No. 16/18 Texas (3-1) at No. 2/1 Tennessee (5-0)
Thursday, Dec. 1, 2005: 6:00 p.m. (Central)
Thompson Boling Arena (capacity 24,535), Knoxville, Tenn.
Game Day Information and Quick Facts
TV: ESPN2 (Terry Gannon, play-by-play; Ann Myers, color)
Radio: Texas- KVET Radio/Sports Radio 1300 (1300 AM), Austin; Tennessee: Lady Vol Radio Network
Texas Internet Radio: Available through UT's subscription service
Teams at A Glance:
National Rankings: Texas: #16, Associated Press Top 25; #18, USA Today/ESPN Top 25 ....
Tennessee: #2, Associated Press Top 25; #1, USA Today/ESPN Top 25
Last Year: Texas (22-9, NCAA 2nd Rd.); Tennessee (30-5, NCAA semifinalist)
All-Time Series Record: 2nd meeting: Texas leads, 1-0 ... (Texas is 1-0 at home, 0-0 away, 0-0 neutral)
Series Streak: +4, Texas
Last Meeting: Nov. 25, 2004: #4 Texas 74, #1 Tennessee 59 (in Austin, Texas)
Last Tennessee victory: Dec. 22, 2001: Tennessee 67, Texas 59 (at Austin, Texas)
Texas Coach Jody Conradt: 37th year overall: 1,151 games: 872-279 (.758); 30th year at Texas: 972 games: 755-217 (.777)
Tennessee Coach Pat Summitt: 32nd yr overall (all at Tennessee): 1,059 games: 887-172 (.838)
Jody Conradt vs. Tennessee: 11-15
Quick Glance at the Teams:
The Texas Longhorns from the Big 12 Conference stand 3-1, and enter tonight's game with a three-game win streak ... The Longhorns and are ranked No. 16 in this week's Associated Press Top 25 Poll (up from No. 18 a week ago) and stay at the same spot (18th) as last week in the USA Today/ESPN Poll ... The Longhorns own a four-game series win streak over the Lady Vols - the longest active win streak in the country against Tennessee ... Texas is coming off two wins and the Lucaya Division title at the Junkanoo Jam Tournament (in Freeport, Grand Bahama Island) where UT stopped South Carolina (Nov. 25), 59-55, and then George Washington (59-54, Nov. 26) in the finals ... In the preseason Big 12 coaches poll, Texas was picked second (behind defending NCAA titlist Baylor) ... Tennessee stands 5-0 on the year, and is ranked No. 1 in the USA Today/ESPN Poll and second in the AP rankings... Tennessee also is coming off an island tournament title, having defeated No. 10 Maryland, 80-75 Saturday in the Paradise Jam tourney at the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Longhorns are led by returning All-American and preseason national player of the year candiidate junior Tiffany Jackson ... She currently is second in scoring (11.3 ppg) and first in rebounding (6.8 rpg) and steals (12, 3.0 spg) ... Senior 5-6 guard Nina Norman (5.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg), an All-Big 12 Preseason Honorable Mention Team pick, was fourth in scoring (7.8 ppg) and first in assists (98, 3.5 apg) last year ... She has been hampered by knee tendonitis which has limited her early playing time ... Texas has eight letterwinners back last year's 22-9 team which went to the NCAA Championship second round after placing second to eventual national titlist Baylor in the Big 12 regular season standings.
In addition to the eight letterwinners, UT's class of seven freshmen is the largest rookie class in Texas head coach Jody Conradt's tenure ... These seven were selected as the nation's No. 1 recruiting class last year by the All-Star Girls Report recruiting service ... Rookie 5-10 guard Erika Arriaran, last year's Parade and WBCA/State Farm Player of the Year, leads the balanced UT scoring attack to date with 12.8 ppg ... She also is first in assists (11, 2.8 apg) and minutes played (29.8).
Brutal Stretch: Tennessee and Duke Back-to-Back for Longhorns:
Following tonight's game, Texas returns home to host the nation's other No. 1 ranked squad - Duke (5-0) - on Sunday, Dec. 4 (12:30 p.m.) in a game live on FSN (FOX Sports Net) TV ... Duke stands first in the AP Top 25 Poll and second in the USA Today/ESPN poll ...Texas is the only team in the country to face Tennessee and Duke in back-to-back games this regular season ... In addition, Texas joins Old Dominion, Maryland and Auburn as the only schools with Tennessee and Duke on their 2005-06 regular season schedules; only Texas and ODU have scheduled Duke and Tennessee as non-conference opponents, as Maryland faces Duke in the ACC and Tennessee as a non-league opponent, while Auburn meets Tennessee in the SEC and then meets non-league opponent Duke.
Texas Against No. 1's
Texas stands 4-12 against teams ranked No. 1 in all-time games - dating back to 1976-77 ... Texas' first three wins came in the mid-1980's before the No. 4 Longhorns stopped the No. 1 ranked Lady Vols last year in Austin, 74-59 ... Three of UT's four wins against No. 1 ranked opponents have come against the Lady Vols ... Texas has met Tennessee seven times when the Lady Vols were No. 1 and stand 3-4 in those games .. Prior to last year's victory, the last Texas win over a No. 1 ranked team was one of those wins over Tennessee (97-78 on Dec. 9, 1987 in Knoxville when Texas was No. 3)... Since then, Texas is 1-7 against No. 1 ranked opponents.
