It was our own Darrell Royal who told us that “TCU is like a cockroach. It’s not so much what he eats and totes off, but what he falls into and messes up.”
This was never so true as this Saturday when Big 12 leading Texas WBB tries to keep the cornbread safe from TCU. Those cockroaches may have fallen into a football national championship game and ruined that experience for everyone watching, but their WBB team has clearly been thwarted by Tupperware, Ziploc bags, and insecticides.
I have never seen a football team as consistently lucky throughout a season as TCU in 2022. But they clearly used all of the schools positive karma on the gridiron. TCU WBB has yet to win a conference game. In fact they have not won a game at all since defeating mighty Nicholls on 12/21.
TCU has only had two conference games in which their margin of defeat was single digits, home games against Sand Aggy, and WVU. Their average conference margin of defeat is 18.7 points. ISU beat them by 40 in Fort Worth and WVU beat them by 32 in Morgantown. Texas beat them by 12 in Fort Worth on 1/4.
In that Texas win Rori Harmon had a triple-double logging 17 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists. Hatti Faye had 15 points and 13 rebounds, DeYona Gaston led Texas scorers with 20 points and 6 rebounds, while Shaylee Gonzales added 16 points and 7 rebounds. Taylor Jones was not available for Texas, and Sonya Morris – who will likely miss this game – only played 19 minutes with 5 points.
Texas had a 10-point lead at the half and largely spent the last two quarters treading water. 10 of the 25 fouls called on TCU were in the 4th quarter. A Texas lead let them to get to the FT line 25 times in the game, but they only converted 12 of those opportunities.
TCU had five players score in double-digits. Knisha Godfrey (17), Roxane Makolo (13), Tomi Taiwo (11), and Lucy Ibeh (10) had nice games while Bella Craven scored 13 and added 9 rebounds.
Texas out rebounded the Horned Frogs 45-28. But TCU had 12 steals and forced 21 Texas TOs.
If Texas had taken care of the ball and made FTs that first meeting would have been a blowout. But we all know that has been an issue for this team. Hopefully improvement in the Sand Aggy game Wednesday is a sign of things to come.
Wednesday night Sonya Morris was described by Vic Schaefer as day-to-day with a lower body injury “that is not something new”. This has apparently been an ongoing issue for Sonya but for some reason she spent this past Tuesday night in the hospital. I saw her after she arrived late for the Sand Aggy game. She was on crutches but smiling and seemingly putting at least some weight onto both legs. She was wearing warmups so I couldn’t tell if she had on any type of wrap or brace. There was no boot. All adding up to plenty of comments and observations that tell us little. My guess is that the staff felt they could win games against Sand Aggy and the cockroaches without Sonya. The need for her will be much greater in upcoming games, in particular road games at ISU (2/13) and OU Sux (2/25). Further, there will be back to back and short turnaround games in the B12 conference and NCAA tournaments. If she plays Monday she will have had nine days off.
The absence of Morris provides an opportunity for one of my favorites, Shay Holle, who played 40 minutes against Sand Aggy. The fastest player on the team, she is sound defensively, hustles relentlessly, and owns the highest 3PT % on the team. Also look for little used freshman Jak Mwenentanda to be the next man up. She brings length, quickness, and athleticism but also frequently plays like the freshman that she is.
I should also note that Rori Harmon gave me the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate for mentioning her struggles with FTs and 3PT shots. Wednesday night she made both of her FT attempts and 3-5 3Pts. I hope she continues to give me the finger.
Remember to watch for Paige Bradley in Purple. A UT commit for former HC Karen Aston, Bradley is the daughter of former Texas WBB standout Amie Smith-Bradley and her husband, former UT football player Steve Bradley. (Steve had planned to propose to Amie after a UT WBB game. But she had a head injury and he joked that he was afraid that she would forget.)
A home game against a winless, last place squad should be as close to an automatic win as they come. Still, they are called cockroaches for a reason. Texas needs to be prepared to both play their best basketball, and carry a can of Big 12 strength Raid. Two of the next three games are road contests against ISU and OU Sux. With a one game lead in the standings there is no room for a slip.
Conference Stats…
@LH817, @mln59, @BrownHorn, @DrHorn, @sparker39
This was never so true as this Saturday when Big 12 leading Texas WBB tries to keep the cornbread safe from TCU. Those cockroaches may have fallen into a football national championship game and ruined that experience for everyone watching, but their WBB team has clearly been thwarted by Tupperware, Ziploc bags, and insecticides.
I have never seen a football team as consistently lucky throughout a season as TCU in 2022. But they clearly used all of the schools positive karma on the gridiron. TCU WBB has yet to win a conference game. In fact they have not won a game at all since defeating mighty Nicholls on 12/21.
TCU has only had two conference games in which their margin of defeat was single digits, home games against Sand Aggy, and WVU. Their average conference margin of defeat is 18.7 points. ISU beat them by 40 in Fort Worth and WVU beat them by 32 in Morgantown. Texas beat them by 12 in Fort Worth on 1/4.
In that Texas win Rori Harmon had a triple-double logging 17 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists. Hatti Faye had 15 points and 13 rebounds, DeYona Gaston led Texas scorers with 20 points and 6 rebounds, while Shaylee Gonzales added 16 points and 7 rebounds. Taylor Jones was not available for Texas, and Sonya Morris – who will likely miss this game – only played 19 minutes with 5 points.
Texas had a 10-point lead at the half and largely spent the last two quarters treading water. 10 of the 25 fouls called on TCU were in the 4th quarter. A Texas lead let them to get to the FT line 25 times in the game, but they only converted 12 of those opportunities.
