There were lots of conversations about this game leading up to tip off. Would Iowa State be the team to strike and put its opponent on its heels? How would the sisters handle the quickness, height and depth of Texas? Would Texas struggle as they did in the second half against KSU? How would the sisters respond?
When the game tipped off one thing was apparent - Texas was going to be physical. The teams actually traded buckets early, but something unusual happened. There was a combination of our missing open looks and Texas being the team that, quite literally, smacked us across the face first. What was unusual was the ladies flinched. And when they flinched Texas just applied more physical play as they looked to find out what the officials would let them get away with.
I could go into all the bloody details, but what we saw in the first quarter was a buzzsaw. When we had the ball our ladies were pushed, shoved, hacked and beaten leading to forced and unforced turnovers. We never got into any kind of rhythm. When open looks were found whether inside or out the shots didn't fall. When Texas had the ball they attacked. Well, mostly Madison Booker attacked. She used her height and size advantage over our smaller guard court and found relatively easy looks. Folks, this girl was freshman of the year for a reason. She has a sweet shot and she was hitting everything she put up early. The result was our helplessly watching Texas pull away as the sisters struggled to get absolutely anything going. Turnovers mounted. Misses added up. And Texas just kept on rolling. By the end of the first quarter it was 19-10 and it felt like a mountain instead of only 9 points. Then the second quarter started...
The last six minutes of the first and the beginning of the second quarter was where the game this game was lost. Nothing was happening on the Cyclone end of business and Texas just kept doing what it was doing - beating us up and scoring. The ladies went several minutes (over ten) without a hint of a score as the point differential quickly mounted. Only a late surge kept the quarter from being a complete disaster. But by halftime the sisters were down 40-21. It was just that ugly. The halftime conversation was simple. Would the second half be about pride? Would there be adjustments that would help matters? Or would it just get worse?
Fortunately, what we did see in the second half was a team that fought back. Texas fans might say that they were under no pressure which made it easier to play in the 3rd and 4th. They would be wrong. There was a reason that Vic left his starters in the game right until the very last minute - They couldn't let up or things would get out of hand. Our ladies came back out and some things got rolling. One of those was Audi Crooks. Our superstar frosh showed that she was every bit the outstanding freshman that Booker was. And Booker didn't have to deal with three bigs constantly pushing and pounding on her back. Yes, we still turned the ball over. Yes, Texas seemed to answer our pushes. But I was impressed that such a big lead was slowly hacked and trimmed down to only 12 points at one time. The ladies just couldn't get over the top. As I mentioned in the game feed, I don't like to blame losses on the officials. But this time...the game seemed like it was 8 on 5 and we were on the shallow end. Just as ISU was making a push and could get the score under ten points there were some critical calls that exemplified the entire game. One, Ryan was dribbling the ball up the court and was being severely impeded by the Texas defender. Ryan deserves freedom of movement according to the rules. But the defender was on her like a second skin and...the officials called Ryan for an offensive foul. In another, Booker had the ball and made a move inside to try and hit her deadly 10 foot jumper. AJ was guarding her closely and Booker sent her flying...yes flying...and the lead was pumped back up to 18 once again. The ladies never seemed to breach the 15 point margin after that. The fight was there, but they just couldn't get over the top. Texas went on to win 70-53.
Observations
I'll finish my rant on officials right here. I was honestly concerned in this game that we would see someone get hurt on our team. We had players being pummeled, pushed, knocked down and beaten and it was allowed all game. Sure, there was a flurry of fouls called LATE in the game, but there was much worse happening earlier that wasn't called. The officials were inconsistent, didn't apply the rules and were incredibly one sided. This led to a post game discussion that essentially came down to one comment - if Texas is allowed to play Texas ball (beat the crap out of you) they will usually win. BUT, we also felt that if they run into a team that is just as or more physical than they are (i.e. LSU or South Carolina) they will fold.
As for our team? I saw in the second half what we always see - resilience. Our pre-game video says "never give up." These ladies don't. At the half, after experiencing such a pounding in the second quarter, could have raised the white flag. Things could have gotten worse. But no, the ladies came out with determination and took it to Texas. It would be easy for a Texas homer to say that UT felt no pressure in the second half because they were so far ahead. It was far from it. The sisters gave as good as they took and nearly overcame. But it just wasn't to be. Is Texas a good team? Undeniable. It would be interesting to see how good they could be without having to resort to such physical play.
POG - no doubt on this one. Audi Crooks played like an experienced senior in the second half. She never lost her cool throughout the game, but you could tell in the second half she'd had enough of being pushed around. She fought hard and she was physical. I saw one poster mention she had a flagrant II that wasn't called. Pffft!!! Considering how this game was called anything she did was clearly inbounds. She ended up scoring 25 points, had 9 boards, 2 steals and 3 turnovers. She was also named to the All - Tournament team. Quite an accomplishment for her. She truly belonged.
Ryan - Our floor general hits me at so many levels. I listen to her speak about this team and she makes me proud that (a) she is a Cyclone and (b) that she is guiding this group. Was a particularly tough outing for her as she netted 7 points, 4 boards, 8 assists but a whopping 9 turnovers. I'd say about 1/2 of those were mistakes on her part. The other half? We know.
