KSU vs. TTU

[Bball Girl]

I'm curious to know what the rest of you think are the keys to this game.

One advantage that I see for Tech is their conditioning and depth. The KSU starters are averaging a lot of minutes for young players and that's got to take a toll. But they have a strong excited homecourt and a well proven record. They also have a "nothing to lose" luxury (perhaps the wrong word)...no one expected this kind of success from this team and while the expectations are rising...they appear to be doing a good job of handling the growing pressure and having a good time. They have a great coaching staff who are preparing them very well for every game.

Tech's had their struggles this year as shown by the OSU game. Perkins has to stay out of foul trouble! But they're gaining confidence every game and maturing as a team. Coach Sharp and staff have been pulling out some interesting tricks this season. The folks over on the Raiderpower board griped last year about the same players starting, the same plays, and the same strategies. They certainly can't complain about that this year. She really seems to be enjoying the challenge of being able to start different players, use different rotations and different strengths depending on the other team.

WCM.com says
Texas Tech at Kansas State- Dangerous game for Wildcats as TT has back to the wall at 4-3 in Big 12 but will be favored in next 8 games after this. Coach Sharp knows a loss and top 3 Big 12 finish is history. KSU recovered from upset at hands of OSU (hey, it had to happen sometime), but Kansas game was still too close. Raider defense will make KSU guards work real hard and Wildcats better not give up too much in transition. A tentative nod to KSU 78-73.

...your thoughts

[RaiderPower1]

The LR will definately have to control the flow of the game to have a chance to win, and I think that if Tech runs they might have an advantage. Turnovers will be key to a Texas Tech victory. KSU certainly has shown that they can win big games, but I think that their youth and minutes played will begin (and already has begun) to take a toll on them. The 13,000 will definately be there to fluster Tech, but Tech wil have their own loud 50 on the road to show support. IMO, the last 10 minutes of the game will determine the winner because it will be whoever is fresher. If Tech plays a stiff man to man and gets "in their face" for most of the game then I think that since KSU's bench isn't as productive on offense, Tech can keep running girls at KSU and wear them down. The key to the game will be containing KSU's Koehn and Ohlde. Tech's bench will also be key and the LR must use their quickness in trasition to beat KSU. As it has been for most of the season for the LR, they need to have good games from Perkins, Tarr, and Ritchie to have a chance to win. All three have stepped up when Marsha calls on them to produce the points against a zone. I don't see why it can't happen again. Go Lady Raiders!!

[KSUron]

Well I'm not to much into predictions although I did have some fun with Chipper. It was just an opportunity I could not pass up. He writes well and knows a lot about the game.

I will say this: I think Nicole Ohlde and Kendra Wecker have an advantage over Cisti Greenwalt and Tanisha Ellison. I see Amber Tarr and Meghan Mahoney as a good match. Jia Perkins and Candi white vs Laurie Koehn and Kristin Rethman I see as an edge to KSU. Laurie was almost trying to hard in the last game in my view, and that could be a problem if it continues into this game. Jia perkins is just a great player so you know she will find a way to make good things happen for TTU.

Natalie Richie is not listed as a probable starter but I really like her game and ditto Jolee Ayers. I expect we will see a lot of them. For KSU, Coach Patterson has started to use last years starting point Shalondra Booker more. I think we may see her on the floor to defend Jia. She can be a defensive deamon when the matchup favors her speed and tenacity. She presents different problems to the opposing offense and can frustrate shooters. I expect we will also see Brie Madden a fair amount. Her game is improving nicely and she usually contributes well when she is on the floor. Again she gives Patterson an option of using a different style player than Wecker or Mahoney.

I don't know what will happen but if forced to chose I think KSU will win this game.

And did I remember to say that I was a Baylor Bear fan today! Good job Bears!!!

[This message has been edited by KSUron (edited 01-26-2002).]

[KSUron]

RaiderPower1, I hope the game does have track meet elements. I think that favors KSU. I know the prevailing wisdom is that KSU can be worn down but that remains to be proven, the Wildcats can run and they are in excellent shape. I do think that a run and gun game on Sunday does tend to work in favor of Texas on the following Wednesday however.

What has seemed to work more than the "wear them down" strategy has been the "bang on them" approach. That is more what worked for Nebraska than the waves of players off the bench. KSU does seem to be adjusting to that and its just one of many things the kids are going to have to deal with. Whatever happens in this game, the Big XII competition is making KSU a stronger team. If we had an easy time now the post season would be over real quick.

