FoxPerez
04-05-2011, 02:20 PM
Originally posted at PlaymakerOnline.com (http://bit.ly/er8sOc):
We’re at a point in sports where experience means nothing.
At the Super Bowl this year the Pittsburgh Steelers with all their championship experience lost to a Green Bay Packers team that featured a roster full of players who hadn’t even experienced a playoff win. In last night’s national championship game, Butler was playing in their 2nd straight championship final while UConn was in the NIT last year.
The Texas A&M women’s basketball team is following that formula. They’ve knocked off two #1 seeds. Both have been Final Four staples in recent years and now they take on a Notre Dame team used to matching up against the best in the country every year playing in the Big East.
While it’s a bit of a stretch to say that Notre Dame has big game experience the way Baylor, Stanford and UConn do, the Fighting Irish have won a national championship in the past decade while the Aggies are in uncharted territory for their program.
The key for Texas A&M in this game will be keeping the Notre Dame guards out of the paint. The way that the Fighting Irish were able to take down UConn wasn’t with their bigs, but with their guards. UConn didn’t play very good defense in the last game and it cost them because, while the Huskies were able to find a flow on offense for good stretches, the points they gave up came too easily for Notre Dame. If the Aggies can pull that off, it almost doesn’t matter how well they play on offense because they’ve already shown that they can grind out ugly wins with their defense despite not shooting well. Against Stanford, A&M shot just 35% from the field, but made 65 field goal attempts while holding Stanford to 46. How? The Aggies forced 21 turnovers and held Stanford to just 5 offensive rebounds.
Because of those factors, I expect Texas A&M to win tonight over Notre Dame. They’ve already shown that they didn’t have a hangover after beating Baylor in the Elite Eight round, they’ve kept up their defensive pressure against the best teams in the country, and showed incredible composure when they had to come back from a double digit deficit in the semifinal and when they scored the winning basket in the final seconds without any timeouts.
I’m a Texas Longhorns fan. Grew up rooting against the Aggies whenever they played Texas. And yet, there’s a funny support system that exists between the two schools.
Whenever either team plays Oklahoma, we root for each other. In 1998, when A&M beat Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship Game, I remember being so sick with the flu that I spent the whole day in bed. I was even taken to an all-night clinic that day. But when we heard Texas A&M driving to force overtime, I made my way to a television to watch and was elated when the Aggies won in overtime.
The ultimate sign of support though was hearing from Aggies in 2005 when Texas was getting ready to play for a national championship. I remember seeing “Gig ‘em Horns” shirts and signs everywhere. A one-day-only sign of solidarity that still makes me smile.
I don’t know how Texas Tech or Baylor fans feel today, but I know that the Horns are behind the Aggies tonight. Gig ‘em.
For more college sports coverage, check out PlaymakerOnline.com (http://www.playmakeronline.com/)
Playmaker Magazine: The Source for Sports in Texas
We’re at a point in sports where experience means nothing.
At the Super Bowl this year the Pittsburgh Steelers with all their championship experience lost to a Green Bay Packers team that featured a roster full of players who hadn’t even experienced a playoff win. In last night’s national championship game, Butler was playing in their 2nd straight championship final while UConn was in the NIT last year.
The Texas A&M women’s basketball team is following that formula. They’ve knocked off two #1 seeds. Both have been Final Four staples in recent years and now they take on a Notre Dame team used to matching up against the best in the country every year playing in the Big East.
While it’s a bit of a stretch to say that Notre Dame has big game experience the way Baylor, Stanford and UConn do, the Fighting Irish have won a national championship in the past decade while the Aggies are in uncharted territory for their program.
The key for Texas A&M in this game will be keeping the Notre Dame guards out of the paint. The way that the Fighting Irish were able to take down UConn wasn’t with their bigs, but with their guards. UConn didn’t play very good defense in the last game and it cost them because, while the Huskies were able to find a flow on offense for good stretches, the points they gave up came too easily for Notre Dame. If the Aggies can pull that off, it almost doesn’t matter how well they play on offense because they’ve already shown that they can grind out ugly wins with their defense despite not shooting well. Against Stanford, A&M shot just 35% from the field, but made 65 field goal attempts while holding Stanford to 46. How? The Aggies forced 21 turnovers and held Stanford to just 5 offensive rebounds.
Because of those factors, I expect Texas A&M to win tonight over Notre Dame. They’ve already shown that they didn’t have a hangover after beating Baylor in the Elite Eight round, they’ve kept up their defensive pressure against the best teams in the country, and showed incredible composure when they had to come back from a double digit deficit in the semifinal and when they scored the winning basket in the final seconds without any timeouts.
I’m a Texas Longhorns fan. Grew up rooting against the Aggies whenever they played Texas. And yet, there’s a funny support system that exists between the two schools.
Whenever either team plays Oklahoma, we root for each other. In 1998, when A&M beat Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship Game, I remember being so sick with the flu that I spent the whole day in bed. I was even taken to an all-night clinic that day. But when we heard Texas A&M driving to force overtime, I made my way to a television to watch and was elated when the Aggies won in overtime.
The ultimate sign of support though was hearing from Aggies in 2005 when Texas was getting ready to play for a national championship. I remember seeing “Gig ‘em Horns” shirts and signs everywhere. A one-day-only sign of solidarity that still makes me smile.
I don’t know how Texas Tech or Baylor fans feel today, but I know that the Horns are behind the Aggies tonight. Gig ‘em.
For more college sports coverage, check out PlaymakerOnline.com (http://www.playmakeronline.com/)
Playmaker Magazine: The Source for Sports in Texas