Tech game

J

JoeDallas

1,000+ Posts
Well, that was disappointing. Tech was great. We're in a tough situation primarily because of our back breaking weakness at guard. Chas is so bottled up since opponents can completely key on her and not worry about the other guards. On the positive side, Imani is already fantastic. It's going to be great fun to watch her get better the next three years. The same with Neka for the next two. I disagree with posters from the threads who are blaming our problems all on Aston and ragging on her so bad. Good Lord, give her a chance. She is working with some tough personnel problems. The freshmen guards must have been great in high school and hopefully have potential, but they are obviously at a way lower level at this point than the other positions. It's such a bummer that Chelsea never got her chance this year.

Anyway, obviously we shouldn't worry about the playoffs or the NIT or any of that. It will just be nice to see us play well, win some games, and feel that we're improving. It can be fun to watch a team come back up from way down.
 
Much better offensive execution. We shot over 50% for most of the game and ended up just below 50% from taking lots of desperation shots at the end of the game. We had no trouble breaking the zone tonight. The high-low with Imani and Nneka was working to perfection. We got so many layups and made most of them. Even though we lost, the offensive execution was a breath of fresh air. If we hadn't had 20+ turnovers, we might actually have won the game! So, if we can cut down the turnovers and execute on both ends of the court for a full 40 minutes, we might win a game or two.
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I missed the game and wasn't sure what to expect when I looked at the stats. I was pleasantly surprised. We shot well and made free throws. Rebounded well. As the score indicated, we were in the game even though Chas didn't shoot lights out. We've been in most games that we've lost.

These young kids are learning trial by fire now, so the long term looks good in my mind.
 
Tech is hardly great. They are barely good. They have an RPI of 48, making them a bubble teams for the NCAAS, at best. It is not 1993 anymore or the glory days of Plenette Pierson and Jia Perkins. This is a game that even Aston's one trick low-high force feed the post schema on offense should have won. Tech does not have the size or athleticism to play an effective zone. Instead Kristy Curry worked out another way to beat this atrociously coached Texas team. Deny the entry pass a little earlier. Sure TX shot close to 50%, nearly as high as they shot against the powerhouse Central Connecticut; that's not the University of Connecticut, by the way. You do know that this was Curry's first win in Austin. To be out-game-planned by Kristy Curry, easily the worst x's and o's coach in the Big 12 until the arrival of Karen Aston, even when she is giving you your lame offense, is really quite something. Tech has been to the NCAA tournament once in Curry's tenure. She has effectively run a perennial national powerhouse into the ground, and she is better than what TX has right now as a coach.

The excuses about youth and injury are very lame. OK lost their best player in senior Whitney Hand, had to import 2, (not just 1) players from their volleyball squad to get their roster up from 7. Sharane Campbell, who lit up TX in Austin is a sophomore. They are not on a 7 game losing streak and 0 for 5 in the Big 12, because Sherri Coale can coach. Give almost any Big 12 coach the talent on this TX roster (last year's second leading scorer, the conference leader in double-doubles, one of the best, if not the best freshman centers in the country, plus a blue chip recruit like Davenport) and they would have found a way around the point guard problem. Bill Fennelly, Deb Patterson, Sherri Coale, Jeff Mittie at TCU ( drinking problem notwithstanding), Bonnie Hendrickson, I have not watched WVU or OSU coaches enough but they were both good enough to beat Aston, WVU without their best player moreover. Any of the above right now would be competing for second place in the Big 1 behind Baylor. (What Mulkey could do with this talent would be special). Instead we have a longish-in the tooth rookie, completely out of her depth competing for last place.

I am not optimistic about the future. Firstly because Aston's style of play and basketball philosophy is antiquated. The days when defense won championships and you could just rely on defense turning into offense, and if you had to play half court offense you just relied on post play are long over. In this way she is a chip off the Conradt block, and Conradt's TX teams were not nationally relevant since 1990 ( despite having some extraordinarily talented players - Edwina Brown anyone? Tiffany Jackson, who did not make the tournament her junior and senior year?), except for the years when a brilliant transfer point guard trained by Stanford ran the offense. The only coach with Aston's defense, rebound, intensity, force-feed the post strategy who had any real success in the last decade was Pat Summit, but even she needed a massive athletic and talent differential to do so. We all saw what TN looked like post Candace Parker. With her no existent national profile and her abysmal results so far, Aston is not going to recruit a Candace Parker. Elite teams now are superb on both sides of the ball. They space the floor and play a motion or triangle offense. Good guard play will beat good post play nearly all of the time. So far Aston has showed she cannot do any of these things, despite having the second best talent in conference.

