Texas vs Tenn: Game 35

that was a huge 3 by Empress. Chas is getting to the FT line. Horns keeping it close, down four with just under 8 minutes to go.
 
Back to within 5, Horns need to play tough, and not let this get away from them again. Love that we keep fighting, and have kept the Vols in sight every time they've threatened to pull away. That is something we were unable to do last season.
 
Ahhhhh. Killing me. We have got to stay focused. We have to be consistent with our intensity. These ten point swings are happening way too fast.
 
Down 11 with just over 5 mins to play. Now or never time in this game. But plenty of game left, Horns need to focus and make a run if they can. Let's go Horns!
 
those last four minutes have been brutal. TOs, poor shooting leads to Tenn pushing the lead to double digits.
Horns got 4 minutes to make a run.
 
that was a silly technical by Nneka. I'm not sure about the fifth foul but she should not have gotten the technical.
 
Great effort. We remain one star player (floor leader) short of being a really good team. Our final 10 minutes cannot be a kitchen sink approach.
 
Nneka's last foul was called on a rebound-probably called her for pushing. Burdick fell down and rolled over. Looked like QBs look when they get sacked tackled by Jeffcoat. Nneka got the technical when she flipped the ball in the direction where Burdick was still on the floor on all fours and the ball hit Burdick on the head. Perfect shot, just really should have flipped it to an official.
 
A concern to me was our lack of free throws - we were called for 25 fouls to their 12. Some of that was home cooking, I saw our girls get hammered a couple of drives to the bucket with no call on Tenn - but mostly it was TX being out of position or making silly fouls. That needs to change against good teams. We also need to be more aggressive on offense, to get more fouls called on our opponents. The difference in the game was free throws, they made 27 field goals and we made 26. We made 5-6 free throws and they made 18-27. All other stats were surprisingly comparable between the 2 teams.
 
I was happy overall. We're a lot better than last year. Krystal is really good. Made smart decisions. Our press hurt rather than helped us, which you can pretty much expect when their athleticism is as good as or better than ours. The disparity in fouls was so frustrating. I think we're better with Imani in the game, but Kelsey is pretty good, too. If her jumpers in the lane had gone down, it would have been great.
 
I've been more frustrated with Imani. It seems she's missing way too many chippies and not taking good care of the ball. I think if she can improve, the team may really take off.
 
Has Imani been hampered/slowed by an injury? I noticed when I saw them play UTSA she seemed somewhat out of game shape. Winded easily.
 
The point about free throws being the difference was very acute. The other stats were pretty close. We made only one less basket than Tennessee, and we actually scored more points off turnovers than they did. But here is another key stat--we took 20 shots beyond the arc and made only 4. Tennessee was much more efficient---three of nine. It's not that they beat us with three pointers; its that we did so poorly with a shot we took so often. If two or three of those had fallen, the game would have been much closer and momentum might have swung our way. It's the old bad outside shooting problem. Texas can't score enough points. In some games this year its improved. Today we regressed. I also agree with the comment that we are one great floor leader away from being very very good. We need a transformative guard who can take over games and score when needed. I love Chassidy Fussell, but she's too inconsistent to play that role. She took ten threes in this game and made one. It's not her fault we lost, by any means, but it illustrates the point. Still...progress. Both Stanford and Tennessee games followed the same pattern---early, tough competitive play that had us within reach, followed by eventual second half breakdown. No blow outs or routs, but not quite good enough to finish the deal. Hopefully that will evolve. I also agree with the comments on Imani. Based on the end of last season, I expected her to be a monster this year. Everyone did. Hopefully its a temporary physical problem and not some mental or emotional thing. She can be truly great if she stays healthy, but it takes passion and drive to get there.
 
We are all befuddled about Imani. Coach A must be frustrated with her (or pissed at her), since she is not getting starts anymore and is playing less minutes. Or is it an injury? It seems like we would have heard about an injury from Nell and Fran on the LHN telecasts. Hmmmm....
 
I know that Imani was out of game shape at the beginning of the season because she took some time off this summer to rest an injury. I would think she would be OK by now, but I suspect the summer rest did not completely take care of the injury, by the way she has been playing this year. It's like she regressed, especially from the end of the season last year. I hope whatever is the problem it's resolved soon, because we are really going to need her to step up her play come conference games.

I also agree about Kelsey, I am so impressed with her play so far as a freshman. If she continues to improve, she is going to be a very good player, IMHO.

I'm looking forward to Ariel Atkins joining the team next year. Hopefully, she is that SPECIAL guard we've been missing.
 
I like this team this year.If we correct a couple things, we could really make some noise.
Keep working ladies.
 
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