First real test for WBB team this season

[tgcshock]

WSU women are on the road for the first time tonight and are facing a good UTSA team. The Roadrunners are the pre-season pick to win the Southland Conference's West division and are 2-0 having defeated their first two opponents by an average of over 25 ppg (including a Belmont team which went to the NCAA tournament last year).

The Shockers have played very good defense so far this year but UTSA is a potent offensive team. Shocks have a chance to make a statement about intensity and effort on the road.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks trailing 35-24 at the half to UTSA.

UTSA jumped out to a 9-2 lead. Shocks cut it to 9-8 then stayed within a couple of baskets until about the 5:00 minute mark when UTSA started warming up from 3-land to pull away.

Sounds like the Shockers are playing OK defense but their old nemesis turnovers have been a problem.

Daria Frazier with a dumb foul on a half-court desperation shot by UTSA to close out the half, but luckily UTSA hit only 1 of the 3 free throws.

Jacie Hoyt with 4 turnovers at the point. Total of 12 turnovers for the Shocks to only 4 assists.

Shocker Freshman Kerr (4), DeGarmo (3) and Smith (2) have contributed 9 of the Shockers 24 points.

Shocks have their work cut out for them. Need to improve on the 10-29 shooting and the turnovers in the 2nd half to have chance.

:goshocks:

[small tyme baller]

turnovers killing them once again... post players in foul trouble in the first half (marcy and alex)... need better shooting and handling of the ball

[tgcshock]

Shocks take a 1 point lead with about 4 minutes left.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks could only manage another 3 points after taking their 1st and only lead of the game at 57-56 with 4:20 remaining and fall 68-60.

Not a terrible performance by the Shocks. In fact, a very nice job coming back from 13 down on the road to take the lead. Hard to tell, but perhaps the defensive effort to make the comeback wore them down at the end of the game.

Kiki and Daria with pretty strong 2nd halves. Whitney Rice played most of the minutes at point in the 2nd half. Jacie is making too many turnovers and need to get that under control.

[tgcshock]

Given that this was a quality team and our first road game, not too bad an effort overall. Showed some grit in coming back from 13 down. Will be interested in looking at the box score on this one.

[small tyme baller]

Couldnt grab a defensive rebound to save their lives down the stretch... that hurt

great job coming back on the road down 13 to an explosive offensive team

someone needed to get pissed off enough to come out and stop york... how many times does she have to score before someone takes it personally and says she's not gonna score again?

had our chances but they can take some positives from this game. on the plane ride home... forget about it and start thinking about A&M

[1972Shocker]

Shocks did a good job defensively holding UTSA well below their shooting % they had in their 1st two games. However, UTSA did shoot 36 free throws and made 21 of them. They also won the boards 42-35.

UTSA Freshman point guard Whitney York used her quickness to torch the Shocks for 22 points.

Sounds like the Shocks had a little difficulty with the athleticism of UTSA.

Ratio of 8 assists to 21 turnovers for the Shocks needs to improve.

Nice second half performances by Kiki, Daria, Whitney and Marcy.

The tests continue in the Virgin Islands.

[shock20times]

replying to the comment about it being the first road game and playing pretty descent....

well that is really no excuse because they had the game and I believe that the Shockers beat themselves... And Jacie Hoyt having 6 turnovers with only 1 assist is unacceptable... It would help the team I think if they could find a point guard that can dribble a ball other than on their feet.. Taylor Stevens has put in 3 solid years and is getting the shaft.. yeah she may not be performing very well the past two games but look who she gets to play with, inexperienced freshmen..nothing against them because they contributed a lot last night but i was once there and they are streaky.. I feel that Jane Albright needs to find a solid 8-9 players to use the majority of the time so they can build chemistry instead of pullling the same crap like the past 2 years..Good luck in the Virgin Islands!!

