Texas is the real deal!

by patienthornsfan on Dec 14, 2008 4:00 PM CST Comment 12 comments

The Texas womens' basketball team was undefeated going into today's matchup with perennial power (and annual litmus test) Tennessee, and ranked 6th and 9th in the two major polls. Although they have faced a couple of decent teams in their first eight games, none of them were of a caliber that would allow us to judge whether the Horns were really a top 10 team. Well the Horns took the best the Vols had and prevailed. This team - without any real "stars" in the current sports sense of the word - is back where it belongs at the top of the rankings. And I think most fans of this program would agree that this kind of success is probably a year ahead of what we all expected.

Despite an abysmal day for the second-best athlete on the team (Erika finished 0 for 9 with only 2 points from the charity stripe) Texas secured a comfortable 73-59 win over the #10 Vols. Brittainey Raven picked up the slack, and continued her breakout junior season with 21 points. Three other Horns finished in double figures, while Texas's stifling defense shut down all but two of the star-studded Tennessee roster.

Great team effort by a group of girls that clearly have the team chemistry thing down already. Bodes well for conference play.

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Abysmal Aarian

If she is our second best player we really are in trouble.

Both of our posts played well.

Nash filled it up from the outside.

Cortejo ran the point well and her subs were adequate.

Williams looked good except for fouls.

Of course Raven was the best player in the house.

Tenn with all those frosh will get better.If we see them again it will probably be late in the NCAAs.

by TCB Orange Dino on Dec 14, 2008 4:42 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

well...

believe it or not Erika is our best pure shooter, but it clearly wasn’t demonstrated today. It says a lot that our best pure shooter scored 2 points and we still won by double digits. I thought Erika forced too many shots early in the game and that got in her head. She got some much better looks in the flow of the offense in the 2nd half but they rattled out.

by TempestHorn on Dec 14, 2008 10:40 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

caught the second half of this

Girls look great. I still can’t believe we got Coach G outta Duke. Well done by the AD.

by jc25 on Dec 14, 2008 7:11 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

NCCA tournaments

we have a shot at winning both tournaments this year (women’s and men’s) this year especially men’s. We’re definiltely gonna win the Big XII in both.

by castorinho on Dec 14, 2008 8:19 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Winning the Big 12 Women's Basketball Race

3 of the 6 south division teams in the Top 10, 5 of 6 in the top 25 and the unranked south squad is Texas Tech. That means a southern division team has 9 games against the Top 25 for conference play (the south teams twice plus k-state) K-State has only 5 games against Top 25 caliber competion because they are the only ranked team in the north. That is going to be a huge advantage for them.

by TempestHorn on Dec 14, 2008 10:46 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

The ladies get serious BCS points in the computers with that SOS...right?

proud to swim home

by learned hand on Dec 14, 2008 10:49 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs

NO BCS!!!

Thank God for no BCS, but it will provide a huge boost to RPI which determines seeds. I’d expect the Big 12 teams to be seeded very well come March, hopefully the teams that finish in the Top 4 in the Big 12 standings can all go to different regionals. We can have a shot at an All Big 12 final four. And before someone calls me out, I know UCONN will not let that happen. But maybe we can get 3 of 4.

by TempestHorn on Dec 15, 2008 6:18 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Winning with defense

Texas held Tennessee to 33 percent shooting, forced 18 turnovers and dominated the rebounding 52-41, including 19 offensive boards that led to 17 second-chance points.

Another Game Recap

Still a Blaine Irby fan

by patienthornsfan on Dec 15, 2008 3:02 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

And the reward is...

Texas moves up to #5 in the AP poll, leapfrogging the Land Thieves.

Latest Poll

Still a Blaine Irby fan

by patienthornsfan on Dec 15, 2008 2:51 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Here's why this win mattered

• While Summitt is operating a dynasty, Goestenkors is trying to build something here. The tradition is strong but tradition can only take you so far. New wins outnumber old wins in the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world of college athletics and a win over the defending national champs looks good on the ledger. Plus, saying you beat an eight-time national champ carries some weight in the living rooms of big-time recruits, like 6-foot-5-inch Fort Bend Dulles post Kelsey Bone, a beast of a player who has Texas on her short list.

• The current crop of Texas players hasn’t won anything, and this was an important step in the maturing process. When the time comes for tourney seeding by the NCAA committee, a win over Tennessee will shine favorably upon the Longhorns, because the team they beat will have improved drastically by the time March rolls around.

• Texas will probably go only far as Brittainey Raven and Carla Cortijo carry the team. Texas’ two most important players lived up to their leadership responsibilities in a marquee game, and that can only help their confidence when the tougher games roll around.

Golden’s Column

This was also important because it’s the last major test for the Horns before conference play. A ranked Arizona State team visits this week, but they have lost to the two decent teams (OU, Florida) they’ve faced this season. In fact, Texas could very well be 17-0 and in the Top 3 by the time they travel to Norman for their next real test on January 25th.

Texas will have plenty of opportunities for marquee, resume-building wins in conference play, since aTm, OU, Baylor, OSU and KSU are all ranked this year. This team has a chance to over-achieve on the level of the football team, with a couple of lucky breaks in their games in Norman, B/CS and Waco. As soon as the Gazelles finish their run in Omaha (hopefully by lifting the trophy) I will start obsessing about the female denizes of the Erwin Center and torturing my fellow BON’ers with regular posts on their progress. Ably assisted (and corrected) by Tempest no doubt, since he actually gets to see the girls in action.

Still a Blaine Irby fan

by patienthornsfan on Dec 16, 2008 5:45 AM CST reply actions 0 recs