Arkansas v Texas

[carolann]

I'm a nervous wreck and it's only lunch time. I hope the players nerves have been strengthened by the years of competition.

Per womenscollegehoops, "Nina needs to control India and Company and Stacey need to keep Christon off the boards...." Unusually observent comment about Nina. I don't remember seeing other print recognition of Nina's defensive abilities. Nina has a nice blend of strength and quickness. She will indeed be important if Arkansas has explosive guards who give us trouble. Tai Dillard, of course, is also an excellent perimeter defender. Jamie Carey is very good defender but is just shorter and not as quick. Besides, being able to share minutes among 3 to 4 guards at the one/two spots, helps keep the team strong down the stretch.

I don't know what to expect tonight. I haven't seen Arkansas play except for a few minutes on television in their win over LSU. I know they split the SEC series with LSU and also lost to Oklahoma St. My impression is that they have a couple of stars along with quite a bit of general talent and athleticism. Their record is rather up and down.

[Go Buffs]

Sounds like me yesterday, Carolann....they almost sent me home from work early because I was such a basket case all day. Good luck to your 'horns tonight!

[Bball Girl]

Dale8R can tell you more details about the LadyBacks this year. But from my following of them, they came out of the gate very strong, took Duke to OT, beat LSU (lost to OSU, lost to Auburn by 30pts & faltered during the heat of conference play. They made LSU work for the game during the SEC tourney, so they've proven they can play with the best.


When Christon is clicking, she's very hard to stop, she's very quick and she can shoot the 3. But she can get herself in foul trouble. Dana Cherry is also capable of having a big game and Ruby Vaden can do some damage. India Lewis has also been up and down this year...sometimes she's a deadly shooter and other times she can really be off.

They've been mightily inconsistent this year but they are a team like UNM that can go off and have a big game.

I'm glad it starts early, so those of us going to other games get to see some of it. I expect Texas to win.

[Bball Girl]

What Carolann didn't include (just teasing here) is WCH.com's prediction on the score Texas 73-70.

Course WCH has missed a bunch and I can't decide if these folks really know what they're talking about or not. But like UNM...Arkansas is searching for some recognition too, so I'd love to see them give the Texas a run for their money. But my prediction is that Stephens will be way too much for them.

[carolann]

I'll take 73-70 as long as Texas is the one scoring 73! What worries me is how many predictions womenscollegehoops got wrong for yesterday!

[Dale8R]

I haven't got time to say much, but since the big win over LSU, they have struggled most of the time. In fact if you look at their schedule ~~ http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaw/teams/aas/schedule you can see that after the 16-2 start, they have won only 6 of the last 14 ~~ not good.

Those first two losses were the two pointer to Duke and the two pointer to Oklahoma State. the first should be considered a good effort. I guess the OSU loss can just be chalked up to "that is the way it goes with OSU" and let it go at that.

I have HEARD that for a time there, some of the players were doing some rather individualistic playing. Can't confirm that, though.

They ARE deep. Blair can have someone buried on the bench, then all of a sudden drag them out and they put on a show. Shanna Harmon is on of those. My favorite is another who can start, come in and do the job, or stay on the bench the biggest share of the game, freshman Sarah Pfeifer, formerly of the Ozark, Arkansas Hillbillies. (I am not making that one up)

Those of you who caught those few minutes the Arkansas game was on, saw her do some good things ~~ three tough rebounds, and four clutch freethrows down the stretch. That was her first action since before the SEC tournament. She separated her shoulder in practice that week. Earlier in the season she played with a mask because of a broken nose. Tough hardly describes the girl. I could talk a good while about what the girl does ~~ and can do, but I'll have to save it for another time.

Sorry this isn't a better report. Besides, I wouldn't want you Texans to carry all the good scouting info to the game!!

Edited to correct careless spelling and to mention Rochelle Vaughn, another of the great Freshman class. Look out for her, too.

Dang, more spelling errors. Oh, and I bet I didn't mention that Sarah Pfeifer is a 4.0 student, did I?

[This message has been edited by Dale8R (edited 03-25-2003).]

[This message has been edited by Dale8R (edited 03-25-2003).]

[Bball Girl]

Not to be too cliche here...

But this time of year, it comes down to what team is willing to work and play their butts off to win and what teams expect it handed to them 'cause they're a higher seed or whatever.

UNM and CU came out and played with everything they had from the get go and by the time MSU and UNC had figured out what was happening.... That's desire and heart and work...you can't measure that, it just is!

Let's hope all teams come out and play that way tonight!