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Texas Women's Basketball 2021-2022 - "Vic's Got It Going!!"


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Rori was the only freshman listed on ESPN's top 25 players playing in the NCAAT

Women's NCAA tournament 2022 - Top 25 players in the women's bracket (espn.com)

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23. Rori Harmon, Texas Longhorns

Guard | 5-foot-6 | freshman

Harmon took over the Big 12 tournament, helping Texas to the title and an NCAA No. 2 seed. She averaged 22 points, 4.3 assists and 3.7 rebounds in three victories and was the tournament's most outstanding player. She had no turnovers in the semifinal or final, despite playing every minute of both games, one an overtime contest. -- Voepel

Big 12 got NaLyssa Smith (Baylor), Ashley Joens (ISU), Ayoka Lee (KSU), Rori Harmon and Madi Williams (OU)

In our bracket: Haley Jones (Stanford), Cameron Brink (Stanford), Angel Reese (Maryland), Khayla Pointer (LSU), Kierstan Bell (FGCU), Jacy Sheldon (Ohio State), Rori Harmon

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Fairfield women’s basketball earns 15 seed in NCAA Tournament, heading to Texas

The Fairfield women’s basketball team punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament Saturday after winning the MAAC Tournament title.

Sunday night, the Stags found out where they would heading to play in coach Joe Frager’s final season at the helm.Fairfield, the 15th seed in the Spokane Region will travel to Austin, TX for a first round game Friday against No. 2 seeded Texas.

“It was great, we were anxious the whole time waiting for it and it felt special hearing our name called,” Fairfield guard senior Lou Lopez-Senechal said. “Being on national TV and seeing our name and that we are playing Texas, we are just very excited.”

If Fairfield wins it would play the winner of No. 7 Utah and No. 10 Arkansas in the second round Sunday.

Texas qualified as the Big-12 Conference Tournament champions with a record of 26-6.

“Going to Texas is quite a trip,” Frager said. “Texas has a great program and just had a big win over Baylor. They are playing some great basketball. They really get after you defensively. We were going to be happy no matter where the NCAA sent us. Texas is a beautiful state, it will be some warmer weather and we are looking forward to it.”

Saturday, Fairfield won the MAAC championship, defeating Manhattan 73-68, paced by 24 points from Lopez-Senechal. Fairfield (25-6) was 19-1 in the MAAC this season and is going to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since receiving an at-large bid in 2001.

“We were all really excited to find out who we were going to play but knowing our ticket was already punched is a settling feeling and let us enjoy it a little more,” Fairfield graduate student Sydney Lowery said. “Winning the MAAC is such a special feeling. Today it felt more real than yesterday but we are still like ‘what just happened?’”

Prior to the season, Fairfield coach Joe Frager announced he would be stepping down at the end of this season. His players have kept the fact Frager is in his last season in their minds all year.

“We were already motivated but when we heard it would be (Frager’s) last year, it gave us a boost of motivation,” Lopez- Senechal said. “We wanted to make this a special year for him, for us and for everyone. It is the best way it could end for him.”

Frager, a Shelton native who coached girls basketball at Seymour High, has coached 14 seasons with the Stags and nine previously with Southern Connecticut State University. In his final season at SCSU, Frager won the Women's D-II National Coach of the Year after leading the Owls to the 2007 Divisional II National Championship.

“This is right up there in the great moments I’ve had,” Frager said. “Every team you coach that achieves at a high level, you always hold a special place in your heart for those teams. I have fond memories of what we did at Seymour High School, those kids won 62 games in-a-row. Winning a national championship at Southern was incredible. This has been an amazing season beginning to end with this group and I am so proud of them. They have been special all season long.”

https://www.ctinsider.com/sports/article/Fairfield-women-s-basketball-earns-15-seed-in-16999060.php

 

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Fairfield is pretty experienced - they have 5 seniors/super seniors/grad seniors on their roster.  

Small inside (6'1 is their tallest player) but they have some tall guards (5'10 and 6'0) which could give our smaller guards (5'6 Rori, 5'7 Matharu, 5'9 Warren and 5'8 JAT) some issues.  6'4 Ebo, 6'4 Lattimore, 6'2 Gaston and 6'1 Moore should eat them up inside. 

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How much longer does Mike Carey have at WV?  

He's 412-217 and has been there since 2001.  They have 1 NCAA bid in the past 5 years.  He's only been to the NCAAT 5 times since WV joined the Big 12 - 4 round of 32 finishes and a one-and-done.  Hell, they were a 2 seed in 2014 after finishing the Big 12 schedule 16-2 and tied for 1st and got upset by a 7 seed in the 2nd round. 

And now the below - no postseason because they expect a bunch of players to be gone.  They didn't even play their best player (Niblack) in the Big 12 tournament loss to ISU when they lost by 6 when fighting for their postseason lives. 

