Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (5-4) at No. 20/23 Texas (5-3)
Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2005: 7 p.m. (Central)
at the Frank Erwin Center (capacity 16,775), Austin, Texas
Game Day Information & Quick Facts
TV: none
Internet TV:
Radio: Texas: KVET Radio/Sports Radio 1300 (1300 AM), Austin; TAMUCC Radio
Teams at A Glance
National Rankings: Texas: #20, Associated Press Top 25; #23, USA Today/ESPN Top 25 ... Texas A&M-Corpus Christi: not ranked
Last Year: Texas (22-9, NCAA 2nd Rd.); TAMUCC (23-7; WNIT second round)
All-Time Series Record: 2nd meeting: UT leads, 1-0 ... (Texas is 1-0 at home, 0-0 away, 0-0 neutral)
Series Streak: +1, Texas
Last Meeting: Jan. 2, 2004: #17 Texas 64, TAMUCC 37
Last TAMUCC victory: none
Texas Coach Jody Conradt (Baylor '63): 37th year overall: 1,155 games: 874-281 (.757); 30th year at Texas: 976 games: 757-219 (.776)
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Coach Jodi Kest: 14th year overall: 359 games: 214-145 (.596); 4th year at TAMUCC: 94 games: 62-32 (.660)
Jody Conradt vs. TAMUCC: 1-0
Game Promotions
Holiday Special: Fans who buy two general admission tickets get one general admission ticket FREE. Visit for a complete list of game promotions.
Tickets
Purchase at 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.
Tonight's Teams
Texas brings its 5-3 mark into tonight's game against the 5-4 Islanders of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi ... The Longhorns are coming off Sunday's 69-49 win over North Texas behind junior Tiffany Jackson's double-double and game-highs of 27 points and 16 rebounds ... Those 16 rebounds tied Jackson's career best ... Jackson shot 9-17 from the floor and went 9-10 in free throws, while also gaining a game-best four blocks and game-high tying five steals to round out her great effort ... The 49 points by North Texas (7-2) were the Mean Green's second-lowest point total of the year and the second lowest point total by a Texas opponent on the season.
TAMUCC, which is independent, went 23-7 a year ago and advanced to the second round of the post-season WNIT Tournament ... After dropping their first four games of this season - first three to ranked opponents (No. 20 Vanderbilt, No. 5 Baylor, No. 3 LSU) and then to Nebraska, the Islanders are on a five-game win streak ... TAMUCC won its own tourney this past weekend, defeating Birmingham Southern (68-58) and Kent State (68-48).
CollegeRPI.com Released, Longhorns 11th with the Second-Toughest Schedule in the Land
In this week's CollegeRPI.com, the Longhorns are ranked No. 11 overall - and true to form, Texas with its demanding schedule (playing No. 1 and No. 2 Tennessee and Duke already) stands No. 2 nationally in strength of schedule ... Tennessee, Connecticut and Baylor are the top ranked teams in the RPI, while Old Dominion (2-4) has the nation's toughest schedule to date... TAMUCC is at No. 42 in the RPI - it's highest spot to date this season - and its schedule is ranked the 19th toughest in the nation.
And It Gets No Easier for the Longhorns
How tough is UT's upcoming schedule? Of the top 10 teams ranked in this week's Associated Press Top 25 poll, the Longhorns have faced - or will face - five of them ... Already meeting the top two teams in the land (Tennessee and Duke), Texas also will play No. 4 Baylor twice, No. 8 Connecticut and No. 9 Rutgers ... Additionally, the Horns faced No. 18 New Mexico in the season opener, and also will play No. 16 Oklahoma twice during the Big 12 regular season.
Texas Stat Leaders
The versatile 6-3 junior Tiffany Jackson leads the Longhorns in scoring (14.5 ppg), rebounding (7.8 rpg) and steals (24, 3.9 spg) and is second in blocks (13, 1.6 bpg) and third in assists (11) ... Freshman Erika Arriaran (11.5 ppg) and senior Nina Norman (7.6) follow in scoring, with Arriaran first in UT assists (18), free throw percentage (.842, 16-19) and 3-pointers (12) ... Through eight games, Jackson has been in double-figure scoring six times, a team high ... In the last five games, she has been in double digit scoring, collecting 85 points for a 17.0 ppg average.
A Look at TAMUCC
The 5-4 Islanders are led by their "all-everything" performer, 6-0 senior forward Terra Andrews who has team highs of 15.3 ppg and 8.6 rpg ... She is followed by 6-2 senior Lindsey Van dorn (8.8 ppg, 5.3 rpg) and 5-6 junior Kribria Lewis (8.3 ppg) ... Lewis also has a team-high 34 assists ... Andrews was named the tournament MVP of the Flint Hills Resources Islander Classic this past weekend after averaging 16 points and 11.5 rebounds, and she scored 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in the title game win over Kent State (68-48).
The Islanders will be facing their fourth nationally-ranked opponent tonight... A&M-Corpus Christi began the season with three straight games against ranked opponents as they faced No. 17 Vanderbilt, No. 5 Baylor and No. 3 LSU in succession - all losses ... The Islanders are looking for the program's first-ever win over a ranked opponent posting an 0-6 record in six tries ... Tonight's game is the 11th contest for the Islanders against a Big 12 team and their third this season ... They are 0-10 in prior games against Big 12 teams, including losses this year to Baylor (92-64, Nov. 22) and Nebraska (76-45, Nov. 27) ... The Islanders have lost three times to Texas A&M, twice to Nebraska and Oklahoma State, and once each to Baylor, Kansas State, and Texas ... They are 1-3 away from Corpus Christi this year (0-2 in neutral play, 1-1 on road) ...
Four-Game Homestand Ends Tonight, Then Three Away
The Longhorns are playing the last of four consecutive games at home - their longest homestand of the year ... After tonight's game, Texas hits the road (post-Christmas) for three straight nationally-televised road games, tying its longest road swing of the year ... UT plays at No. 9/9 Rutgers (Fri., Dec. 30 on CSTV, 6 p.m.) before beginning the Big 12 Conference slate with games at Kansas (Tue., Jan. 3, 6 p.m. on CSTV) and at No. 4/4 Baylor (Sat., Jan. 7, 3 p.m. on FSN) ... To date this year, Texas is 3-2 at home to date, 0-1 in away games and 2-0 at neutral sites.
In the NCAA Statistics This Week
The NCAA released its third week of Division I national statistics on Dec. 19 ... Texas ranks No. 5 nationally in blocked shots per game, averaging 7.1 rejections per contest... The Longhorns are led by 6-4 freshman Ashley Lindsey who has 39 percent of UT's bocked shots (22 of 57) ... Lindsey is averaging 2.8 blocks per game and is ranked No. 15 nationally ... The NCAA blocks leader is Duke (8.8 bpg) ...UT also is No. 24 nationally in steals (96, spg)... The best TAMUCC national rank is 76th in free throw percentage (.716).
