New Mexico (2-1) at Texas (0-0)
Friday, Nov. 18, 2005: 7 p.m. (Central)
Frank Erwin Center (capacity 16,775), Austin, Texas
Game Day Information & Quick Facts:
TV: FSN SW (FOX Sports Southwest); Brian Anderson (play-by-play); Brenda VanLengen (color analyst)
Internet TV: subscription-based
Radio: Texas- KVET Radio/Sports Radio 1300 (1300 AM), Austin; Chad Hastings (play-by-play); Cathy McDonald (color analyst)
Live Audio: Available through UT's subscription service
Nike Day: Wear Nike apparel and receive $2 off one general admission ticket!
Hoops for Hunger: FREE general admission with every non-perishable food donation.
Orange Santa Night: FREE general admission with the donation of a new, unwrapped toy.
UT Students can enter to win an MP3 player and Longhorn Fossil Watches! Enter at the marketing tables located outside section 29 and 44 in the concourse.
Texas Tickets
Texas women's basketball has numerous ticket plans in place for the 2005-06 season (full season ticket packages, a five-game mini-season ticket package, group ticket sales and single game ticket purchases). For more information on UT basketball tickets, go to TexasBoxOffice.com or call 512-471-3333 or 1-800-982-BEVO. For charge-by-phone, you can call 512-477-6060. Tickets can be purchased in person at the following locations: Bellmont Hall Athletics Ticket Office (Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m-4 p.m. Central); and at any Texas Box Office location, including the Frank Erwin Center (Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and game days prior to tipoff) or at Austin area H-E-B stores.
Scouting Tonight's Teams
The Longhorns (0-1) are ranked No. 12 in both the USA Today/ESPN and Associated Press Top 25 polls ... Texas is playing its second regular season game after opening play Friday night at home against New Mexico, while this is the season opener for Sam Houston State... Texas lost that game to New Mexico, 76-68, as unranked New Mexico connected on 33 of 41 free throws, including a clutch 12-for-13 in the final 7:58, to post the victory in front of 5,729 at the Frank Erwin Center ... UT was paced by junior F Tiffany Jackson and freshman guard Erika Arriaran who each had 17 points... Arriaran was the only one of seven freshmen (six cleared to play) to start the game, but Arriaran and the other five rookies combined to play 102 of the Longhorns' 200 minutes on the court, as Arriaran had a team-high 32 minutes on the court.
Last year, Sam Houston went 7-20 (4-12 in the Southland Conference) ... The Bearkats have four returning starters, led by 6-0 senior guard Jamie Davidson (6.7 ppg) ... In its two exhibition games, Sam Houston lost to the Houston Jaguars (87-70) and defeated the Houston Elite (83-64) ... In all-time series play, Texas leads the Bearkats, 3-0... This includes last year's 83-33 victory on Dec. 28, 2004 in Austin.
Action Jackson
Despite nursing an ankle injury which forced her to miss six straight days of practice, 6-3 All-America junior forward Tiffany Jackson had a strong outing against New Mexico... The National Player of the Year candidate had 17 points (tying with Arriaran for the team lead) and a team-best six rebounds along with three steals in 28 minutes of play... Jackson has now been in double-figure scoring IN 85 percent of her collegiate games (57 times in 67 games) ... She also has a team-high 17 double-doubles (double-figure rebounding and scoring).
Longhorn Record Watch
Senior guard Nina Normans enters the Sam Houston game two assists shy of tying for the No. 8 career mark ... Norman has 343 assists, and the No. 8 spot is held by Esoleta Whaley (1980-84) who dished out 345 ... The seventh spot is held by Angie Jo Ogletree (403, 1993-97)... Tiffany Jackson needs two blocks to move into a tie for the No. 8 position, held by Cinietra Henderson who had 106 rejections from 1989-93.
