Texas (13-11, 7-6) at No. 21 Texas A&M (19-7, 8-5
State Farm Lone Star Showdown: Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006: 7 p.m. (Central)
Reed Arena (capacity 12,500), College Station, Texas
Game Day Information & Quick Facts:
TV: none
Radio: KVET Radio/Sports Radio 1300 (1300 AM), Austin; Aggie Radio Network
Internet Radio:
Teams at A Glance
Note: Rankings listed are Associated Press 1st, USA Today/ESPN 2nd (as of Feb. 20)
National Rankings: Texas is not ranked; Texas A&M is No. 25 in the AP Poll, in "also receiving votes" in USA Today/ESPN Poll
All-Time Series Record: 69th meeting: Texas leads series, 57-11
Texas' H/A/N Record vs. A&M: 27-3 at home; 20-8 away; 7-3 at neutral sites
Series Streak: +1, Texas A&M
This Year: Texas A&M 73, Texas 53 (Feb. 12, 2006, at Austin, Texas)
Texas Coach Jody Conradt (Baylor '63): 37th year overall: 1,171 games: 882-289 (.753); 30th year at Texas: 992 games: 765-227 (.772)
Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair: 21st season overall: 656 games: 452-204 (.689); 3rd year at A&M: 85 games: 44-41 (.517)
Jody Conradt vs. Texas A&M: 54-14
The Teams
The Longhorns come into the State Farm Lone Star Showdown at 13-11 overall and 7-6 in the Big 12; Texas A&M, ranked No. 25 in the Associated Press Poll this week and in the "also receiving votes" category in the USA Today/ESPN Poll, is 19-7, 8-5 ... Texas snapped a three-game losing streak (against three Top 25 opponents and without the services of injured leading scorer and rebounder Tiffany Jackson) with Saturday's road win over Oklahoma State (Feb. 18, 61-56) ... Against OSU, Texas welcomed Jackson back on the floor... Named a Naismith Award National Player of the Year mid-season candidate on Feb. 17th, Jackson accounted for eight of UT's final 10 points in the game, while freshman guard Erika Arriaran led the way for UT with 16 points ... The six conference losses are the most by the Longhorns since that 2001-02 campaign when UT went 10-6 in the Big 12 to finish fifth ... Texas A&M has lost its last two games, both Big 12 contests, to then-No. 12 Baylor (84-59, Feb. 15) and to No. 9 Oklahoma (73-54).
UT, playing the nations' third-toughest schedule to date, closes out league action with two of its last three games against Top 25 opponents - beginning with tonight's game at No. 25 Texas A&M.. UT then hosts Texas Tech (Feb. 26) and No. 10 Baylor (Mar. 1) ... Texas is 1-8 against the Top 25 this season.
Bring 'Em On: Fourth Toughest Schedule in Land Belongs To Texas
According to the most recent RPI rankings (Feb. 21) on CollegeRPI.com, UT's strength of schedule is rated the FOURTH toughest in the nation, while the Horns are ranked No. 32 overall in the RPI (down from 29 a week ago)... Texas has faced nine Top 25 teams to date (going 1-8), with New Mexico and George Washington entering the polls after playing Texas... Despite a 3-4 mark in its last six games, Texas continues to be among the nation's top teams in RPI going into Wednesday's game at Texas A&M ... UT's schedule is ranked behind Tennessee (No. 1 in RPI), N.C. State (12th in overall RPI) and Connecticut (No. 4 in RPI), which have the three toughest slate of games ... Texas A&M is 33rd in the RPI, while the Aggies' schedule is No. 24.
Texas Stat Leaders
The Longhorns welcomed back All-America 6-3 junior Tiffany Jackson to the lineup on Feb. 18 for the Oklahoma State game, after Jackson missed three straight game with a right ankle injury... Jackson leads the squad with team-highs of 14.3 ppg, 8.8 rpg and 2.6 steals per game ..Jackson injured the ankle with 5:55 left to go at Colorado (Feb. 4); she missed games against No. 24 Texas A&M, vs. No. 4 Connecticut and No. 9 Oklahoma) ...Freshman guard Erika Arriaran (11.0 ppg) and senior guard Nina Norman (10.8 ppg) follow in scoring...Freshman posts Ashley Lindsey (5.5 ppg) and Aubry Cook (5.1 ppg) are next among the non-injured players in scoring ... Lindsey is second in rebounding (4.8 rpg) ... Norman leads UT in assists (59, 2.5 apg) and Arriaran is second in assists (46, 1.9)... Arriaran leads the club in 3-pointers made (38) and in free throw percentage (.824, 28-34).
A Look at Texas A&M
The Aggies are led by sophomore guard/forward Morenike Atunrase (13.4 ppg, 3.7 rpg), freshman guard Takia Starks (11.5 ppg), sophomore guard A'Quonesia Franklin (9.0 ppg, team-high 4.7 assists/game) and freshman forward Danielle Gant (8.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg) and sophomore ... The Aggies enjoy a huge scoring advantage over their opponents, out-scoring the opposition by a +13.2 ppg margin (70.3 ppg to 57.2 ppg)... A&M also has a significant edge in turnover margin, committing 14.4 turnovers/game to the opposition's 23.2 - a +8.8 turnover margin.
In the NCAA Stats
In this week's NCAA stats, the Longhorns continue to rank among the national leaders in clocks, standing No. 7 nationally with 5.9 bpg ... UT's next best rank is 67th in steals (10.1 spg)... A&M is No. 13 in blocks per game (5.5), No. 16 in scoring margin "+13.2) and No. 26 in turnovers per game (14.4).
Texas-Texas A&M Series
Tonight's game marks the 69th game in the Texas-Texas A&M series, which is the second longest series in Texas women's basketball history ... The longest series is the UT-Texas Tech series which is at 73 games; Texas leads that series, 52-21 ... In all-time games against A&M, the Longhorns stand 57-11, and had their seven-game series win streak broken this Feb. 8 when the Aggies won, 73-53, in Austin ... Texas is 14-2 against the Aggies dating back to the 1998-99 campaign ... In the Feb. 8th win, A&M's Morenike Atunrase scored 15 points and No. 24 Texas A&M used a 28-0 run over 10 minutes in the first half en route to snapping the Longhorns' 31-game, Big 12 home winning streak ... Erika Arriaran and Niña Norman each scored 14 for Texas, which was playing without the injured Tiffany Jackson.
Prior to the Feb. 8th win, the lone A&M win in this 16-game string was on Feb. 2, 2002, a 70-65 victory in College Station... This is the second time this year that the two squad meet with Texas unranked and A&M ranked; prior to the Feb. 8 game, the last time that happened was on Feb. 9, 1994 - 30 games ago in the series... That contest was won in Austin by Texas, 81-69... The Longhorns hold a 27-3 all-time record in Austin against the Aggies... In games played at College Station, UT stands 23-5, and is 6-2 in the last eight games in Aggieland; at neutral sites, Texas is 7-3 against TAMU.
State Farm Lone Star Showdown
Following tonight's game, the State Farm Lone Star Showdown trophy will be presented to the winning team...In the Lone Star Showdown points race across all sports that UT and A&M compete in, Texas current ly holds a 6.5-1.5 State Farm LSSD points edge; a school needs 10 points to win the Showdown for the year ... This is its second year... Texas claimed the Showdown title last year (14.5 to 4.5)... Texas women's basketball earned a full point with two wins over the Aggies a year ago.