I hope Aston can learn on the job, but she has not shown any evidence of such capacity so far. Players, recruits current and future, and fans are not likely to find any help from the athletics administration. Given the fiasco of the handling of the Bev Kearney situation with the possibility of law-suits on all sides and NCAA infractions; while I have seen Plonsky at a few games - so she has seen the failure first hand, as long as Aston keeps her nose clean, I think a collapsing women's basketball program is the least of Plonsky's worries.

We could be in for a very long 4 and a half years.
 
We lost the Tech game due to turnovers and lack of rebounding. 25 TOs didn’t give the team the opportunity to take advantage of our posts. Many of Tech’s 24 pts in the paints came from TOs leading to fastbreak layups. Losing the rebound battle, even by such a small edge, 31-30, was key to Tech winning. Especially when you consider that the Horns only got 8 offensive rebounds. We got 12 less shots than Tech, basically due to TOs. Tech got a few more FTs at the end but otherwise, the difference in the game was TOs leading to Tech getting more shots and getting a chance to make more FGs due to quantity. Horns, except for the 3pt shooting, had probably their best shooting game in league play. Veteran guard play from Tech hurt us as they executed when the game was tight and we were unable to get over the hump and grab the lead. Those three quick fouls on Sara really hurt as she was giving us some very good minutes before that.

As for this offense being strictly a one trick pony, you would expect that the shots would be weighed heavily towards the post players but posts took 22 shots while guards took 23. That does not speak of forcing the ball into the post.
 
Txtree, you make a few valid (if highly overstated) points.... but, man... what an obnoxious post. Your adhominem tone toward Karen is really distasteful. Thanks, Babhorn, for your correction of the "one-trick pony" assertion, and for your level headed analysis. Of course we're going to rely heavily on post play in a year when the posts happen to be our strength. Would you really want to turn over a lot more of the shooting and game responsibility to our freshmen guards at this point? So Sharane Campbell shot great three's when OU was here...And how is it exactly that it's Karen's fault that our guards aren't hitting their threes like that? I really don't know why they didn't offer you the head coach job after Coach G left, since you are so highly knowledgeable.
 
Thanks BabHorn. Great (and accurate) analysis, as always. txtreefan - nothing like stating the obvious when adding a lot of the not-so-obvious (inaccurate) suits your purpose so much better.
 
OMG!
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txtreefan has taken up Seattle's role in ragging on the coach. Except for the occasional coach G bashing, Seattle has been a breath of fresh positive air. AND NOW, along come treefan to take up the coach bashing torch. ARGHHHHHHH! Treefan, please please please restrain yourself. Goodness, can't we just wallow in our losing season without all this negativity, please.
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we get it, we KNOW you don't like Aston, you DON'T have to tell us in every thread how inadequate she is. We get it that your knowledge is basketball is far superior. But all the negativity in the world is not going to change the fact that Aston is the coach and will be for quite some time. Now, on to Oklahoma.
 
I actually agree with the majority of what txtree stated.

Bottom line is that based on the decreasing roster size, and the guard play due to inexperience, this season is only going to get worse before it MIGHT get better based on the upcoming schedule.

Very hard to accept that in mid-January, we are already out of the NCAA tourney (unless you believe in miracles). Aston is setting all kinds of records in her first season, and none of them are good ones.

To me, Aston looked like she wanted to cry in the post-game press conference on Wednesday night after the Tech loss. I know she is a competitor, and that's what I like best about her, but if she breaks down in public down the road . . .
 
Budke went 0-16 one year and with recruiting and coaching developed good competitive teams. Blair's early teams didn't always do so well IIRC. This is why Kim insisted on a 5 year contract with Baylor and LA Tech.

Anyone who thinks that it doesn't matter whether you have 4 newbies and a Sophomore on court as opposed to mostly veterans is delusional.

