Was the commentator including the UConn game in that “string of cupcake blowouts”? Was the road game at Arizona also a “cupcake blowout”?
The biggest factor in the fatigue was the loss of Harmon (and to a lesser extent Jones) from the rotation. Booker was understandably exhausted by the end of the game with all the responsibility she was having to carry. Baylor deserves some credit for wearing out Texas with their defensive pressure.
Texas deserves credit in my book for their competitiveness. After going down by double digits early, they played Baylor on more than even terms the rest of the way. As I told my friend, Texas looked much better in this game than UConn did in the infamous Georgia Tech game under similar circumstances two years ago.
Huh? Why should I care about that? The commentator has a point. Is it the only factor? Who cares? The fact is they had 2 competitive games, one against a team hobbled by injuries, the other against Arizona. Their average margin of victory, not counting those 2 teams is ~43 pts/g. Check the minutes played in the blowouts and draw your own conclusion. Other than those two games, and an early season win over Liberty, Vic has been able to use his bench freely and his starters have not often played more than 20 mins/g. No wonder they looked tired when it was suddenly necessary for them to play 35+ minutes and under intense stress.
Texas totally deserves credit for their competitiveness in this game. That's also why it may be a bad sign for the rest of the season, at least until Jones and Moore can return to the lineup. They fought like hell, and it took everything they had to keep it this close. And it was a really good game to watch. Very competitive.
I would never say that Texas isn't a good team -- I'm a Texan after all. But before the loss of Harmon, they seemed like they were leading contenders for an NC. Well, the injury fairy has not been kind to them, and they no longer seem like they have a clear shot at the title. As I said, they might not even win the Big12.
As for your suggestion that they looked better than UConn did two years ago against GA Tech, I'd have to agree. They looked much better.
But I'd say the circumstances were not very similar at all. UConn lost Paige at the end of the ND game and played Ga Tech 3 days later with no chance to hold a practice in between. Also, they had to play with no true point guard as Nika and Azzi were also injured. For stretches of the game Geno had Liv Dorka And Aaliyah on the floor together with Evina and Christyn. The UCLA game 2 days later, again with no practice in between, was a bit better since Caroline finally found her mojo and was able to help with the guard duties, and this marked the beginning of a very good stretch of games for her. By contrast, Rori was injured in a shoot around before the Jackson St game and Texas got to play a cupcake and was able to hold another practice before the Baylor game 3 days later, and Vic had two effective PGs to call on in Shaylee and Madison.
Now, I don't know if this is what you meant, but I suspect the competitiveness of Texas in this loss also indicates how much greater the loss of Paige was than the loss of Rori. Don't get me wrong, I think Rori is great and means a ton to Texas as a team. But she's no Paige, as your comparison indeed suggests. Or perhaps this is what you meant to imply.
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