The Texas-Tennessee Series
In one of the top traditional non-conference rivalries in women's basketball, Texas and Tennessee meet tonight for the 26th time ... ALL MEETINGS have been in the regular season, as ironically these two squads have never met in AIAW or NCAA tourney action ... Tennessee leads the series, 15-10, although Texas holds a four-game series win streak ... The longest Texas win streak in the series is four games twice (from 1982-1985 and from 2002-present) ... The last five contests in the series (games of 2001-05) have been decided by a TOTAL of 37 points - an average of 7.4 points per game.
In 2000-01, Tennessee won by eight, 67-59, in Austin (Dec. 22); in 2001-02, Texas snapped a 13-game series losing streak with a dramatic 69-66 victory in Knoxville (Feb. 12); Dec. 21, 2003 a three-pointer from the top of the key by then-rookie Nina Norman who was starting in the absence of guard Jamie Carey (out with mononucleosis) gave No. 22/21 Texas an upset 63-62 win over the No. 4 Lady Vols in Austin; in 2004 in Knoxville, the No. 5 Horns posted a 70-60 upset win over No. 2 Tennessee on Dec. 28, 2003 behind a game-high 18 points from Norman, 14 from junior guard Jamie Carey and a double-double of 13 points and game-high 12 boards from then-rookie Tiffany Jackson ... That Longhorn win snapped Tennessee's 25-game home court win streak, which ironically was started after the Longhorns last had beaten Tennessee on Feb. 12, 2002.
Last year, behind another underclassman again - sophomore Jackson - Texas responded with a 74-59 win on Thanksgiving night in Austin (Nov. 25) ... Jackson had 19 points and had a career-high eight blocks ... It also ended Texas' seven-game losing skid to top-ranked teams Texas is 4-6 in games played at Knoxville, 5-7 against the Lady Vols in Austin, and 1-2 at neutral sites (all regular season meetings).
Texas vs. the SEC
Tennessee is the second of two Southeastern Conference opponents on the UT schedule this year ... The other was South Carolina, two games ago, and UT came away with a 59-55 win over USC in the Junkanoo Jam tourney first round (Nov. 25) ... In all-time games against the SEC, Texas stands 50-36 ( 58.1%) ... UT against the SEC is as follows: 2-0 vs. Alabama; 21-3 vs. Arkansas (former Southwest Conference opponent); 0-1 vs. Auburn; 1-3 vs. Florida; 2-5 vs. Georgia; 1-0 vs. Kentucky; 4-4 vs. LSU; 4-1 vs. Mississippi; 2-0 vs. South Carolina; 11-15 vs. Tennessee; and 1-4 vs. Vanderbilt.
Action Jackson
Despite nursing an ankle injury which forced her to miss six straight days of practice prior to the New Mexico season opener, 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 frosh Erika Arriaran for the team lead) and a team-best six rebounds along with three steals in 28 minutes of play... Seeing little action in the next two games (83-33 win over Sam Houston State with six points and five rebounds, and then was foul-plagued against South Carolina where she had eight points and five boards), Jackson rebounded with her first double-double of the year with 14 points and 11 boards in the 59-54 win over George Washington in the Junkanoo Jam finals... She was named Tourney MVP. Jackson has now been in double-figure scoring in 83 percent of her collegiate games (58 times in 70 games) ... She also has a team-high 18 double-doubles (double-figure rebounding and scoring) in her career ... Senior guard Nina Norman is the only other Longhorn to have a double-double - she has one in her career.
Brand New Starting Lineup?
If you take returning starters Tiffany Jackson and Nina Norman out of the mix, the Longhorns enter the Tennessee game with a total of 17 CAREER STARTS from just four other players on the squad ... Fifth-year senior shooting guard Coco Reed has seven starts to her credit, while senior G Daria Mieloszynska and sophomore F Katrina Robinson, along with 5-10 rookie guard Erika Arriaran, have all gained their first-ever starts (four) in UT's first four contests ... Norman has claimed 71 starts in 101 career games, with 25 starts a year ago, while Jackson has 50 starts in 69 career games.
Frosh Strong
The nation's heralded No. 1 recruiting class is off to a good start at Texas ... In the opener against New Mexico, 5-10 freshman guard Erika Arriaran registered 17 points, tying for the team high, while fellow rookie guard Carla Cortijo added 15 points ... Against Sam Hoston, six frosh contributed 47 (of 83) points, or 57 percent ... In addition, the Longhorn freshmen pulled down 39 of UT's 62 rebounds -63 percent of them ... Freshman 6-4 post Ashley Lindsey netted game - and career-highs of 15 points and five blocks to go with six rebounds, while 6-3 freshman Aubry Cook had nine points and nine rebounds; 5-11 rookie guard Crystal Boyd also put up solid numbers, getting nine points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals. In the Junkanoo Jam's two games, Arriaran was UT's leading scorer both games (14 points vs. South Carolina; 15 vs. George Washington), gaining All-Tournament Team honors with Jackson ... Lindsey had a career-day against the Gamecocks ... Coming off the bench, she played 25 minutes with eight points, game-high tying and career-high 10 rebounds, game-high and career-high tying five blocks and one steal.
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