TCU had five players score in double-digits. Knisha Godfrey (17), Roxane Makolo (13), Tomi Taiwo (11), and Lucy Ibeh (10) had nice games while Bella Craven scored 13 and added 9 rebounds.
Texas out rebounded the Horned Frogs 45-28. But TCU had 12 steals and forced 21 Texas TOs.
If Texas had taken care of the ball and made FTs that first meeting would have been a blowout. But we all know that has been an issue for this team. Hopefully improvement in the Sand Aggy game Wednesday is a sign of things to come.
Wednesday night Sonya Morris was described by Vic Schaefer as day-to-day with a lower body injury “that is not something new”. This has apparently been an ongoing issue for Sonya but for some reason she spent this past Tuesday night in the hospital. I saw her after she arrived late for the Sand Aggy game. She was on crutches but smiling and seemingly putting at least some weight onto both legs. She was wearing warmups so I couldn’t tell if she had on any type of wrap or brace. There was no boot. All adding up to plenty of comments and observations that tell us little. My guess is that the staff felt they could win games against Sand Aggy and the cockroaches without Sonya. The need for her will be much greater in upcoming games, in particular road games at ISU (2/13) and OU Sux (2/25). Further, there will be back to back and short turnaround games in the B12 conference and NCAA tournaments. If she plays Monday she will have had nine days off.
The absence of Morris provides an opportunity for one of my favorites, Shay Holle, who played 40 minutes against Sand Aggy. The fastest player on the team, she is sound defensively, hustles relentlessly, and owns the highest 3PT % on the team. Also look for little used freshman Jak Mwenentanda to be the next man up. She brings length, quickness, and athleticism but also frequently plays like the freshman that she is.
I should also note that Rori Harmon gave me the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate for mentioning her struggles with FTs and 3PT shots. Wednesday night she made both of her FT attempts and 3-5 3Pts. I hope she continues to give me the finger.
Remember to watch for Paige Bradley in Purple. A UT commit for former HC Karen Aston, Bradley is the daughter of former Texas WBB standout Amie Smith-Bradley and her husband, former UT football player Steve Bradley. (Steve had planned to propose to Amie after a UT WBB game. But she had a head injury and he joked that he was afraid that she would forget.)
A home game against a winless, last place squad should be as close to an automatic win as they come. Still, they are called cockroaches for a reason. Texas needs to be prepared to both play their best basketball, and carry a can of Big 12 strength Raid. Two of the next three games are road contests against ISU and OU Sux. With a one game lead in the standings there is no room for a slip.
Conference Stats…
Avg Pts | Avg Pts Allowed | Avg Rbs | Avg RBs Allowed | Avg TOs | Avg TOs Forced | 3PT % | FT% | |
Texas | 74.6 | 62.5 | 37.9 | 31.1 | 15.2 | 19 | 34.8 | 63.3 |
| Cockroaches | 58.2 | 77.1 | 32 | 39.5 | 17 | 16.4 | 28.8 | 65.2 |
Cockroaches | CL | P | H | Min | PTS | RBS | FT% | 3PT% |
Tomi Taiwo | Sr | G | 5-10 | 32.0 | 14.2 | 2.5 | 77.5% | 36.7% |
Lucy Ibeh | Sr | F | 6-0 | 19.8 | 11.2 | 4.8 | 62.2% | 0.0% |
Emily Fisher | Sr | G | 5-7 | 29.9 | 6.6 | 2.7 | 80.0% | 23.3% |
Knisha Godfrey | Fr | G | 5-9 | 20.9 | 5.8 | 1.1 | 63.6% | 14.3% |
Roxanne Makolo | Sr | G | 5-10 | 20.7 | 5.6 | 3.4 | 51.6% | 17.6% |
Bella Cravens | Sr | F | 6-3 | 21.6 | 5.3 | 6.2 | 68.8% | 100.0% |
Tara Manumaleuga | Sr | G | 5-10 | 19.2 | 3.8 | 1.2 | 77.8% | 21.9% |
Paige Bradley | So | G | 5-10 | 15.3 | 2.9 | 1.5 | 100.0% | 35.7% |
Bre'Yon White | So | F | 5-11 | 12.3 | 2.8 | 2.8 | 60.0% | 0.0% |
Aaliyah Roberson | Fr | F | 6-2 | 10.3 | 1.6 | 1.2 | 66.7% | 0.0% |
Texas | CL | P | H | Min | PTS | RBS | FT% | 3PT% |
DeYona Gaston | Jr | F | 6-2 | 28.2 | 14.3 | 5.4 | 73.2% | 0.0% |
Shaylee Gonzales | Sr | G | | 31.9 | 13.9 | 4.8 | 77.4% | 40.4% |
Sonya Morris | Sr | G | | 28.2 | 12.6 | 2.6 | 37.5% | 31.6% |
Rori Harmon | So | G | | 38.3 | 12.2 | 5.9 | 57.8% | 18.2% |
Taylor Jones | Jr | F | | 18.1 | 8.5 | 4.3 | 52.9% | 0.0% |
Hatti Faye | Jr | F | | 16.1 | 5.3 | 6.0 | 70.3% | 0.0% |
Shay Holle | Jr | G | | 20.9 | 4.9 | 2.2 | 60.0% | 48.0% |
Amina Muhammad | Fr | G | | 18.3 | 3.5 | 4.4 | 38.1% | 0.0% |
Jak Mwenentanda | Fr | G | | 6.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 70.0% | 0.0% |
@LH817, @mln59, @BrownHorn, @DrHorn, @sparker39
