Photo by Matt Sachs, TexAgs
Texas A&M Women's Basketball
* Didn’t think the team would be 4-3 coming into this weekend. The team has lost three one-possession games in conference. The team needs to play better down the stretch and not put themselves in the position of it coming down to the last possession of the game.
* The team responded well in the film room on Thursday after taking Wednesday off, and will work out each day heading into Sunday’s game against Iowa State.
* This weekend is the start of a crucial stretch of games. The team plays against Iowa State on Sunday, goes to Lubbock to face Texas Tech on Wednesday and then comes home to play Kansas next Saturday.
* It’s good to be playing Iowa State this weekend because the team will see 40 minutes of zone defense. After seeing the zone four out of the last five games, the team has been able to work on their zone offense and should be ready from an offensive standpoint on Sunday. Kelsey Bone and Karla Gilbert need to pick things up on the offensive glass against the zone because sometimes it’s hard to get the ball inside to them.
* When the team beat Iowa State, it dropped their record to 0-5. After that game, they made a pact to never let that happen again. The next game, they went into Austin and lost in the last seconds of play and started feeling good about themselves. They were then able to go home and beat a top-20 Texas Tech team on national television, then go to Kansas State and win after being down nine at the half. They are coming into Reed fired up knowing that they have won three games in a row.
* What the team needs to do is take care of A&M. They know what Iowa State is going to do, but they need to play their game instead of the Cyclones. Hopefully the crowd will make a big difference in the game. They need them there early for the 1:00 p.m. tip.
* Against Oklahoma State this past week, the team lost the game because of turnovers. The way the team plays, you expect to see the other team to turn it over more than they do. Against the zone, if you turn it over 26 times, that’s worse than the 28 turnovers that OSU gave up against the press and man-to-man defenses. There was no excuse for the three three-second counts and the other mistakes made by the team. OSU played well and is sitting at 4-3, tied with Oklahoma, A&M and Kansas State. A&M needs to start gaining separation in order to get up to the second and third spot in the conference by themselves. To do that, the team needs to play better and hit some outside shots if they don’t see anything but zone defense. The team is not getting the transition baskets that it has in the past years without Sydney Colson at the point.
* It’s a surprise that the open outside looks aren’t falling like he thought they would. One reason is there is not a Danielle Adams on this team who can play inside or out and open up the court. Last year the shots were more wide open than they are now because the team was able to spread the floor and open up the court. In order to fix that, the team needs to work on taking better shots. They can't settle early in the shot clock because they are sort of open. One of the things the team works on in practice is not taking an outside shot until someone in the post touches the ball. Once the post touches it, the defense caves in and you are able to make the outlet pass to the open shooter.
* The next few games are must wins for this team. Getting to 6-3 or 7-3 is very important when you have Baylor twice in the back half of the conference season.
* Iowa State is hosting their own sub-regional for the NCAA tournament this year, as is A&M. Coach Bill Fennelly has them playing well again and rightfully so, since they were picked to finish in the top four or five in the conference. Coach Fennelly has been going through adversity himself. He has a form of throat cancer that makes him unable to inflect his voice. When the team played in Ames, there were 11,500 people there. It will be a nice day on Sunday, and there is no reason that there shouldn’t be a good crowd at Reed.
Talkin' Hoops with Gary Blair
Notes from Gary Blair Interview
* Wants to volunteer for the Tuesday starting pitching job for Coach Childress. He can throw, but not as hard as he once could. Thinks he could throw better than he hit the last couple years while making guest appearances with the Brazos Valley Bombers.* Didn’t think the team would be 4-3 coming into this weekend. The team has lost three one-possession games in conference. The team needs to play better down the stretch and not put themselves in the position of it coming down to the last possession of the game.
* The team responded well in the film room on Thursday after taking Wednesday off, and will work out each day heading into Sunday’s game against Iowa State.
* This weekend is the start of a crucial stretch of games. The team plays against Iowa State on Sunday, goes to Lubbock to face Texas Tech on Wednesday and then comes home to play Kansas next Saturday.
* It’s good to be playing Iowa State this weekend because the team will see 40 minutes of zone defense. After seeing the zone four out of the last five games, the team has been able to work on their zone offense and should be ready from an offensive standpoint on Sunday. Kelsey Bone and Karla Gilbert need to pick things up on the offensive glass against the zone because sometimes it’s hard to get the ball inside to them.
* When the team beat Iowa State, it dropped their record to 0-5. After that game, they made a pact to never let that happen again. The next game, they went into Austin and lost in the last seconds of play and started feeling good about themselves. They were then able to go home and beat a top-20 Texas Tech team on national television, then go to Kansas State and win after being down nine at the half. They are coming into Reed fired up knowing that they have won three games in a row.
* What the team needs to do is take care of A&M. They know what Iowa State is going to do, but they need to play their game instead of the Cyclones. Hopefully the crowd will make a big difference in the game. They need them there early for the 1:00 p.m. tip.
* Against Oklahoma State this past week, the team lost the game because of turnovers. The way the team plays, you expect to see the other team to turn it over more than they do. Against the zone, if you turn it over 26 times, that’s worse than the 28 turnovers that OSU gave up against the press and man-to-man defenses. There was no excuse for the three three-second counts and the other mistakes made by the team. OSU played well and is sitting at 4-3, tied with Oklahoma, A&M and Kansas State. A&M needs to start gaining separation in order to get up to the second and third spot in the conference by themselves. To do that, the team needs to play better and hit some outside shots if they don’t see anything but zone defense. The team is not getting the transition baskets that it has in the past years without Sydney Colson at the point.
* It’s a surprise that the open outside looks aren’t falling like he thought they would. One reason is there is not a Danielle Adams on this team who can play inside or out and open up the court. Last year the shots were more wide open than they are now because the team was able to spread the floor and open up the court. In order to fix that, the team needs to work on taking better shots. They can't settle early in the shot clock because they are sort of open. One of the things the team works on in practice is not taking an outside shot until someone in the post touches the ball. Once the post touches it, the defense caves in and you are able to make the outlet pass to the open shooter.
* The next few games are must wins for this team. Getting to 6-3 or 7-3 is very important when you have Baylor twice in the back half of the conference season.
* Iowa State is hosting their own sub-regional for the NCAA tournament this year, as is A&M. Coach Bill Fennelly has them playing well again and rightfully so, since they were picked to finish in the top four or five in the conference. Coach Fennelly has been going through adversity himself. He has a form of throat cancer that makes him unable to inflect his voice. When the team played in Ames, there were 11,500 people there. It will be a nice day on Sunday, and there is no reason that there shouldn’t be a good crowd at Reed.
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