Texas @ Texas A&M

A&M is tough to figure out. Early on, they had several players who I thought were just gonna go off on us all game long. But, then Gary Blair would take them out for long periods of time, and I don't think it was for foul trouble.

Patty had 13 rebounds; but, only played 21 minutes. Had just 1 foul.

Destiny Pitts with 3 early 3-pointers (I think), but then missed her final 7 from beyond the arc; hats off to our defensive effort on her.

Holding senior point guard Jordan Nixon to only 9 points in 35 minutes was a key reason for our victory. Rori and Matharu guarded her most of the game, and then she had to try and guard them. I think we just wore her out today.
 
I had an errand and joined the game when Texas was leading 2-0 to then see A&M score the 3. It took me a while to say, "Wait. Where is Rori?" Then the announcers started making random guesses along the lines of, "Vic wants to let his freshman point guard sit there for a while and observe what's going on"

Oh Puuuuulease. You don't hold out your star PG with the assumption that the game isn't going to get out of hand for the first 5 minutes. I think there may have been some internal discipline going on here. But look at that, I just made a random guess!

Before the game, I was looking at A&M's stats so far for this year and I was surprised they were so poor in the TO category (for a Blair team). But sure enough, "They were who we thought they were"
 
racerx5908 said:
I had an errand and joined the game when Texas was leading 2-0 to then see A&M score the 3. It took me a while to say, "Wait. Where is Rori?" Then the announcers started making random guesses along the lines of, "Vic wants to let his freshman point guard sit there for a while and observe what's going on"

Oh Puuuuulease. You don't hold out your star PG with the assumption that the game isn't going to get out of hand for the first 5 minutes. I think there may have been some internal discipline going on here. But look at that, I just made a random guess!

Before the game, I was looking at A&M's stats so far for this year and I was surprised they were so poor in the TO category (for a Blair team). But sure enough, "They were who we thought they were"
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I would tend to agree with you about Rory if Chevalier had started but that was not the case so I think Vic had some strategy there. I assumed it was because their guards were so big, but I don’t know. Hopefully it’s asked & answered in a press conference
 
So, no court time for Latasha Lattimore today, despite Ebo and Gaston getting into foul trouble in the second half. Femme (who didn't play against Jackson State), did play 2 minutes in the fourth quarter.

Not sure what that is all about; she wasn't wearing a white top like Moore, Kobe, and Hunter; so, don't think she's injured.
 
Another contributing factor to the win was our 7 turnovers to A&M’s 19. At one point in the second half we had 20+ points off those A&M turnovers.
 
Rexy said:
Another contributing factor to the win was our 7 turnovers to A&M’s 19. At one point in the second half we had 20+ points off those A&M turnovers.
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Uh, we had 32 freakin' points off A&M turnovers; they had zero points off our turnovers. Ballgame!
 
Moooooo said:
No one has mentioned Audrey yet (I don't think). I thought she was great today; perhaps her best game of the season. 9 rebounds (5 offensive); 4 points; 1TURNOVER; 3 assists; and most importantly only 2 fouls. Took at least 1 charge.

She played smart; she played in control. That's the kind of senior leadership and production we need from her.

Not sure if it was directly related to Audrey's play and demeanor, but the entire team seemed poised all game long; never flustered; never upset with the officiating. Just kept their focus; all business today in College Station.
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I also thought Audrey played really well and was saying so to a friend of mine. In addition to her stat line, she did quite a few important things today that won't show up in the box score. Defensive positioning, securing loose balls at critical moments, etc. Same with Lauren.
 
brnkj said:
I also thought Audrey played really well and was saying so to a friend of mine. In addition to her stat line, she did quite a few important things today that won't show up in the box score. Defensive positioning, securing loose balls at critical moments, etc. Same with Lauren.
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Yeah, Lauren keeps proving how valuable she is to our team. I know a lot of us want her to improve her conditioning (which seems to be getter in every game); but, she somehow manages to play 30+ minutes a game (36 today), and even beat her defender down the court today.

Since we have no one else like her on our roster, and no one else coming (yet) for 2022-23, I sure am keeping my fingers crossed that she returns for her super senior season.
 
Don't have much to add to all these great observations. Did we ever hit the jackpot with Matharu and Harmon. Warren was good, but I almost always think she is good. Ebo has become such a strong presence in the low post. I hope Gaston can start hitting more of her shots. With more confidence and playing time, maybe Holle will keep hitting three's. It will take awhile for the injured three to work back into some playing time whenever they return, but as they do, we will be that much stronger. My one wish would be for a star post player about 6'5". I hope Latasha works hard to develop.
 
Moooooo said:
So, no court time for Latasha Lattimore today, despite Ebo and Gaston getting into foul trouble in the second half. Femme (who didn't play against Jackson State), did play 2 minutes in the fourth quarter.
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It is all about physicality. Lattimore would have been pinballed all over the place by those big aggy chicks.
 
Moooooo said:
True. But, she also could have drawn them out of the paint to defend her shot, and opened the lane for some of our our other players.
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But Vic won't play you if you are going to be a liability on defense, so that is the aspect that led to her remaining on the bench. As I have said before, Lattimore needs at least a year in a college S&C program.
 