[dem]

The one noticeable vulnerability KSU showed in the Iowa State game was in handling pressure defense. Tech might be able to take advantage of that, although I expect that the freshmen have improved in that area by now. Also, Tech shooters will have to be hot because I think the match-up in the post clearly favors K-State. If both teams play well it should be a very close game.

[RaiderPower1]

The reason I was mentioning the wear them down was because that's what OSU basically did. KSU has seemed to have drouble against the tough man to man's of the league the past two games. KSU (I believe) never put KU away until late and KSU had some lapses in their defense as they alowed KU to shoot 50% in the one of the halves.

Cisti and Tanisha are overmatched by every team in the big xii so that can't necessarily be an advantage because Tech has proven that they can win without the offense of these two. Of course it's always an added bonus to the big three guards of Tech. Jolee is coming on nicely and should be a force down low. It'll be a good game, but if Tech can get any of the big four players of KSU into foul trouble then Tech just could take this one away. See you on TV! Go Lady Raiders!!

[KSUron]

I wish you could be in Bramlage RaiderPower. I'm really looking forward to this game.

[RaiderPower1]

Trust me! You wouldn't want me there! I have gone to one "away game" for Texas Tech and it was against UNM (whom we lost to). I could tell everyone around me was getting really mad at me for supporting my team so "loudly." http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/wink.gif It's fun to go to away games, but I get too stressed and the cardiologist told me to try to keep my stress down. I am not 80 year old either. I'm only 17! http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/cool.gif Go Lady Raiders!!

[snizave]

I'm very excited for this game. To me, it seems that neither team has much of an edge going into this game. It is pivotal for both teams. If TT loses, then they won't really have much of a chance to be seen as one of the elite teams of the league. If KSU loses, then it will begin to look as if their cinderella season isn't going to have a cinderella finish. It seems to me that lately KSU hasn't been able to have a game where they're hitting on all cylinders. The top 3 players are doing well, but it drops off too much after them. Mahoney and Rethman need to have some big games, and it'd be nice to see some of the bench players, especially Brie Madden and Chelsea Dominico, have a breakout game. I'm gonna be listening to the game this sunday and for the rest of the season on the net, cause i'm at my parents house getting ready to head to Europe to study this semester. I'm really gonna miss seeing the big games at Bramlage, but there's always next season, which will be even better! Go Cats!

[KSUron]

snizave, Its good to have you on the board. I don't think I've taken the oportunity to welcome you. Its good to have another purple person on the HoopScoop net. Our daughter had the chance to study for a semester in England and tour Europe by rail. She really enjoyed it. I hope you have a good experience. Take care!

[Bball Girl]

Whoever loses lost to a great team and a quality Big 12 advesary. Both teams have come up with some big wins this season and both teams have a lot on the line today. It's exciting to have a sold out game...I know the Lady Raiders are psyched. Coach Sharp had some nice words to say (as always) about the patience Coaches Patterson and Ethridge have demonstrated in hanging through some losing seasons and coming up with some wonderful recuiting.

Wish I could be there!

[metromaniac]

Looking forward to a great match-up. Can't wait to see the crowd and arena, full of screaming purple.

However, just have a feeling this is going to boil down to a team with history, heritage, and tradition needing to win and keep their chances alive versus a team of youth, on the rise, who has felt the sword slip between their armor and raise some doubts. The wonderful achievement of this season has far surpassed any prediciton.

The gelling and shaping of this "Sharper Image" will find a way to win. Wish it was already 2 this afternoon.

[RaiderPower1]

I am ready for this game too...man I am experiencing some major anxiety right now. Whatever the outcome, the winner will win by no more than 5 pts. and it'll be close till the end. Whoever runs out of time will lose the game because both teams are so great. Let's hope the KSU runs out of time. Go Lady Raiders!!

[swok34]

but will be favored in next 8 games after this

I'm not sure if they are talking about Kansas State or Texas Tech....no matter....

have they been paying close attention this year to the Big 12?

I wouldn't give any team "favored" status over this many games, not even OU, my homer team....

Looking forward to this game this afternoon, one should never be buried in work during basketball season; but somehow it has happened..... http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by swok34 (edited 01-27-2002).]

[ChipperF1]

AFC Championship Game? We don't need no AFC Championship Game!

Satellite locked in on a big game in Midtown Manhattan!

