Texas Preview

[AustinTXSooner]

I'll be at the OU-Texas game Thursday night and I was curious how Texas would handle not having Enemkpali in the lineup. Against Iowa State, it looks like they went with a 4 guard lineup. Their starters by minutes played:

33 5-11 Sanders
32 5-4 McCarty
22 6-5 Lang
19 5-9 Taylor
14 5-4 Henderson

Curiosly, no one has more than 3 fouls, so I'm not sure what happened with Lang, Taylor, and Henderson's minutes against Iowa State.

The reserves, by minutes played:

27 5-7 Davenport
17 5-11 Atkins
12 6-7. McGee-Stafford
11 5-8. Rodrigo
10 5-11 Jones
03 5-4. Foman

After Lang and McGee-Stafford, the only other 6-footers are:

6-4 Sara Hattis
6-1 Diani Akigbogun
6-4 Lilley Vander Zee

That means they played at least 6 minutes without a 6-footer on the floor against Iowa State.

With all the guard play, they were only 2-10 from 3-pt range. I would expect to see a little more zone than we normally play, since Texas may be incapable of discouraging a zone defense. On the season, only McCarty consistently shoots and hits the three.

Their top 5 3-pt shooters by attempts:

56 35.7% McCarty
53 28.3% Sanders
29 24.1% Henderson
22 31.8% Rodrigo
20 5.0% Davenport (that is not a typo, she's 1/20)

By comparison, our top 6 are:

81 35.8% Ortiz
65 24.6% Little
59 37.3% Kornet
48 33.3% Wyatt
32 40.6% Campbell
31 54.8% Carter

We're shooting free throws at 66.4%. Texas is 66.6%.

I think Sharane could have a good day. Normally, she's at a decent height disadvantage. Thursday, she won't be.

 

[sybarite]

My general impression of Texas is that they beat Stanford by dominating the interior against a team that had lost most of its size. It was a war of attrition to see who could keep some semblance of a team on the floor with the fouls being called. Something like three or four players fouled out, and a lot more were in jeopardy. Texas won some close games and had a solid interior.

I thought it was obvious that we feared their interior and did not respect their outside shooting. We took away the paint from Texas, despite the presence of Enempkali. She got most of the points in the paint late when we were shooting free throws and letting them score wherever. But, we had dominated points in the paint about 24-16 against them until about three minutes left, which was very much unlike Texas game plan early in the season.

In watching them recently, especially against Iowa State, it seems that Imani-Stafford is used sparingly. She is effective when in the game. Whatever the injury, it apparently restricts her time. Jones wasn't used a lot. Texas went with guards, and their guards are not big scorers. They were an inside team. I'm rather curious as to what we will see.

I think it was Tennessee that couldn't shoot free throws. Texas is not great. We weren't great in preseason. But, we are at 72.5% in conference play despite the fact that Vivi is yet to hit a free throw in conference play. We may actually be better inside than Texas with Enempkali gone.

I'm not sure what is going on with Texas. They seem to think they had injury problems at guard with Atkins and Taylor. But, they seem to be favoring Sanders and McCarty. I don't know what they will try to do. With all those guards, I wonder if they won't try to press and go on a guard attrition campaign.

 

[Sweetest OU Girl]

Jones worries me a bit. She was allowed to really shove and push with her body - in some cases even shoving an opponent out of bounds - without being called for fouling. Historically she has been a good 3 point shooter.

Their height - with Lang especially - also worries me some. KK sometimes has trouble with taller players.

 

[SoonerNorm]

Jones worries me a bit. She was allowed to really shove and push with her body - in some cases even shoving an opponent out of bounds - without being called for fouling. Historically she has been a good 3 point shooter.

Their height - with Lang especially - also worries me some. KK sometimes has trouble with taller players.

That is the thing I'm concerned about. If Kaylon isn't careful, she could get in foul trouble early. If we don't worry about their outside shooters who can't make threes and concentrate on stopping penetration and limit scoring in the paint, we should be fine.

 

[Oliver Hardy]

I don't think Texas is becoming a lights out 3-pt or perimeter team in the next four days.

The way Kay-Kay, Vivi and even Treece have played, I think we can hold our own in the middle. At least we have 15 fouls to give. LOL.

If they go 4-guard small, Sharane could really get it going this game. She'll out-rebound and out hustle anybody they have on her. She already whips girls regularly 3-6 inches taller than her. She should go to the foul line a lot too.

I think we may just go off on them really big this time.

My keys to the game are swarming and smothering on defense early, get them off balance, hit the boards big-time, get our perimeter game going and get some open looks and then simply just overpower them.

They may crumble if we do that.

Alternatively, if we come out with silly fouls, show an inability to break the zone (which they are definitely going to be in) and hitting only 35 percent or lower, it could be a very difficult night.

 

[Mac]

Would be nice if Mulkey, Cox, and Holmes are there.

 

[sybarite]

In game one, we had two fouls on:
Gioya 18:07
Sharane: 10:02
Nicole: 10:01
Kaylon: 8:02

Yet, we had a 31-28 halftime lead.
By the time anyone got their third foul, it was 41-31

Gioya: 13:53
Gioya: 4th 13:15
Kaylon: 13:12
Kaylon: 7:24 51-42
Sharane: 6:37
Gioya: 6:25 Fouled out 51-46
Sharane: 0:52 63-50
Kaylon: 0:42 65-52

We had 21 minutes from Kaylon, 24 from Sharane, and only 9 from Gioya. Yet, we shut their interior down, except for Enempkali.
Points in the paint OU 24 Texas 22 (we had 21 minutes out of Kaylon?)
Points off turnovers: OU 30 Texas 6
Fast break points: OU 6 Texas 0

From their posts, Texas got:
32 minutes Enempkali
A guard, Empress Davenport, did foul out.
25 Lang
14 Imani-Stafford
10 Jones