I don't want to belabor it, but the title of the Fanatic article on the game hits the nail on the head. This was a street fight. Unfortunately, Texas had some Mike Tyson's on their team and ISU went into the gun fight with dull knives. That just means that our team isn't designed for or coached to get physical back at the opponent.
The ladies came out of the gates looking like they did against TTech. There were three pointers. The ball was moving. The defense and rebounding were dominant. Texas was stunned to start. And then it happened. Texas employed what we all hate to see, but are getting used to...beat on 'em until they call a foul. The only problem was...the officials weren't calling 'em. Texas slowly crawled back into the game as ISU became a "stand and dribble" team. By half time the lead was five, but I still felt like we were right there. When you looked at the stats several things jumped out at you. On the plus side, iSU was dominating the boards by a 2:1 margin. OK...that was about the only plus at halftime. On the down side we had committed 11 turnovers and only made it to the line twice. After the early flurry which saw us hit four treys, the team didn't make another the rest of the half. Joens was sitting with four points at the first half buzzer. Clearly there were several things not going right.
The third quarter sure dashed those thoughts of being in this thing. After an early flurry that saw ISU score a quick 8 points, the guns went silent and Texas slowly built their lead to nearly 20 points. They kept abusing us like a poor step sibling and we stood there and took it. The quarter was nearly as ugly as the pasting the sisters had put on TTech Friday. Not in the sense of being outscored as much, but the basketball we saw was like watching Marvin Hagler doing a beat down on Sugar Ray.
The fourth quarter saw some spurts and the ladies got the lead down to 10-11 points on several occasions, but just couldn't sustain anything. Just when you thought it was going to be single digits the Texas bigs would hit a nice soft shot to stretch the lead once more. I have to say, their bigs could shoot the ball. With only about 4 minutes left in the game the ladies started to make a move. The lead would sink to single digits. It would go back and forth with Texas missing some free throws. But in the end time ran out as the game ended with Texas up by six. Final 81-75.
So, what went well in this slugfest?
Kristen Scott - She looks like she is 100% after her early back troubles. She battled inside like an agile lightweight against the Texas behemoths. How about 24 points and 14 rebounds. Yes, that is all Big-12 caliber basketball.
Maggie - While she didn't shoot well, I love the fact that she is fearless. She wasn't afraid to put up shots at critical times. She drove the basket. Just a solid game from her.
Jade Thurman - She brought a major spark of life to the team. Her biggest liability is still turnovers (only two tonight) and she's not a shooter. But she is pesky on defense and she puts this team in another gear when she is in.
Battling underneath - boy...our ladies really got tough underneath the basket. While UT closed the rebounding gap in the third, the ladies were going tooth and nail after balls and were really tough about it. The final 42-28 margin is indicative of this as they also had 13 offensive boards.
What didn't go so well?
Rae took a major step backwards in my opinion. She never was able to get the offense going...not the team's or her own. It seemed like she spent 80% of every possession just dribbling away. It def made me glad to see Jade come in. We need her to be an offensive presence and there was none of that tonight. Our best offense was when we attacked. Instead she was content to dribble, dribble, dribble...but you get the point.
Nez - not a lot of playing time tonight. Too many mistakes mishandling the ball and her defense is still a liability as she likes to swat at things. Any time you swat at things you will get called and she did.
Joens - I hate to list her here as she ended up with another double-double, but it seemed like it took here well into the second half before she made up her mind that she wasn't going to take the abuse anymore and really started battling. In the first half and third quarter, every time she touched the ball Texas would double and triple team her and play the game of a thousand swats. Once she got angry she started taking the game over. It was just too late.
Defense. There were several times on defense that it appeared we didn't know what we were doing. A big part of the UT comeback in the first half and what they did in the third quarter had to do with missed assignments. Essentially, leaving someone wide open.
Inbounds plays. This was another example of the players not seeming to know what the heck they were doing. We would be handed the ball and people would either stand where they were or would think they needed to set a screen for an imaginary player. No one would go for the ball. This happened multiple times. Weird.
Offense. While I realize the game was physical and that takes a toll, it seemed pretty obvious to me that most of the time we got aggressive driving the lane good things happened. Yet, we spent way too much time dribbling and standing waiting for the red sea to part on its own. Pretty ugly is being kind.
OK. So we know it wasn't pretty in any way shape or form. The ladies did battle back (one more quarter and we would have had them!). The defense needs to shore up as Texas shot nearly 50% on the night. The offense needs to be more aggressive. The big piece that the coaching staff needs to figure out is how to get the ladies to handle pressure/physical defense. Do they still scrimmage guys? If so, maybe they need to amp it up a bit more in practice? I sure don't know, but it's quite obvious the formula is one that every Big-12 team should use against the sisters. Until they solve it that strategy will continue to plague them throughout the season.
Next up...a tough road trip to OU. This is another weird team that has lost to some bad teams, lost to outstanding teams (UConn and Baylor) and beat some that make me nervous (Drake, #25 LSU). They will be tough at home. I suspect, again, it will come down to which ISU team shows up. The one with multiple scorers (a la TTech) or the one with two main players (Scott and Joens) and a limited supporting cast. Let's hope the first one.
