FAU Tournament

[BabHorn]

A quick look at the teams in the FAU tourney the Horns will be playing in this weekend shows that the Horns and Georgia Tech are the best teams and whoever wins that game should win the championship. FAU and Tenn Tech are not on the same level with Texas and G. Tech. That game between FAU and Tenn Tech might be the best game as they seem to be fairly well matched. I hadn't realized that Tenn Tech had such a big WBB past. They reank seventh in all time wins at 791. Texas is sixth at 805. I assume the numbers are entering this season.

Should be two interesting games but the final game may be a blowout.

 

[#1UTFAN]

We leave for Florida at 8:10 this morning and will be courtside for both UT games. I may have access to a computer at the hotel. If I do, I will post a few of my thoughts on each game.

NOTHING TO EQUAL BAB'S EXCELLENT DISCUSSIONS THOUGH.

HOOK 'EM! The Link

 

[BabHorn]

We know Texas. We know that they are going to run, pressure, and hit the 3. They bring the top scoring offense and defense of the four teams. The Texas guards will present matchup problems for any of the other three teams they face. They will have the edge in height, speed and quickness. The Horns’ frontcourt has been very productive thus far with Aubry and Kristen providing welcome depth in this area. Kristen has especially been a pleasant surprise with her scoring and rebounding. Lindsey and Gayle will put up a wall between the goal and opposing players. What will be different for the Horns is that this is the first road game this season. Will they be able to maintain their focus? I’ll bet they stay focused enough to bring the first place trophy.

The texassports.com story on the FAU tournament can be found here.

Georgia Tech will be the toughest test for the Horns. Whichever of the two makes into the final game should have an easy win over either Tennessee Tech or host Florida Atlantic. A win by either Tennessee Tech or FAU would be a big upset.

Georgia Tech gave #1 UConn fits before falling 82-71 on 11-16-08. They did it by hitting their 3s, not letting UConn hit theirs, forcing TOs, and being competitive on the boards. Georgia Tech is led by three players in double digits: Iasia Hemingway (5-11 Soph G/F) with 14.6 pts;
Alex Montgomery (6-1 Soph G/F) at 13.2 ppg; and Jacqua Williams (5-7 Sr. G) at 11.2 ppg. Williams comes into the Texas games with 279 steals, a career school record. Those three plus Brigitte Ardossi (6-2 Jr F) have started all five games this season. Sasha Goodlett (6-5 Jr. C) has started four of five games and Mo Bennett (5-10 Fr. G) has started one game. Bennett burned UConn for 19 pts including 3-4 3s. GT has eight players averaging double digit minutes and another at 9.5mpg. Except for Williams and Ardossi, the seven are all sophs or freshment. This team is young. Montgomery and Bennett lead the team in rebounding at 5.4 rpg while Ardossi and Hemingway add 4.6 rpg each. Hemingway with 40 FT attempts has gone to the line about three times more than any other GT player. Montgomery has put up 39% (33 of 89) of the teams 3. She is hitting 45.5% from BTA. Horns better be aware of where she is. Williams (15) and Bennett (18) together match Montgomery in 3pt attempts. They don’t match her accuracy as Williams is making 33% and Bennett 28%. Hemingway is hitting 50% of her shots, mainly inside the arc.

The Horns will need to be aware of where Montgomery’s 3pt shooting, will need to shut down Hemingway inside and take care of the ball as they won’t face a better ballthief than Williams.

Still, the Horns should have too much experience and depth for Georgia Tech to handle.

Georgia Tech story on their game with Texas.

Tennessee Tech and Texas are both in the top ten WBB in overall wins with 791 and 805, respectively at the beginning of the season. Tech comes into this tournament on a two losing streak. They are led Blair Bowens ((5-6 Sr. G) at 14.0 ppg while Krystal Stirrup (5-11 Fr. F) comes off the bench to average 10.5 ppg. Jasmine White (6-0 Soph. F), Meagan Lyons (5-6 Sr. G), Allison Price (5-7 Sr. G) and Vivian Nwosu (6-3 Jr. C) join Bowens as starters for all four games so far. Nwosu is the tallest player on the team. No one else is taller than 6-0. As small as they are, they outrebounding opponents, although by a slim margin of plus 0.6. They are having trouble hitting their shots, whether from the field (37.1%), BTA (315%) or the FT line (51.6%). Bowens is the player that gets to the FT line most, just over twice as much as any other Tech player. She has also taken over twice as many 3s as any other player, 34 to Price’s 15. Those two have taken two-thirds of the 3s the team has taken. Unfortunately, they are both hitting less than 30%.