The commentators today were really good to me. It was def better than other games and Carolyn Peck even made up a small saying about Mathru “#2 Aalyiah Mathru” or something like that. Peck spoke highly of Gatson as well and spoke to saying the reason Ebo is out of game shape is off-season surgery. Slowly but I’m starting to see the comparison of Gatson to Smith of BU she has moments where you as a fan are like ok then. Shay really has benefited from people being injured and made the most of it. I agree with the earlier comment of Holle=Cunningham cause I don’t think she cares how much she plays as long as she helps win. Rori and Aaliyah are tough and the bad part for other team is Rori ain’t looking to score yet. She is focused on being Vic’s PG which is good but if she starts to look for her shot and her and Aaliyah click together teams should be scared. The Big 12 is as wide open as it has been in years but these ladies are starting to make me think they can get it done IF everything comes together. Health, and people knowing they roles will be key
 
Moooooo said:
Someone is going to have to tell me what kind of offense we ran today because I really liked it. Didn't seem like there was much of that dribble-drive / weave offense today. I felt like it was what I had been begging for most of this season -- less dribbling, more passing and ball reversal.

Rori with 9 assists, and only 2 turnovers despite not being in the starting lineup. Her 3-pointer to end first quarter was a huge momentum builder, and seemed like our energy just took off the rest of the game.
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Aggie also ran a zone and when you have shooters like Matharu and play makers like Harmon it’s really not a good idea to run a zone. Vic also had some great plays drawn up to get everyone open. The entire flow was just smooth. We got the ball to the post when we needed too and got the ball in the hands it needed to be in at the right time.
 
I agree with the above that the commentators were good today. I always like these two, especially Carolyn Peck. She makes some insightful comments, has some humor, and I like her accent.
 
I agree about the commentators. I figured they’d give Texas their due….Vic is not that far removed from being an SEC coach which doesn’t hurt matters
 
The thing about the combination of Rori and Matharu on the court is that barring foul trouble, they are in such great physical condition that they could play the entire game and never leave the court. Luckily, we have enough depth at the guard position that they don't have to. We need them to still have their legs at the end of the season.

Our guard duo dominated today's game from the back court like I haven't seen in a long time (at Texas). We hear all the time that "you win with great guard play". Well, we saw it today.

They might give up size to other back court duos, but I can't think of m(any) who are quicker, and who do so many things offensively and defensively at such a high level. Sounding like a broken record, the only comparison I can make is to those Louisiana Tech back courts many years ago.
 
One thing I had not been pleased with in some of our games this season was our offensive execution as the game clock winds down per quarter. Sometimes it was bad shot selection, bad execution, and sometimes it was bad clock management.

Today, we excelled in that area. Rori hit that huge long-range momentum-changing dagger as the first quarter ended.

The second quarter didn't end with a made bucket, but we milked the clock, and Matharu got an open 3-pointer that Joanne rebounded and almost banked a short putback as time expired.

The third quarter saw Matharu drive through the entire Aggie defense for a layup with 4 seconds left on the shot clock (7 seconds left on the game clock).

Great job by our coaches and players working on these plays during practice, and seeing it pay off in an actual game.
 
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Not taking anything away from the win (so happy about the win) but what is going on with our free throws? We missed 10 today. We are averaging around 65% for the season.
 
WCBBNUT said:
Not taking anything away from the win (so happy about the win) but what is going on with our free throws? We missed 10 today. We are averaging around 65% for the season.
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If we don't get that fixed it will bite us in the @$$ repeatedly.
 
WCBBNUT said:
Not taking anything away from the win (so happy about the win) but what is going on with our free throws? We missed 10 today. We are averaging around 65% for the season.
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Agreed. Fortunately, I think we can chalk some of it up to the crowd. That’s a tough thing to shoot FTs in. We need to be better, no doubt, but I think we can.
 
Two things that I saw improved upon from the Tennessee loss. First, with a double digit lead for a majority of the game but especially in the fourth quarter, our guards controlled the tempo. Against Tennessee there were a LOT of quick, albeit open shots taken and missed. Today the guards slowed it down and ran some clock and made it hard to mount any comeback. Second, when Aggy tried to run two players at Harmon early to get it out of her hands, the Horns made that ineffective. I’ll bet Schaefer wishes he had managed those two things better in the Tennessee game. But it was early in the season and coaches and players were learning what works. I think we’ll see that running two guards at Harmon much more cause it’s hard to corral her with one player. Great win. The crowd sure was quiet.
 
I was interested in seeing how our pressure would effect Aggies guard heavy game. They play a lot of four guard lineups and I think like 6 of their top 8(or close) are guards. The press was certainly different and slightly less effective against a good guard oriented team. We still got a lot of turnovers by speeding up the individual players. The effectiveness of the press isn’t always measured in steals and turnovers…..it takes you out of your offense…..and the constant pressure makes entry passes tough and you take quick contested shots. Nixon did a pretty good job with Harmon hounding her. It made me tired for Nixon just watching how hard she had to work just to get into their offense.
 
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