Game #18: Texas (11-7, 5-3) at Texas Tech (9-9, 4-3)
Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2006: 5 p.m. (Central)
at the United Spirit Arena (capacity 15,050), Lubbock, Texas
Game Day Information & Quick Facts
TV: ESPNU: Beth Mowins (play-by-play); Nancy Lieberman (color analyst)
Radio: Texas: KVET Radio/Sports Radio 1300 (1300 AM), Austin; Texas Tech Sports Network
Teams at A Glance
National Rankings: Texas is "also receiving votes" in both AP and USA Today/ESPN Poll
All-Time Series Record: 73rd meeting: Texas leads series, 52-20
Texas' Home/Away/Neutral Record vs. Texas Tech: 23-5 at home; 17-11 away; 12-4 at neutral sites
Series Streak: +1, Texas
Last Year: #13/13 Texas Tech 79, #12/11 Texas 62 (Jan. 12, 2005, Lubbock, Texas); #17/17 Texas 64, #13/12 Texas Tech 43 (Feb. 13, 2005, Austin, Texas)
Texas Coach Jody Conradt (Baylor '63): 37th year overall: 1,165 games: 880-285 (.755);
30th year at Texas: 986 games: 763-223 (.774)
Texas Tech Head Coach Marsha Sharp: 24th season overall (all years at Texas Tech): 750 games: 566-184 (.754)
Jody Conradt vs. Texas Tech: 52-20
Quick Glance at the Teams
Texas enters today's game standing 11-7 overall and 5-3 in the Big 12, while Texas Tech is 9-9 overall, 4-3 in the league... The Longhorns are 8-4 in their last 12 games, 5-1 in their last six... Texas last played on Saturday, extending its homecourt win streak against Big 12 opponents to 31 games (a league best) with a 60-46 win over Oklahoma State behind 14 points from freshman guard Erika Arriaran and an eight-point, nine-rebound, season-high six assists from senior guard Nina Norman ... Texas is in the "Also Receiving Votes" category of the Associated Press for the fourth straight week, and this week fell out of the votes category in the USA Today/ESPN Polls after three weeks - after falling out of the AP poll after 81 straight weeks of rankings and out of the USA Today/ESPN Poll after 80 consecutive weeks, dating back to 2002...Texas Tech, 2-2 in their last four games, dropped a 65-51 decision to Missouri in Columbia on Jan. 28 ... The Texas-Texas Tech series is the longest series in UT history, as tonight is the 73rd game in this series... In all-time games against Texas Tech, Texas leads the series, 52-20.
Conradt Moves Past Dean Smith into No. 2 Victory Spot
The Jan. 22nd win over Kansas State moved Texas head coach Jody Conradt into a tie with retired and legendary men's basketball coach Dean Smith for No. 2 in all-time collegiate basketball wins (men's or women's), and Conradt passed Smith on Saturday (Jan. 28) when UT defeated Oklahoma State... Conradt now has 880 victories, while Smith has 879...Tennessee's Pat Summit stands first in all-time victories with 901.
Texas Notches 102 Big 12 Regular Season Wins
Texas stands 102-50 (.671) in all-time league victories ... Texas and Texas Tech (113 wins) are the only schools to notch 100-plus wins in Big 12 regular season action (see chart, pg. 5).
Third Toughest Schedule in Land Belongs To Texas
According to the most recent RPI rankings (Jan. 31) on CollegeRPI.com, UT's schedule is rated the third toughest in the nation, while the Horns are ranked No. 11 overall in the RPI ... Texas has faced six Top 25 teams (going 1-5 to date), with New Mexico and George Washington entering the polls after playing Texas ... UT's schedule has been rated first-second-or third-toughest all year long ... Right now, N.C. State and Tennessee's schedules are the toughest nationally, respectively ...Texas Tech's RPI is 54th, with a schedule rated 8th nationally... The NCAA will release its first set of public RPI ratings on Thursday, February 2nd.
Texas Stat Leaders
Texas is led in scoring by junior F Tiffany Jackson (14.8 ppg), freshman G Erika Arriaran (10.9) and senior PG Nina Norman (9.3 ppg) ... Jackson paces the club in rebounding (9.1 ppg) and steals (51, 3.0 spg), while Arriaran is first in assists (39, 2.4 apg) and 3-pointers made (23) ... Freshman Ashley Lindsey is second in rebounding (5.3 rpg), with Norman and senior Daria Mieloszynska tied for third (3.9 rpg) ... In the Big 12 league stats, the versatile Jackson ranks No. 1 in steals (3.83 spg) and is 2nd in double-doubles (4) and offensive rebounds (4.33/game), third in overall rebounding (11.3 rpg) and fourth in scoring (17.0 ppg) and defensive rebounds (7.0/game)...Norman has averages of 10.8 points and Arriaran is at 9.3 ppg in league action. Arriaran has made 54 percent of UT's 3-pointers, connecting on a team-high 23 of Texas' 43 treys ... She also leads the club in free throw percentage (.893, 25-28).
Texas-Texas Tech Series
This is the 73rd game in the Texas-Texas Tech series, which is the longest series in UT basketball history ... Texas leads series play, 52-20 and is 5-2 in the last seven games of the series ... The two split the home-and-home series last year, with No. 13 Tech stopping No. 12/No. 11 Longhorns in Lubbock on Jan. 12 (79-62) behind 26 points from Alesha Robertson and 19 by Chesley Dabbs ... UT sophomore Tiffany Jackson (20 points) and senior Kala Bowers (season-high 14 points) led the Horns. In Austin on Feb. 9, Jackson emerged with a double-double (14 points, 12 rebs.), coming off the bench with nine minutes left in the first period due to a nagging ankle injury to lead the Longhorns...That win knocked Tech (8-3) out of a first-place tie in the league...Junior Nina Norman added 14 points... Texas Tech's 43 points and 27 percent shooting accuracy were season lows for the Lady Raiders ...The 43 points scored by Texas Tech ties the lowest points in a game by Tech in the Texas-Texas Tech series (Texas won 55-43 on Mar. 2, 1986) ... Since Big 12 play began in 1996-97, Tech leads series play, 14-6 ...In games in Austin, Texas is 23-5 against Tech ... In game at Lubbock, the Horns stand 17-11, and at a neutral site, Texas leads play, 12-4.