 

 

Edited by Js1
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Here are your Massey predictions for the NCAAT:

Massey Ratings - NCAA Tournament

#6 and second-seed Texas has a 51.47% chance to make the Elite 8.  This is better odds than Louisville (46.77%) and just below Baylor (52.83%).  Second lowest odds of the 1 and 2 seeds of advancing to the Final Four (21.63% - #2 Iowa is 9.69%) 

Massey predicts the Final Four is SC, Stanford, NC State, Baylor, with SC and Stanford meeting in the finals.

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43 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Massey predicts the Final Four is SC, Stanford, NC State, Baylor, with SC and Stanford meeting in the finals.

Well, two of those are notches in our whoop ass stick so I wouldn't count us out. We aren't SC good but we are Baylor and Standford good and I trust Vic to pull the right levers at the right time.  Hey at least we are in the conversation, in the top 6 or 8 out of 351 schools and we are trending up. Baylor I think is trending down at this point. The future looks very bright.

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Just now, TommysTinyTowels said:

Well, two of those are notches in our whoop ass stick so I wouldn't count us out. We aren't SC good but we are Baylor and Standford good and I trust Vic to pull the right levers at the right time.  Hey at least we are in the conversation, in the top 6 or 8 out of 351 schools and we are trending up. Baylor I think is trending down at this point. The future looks very bright.

I don't think the nerd machines (538 and Massey) realize how disruptive Vic's defense is to a team without a dominant ball handler.  We forced 20 turnovers in that game in November because.... Stanford didn't (and still really doesn't) have a dominant PG.  Stanford also had 20 turnovers against SC in one of their 3 losses.  They feasted on a pretty meh Pac-12 schedule where they still average 13 turnovers per game for the season. 

Every Stanford guard that played had 2 or more turnovers except Anna Wilson (1).  Hailey Jones had 5 by herself - she's still their primary ball handler.  That box score, if you showed it to me without a date, could easily be November or March:

37.7% shooting for Texas (pretty typical for us)
57.1% from three (4-7) 
73% FT (11-15)
Forced 20 turnovers
Rori had 21 points on 8-16 shooting, Moore had 9, Matharu had 17.  And that was a W with Ebo and Gaston combining for 2 points and JAT going 3-16 from the field. 
Limited Stanford to 35% shooting and 14.8% from three (4-27).  

This game probably keeps Tara up at night if she's serious about Stanford repeating this year.  No one wants to play Texas in March and not a team prone to turning it over. 

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Good enough for All-American but not first Team All Big-12.  I think Rori could have made Third Team AA, at least, looking at the full list.  Whatever.

Second consecutive year of Texas having an AP All-American (Collier was 2nd team last year).  Texas has only had 13, now 14, individual All-Americans and 24 All-American seasons in program history.   Only our 3rd All-American since Jody left (McCarty 2018, Collier 2021, Harmon 2022). 

 

First Team: Rhyne Howard (UK), Aliyah Boston (SC), Caitlin Clark (Iowa), NaLyssa Smith (Baylor), Niz Hillmon (Michigan) and Haley Jones (Stanford)
Second Team: Ayoka Lee (KSU), Ashley Joens (ISU), Aneesah Morrow (DePaul), Khayla Pointer (LSU), Elissa Cunane (NC State)
Third Team: Elizabeth Kitley (VT), Maddy Siegrist (Villanova), Veronica Burton (NW), Cameron Brink (Stanford), Angel Reese (Maryland)

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On 3/15/2022 at 11:38 AM, Js1 said:

How much longer does Mike Carey have at WV?  

He's 412-217 and has been there since 2001.  They have 1 NCAA bid in the past 5 years.  He's only been to the NCAAT 5 times since WV joined the Big 12 - 4 round of 32 finishes and a one-and-done.  Hell, they were a 2 seed in 2014 after finishing the Big 12 schedule 16-2 and tied for 1st and got upset by a 7 seed in the 2nd round. 

And now the below - no postseason because they expect a bunch of players to be gone.  They didn't even play their best player (Niblack) in the Big 12 tournament loss to ISU when they lost by 6 when fighting for their postseason lives. 

 

 

I’m prescient - he’s retiring. Big 12 will have 2 new coaches (so far) in 2022-23. Maybe one more if TCU makes a move 

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25 minutes ago, perfectchaos007 said:

Honorable mention counts as All American??? Congrats to Rori!

Technically, we can count it if we want and clearly we do and we should.  We count any All-American honor in our record book, whether its AP or WBCA or USA Today.  

She's earned being called an All American.  I stand by what I said - she will be the best PG we've had since Jamie Carey and might be fighting Kamie Etheridge for the best in Texas history. 

  • She's already #2 in the Texas record book for single-season assists by a freshman (152) and has a chance to be #1 (166 is the record set by Terri Mackey in 1980-81). 
  • She should be #2 in steals at a minimum - her 81 steals is #2 right now behind Annette Smith's 99 as a freshman in 1981-82. 
  • Also #10 in points for a season for a freshman is 403 (Retha Swindell in 1976-76) and Rori is at 368.  Also has a chance to sneak into that category. 