My pick to click for this game: Jia Perkins.
27 points, 11 assists, 5 steals. Bank it. http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/smile.gif

[snizave]

What a freaking game!! Of course, it's a bit sweeter on the KSU end, but a great game nonetheless. Nichole Ohlde took control in the second half and made all the difference. We also had 20 bench points compared to 17 for tech. Part of that was due to benching Rethman at the beginning of the game, as she ended up 4-5 on threes. It sure was fun to see Shalondra Booker come in for a few minutes and make a difference with Koehn on the bench with foul trouble. Jia Perkins was amazing, as expected, but i sorta felt like she was all that tech had. Play was a bit sloppy at times on both sides, but in the end, shooting 62% propelled the cats to a victory much closer than the final score indicated. Great game ladies! Beware Texas!

[Bobcat4956]

K State looked great. But I would not get too overconfident if I were you Snizave. Texas is a very young team too. And while I think at this point K-State is a better team, the Big 12 is big time and no breathers are allowed. Example - Oklahoma State. I will be at the game. If you all will notice, most of the times any of us starting pounding on our chests like Tarzan, we got slapped real hard. I have learned not to get too excited after a victory. Go Lady Horns!!!!!!!!!

[swok34]

Hasn't any problem that Kansas State has had come on the road...??
which would be pretty consistent with a young team and/or a young coach as evidenced by Baylor of last year.

What a great game this was........those KSU kids are great on their offensive spacing, I was impressed with their patience on offense.
Tough, tough kids....

[dem]

After watching today's game, I'd be willing to bet on Kansas State as the favorite to win the Big 12 championship next year -- if they don't win it this year first. And Ohlde for next year's player of the year -- if not this year too.

[elfdenmom]

Jia was wonderful! Unfortunately Tech cannont live by Jia alone. They still have to run their offense and get production from other players. Tech didn't. KSU did.

[Bob_Ballew]

KSU offense was incredible for such a young team. Their ball movement and movement without the ball is great. Ohlde really had a great game. Very keen sense of what is going on and where the open player is. She posts up better than anyone I've seen this year. Behind OU, they are the team to beat. They obviously can handle the pressure and I don't look for them to falter down the stretch. From reading the previous posts, it sounded like a bunch of folks thought they would fold. I don't think so after watching today's game. Just wish they would have come to Waco this year.

[KSUron]

This game was sweet! Nicole Ohlde day really turned out to be Nicole Ohlde day. She really rang up nice numbers for both my teams, KSU & Hoopla!. She had a lot of help however. I continue to be impressed by all the obvious KSU suspects, but also Megan Mahoney. What a tough young woman and what heart.

For those of you who are not KSU fans you may not know how fond we are of Shalondra Booker. That feisty little woman has a special place in our hearts. She plays full out at all times. She will make a mistake but then make a spectacular play. Her three pointer when Tech left her completly open was one of the sweetest moments of the game for us. You go girl!

Jia Perkins was great as expected. She and Lambert from Baylor are just incredibly good. Both of those kids took their teams on their backs and almost beat us. TTU did not get much of a break in the second half. The noise in Bramlage was high and I'm sure at times it made it hard to hear on offense. Even the 30 sec. clock count downs that the teams do must have been hard to hear.

The light has come on in my head that we are going to miss Kristin Rethman BIG TIME!

Texas Tech and Coach Sharp showed a lot of class today and I wish them well the rest of the way. What a great conference!!

[This message has been edited by KSUron (edited 01-28-2002).]

[ChipperF1]

AN EXCELLENT BALLGAME!!! All I can say is, Kansas State and Texas Tech made believers out of quite a few Big East snobs watching the game on the satellite with me. Both team represented themselves and the league with a lot of class and heart today.

My voice will say, my tongue will confess, Kansas State is the truth.
I was impressed with how this young team handled this games. Even when they made mistakes, they didn't stay down. This team kept after it, and it paid off. I felt down the stretch, when I though Texas Tech would make Kansas State lose composure, the opposite happened. KSU worked their game, TTU started getting off track, trying to force the action.
Nicole Ohlde last year was a good player, this year she's a first team all-leaguer, no question. And again, Kendra Wecker didn't disappoint. Again I will say it. KENDRA WECKER IS THE BEST FRESHMAN IN THE NATION.

On the Texas Tech side, still need some inside consistency. The parts are there to have a very good interior, they need the seat time to get good.
Once again, we see the genius that is Jia. Jia Perkins is one of my favorite players, and today I saw a greater maturity in her game. Today she reminded me of Sheryl Swoopes. She's not there yet, but she getting their fast. Like Deb Patterson said in her halftime interview, "Jia Perkins is quite a handful."

Competitive games every weekend? Two ranked teams going at it on consecutive days? WHAT A CONFERENCE!!!!

[metromaniac]

Mea Culpa to KSU from my post before the game----Great job----Just gotta wonder, how many games are you going to be 18-22 in the second half.