Texas, TTU in the NCAA Statistics
In the weekly NCAA statistics released on Jan. 31, the Longhorns as a team rank in just one top 10 category - blocks per game ... Currrent numbers below reflect current stats for UT and Texas Tech). Texas is No. 8 nationally in blocked shots with 6.3 blocks per game ... The next best category for Texas is steals where the Longhorns rank No. 30 (11.2 steals per game) ... Freshman Ashley Lindsey Is ranked No. 30 nationally in blocks per game average (2.2 bpg). For Texas Tech, 6-1 senior LaToya Davis is No. 14 in FG pct. (.589), No. 15 in rebound average (10.9 rpg) and No. 19 in scoring (19. 6 ppg), while 5-8 senior Erin Grant is No. 10 in assists per game (6.2 apg) ... As a team, the Lady Raiders are No. 14 in turnovers per game (just 13.8/game).
TJ Averages Big 12 Double-Double
In the Big 12 stats, Tiffany Jackson is one of only fourplayers (along with Baylor's Sophia Young, Texas Tech's LaToya Davis and Oklahoma's Courtney Paris) to be averaging a double-double in league play... Jackson has 14.9 pppg and 10.1 rpg in the league, and is first in steals with 3.0 steals per game average... Jackson stands No. 3 in Big 12 rebounding and eighth in scoring.
...and TJ Posts Big Numbers vs. Tech
In four prior games against Texas Tech, junior Tiffany Jackson has 60 points and 31 rebounds and is 22-for-26 from the foul line ... Jackson is averaging 15.0 points and 7.8 boards against the Lady Raiders... She is shooting 53.2 percent from the floor (25-47) with seven steals.
Help in the Post Comes Along
Texas is getting strong play in the frontcourt from three other "posts by committee" along with Jackson: from 6-2 senior Daria Mieloszynska and 6-4 rookie Ashley Lindsey and 6-3 rookie Aubry Cook ... Cook has 41 points and 22 rebounds in the last four games (all starts), averaging 10.3 ppg and 5.5 rpg in these three games... Mieloszynska posted her first career double-double (10 pts/10 rebs) against Kansas State and has 20 rebounds in the last four contests... Lindsey has 31 boards in the last five games, including a game-best 11 against OSU on Jan. 28... She had 15 points vs. Missouri five games ago.
UT's Big 12 Stat Leaders
After eight Big 12 games, All-America junior Tiffany Jackson and senior Nina Norman are two of top steals leader, while Jackson ranks in the top 10 in seven different league stat catagories: steals (1st with 3.0 spg); double-doubles (2nd with 4); overall rebounding (3rd, 10.1 rpg); defensive rebounds (3th, 6.8/game); offensive rebounds (6th, 3.4/game); scoring (8th, 14.9 ppg); blocked shots (9th, 1.25 bpg)... She also is minutes played (11th, 34.5 mpg) and 15th in free throw pct. (33-47, .702). In single-game efforts, Jackson's 17 rebounds against Iowa State (Jan. 17) is tied for the second-best single-game rebounding total, while her eight steals against ISU is a league high. Freshman Erika Arriaran is No. 5 in steals (17, 2.13 spg) ... Senior Daria Mieloszynska is No. 14 in 3-point percentage (.370, 10-for-27) and her six treys against ISU are tied for the single-game high in league action. Senior guard Nina Norman is No. 9 in steals (1.8 spg), tied for No. 13 in assist average (3.0) and No. 23 in scoring (10.8 ppg). In the team statistics, the 5-3 Longhorns are one of the league's top defensive squads, but do not match those rankings offensively ... UT is No. 3 in defensive rebounds (27/game), No. 2 in offensive rebounds (15.3/game), No. 3 in steals (10.4 spg), No. 5 in turnover margin (+1.5, 16.3 per game to opponents' 17.8) and No. 3 in blocks (5.5 bpg)... Offensively, the Longhorns are No. 6 in scoring (63.8 ppg), No. 5 in scoring margin (+2.8), No. 5 in scoring defense (allowing 61 ppg), No. 7 in field goal pct. (.399) and No. 9 in free throw pct. (.644) ... UT sits No. 11 in assists (10.8 apg) and No. 10 in assist/turnover ratio (+0.66) and tied for No. 11 in 3-pointers per game (3.13).
Longhorn Record Watch
Senior guard Nina Norman has 385 all-time assists to stand No. 8 in all-time UT steals ... She is 19 away from the No. 7 spot, held by Angie Jo Ogletree (403, 1993-97)... Norman led the Longhorns in assists the last two years, dishing out a career-best 142 in 35 games (4.1) as a sophomore) and 98 (3.5 apg) in 28 contests last year... In addition, Norman is moving toward the 1,000-career point mark ... She has notched 939 career points, needing 61 more to reach that 1,000-point milestone. With 133 career blocks, Tiffany Jackson stands No. 5 in career rejections ... She is 17 blocked shots shy of the No. 4 position...Her four steals against Nebraska moved her into a tie for No. 10 in career steals.
