[BillBradley]

re: physical play - I would much rather have the game be too physical vs. too ticky-tack. If the refs get sent too far in the other direction, we end up with a game with too many calls, too many free throws, players fouling out, arguments, replay reviews, etc. Ideally it's somewhere in the middle, but I lean way toward letting the players play. Yes, it benefited Texas yesterday. So be it. Our team knows if they want to repeat as national champion they'll need to overcome that type of play. I don't think they are complaining about that.

re: MT's question "So, what was so good about Lacie that her +/- was 19 in 25 minutes?  She only made 2 points herself and missed 5 3FGA shots.  I didn't check,  but I'd guess she wasn't in when Texas made their four 3PT shots.  Maybe her defense was stopping that?"

There's a lot there. She did get in foul trouble at the end so maybe wasn't on the court for their 3 point shots. And yes, she excels in areas like defense, deflections, etc. that don't show up in the box score. But maybe it's less about what she specifically did and more about what her being on the court enabled others to do. The fact that Texas outscored us by 24 in the 15 minutes when she wasn't in the game probably means that others were not playing well when she wasn't in the game. I think the reason for that has to do with the positions and roles of the other players and what it does to their effectiveness. For instance, the more Haley and Lexie have to handle the ball, the less they get to play at their natural wing spots. They are out of position when the offense is initiated. Maybe the most interesting one here is Anna. I view Anna purely as a role player. She excelled last year as Robin to Kiana's Batman and they made a great complimentary back court. She wasn't asked to do much offensively other than shoot it when she was wide open and to her credit she made the other teams pay last year by shooting it so well from 3. She also could relax some on offense and focus on defense, her specialty. But it looked to me like Anna wasn't herself against Texas on either side of the court. I would guess that without Lacie on the court, it put even more pressure on Anna to be something she's not - a ball handler and a scorer. Anna might end up playing less this year because we need another offensive threat on the court without Kiana there to create. It will be really interesting to see what combinations Tara tries and it could take quite awhile to find the answer.

[BillBradley]

re: physical play - I would much rather have the game be too physical vs. too ticky-tack. If the refs get sent too far in the other direction, we end up with a game with too many calls, too many free throws, players fouling out, arguments, replay reviews, etc. Ideally it's somewhere in the middle, but I lean way toward letting the players play. Yes, it benefited Texas yesterday. So be it. Our team knows if they want to repeat as national champion they'll need to overcome that type of play. I don't think they are complaining about that.

re: MT's question "So, what was so good about Lacie that her +/- was 19 in 25 minutes?  She only made 2 points herself and missed 5 3FGA shots.  I didn't check,  but I'd guess she wasn't in when Texas made their four 3PT shots.  Maybe her defense was stopping that?"

There's a lot there. She did get in foul trouble at the end so maybe wasn't on the court for their 3 point shots. And yes, she excels in areas like defense, deflections, etc. that don't show up in the box score. But maybe it's less about what she specifically did and more about what her being on the court enabled others to do. The fact that Texas outscored us by 24 in the 15 minutes when she wasn't in the game probably means that others were not playing well when she wasn't in the game. I think the reason for that has to do with the positions and roles of the other players and what it does to their effectiveness. For instance, the more Haley and Lexie have to handle the ball, the less they get to play at their natural wing spots. They are out of position when the offense is initiated. Maybe the most interesting one here is Anna. I view Anna purely as a role player. She excelled last year as Robin to Kiana's Batman and they made a great complimentary back court. She wasn't asked to do much offensively other than shoot it when she was wide open and to her credit she made the other teams pay last year by shooting it so well from 3. She also could relax some on offense and focus on defense, her specialty. But it looked to me like Anna wasn't herself against Texas on either side of the court. I would guess that without Lacie on the court, it put even more pressure on Anna to be something she's not - a ball handler and a scorer. Anna might end up playing less this year because we need another offensive threat on the court without Kiana there to create. It will be really interesting to see what combinations Tara tries and it could take quite awhile to find the answer.