Better recalculate those attendance figures for the million fan march!!!!!!!! KSU is fillin' it up!!

[This message has been edited by metromaniac (edited 01-28-2002).]

[BigUtFan]

Originally posted by ChipperF1: Nice article with the exception of Wecker best Freshman in the nation. My vote goes to Schreiber or Bowers at UT.
AN EXCELLENT BALLGAME!!! All I can say is, Kansas State and Texas Tech made believers out of quite a few Big East snobs watching the game on the satellite with me. Both team represented themselves and the league with a lot of class and heart today.

My voice will say, my tongue will confess, Kansas State is the truth.
I was impressed with how this young team handled this games. Even when they made mistakes, they didn't stay down. This team kept after it, and it paid off. I felt down the stretch, when I though Texas Tech would make Kansas State lose composure, the opposite happened. KSU worked their game, TTU started getting off track, trying to force the action.
Nicole Ohlde last year was a good player, this year she's a first team all-leaguer, no question. And again, Kendra Wecker didn't disappoint. Again I will say it. KENDRA WECKER IS THE BEST FRESHMAN IN THE NATION.

On the Texas Tech side, still need some inside consistency. The parts are there to have a very good interior, they need the seat time to get good.
Once again, we see the genius that is Jia. Jia Perkins is one of my favorite players, and today I saw a greater maturity in her game. Today she reminded me of Sheryl Swoopes. She's not there yet, but she getting their fast. Like Deb Patterson said in her halftime interview, "Jia Perkins is quite a handful."

Competitive games every weekend? Two ranked teams going at it on consecutive days? WHAT A CONFERENCE!!!!

[swok34]

I heard a blurb during the game that said that all the Big 12 Coaches had been asked if they could take one player from Kansas State, who would it be?

Unanimously they took Nicole Ohlde, except Sherri Coale....who said she would take Kendra Wecker.....man, that girl can hit some tough shots.

[schooner2]

Originally posted by swok34:
Unanimously they took Nicole Ohlde, except Sherri Coale....who said she would take Kendra Wecker.....man, that girl can hit some tough shots.

Coach Coale was apparently rather disappointed that she was unable to convince Wecker to attend OU. She went all out to get Wecker and recruited her hard.

And OU was real close on Brie Madden as well. Too bad Madden went to KSU. She'll be stuck behind Ohlde for the next two years after this one. Madden would likely have received much more playing time at OU since the Sooners lack real height at the post.

[Jennifer]

THere was an article in Sundays' DMN about Brie Madden. I tried finding it on the internet, but haven't had luck yet.
It did mention that she was recruited by OU, but she wanted to be part of building the program at KSU.

As for best freshman in the country, I agree that it has to be Wecker. Sorry BigUTfan, Schreiber and Bowers don't even come close. Bowers has come on strong lately, but Wecker has been putting up numbers all season. Schreiber has great shooting touch, but seemed to be very very slow when I saw her play in Norman.

[Bobcat4956]

Jennifer, while I agree that Wecker is probably the best, the upside to Bowers it pretty scary. And Schreiber, I agree she is a bit slow. However, we will see how things progress next year. It doesn't always turn out like we think it will. Will be interesting no less. I am glad we have Bowers and Schreiber. I can tell you that for sure.

[grojc]

Bobcat,

UT Freshmen have a long tradition of sophmore slump or progressively contributing less as the years go by. But I don't think Heather will be in that category. She just has that look to her. She is a bit slow, but she has improved so much and that shot is just so natural. She'll be better every year. Kayla hasn't quite impressed me as much. I think she is actually slower than Heather. And she seems to want to be an offensive threat and hasn't worked on improving all her game as much.

Ever wonder if they read these posts and wonder who the hell we are? http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/wink.gif

[Jennifer]

Bobcat, I don't disagree with you there.
The same can be said for many of the great freshman in the Big 12 this year.

[Bobcat4956]

At first I would have agreed with you about Kayla being slower than Heather. However, lately Bowers seems the quicker of the two. Of course, as many of you know, I criticized Coach Conradt earlier in the year of our plugging along offense. I have backed off somewhat. We are 6 and 2 at the halfway point, so I had to back off some. However, I would love to see Heather at the 4 position and Kayla at the 3. Most 4 players could not guard Heather and would definitely have to come out and get her. But, of course, I am not the coach so we will just see what happens. And I do agree that Texas freshman have declined sometimes as the years go by. For instance, Alisha Sare. Still don't understand it. I, however, will reserve my final judgment til the end of the year.