Five Thoughts: Texas A&M women's hoops' win over Central Arkansas

Here are five things that stood out during Texas A&M’s win over Central Arkansas.

Replacing Key Positions: The Aggies looked promising for their first game of the year, despite losing a third of their scoring from last year. In addition to scoring, A&M also lost Jordan Jones, who was a constant for the team and a catalyst on defense.

Curtyce Knox showed she could handle the point and run the offense. Something Curtyce adds is her driving ability. She is aggressive to the basket. If she learns to harness her driving ability, defenses will be forced to honor her, leaving somebody open. Curtyce showed she can handle the role, but Coach Blair still needs to find a suitable backup option.

Danni Williams had a good night and showed multiple facets of her game. She was scoring in transition, off of screens and her threes were falling. If A&M can is able to utilize her ability to come off the baseline screen like they did with Courtney Walker, then Williams might be able to be a consistent scorer for the Aggies. If Danni can become consistent at the three ball, it will open up so many options for Coach Blair and the A&M offense.

Defense: The Aggies started off slow on defense. It’s early in the season, and you can tell teams aren’t in game shape just yet. What stood out was Central Arkansas’ ability to get to the basket so easily, particularly early on. Luckily, Central Arkansas didn’t capitalize on their opportunities, but the Aggies need to tighten up on their on-ball defense and not allow teams to penetrate for easy layups or kick out opportunities.

Finishing: As a team, the Aggies had a hard time finishing at the rim. Seeing as A&M had a significant height advantage over Central Arkansas, they should have been efficient around the basket. This is a stat that is vital to A&M’s success if Coach Blair continues to run his offense through the post, which he’s done for the past few years. SEC teams are going to have much more size in their lineups, so A&M needs to get better at finishing.

Offense: A&M’s offense looked decent overall. Coach Blair still wants a fast-paced game and to score off turnovers and in transition. Once the Aggies got into their half-court offense, we saw it move through the post. This worked well when you had the perimeter players spaced out and available for kick-outs. The in-and-out game flowed nicely, and with a variety of players who can hit the jump shot, it can really be the bread and butter for this A&M team.

Overall: It was a good win for the Aggies to start the season. Coach Blair was able to test the waters with his bench and get some of his younger players some minutes. It seems that the five starters are set, and it will be interesting to see who steps up to help give the Aggies some depth. The Aggies started the season off on the right foot and will try to carry that over to Thursday night against Texas Tech.