Game Analysis
I don't know, you look at the stats comparison I did and UConn only has an advantage in two categories. Texas stats look so good UConn shouldn't even travel to the lone star state. Just stay in cold Connecticut and practice.
But as we all know, stats can be deceiving. And these certainly are. These stats are all a product of the teams Strength of Schedule, or SOS.
According to Massey, the Huskies are playing the second hardest schedule and boy does it feel that way.
Texas, on the other hand is playing the 134th hardest schedule. And they play 158th rated Oral Roberts on Wednesday. More stats feeding for the Longhorns.
One of the few stats that is not related to the SOS is free throw shooting. You are at the line 15 feet away and you shoot. And in a close game, the 61.5% for Texas might be a difference maker.
Ok, on to the analysis.
The Longhonrs have two great platers in 6'4" Taylor Jones and 5'6" Rori Harmon.
Jones is the leading scorer on the team at 16 PPG and is the leading rebounder at 6.4. Not very impressive but because of the blowouts that Texas has been playing she is only in the game for 18.1 MPG. Play her 25-30 minutes and those stats look totally different. She is just a tough matchup. She moves well and is tough in the post. Jones came in off the bench last year for 28 minutes, 10 points and 8 rebounds. She also had 3 blocks. And in her last outing she was 11-11 from the field for 27 points and 16 rebounds. She came off the bench last year against UConn scoring 10 points, snaring 8 rebounds and blocking 3 shots.
Harmon is the star of the team and was out with an injury in the game last year. I'm sure she is looking forward to playing the Huskies. She is the second leading scorer at 12 PPG and the best passer averaging almost 7 assists per game.
The rest of the starters are really good complimentory players.
6'1" freshman forward Madison Booker is a load. She plays like a guard but is so starong, she is hard to keep out of the paint. She is averaging 10.8 PPG and like almost every Texas player has a positive assist/turnover ratio.
Amina Muhammad, a 6'4" sophomore forward really compliments Taylor in the front court. They are a tough duo to defend. She is just one point short of double digit scoring averaging 9.9 PPG. She is second in rebounding behind Taylor at 6.6 RPG. A true inside player, she hasn't taken a three pointer but doesn't have to as she shoots 67% from the field. She came off the bench against UConn last season and scored 4 points and grabbed 3 rebounds.
The last starter is Shaylee Gonzales, a 6' guard that is in her second season at Texas after transferring from BYU. She led the team in scoring last season and is averaging 9.6 PPG this year. She is just a really smart player, seems to be in the right place and the right time throughout the game. Shaylee has a terrific assist/turnover ratio of 15/4. She had 7 points against UConn last season.
I'm not sure how much time the bench will get in this game. But they do have four players that have seen double digit minutes.
Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda is a 6'2" sophomore guard who gives Texas a big guard off the bench. She is averaging 7.5 PPG and does a great job getting to the foul line. Hopefully this is the last time I have to type her name. It's a mouthfull. She had a great game against UConn lst year with 13 points and hit her only three pointer.
Khadija Faye is the big off the bench for Texas. The 6'4" senior from Senegal actually started two games this year in place of Jones. She is shooting 54% from the field in scoring 7.3 PPG. Faye also adds 5.3 RPG and all in only 16 MPG. She only played 5 minutes in last year's matchup.
6' Senior guard Shay Bolle gets the most minutes off the bench at 24.7 MPG. She is another solid ball handler with 20 assists and only 10 turnovers. She has started 28 games in her career one of them against UConn last season. She scored 7 points in that game.
Three point specialist Gisella Maul is a 5'11" freshman guard. She is 3-18 on two point shots and 9-20 on three pointers. I'm not sure how much time she will see in this game. Not much is my guess.
Because of the long gap between games, I get a little time to put this together. I watched the entire Texas-Libery game as that was the most competative one where Vic limited his rotation to only 8 players. A much more realistic look on how they might play the Huskies.
One thing they do is pressure the inbounds pass after they make a basket. And when I say pressure I mean PRESSURE! It looked like they had 7 players on defense and made it really really difficult for Liberty to get the ball in without turning it over.
Interestingly enough, they drop the pressure once the ball is in so they don't give up any easy baskets. At that point they fall back into a pretty standard man-to-man defense.
This is another game where the opponent's height will be a problem. Texas has three players that are 6'4". They don't all play at the same time but there is usually two on the court at the same time. That means Griffin will be covering someone much bigger than her. We will probably see Brady and Edwards on the court together for several minutes.
I don't think we will see much full court pressure from the Huskies. Harmon is a very diffuclt player to press. And Texas is not a big three point shooting team. They only take around 12 per game. They love to drive to the basket off screens and Jones is a terrific post up player. She will be tough to stop.
UConn will have to feature Paige in this game like they featured Azzi in last years game where she scored 32 points. They might need a 30+ game from Bueckers. And I am excited to see Arnold take the next step in her UConn career. I expect her to play great in this game.