I don't know if she'll ever reach Kamie's 776 assists or Linda Waggoner's 346 steals, but she's going to get close if she plays 4 entire seasons.  Just wait until she's throwing passes to better shooters and finishers that Vic is bring in on a yearly basis. 

Edited by Js1
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Game 33: #6/7 Texas (26-6, 13-5 Big 12) vs Fairfield  (25-6, 19-1 Big 12)

NCAA Tournament First Round
Friday, March 18, 2022 – 7:30 p.m. Central
Frank Erwin Center (16,540) – Austin, Texas


GameDay Quick Facts:
• TELEVISION: The game will be televised nationally on ESPN 2. Angel Gray (pxp) and Chelsea Gray (analyst) will call the action.
• RADIO: 105.3 The Bat broadcasts every UT game on the statewide network. Roger Wallace (pxp) and Kathy Harston (analyst) will call the action. Check TexasSports.com for a listing of affiliates carrying the game.
• SERIES: First Meeting

BRING ON THE MADNESS: Fresh off of winning their first Big 12 Conference Championship crown since 2003 in Kansas City this past weekend, the No. 6/7 Texas is looking to ride that momentum in to into March Madness as they gear up to make their 34th NCAA Tournament appearance.

Named a No. 2 seed, the Longhorns receive the opportunity to host the first and second rounds as they welcome in No. 15 Fairfield, No. 7 Utah and No. 11 Arkansas. Texas last hosted during the 17-18 season.

The Utes and Razorbacks will square off in the in the in the first game of the weekend on Friday at 4:30 p.m. CT. Texas will face the Stags in the second game at 7 p.m. on ESPN 2. Friday's winner will advance to Sunday's Round of 32 matchup. Tip time and broadcast info will be announced Friday evening.

ONE LAST BEAT OF THE DRUM: This weekend's tournament action officially marks the final collegiate athletic events to take place inside the Frank Erwin Center. The Longhorns have called 'The Drum' home since the 1977-78 season and are 572-118 all-time inside the Building. Texas will make its move to the newly constructed Moody Center next season.

PEAKING IN MARCH: After dropping three-straight games from Jan. 29 – Feb.6 , the Longhorns  righted the ship as they've rattled off 11-straight wins and enter the NCAA Tournament as one of the hottest teams in the country

Throughout the win streak, the Longhorns are outscoring their opponents 774-624 and are holding them to just 56.7 points per contest.

Texas is shooting 44.2 percent from the field , 36.6 percent from behind the arc have and recorded an impressive 79.7 percent mark from the charity stipe.

The Longhorns are outrebounding opponents 385-321 and are forcing 18.6 opponent turnovers per game.

IN THE POLLS: The Longhorns moved up one more spot in the final Associated Top-25 Poll (March 14) checking in as the No. 6 team in the country, which marks their highest AP ranking of the year. They were also tabbed No. 7 in the USA Today/WBCA Coaches Poll (March 1).

Texas was tabbed No. 25 in the preseason AP poll and have remained in the Top-25 for 18-straight weeks and have not dipped below the No.16 spot.

THE SCHAEFER FORMULA: Longhorn head coach Vic Schaefer makes no secret in the way his teams have found success over the years. Relentless full court defensive pressure, attention to detail, and limiting turnovers and mistakes have been built in to the identity of his programs. The 2021-22 Longhorns are no different ranking among the best in the country in several defensive categories.  

UT currently ranks No. 1 in the Big 12 and No. 41 in the NCAA holding opponents to just 56.7 points per game. They also lead the league and rank No. 12 nationally in turnovers forced at 21.2 per contest and rank No. 6 in turnover margin at 6.88.

SCOUTING THE STAGS: Fairfield enters the NCAA Tournament as one of the most dominant mid-major programs in the country having lost just one game in the Metro Atlantic Conference this season and are riding a 15-game win streak entering Friday's matchup.

The Stags cruised through their conference tournament with victories over Iona, Niagara and Manhattan to earn the automatic bid.

The Stags are led offensively by Senior forward Lou Lopez-Senechal who was the MAAC player of the year after leading the league in scoring averaging 19.6 points per contest. She is shooting at 44.8 percent mark from the field and 40 percent from behind the arc.

Lopez-Senechal also leads the team on the glass averaging 8.3 boards per game to go along with a team. Callie Cavanaugh is the teams' second leading scorer at 9.6 points per game while Sydney Lowery averages 9.3, respectively.

 NEXT: Should the Longhorns advance to Sunday's round of 32 matchup, they will see the winner of No. 7 Utah vs No. 11 Arkansas. Tip time and broadcast info will be announced Friday evening.

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11 minutes ago, perfectchaos007 said:

With UConn having a down year (by their standards), USCe looking vulnerable after losing to UK, and we’re coming off a neutral site win against Baylor, this is the first tournament in years where I feel Texas is more than capable of beating anyone in the field. 

I would love to see Texas against USCe, NC State, UConn or Louisville. We’ve seen us against Tree and Baylor - time to see if we really are approaching one of the best 7 teams in the country in year 2

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