Home Cookin'
Prior to Friday's loss to New Mexico, the Longhorns had only lost ONE game at the Frank Erwin Center dating back to the start of the 2002-03 season ... Texas is now 44-2 in that span at home .... Last year, UT was 13-1 at the Erwin Center after going 16-0 and 15-0 at home, respectively, the two previous years ... Last year's only home loss came to No. 24 Rutgers in a 51-47 upset when the Longhorns were ranked No. 4 ... After that, Texas won its final eight home games prior to Friday's loss to New Mexico... Prior to that Rutgers loss, Texas owned the nation's top homecourt win streak at 41 games - the second longest homecourt victory streak in Longhorns history... In all-time games at the Erwin Center, which opened in 1977-78, Texas stands 361-54 (an 87.2 winning percentage).
This is the 32nd season of UT women's basketball ... In all-time season openers, Texas is now 23-9 ... UT is 8-3 in its last 11 openers ... In all-time HOME openers, Texas stands 29-3 with the last home opener loss in 1998-99 (66-59 loss to No. 11 Rutgers, Nov. 24, 1998) prior to Friday's setback.
Youth Will Be Served
In addition to having the most freshmen ever (seven) on her squad, Jody Conradt enters the 2005-06 campaign with the YOUNGEST, age-wise, team she has ever coached ... The seven Longhorn freshmen are an average combined age of 18 years and seven months; the 15 player roster has an average age of 19 years and 11 months ... The team has: one fifth-year senior (Coco Reed), three seniors, two juniors, two sophomores and the seven rookies.
Of the seven freshmen, however, six gained All-America status in high school, headlined by 5-10 guard Erika Arriaran, who earned Parade Magazine and 2005 State Farm/WBCA National HS Player of the Year honors as a senior at Norco HS ... The UT lineup also features Gatorade State Players of the Year from Oklahoma (6-1 forward Earnesia Williams from Sapulpa) and Arkansas (5-11 guard Crystal Boyd from Little Rock).
Not Many College Minutes of Experience
Outside of returning starters Jackson and Norman, the other six letterwinners bring an average of 8.2 minutes per game of playing time into this season ... Reed leads the other letterwinners in career minutes played average with 13.5 (including 15.8 mpg a year ago).
Why is this? The Longhorns graduated six players from last year's 22-9 squad, including three starters (6-2 Heather Schreiber, 6-2 Kala Bowers, 5-6 guard Jamie Carey)... Schreiber started each and every possible game in her Longhorns career - 133 ... Schreiber and Carey (96 games at UT, 84 starts) combined for 383 3-pointers in their career ... Bowers (132 games, 111 starts) and 6-2 Annissa Hastings (111 games, 18 starts) were UT's "lockdown defenders"... Carey averaged 31.3 mpg, Schreiber 28.9, Bowers 23.3 and Hastings 16.2 during their respective careers.
Up Next: Three Road Games
Texas hits the road for its next three games ... Over Thanksgiving weekend, Texas squares off against South Carolina in the first round of the Junkanoo Jam Tournament in Freeport, Bahamas (2:30 p.m. Central, Friday, Nov. 25) ... UT then faces either Purdue or George Washington in Saturday's third-place or championship game (noon/2:30 p.m.) ... After returning home for two days, UT then flies to Knoxville to face the No. 1/2 ranked Tennesse Lady Vols (6 p.m. on ESPN2) ... For all games, home and away, fans can follow the Longhorns on commercial radio (on KVET 1300 AM in Austin) or via the internet (on subscription-based Yahoo!Sports broadcasts via www.TexasSports.com).
TV Time
Starting with tonight's game, Texas will appear on national and regional TV a total of 15 times in the regular season ... This includes three games on ESPN2, five on FSN (FOX Sports Net), three on CSTV, one on ESPNU and three on FSNSW ... Tennessee (Dec. 1), UConn (Feb. 12) and Texas Tech (Feb. 26 in Austin) battle the Longhorns on ESPN2, while the Duke game (Dec. 4), the two contests with Baylor (Jan. 7 in Waco, March 1 in Austin), the Kansas State (Jan. 22) and Colorado contests (Feb. 4) will be on FSN... The UT-Texas Tech game (Feb. 1) in Lubbock airs on ESPNU, and the three CSTV games are all road games versus Rutgers (Dec. 30), Kansas (Jan. 3) and Oklahoma (Jan. 25).
For those games which are not available on national/regional/local TV, UT Athletics has unveiled an internet video feature called this year (internet subscription for all home games, post-game press conferences and special events, available via TexasSports.com).
