... please stand up?

Watched the Texas WBB team absolutely thrash the Missouri Tigers at Erwin Center this afternoon, courtesy of the miracle of Slingbox technology and my good buddy TempestHorn. This is the same Texas team that upset the OSU Cowgirls earlier in the week (a ranked, unbeaten-in-conference-play team) after losing a head-scratcher to Tech in Lubbock just last weekend - a team that was winless in conference to that point.

Texas has also lost to Nebraska and KSU (in in OT, the Horns' only home loss this season). KSU is undefeated in conference, and the Huskers are at 4-1, but neither of them are truly heavyweights this season, and Texas should have won both games.

It's impossible to tell how good this team is at this point in the season. But they are about to enter a brutal 10-game stretch to close out the year, in which they will play 7 games against ranked teams. With their current record (15-5, 3-3 in conference), Texas absolutely has to win the 3 games against the unranked teams (CU, Tech and Kansas) as well as hope for two upsets in the other 7 games. The only way this team makes it to the post-season for the first time in 3 years is with at least 20 wins overall and at least a .500 conference record.

Texas has exhibited stellar play in games against 3 ranked teams this season - DePaul, OSU, and Arizona State - but also were embarassed by Tennessee and upset by four unranked teams (the other loss was Virginia) - losses which tumbled the Horns from the rankings. Still very much a work in progress, this team. Learning a new system under a new coaching staff, getting used to enjoying playing the game again, and getting used to playing without a number of key players. In fact, several of the losses can likely be attributed to that - Cortijo was out for the losses to Nebraska and KSU and Williams was out for the Tech Loss. But in all Texas has not played up to the potential they showed at the start of the season, and as a result find themselves with every single game remaining an absolute must-win.

Tempest will hopefully comment on how the team has looked in the past two games, as he's been there in person. He and I both agreed that they looked lost and pitiful in the four games before that, in spite of the win over Iowa State. There is no doubting this team is voracious on D, but they still need a spark on the offensive end. Ashley Lindsay and Brittainey Raven have been fairly consistent, as well as Cortijo, but rarely all three in the same game. We'll need the three of them on fire - and a consistent 6th man effort from Kat Nash - to get that coveted invite to the Big Dance to break our drought.