I don't understand the hatred and vitriol towards any coach, either Gail or Karen. I get disappointment and confusion in hiring. I get stating that. But persistent long-winded demeaning posts. Why? You will not convince me to go negative. More words will not convince me to change my focus from supporting the team, enjoying the competition and being hopeful about the growth that we will see in the coaches and players. Please don't try to convince me to join your negative camp.
 
Exactly agree on Jamie Carey. If not for her late and unexpected addition, there would have been no high points for Texas from 2002-04 or so.
 
And isn't it odd we have two players leaving for medical reasons from the program with the miracle doctors who revived Jamie's career after Stanford called it over due to medical reasons.

I sincerely hope Aston turns out to be the right coach at the right time, but right now I am finding it hard to be a believer.

This team seemed to have so much promise. I never saw the season starting out this way. If Aston can turn it around, I'll be the first to admit I was Chicken Little. (Regardless I'll buy tickets and make a donation and root for the team in burnt orange)
 
Wow. Now she's responsible for health issues? With all the emphasis on the long term effects of concussions, you want a player who has had multiple concussions to keep playing? And if she doesn't it is Aston's fault? A 21-year-old has exercise induced hypertension and you want her on the floor raising her blood pressure a lot? And if she doesn't it is Aston's fault?

I get that people don't like a coach. That happens all the time. People wanted Jody gone at one point. But come on. Not all things are the coach's fault. Jody, Gail and Karen have all struggled with injury and execution. No one coach seems to be exempt. Still not sure why that turns into such vitriol, but so be it.

These players all chose to play for Aston. They are still playing for her and choosing to play hard and continue to learn. They aren't giving up. I don't understand why fans would.
 
Hornsgeek -- I admire your innocent take on the player retirements. I don't blame Aston for injuries. I also don't take what I read from the University as the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but that truth.

There is often more to a story. And in this case, I know that to be true.

That said, I wish Bass and Reed nothing but the best. They're getting a great education and they deserve to maximize their scholarships. Good for them.
 
Sometimes, and about some things, I have to remind myself that it is better to just keep my mouth shut.

I don’t have a lot of positive to say about the season so far. I don’t have much that is positive to say about texexteds posts in this tread either. I guess we agree about the disappointment in results so far, Tech isn’t exactly a national power, freshmen have to grow up at some point, and Sherri Cole is a good coach.

I’ve spent days trying to figure out what I thought about the Tech game. I’m still not sure. Certainly there is always blame for the coaching staff when a team loses. Every coach will tell you the same. But, that game was not all on the coaches.

The game was not lost because of the refs, although it was the worst called game I have seen this season. There were bad calls that went both ways, some of them mind boggling. I don’t think the young players handled that as well as the more veteran Tech team. I also think some of the young players have had some trouble adjusting to the different ways games have been called. Different crews call games very differently and that appears to be a difficult adjustment for some of our players.

There were some just atrociously bad decisions and physical mistakes. Things that are just a matter of concentration and focus. I can’t really blame the coaches for those. Even freshmen have to learn to keep their head in the game.

I saw some players who had otherwise pretty good games take plays off. Blatantly. You just can’t do that at this level. Generally I then saw them also come out of the game. But, the damage was already done at that point.

Just a lot of things that go with being a young team. You can feel that the coaching staff should have them past that at this point. But either way the staff cannot go out there and play the game. It almost looks like this team just can’t stand prosperity. Every time things start to look up they fall apart. It’s like they are comfortable being the underdog, fighting and clawing for every point, never giving up the good fight……but after all of that when things start to go their way they start to relax a little.

I still see a lot of opportunity. There are some very talented players on this team. I really believe this group just needs to learn how to win. It isn’t as simple as it sounds. There is a mindset and single-minded focus that is required. They have to get to that place as a group. More than Xs and Os I think that is the challenge of this staff. Can they get this young team mentally prepared? Stay tuned.
 
Sometimes, a team just isn't ready/prepared to play. Based on how Texas made numerous turnovers and got behind early against Tech, I'd say they weren't ready to play.

Who is responsible? Everyone can decide for themselves. Mack Brown always publicly blames himself after a loss when stating his team wasn't ready to play.
 