The story from the Tennessee Tech site is here.


Florida Atlantic is the host for this tournament. They bring a 2-2 record and have a two game winning streak. Three players have started all four games for FAU: Jessica Knurick (6-3 Jr. P); Brittany Bowe (5-7 Jr. G); and Candace Lambert (5-8 Jr. G). Four others have split the other starting slots with each starting two games: Carla Stubbs (5-10 Jr. G); Jamie Givens (6-1 Soph. F); Andrea Taylor (5-8 Jr. G); and Erica Caldwell (6-0 Jr. F). Stubbs leads the team in scoring at 12.3 ppg while Breana Turner (5-10 Fr. G) comes off the bench to average 11.5 ppg. Jamie Givens (6-1 Soph. F) is third in scoring at 9.5 ppg, also off the bench. Stubbs seems to be the focal point of the team as she also leads in rebounds (6.3 rpg) and in 3pt FGs made and attempted (5-13). That’s a third of the 15 3s FAU has made this season. FAU overall is a minus 12 rebounds a game. Their shooting percentages are poor from field (38.3%) and BTA (25.9%). FT shooting is average at 68.6%. They have a good shot at getting past Tennessee Tech, but will have difficulty with either Texas or Georgia Tech.

The FAU story can be found here.

TEAM STATS-average per game
[pre]
Texas Geo. Tech Tenn Tech FAU
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PPG 89.2 73.4 60.2 65.8
margin +39.8 +18.8 -8.3 -10.4
FGM 33.2 25.8 21.3 25.0
FGA 66.0 60.8 57.3 65.3
FG% 50.3 42.4 37.1 38.3
3FGM 6.2 5.8 5.8 3.8
3FGA 16.6 16.8 18.3 14.5
3FG% 37.3 34.5 31.5 25.9
FTM 16.6 16.0 12.0 12.0
FTA 23.2 23.6 23.3 17.5
FT% 71.6 67.8 51.6 68.6
RPG 46.8 41.6 38.8 36.5
Reb Margin +14.6 +11.4 +0.6 -12.0
Assists 21.2 15.2 10.0 12.3
TO 14.6 24.0 23.5 16.8
TO margin +8.2 +4.0 +1.0 -2.5
A/TO Ratio 1.45 0.63 0.43 0.74
Steals 12.8 16.2 9.5 8.3
Blocks 6.6 4.0 0.3 1.8
Win Streak 5 3 0 2


[/pre]

 

[jusme828]

Being on the road will be the biggest test for the horns at this point. GA Tech will be the second test. I'm confident though that our depth will win out.

Looks as though Baylor and A&M both won tough games today against unranked teams. Just goes to show how tough the overall women's b-ball program is becoming. Hope the horns keep the Big 12 looking fierce!!!

 

[TXtoCO]

IMO, Harry Perretta is one of the best coaches in the country. I've seen him take a team with very little talent and run the Xs and Os so well that he keeps his team competitive. I think he is one of the most underrated coaches in women's college basketball. No surprise to me that his team gave Baylor a tough battle.

Looking at the Baylor box score I think we get an idea of how tight the rotation is going to be for them in tough games. Almost all of the minutes were played by 6 players. That will be to our advantage, although I think that Baylor has a good transfer player (Named Ms. Basketball Arkansas in 2006 and `07) that becomes available to play in January.

Stanford also barely pulled out a win over Purdue in OT.

Looks like Texas Tech gave #3 Cal a decent game as well. And it looks like Tech really spread out the playing time. No big numbers by any single player but they had a lot of players who played significant minutes.

 

[tott10]

game day! let's go horns