[The Mad Hatter]

replying to the comment about it being the first road game and playing pretty descent....

well that is really no excuse because they had the game and I believe that the Shockers beat themselves... And Jacie Hoyt having 6 turnovers with only 1 assist is unacceptable... It would help the team I think if they could find a point guard that can dribble a ball other than on their feet.. Taylor Stevens has put in 3 solid years and is getting the shaft.. yeah she may not be performing very well the past two games but look who she gets to play with, inexperienced freshmen..nothing against them because they contributed a lot last night but i was once there and they are streaky.. I feel that Jane Albright needs to find a solid 8-9 players to use the majority of the time so they can build chemistry instead of pullling the same crap like the past 2 years..Good luck in the Virgin Islands!!

Jacie certainly had a poor game, but Taylor is not the answer at the starting point. I am a big fan of Taylor, but I think that she is better as a SG than as a PG, and she certainly got plenty of opportunity last year to run the point without a whole lot of success.

My feeling is that Taylor is solid at the point, but Jacie has the potential to be spectacular. If over an extended stretch Jacie continues to struggle, decisions will have to be made, but someone shouldn't lose their job for one or two bad games.

All in all, while there is certainly a lot of room for improvement, I think this game is an indication of good things. When you haven't been good, it takes time to beat quality teams, especially on the road. We still haven't learned how to finish those games, but putting yourself in a position where you have a legitimate shot to win those games at the end is the first step to becoming a good team.

[ictshockolate]

UTSA was 14-16 last yr. not exactly a good team. Granted they are picked to do better this year, but so were we last year. We lost and I dont see anything to get excited about. We have alot of upper-class players who have been around. If they cant win the games against these type of teams then it will be a very long year. Turn-overs and poor shooting, sounds familiar. Lack of inside game will make it a long, long year.

[WuDrWu]

Last year we lose that game by about 30.....minimum.

The ladies have made progress and hopefully will continue to but I do not believe they have the talent to overcome most of their deficiancies.

[tgcshock]

UTSA was 14-16 last yr. not exactly a good team. Granted they are picked to do better this year, but so were we last year. We lost and I dont see anything to get excited about. We have alot of upper-class players who have been around. If they cant win the games against these type of teams then it will be a very long year. Turn-overs and poor shooting, sounds familiar. Lack of inside game will make it a long, long year.

UTSA added a Big 12 transfer and a spectacular freshman. They are a good team. Thought this game was a small step forward overall for the Shocks.

[Snapshot9]

Well .... LOL, if you're turning the ball over, have poor shooting, and can not get rebounds, what else is there???? I mean, those things are the basics.

They have only had 1 good post player. Jane, do you know about that
8'4" tall Norweign woman??? Just fashion the team after Tennessee this year, I know you're following them.

[The Mad Hatter]

Well .... LOL, if you're turning the ball over, have poor shooting, and can not get rebounds, what else is there???? I mean, those things are the basics.

They have only had 1 good post player. Jane, do you know about that
8'4" tall Norweign woman??? Just fashion the team after Tennessee this year, I know you're following them.

Actually, the team shot 52% in the second half and only had 4 more TO's than UTSA. The thing that we definitely did well was play defense. UTSA has been a scoring machine this year and we limited to 37% shooting for the game.

As to the post players, really both Kiki and Marcy are already good posts and if you haven't seen Samantha Smith then you need to, because she is going to be awfully good.

I know that many have questioned the talent level of this team, but I don't buy it. We have a lot of girls who were awfully well regarded coming out of high school, so I think the talent is there. Injuries or illness have limited some of them (like Kiki, Daria, Whitney, and Jacie), but we have recruited well. I have said before that I think the problem was bad scouting by former assistant coaches. The other problem with the assistants that left is that they were too much like Jane in personality, which is only a problem because there was little variety in the coaching staff. We needed some assistants that are a little tougher to balance out Jane's more easy-going style. I think that both Mike and Kami are much better suited to do that than the previous assistants.

I think that there is a higher ceiling for this team than many believe. Learning to win consistently, especially on the road, is tough for teams that haven't been good, so I wouldn't count of reaching that ceiling, but I only see about 2-3 teams in the Valley that I would say are locks to finish in front of us if we play our best ball.