AJ - wow...she had to guard Booker quite a bit and the size differential was huge. She was pushed, shoved, stomped on and she still got up and stood her ground. She is one pesky defender. Every time she came to the bench she just had a determined look on her face. Scored 5 and had one board.
Belanger - Was our singular threat from outside and her short stature was a challenge against the taller Longhorns. Hit three of her attempts and had 3 assists. Played very good defense along the way.
AB - Likely one of the most frustrating games she's ever had. I wonder if it was part of the UT gameplan to completely take her out of the equation. She couldn't score, turned the ball over and just had a tough time in every aspect of the game. Two points, 5 boards, 3 assists and 2 turnovers. The loss of her scoring...no the loss of her in every aspect of the game really hurt our chances. Learning experience for sure.
Natabou - never really got going in any way. Six minutes and one board. Never got a shot off.
Diew - was in long enough to miss one attempt at three and didn't see much action after.
Joens - my goodness. She doesn't always show up in the stat sheet, but wow does this woman work hard. EVERY single thing she does is full tilt. Only three points and two boards, but her defense made a difference as she was quick enough to keep up with the UT players. I really like her!
Bristow - This game seemed to be a shock to her. Seemed at times like she was out of place when on the court. Two points and 2 boards. Added her length in the middle in hopes of slowing down penetration. I'm going to have to re-watch to see how much difference it made.
Assists - 13 on 20 baskets. That ratio isn't bad, but woof - 20 baskets. Ryan was the principal distributor of these.
Rebounds - it may not have seemed like it, but while we lost this battle it was only by two. You'd have thought with all the misses we had it would have been worse.
Turnovers - the team AVERAGED over 20 turnovers per game through the tournament. OUCH. This is the one stat that has to be cleaned up prior to the dance. Especially when you consider Texas scored 23 points off turnovers. That's the ball game right there. Second chance points, something we controlled in the previous two games, also killed. It seemed whenever UT got an offensive board they scored.
If I told you the sisters shot over 45% for the game, was even on the boards, shot 50% from three and Audi had her usual 20+ you'd swear we would have won. But it was the shock and awe attack of the Longhorns that rattled the sisters cage in the first half. I can't remember the last time I saw an ISU team struggle to score over a ten minute period. It wasn't just UT, it was a team being completely out of sorts. But again...this team is a learning team. They will learn from this experience and that will make them even more dangerous when the dance arrives. That in and of itself is exciting. It wasn't too long ago we wondered if this team would win 14-15 games and here we are with a nice 20-11 record and looking at a mid range seed for the dance. More basketball!!
When the game tipped off one thing was apparent - Texas was going to be physical. The teams actually traded buckets early, but something unusual happened. There was a combination of our missing open looks and Texas being the team that, quite literally, smacked us across the face first. What was unusual was the ladies flinched. And when they flinched Texas just applied more physical play as they looked to find out what the officials would let them get away with.
I could go into all the bloody details, but what we saw in the first quarter was a buzzsaw. When we had the ball our ladies were pushed, shoved, hacked and beaten leading to forced and unforced turnovers. We never got into any kind of rhythm. When open looks were found whether inside or out the shots didn't fall. When Texas had the ball they attacked. Well, mostly Madison Booker attacked. She used her height and size advantage over our smaller guard court and found relatively easy looks. Folks, this girl was freshman of the year for a reason. She has a sweet shot and she was hitting everything she put up early. The result was our helplessly watching Texas pull away as the sisters struggled to get absolutely anything going. Turnovers mounted. Misses added up. And Texas just kept on rolling. By the end of the first quarter it was 19-10 and it felt like a mountain instead of only 9 points. Then the second quarter started...
The last six minutes of the first and the beginning of the second quarter was where the game this game was lost. Nothing was happening on the Cyclone end of business and Texas just kept doing what it was doing - beating us up and scoring. The ladies went several minutes (over ten) without a hint of a score as the point differential quickly mounted. Only a late surge kept the quarter from being a complete disaster. But by halftime the sisters were down 40-21. It was just that ugly. The halftime conversation was simple. Would the second half be about pride? Would there be adjustments that would help matters? Or would it just get worse?
Fortunately, what we did see in the second half was a team that fought back. Texas fans might say that they were under no pressure which made it easier to play in the 3rd and 4th. They would be wrong. There was a reason that Vic left his starters in the game right until the very last minute - They couldn't let up or things would get out of hand. Our ladies came back out and some things got rolling. One of those was Audi Crooks. Our superstar frosh showed that she was every bit the outstanding freshman that Booker was. And Booker didn't have to deal with three bigs constantly pushing and pounding on her back. Yes, we still turned the ball over. Yes, Texas seemed to answer our pushes. But I was impressed that such a big lead was slowly hacked and trimmed down to only 12 points at one time. The ladies just couldn't get over the top. As I mentioned in the game feed, I don't like to blame losses on the officials. But this time...the game seemed like it was 8 on 5 and we were on the shallow end. Just as ISU was making a push and could get the score under ten points there were some critical calls that exemplified the entire game. One, Ryan was dribbling the ball up the court and was being severely impeded by the Texas defender. Ryan deserves freedom of movement according to the rules. But the defender was on her like a second skin and...the officials called Ryan for an offensive foul. In another, Booker had the ball and made a move inside to try and hit her deadly 10 foot jumper. AJ was guarding her closely and Booker sent her flying...yes flying...and the lead was pumped back up to 18 once again. The ladies never seemed to breach the 15 point margin after that. The fight was there, but they just couldn't get over the top. Texas went on to win 70-53.
