to herself.  She only took 6 or 7 shots I believe, and most were off her own dribble, not from a pass to her.  She needs to get more shots and better ones.  If someone is going to turn the ball over running the point, let that be someone else.  In fact, I think it is better to live with a few turnovers from Hamilton, Wilson, Van Gyntenbeek (why did she not get a shot??) and free up Jones, which might improve the offense overall and may not even cause the TO total teamwide to be worse.  

Second, why did we not try harder to get the ball inside?  Like maybe some high-Low action between maybe Prechtel and Brink or some such?  How many shots did our bigs take?  Brink had what 3?  With such depth inside why did we not manage to get the ball inside more?

Third, the offense was stagnant, with too much standing around, too many dribble into a corner or side and pick up the dribble only to get hounded into a TO.

Every inbounds was an adventure all game.  We never really got that sorted.  

I did not get some of the line-up choices.  I do understand why the frosh may not have been ready for this sort of game.  I don't get why we disrupted our own offense by not really having a pg out there.  If Jana is not good enough at this point we are in trouble. next year perhaps and maybe this year too.  She does move the ball quickly and is a floor general.  I wish she had been given a shot.  If the worry was turnovers, well we had 20 so what we were doing was not working.  I do think that this pg by committee thing is not good.  It will be fine against most teams, it will not work well against top teams with strong defenses.  Yes, Texas plays very tough D, more than most.  But we were our own worst enemy on offense.  Our defense was ok but too many unnecessary fouls, fouls not near our basket where they attempt to do whatever it was, was not necessary and resulted in a foul.

Now to the not so bad - it was game 2 and a tough one for reasons outlined above and things will improve.  The pressure is now off.  We already blew a game we should have won and all the chatter about repeating will lessen, which is probably a very good thing.  And hopefully the coaches will change strategy on who is doing the ball handling.  I don't know that Wilson is quite up to it.  I don't know if Hamilton is.  I don't know if Jana is.  Or Lacie.  But someone needs to be given the keys and allowed to settle in as the pg, or we will have games like this.  Ok, that was not a "to the good" sort of statement.  I know it is tough to replace a 4 year starter as Williams was.  But someone, not a changing group of someones, needs to do the job.  I recall plenty of teams where they lost their pg for some reason and someone who was expected to not be that great did a great job.  Maybe nobody is winning the job right now.  Pick the best of them and lets see if she steps up to the plate.  Tara said "young team"in the post game.  But this is not a young team.  The core group who played today were mostly upperclass players.  Youth was not the issue.  Lots to fix...

You're right and Tara is wrong, this Stanford team is a veteran team, returning 12 of their 13 players from their championship season last year. Tara was simply outcoached, plain and simple.  The defensive pressure of Texas got into her players minds (including the theatricals of Audrey WARREN), resulting in them playing uptight throughout.   On the other hand, the much smaller Longhorns played loose, like they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.