Let's do this! Really excited for the game today.
I do feel sorry for Rory Harmon (out for season with ACL) and Taylor Jones (out for undetermined time with hip injury). They are wonderful players, and injuries are an unfortunate consequence of sports.
I do not feel sorry for Vic and the Texas program, because going into this season they knew their biggest need was a backup PG for Harmon, but they didn't fix the problem.
Including Jones and excluding Harmon, UT has a primary rotation of 9 players, with Shaylee Gonzales at 5'10" the only player under 6'0". Their rotation is stocked with wave after wave of Forwards and Posts between 6'1" and 6'4". They are big, they are physical.
How will UT handle PG duties? They have a budding superstar in Freshman Madison Booker, who is most naturally a SF, but moved to PG last week with Harmon out. Appears their approach will be to use Booker, Gonzales, and Shay Holle as primary backcourt, which is not a group with great speed or elite ballhandling ability. Gonzales still wears a knee brace which seems to slow her a half step, and Booker is a more of a strong, sturdy body at 6'1".
This leads to a fascinating matchup today. UT will have a clear advantage in size and physicality. It will benefit us greatly if Blackwell is available, because she is perhaps our most physical interior player, and there will probably be a lot of pushing and bumping in the paint today. If Aijha can't go, we'll probably need solid minutes from Bartley; Lety and Kyla haven't shown enough thus far to give confidence they can compete with Jones, Faye, Muhammad, Moore, or Gaston. Baylor will have a clear advantage in speed and ballhandling ability, especially on the perimeter. They don't have anybody who can stay on stride with Andrews, Walker, or Felder.
Possible keys to the game for us?
1) Turnovers. Might we be able to take advantage of our perimeter quickness, and their lack of PG ballhandling experience, to gain a turnover advantage? Might we use our bench depth to apply more pressure?
2) Edwards, Buggs, Fontleroy must stay out of foul trouble. We desperately need their length and rebounding ability on the floor.
3) Ball movement. We have evolved into a team that moves the ball in the halfcourt very well. Without Harmon on the floor, might we be able to create open looks with our perimeter quickness and ball movement?
4) Three point shooting. With their size and physicality, we won't get as many open driving lanes as normal, nor as many offensive rebounds. Consider these UT stats; they have a +15 average rebounding margin this year, and they only give up 5.9 second chance points per game. We need to hit a good percentage of our 3 point shots, because we won't get a lot of clean interior looks, and won't get a lot of second chance oppportunities.
5) Interior defense. UT leads opponents in paint points 614-308 this year. They average a modest 5 made 3 point shots per game, and that may reduce with Harmon out. They will relentlessly pound the ball inside to their bigs, and try to take advantage of their size advantage. Will we respond with any adjustments, or merely execute our team defensive concepts?
Expecting a low scoring game with lots of physicality and emotion. Let's go!