Observations
I'll finish my rant on officials right here. I was honestly concerned in this game that we would see someone get hurt on our team. We had players being pummeled, pushed, knocked down and beaten and it was allowed all game. Sure, there was a flurry of fouls called LATE in the game, but there was much worse happening earlier that wasn't called. The officials were inconsistent, didn't apply the rules and were incredibly one sided. This led to a post game discussion that essentially came down to one comment - if Texas is allowed to play Texas ball (beat the crap out of you) they will usually win. BUT, we also felt that if they run into a team that is just as or more physical than they are (i.e. LSU or South Carolina) they will fold.
As for our team? I saw in the second half what we always see - resilience. Our pre-game video says "never give up." These ladies don't. At the half, after experiencing such a pounding in the second quarter, could have raised the white flag. Things could have gotten worse. But no, the ladies came out with determination and took it to Texas. It would be easy for a Texas homer to say that UT felt no pressure in the second half because they were so far ahead. It was far from it. The sisters gave as good as they took and nearly overcame. But it just wasn't to be. Is Texas a good team? Undeniable. It would be interesting to see how good they could be without having to resort to such physical play.
POG - no doubt on this one. Audi Crooks played like an experienced senior in the second half. She never lost her cool throughout the game, but you could tell in the second half she'd had enough of being pushed around. She fought hard and she was physical. I saw one poster mention she had a flagrant II that wasn't called. Pffft!!! Considering how this game was called anything she did was clearly inbounds. She ended up scoring 25 points, had 9 boards, 2 steals and 3 turnovers. She was also named to the All - Tournament team. Quite an accomplishment for her. She truly belonged.
Ryan - Our floor general hits me at so many levels. I listen to her speak about this team and she makes me proud that (a) she is a Cyclone and (b) that she is guiding this group. Was a particularly tough outing for her as she netted 7 points, 4 boards, 8 assists but a whopping 9 turnovers. I'd say about 1/2 of those were mistakes on her part. The other half? We know.
AJ - wow...she had to guard Booker quite a bit and the size differential was huge. She was pushed, shoved, stomped on and she still got up and stood her ground. She is one pesky defender. Every time she came to the bench she just had a determined look on her face. Scored 5 and had one board.
Belanger - Was our singular threat from outside and her short stature was a challenge against the taller Longhorns. Hit three of her attempts and had 3 assists. Played very good defense along the way.
AB - Likely one of the most frustrating games she's ever had. I wonder if it was part of the UT gameplan to completely take her out of the equation. She couldn't score, turned the ball over and just had a tough time in every aspect of the game. Two points, 5 boards, 3 assists and 2 turnovers. The loss of her scoring...no the loss of her in every aspect of the game really hurt our chances. Learning experience for sure.
Natabou - never really got going in any way. Six minutes and one board. Never got a shot off.
Diew - was in long enough to miss one attempt at three and didn't see much action after.
Joens - my goodness. She doesn't always show up in the stat sheet, but wow does this woman work hard. EVERY single thing she does is full tilt. Only three points and two boards, but her defense made a difference as she was quick enough to keep up with the UT players. I really like her!
Bristow - This game seemed to be a shock to her. Seemed at times like she was out of place when on the court. Two points and 2 boards. Added her length in the middle in hopes of slowing down penetration. I'm going to have to re-watch to see how much difference it made.
Assists - 13 on 20 baskets. That ratio isn't bad, but woof - 20 baskets. Ryan was the principal distributor of these.
Rebounds - it may not have seemed like it, but while we lost this battle it was only by two. You'd have thought with all the misses we had it would have been worse.
Turnovers - the team AVERAGED over 20 turnovers per game through the tournament. OUCH. This is the one stat that has to be cleaned up prior to the dance. Especially when you consider Texas scored 23 points off turnovers. That's the ball game right there. Second chance points, something we controlled in the previous two games, also killed. It seemed whenever UT got an offensive board they scored.
If I told you the sisters shot over 45% for the game, was even on the boards, shot 50% from three and Audi had her usual 20+ you'd swear we would have won. But it was the shock and awe attack of the Longhorns that rattled the sisters cage in the first half. I can't remember the last time I saw an ISU team struggle to score over a ten minute period. It wasn't just UT, it was a team being completely out of sorts. But again...this team is a learning team. They will learn from this experience and that will make them even more dangerous when the dance arrives. That in and of itself is exciting. It wasn't too long ago we wondered if this team would win 14-15 games and here we are with a nice 20-11 record and looking at a mid range seed for the dance. More basketball!!
