In Reply to: I love this year’s women’s team. That said… posted by Fuzzy on December 07, 2025 at 22:13:07
agree, Fuzzy. To me, it looks like UConn has that edge already and talent to measure up to ours. (I haven't seen South Carolina yet this year and they'll be up there also.) Texas jumped us and we never matched their fight but I think that was a learning experience for us and we'll see if Texas can beat the top three at the end of the season - if their style can make them better than the talent of their players and if they can overwhelm us or either of the other two again when it counts most - and if the refs let them get away with all the contact they cause.
I just feel like there's a huge difference between players going out there to prove they're the better team than their opponent - which we accomplished in the first half yesterday - and locking in to win this game. There's a natural bit of a letdown once you've achieved the former - so very often when two good (or better) teams play, you see the trailing team make a comeback. We did against Texas. As you said, you have to train to avoid doing that.
The other thing, though, is we were playing so hard - especially on defense - in that first half. And missing Sienna and Timea we're still fairly short handed. Bilic is starting to prove out and that's great but Muse to this point anyway doesn't hold up the level. Adding those two, especially Sienna with her size and the way she plays, could make a difference and give us a better chance of extending our full all-out energy play to 40 minutes.
We are going to need to be able to do that before this season is over