I was worried about this year way back last year when I thought about losing Anderson and Fontenette. What was our guard play going to be like? It depended on recruiting. I don't keep up with recruiting much anymore, but when I read about our incoming guards, it did not seem like we snared any of the high tier guards coming out of high school. We were only a fair team last year with a disappointing record, and with guard play likely to go down and Chas likely to be less productive due to other teams being able to totally key on her, I expected us to be worse this year. If it weren't for Imani being here and Nneka's maturing, we would be having even a much tougher time. It surprises me when people talk about our high level of talent and and the evidently high expectations a lot of people had for this season. Based on what? And then to see people jump all over Aston as the problem after only a few months doesn't seem fair. I don't think Mulkey, Cole or anyone else would have that much better a record, if at all, with our whole situation as it is --- spotty talent, inexperience all over the floor, central players leaving with injuries, etc. Recruiting is the main determinant of a good basketball team. I sure hope we have some good ones coming in next yea. Rexy and Hornsgeek --- great posts.

Jamie Carey was a super player, but I can't agree with those who see her as this Stanford genius who came in and made us a good team for 2 years. We had some good stuff already. Stephens and Schreiber before her shooting slump were fantastic.
 
Geek - I am not blaming Aston for the injuries. Actually I was suggesting worse. I was suggesting that the players were leaving for other reasons besides medical. Pure speculation on my part. I don't know Aston. I hear she is a great recruiter. I have seen nothing to date to suggest she is a great coach. I came into this season with no opinion about Aston other than the hire caught me by surprise. I assumed we would go after someone with a more impressive résumé/record/profile.

16 games into the season I now have formed an opinion. I think Aston was a lazy hire. We hired an old friend who appears (at least right now) to be unprepared for this level of play. I could be wrong and would love to be proven wrong. We now have our longest losing streak, our worst conference start, and two key players just left the program for medical reasons - a program that cleared Jamie to play for medical reasons when no others would.

I believe Jody earned her honors. I believed that Gail had a track record that suggested great things and I appreciated that she stepped aside when she realized her best coaching days might be behind her. I had a neutral opinion of Aston until she gave me a reason to doubt her. That is where I am. I doubt her ability to coach us to better days. I believe we took a step in the wrong direction. I think Plonsky made a wrong hire.

I think we have some incredible players who have been given a coach who is beneath their potential. I would never root for them to lose just to prove I am right. I am not that kind of fan. I am, however, the kind of fan who is outraged at our current situation. I blame the coach and any member of the athletic department who was responsible for her hire.

If she doesn't turn this around this season - her first season - I would hope we bite the bullet, admit our mistake and throw as much money as it takes to find someone else - someone with a proven track record. I have followed this program since I was a student and a casual friend of Clarissa Davis. I was there when we won it all. I am not somebody who jumps ship easily, but I fear this ship, the SS Aston, is sinking fast. And I don't believe it's Captain knows how to fix it.
 
First, this is all conjecture on my part on what I know about concussions and exercise inducted hypertension. The information has been gathered from reading newspapers, surfing medical articles and my own interests as part of my work in how diseases impact someone’s work. And any college player is engaged in work though they are not paid a salary.

In reply to:
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Coach G inherited a squad from Jody that hadn't made the NCAA tourney in 2 seasons; they won an NCAA tourney game her first season. There was hope for future success, but it just didn't happen (mainly due to not being to sign elite recruits and keep them healthy).

Coach Aston won't match that in year one; it is a fact (unless anyone thinks she can win the Big 12 tourney).

What happens in the next season or two is anyone's guess at this time. The thing is, a disastrous 2013 Big 12 campaign could put huge doubts in the verbal commitments we have for the 2014 and 2015 classes. Winning games, or lack thereof, makes a difference all the way around.

Losing to Central Michigan might have been the lowest point in the last decade or more.
 
I stand by my post. Seattle you have no credibility with me. You lost that when you posted that you hoped the Horns would lose.
 
I read your original response. Flip flop NUT.

"Coach Ashton"
"Coach G took us to the tourney 4 times"
"Whatever."

My wish came true and my next wish will to. Love our Horns now that we have a real coach who gets Texas. My "hope and faith" will trump your doomsday bellringing.

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Ps - I will not ignore you as I am "capable" of addressing your misunderstandings.
 
Coach Aston may "get Texas", but that hasn't translated into a single Big 12 conference win thus far. And, what she "doesn't get" translates into missing the NCAA tourney, and probably finisthing in the bottom 3 of the Big 12 standings come March.
 
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