Golden: When the Texas women play bigger, they're usually better

When the Texas women play bigger, they’re always better.

Bigs like Taylor Jones, for instance. She’s the biggest Longhorn at 6-foot-5, so when on those rare occasions she falls down, it gets everybody’s attention. The Texas redwood was standing tall for most of the night against East Carolina in the NCAA opener, but she hit the deck in what turned out to be a wildly physical game despite the lopsided result.

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“There were a few times where I was sort of thrown to the ground or things that I may have thought were fouls weren't called, but that's just how it is being a post,” said Jones, who finished with 16 points and eight rebounds. “Looking at tonight's game compared to all of our Big 12 games, I don't think that it was more physical than any of those.”

So how would you describe your vocation, Taylor?

“It's just the post life,” she said. “We get beat up down there.”

The 79-40 win was one-sided points-wise, but the upstart Pirates, though outsized, didn’t back down and banged with the bigger Texas posts for most of the first half before Texas’ bulk and brawn eventually got the best of them. The Horns will face a sturdier test in perennial title contender Louisville on Monday night, but on this night, they played up to their size, dominating ECU in points in the paint (40-16), rebounds (44-30) and blocks (12-3).

Those are big-girl stats that illustrate just how things went. With Jones, 6-foot-2 DeYona Gaston, 6-foot-4 Amina Muhammad and 6-foot-4 Khadija Faye splitting post duty, there’s always a fresh body underneath and the Pirates, whose freshman Amiya Joyner represents their tallest player in the regular rotation, felt that weight of bulk as the night wore on.

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“It was extremely physical, but this is what you get at this level.,” ECU coach Kim McNeill said. “Obviously, you know, we're not as big in statute as Texas as you know, they can keep throwing big bodies at you, big bodies at you. Not only from the post, but just from the guards, just big strong bodies. And so it definitely takes a toll on you.”

Jones, Gaston, Muhammad and Faye combined for 35 points, 21 rebounds and eight of the team’s 12 blocks. They bludgeoned the smaller, less tournament-experienced Pirates and used their tremendous size to make it an easy night at the office. Sure, the guards played great. Shaylee Gonzales topped the 2,000-point career scoring mark with 20 points and Rori Harmon handed out 12 assists, but it was Texas' big girls who set the tone to the delight of their head coach.

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Vic Schaefer has said on countless occasions that college basketball is a guard’s game, but he understands Texas is going nowhere if the bigs don’t literally throw their weight around against opposing posts. He isn’t happy that Jones is the only interior player making at least 60% of her field goal attempts. He wants more efficiency and that kind of bone-rattling physical toughness that will take pressure off his guards to shoulder the offensive load.

"We know we have the tallest team in the Big 12 and were the biggest team," he said. "So what happens a lot for us is that we're athletic, we block shots. We're long, we deflect, and so that's OK. But then the tradeoff is on the other end, we sometimes get bullied and shoved and pushed by smaller people. It's not the way it's supposed to be. But we've had to deal with it all year long. So I think the challenge for us is we've got to toughen up and and be able to play whatever the game dictates tomorrow."

Schaefer isn’t looking too far down the road because his longtime colleague Jeff Walz has a Louisville roster that boasts nine players who stand 6-foot or taller. Junior forward Olivia Cochran averages 8.1 points and 6.5 rebounds, which may not be huge numbers on the surface, but enough of an interior presence to complement the guards, especially the electric Hailey Van Lith.

The 24-11 Cardinals present a nice test. They played Texas even on the boards 32-32 in the early-season 71-63 win in the Bahamas, albeit without an injured Rori Harmon, who was nursing a sore toe. More important, the Cardinals held a 38-28 edge in points in the paint.

If Texas can advance with win No. 27, it will go from a home pop quiz to the mother of all exams in a potential tourney rematch with No. 1-seeded Stanford, which played Ole Miss late Sunday night.

Schaefer still has nightmares about how Stanford dominated Texas 45-28 in rebounds and 11-1 in blocks in last year's 59-50 Elite Eight win. Cardinal lynchpins Haley Jones and Cameron Brink combined for 38 points, 18 rebounds and eight blocks in that game. No Texas big had more than three rebounds.

The further Texas goes, the bigger the challenges and the bigger the posts will get. While guards may make the flashier plays, the teams with the best bigs have long dominated the women’s game in this modern era from UConn’s four titles under swing person Breanna Stewart to Kim Mulkey’s Baylor titles behind bigs Sophia Young, Brittney Griner and the Kalani Brown-Lauren Cox combo, and to the Stanford duo to South Carolina’s national title holder and reigning player of the year, Aaliyah Boston.

Closer to home, Texas' last Final Four team had great guards in Jamie Carey, Nina Norman and Heather Schreiber but that squad had also had elite bigs in Stacy Stephens and the late Tiffany Jackson who made it all go with physical play down low.

Just like the current Texas crew, Louisville is a guard-led team powered by electric Hailey Van Lith, who scored 26 points against Drake. Her backcourt mates Chrislyn Carr and Morgan Jones combine for another 20.4 points, but the winner will be the team that controls the paint.

“I think they have a lot of rim protectors, and mostly they're just going to clean the glass on us,” Van Lith said. "I think we're going to have to keep them off the board on the second-chance points, even a lot of their posts. If they miss their first shot, they get a second shot on the block again, and I think those are high-percentage shots. We can't be giving those up.”

Walz was not pleased with how his team defended against a capable Drake club, which gave the Cardinals all they could handle in an 83-81 first-round thriller at Moody. Van Lith took over down the stretch with 11 points in the fourth quarter.

Walz knows the game could be a track meet, slobberknocker or both.

"They're always going to come out and compete defend and rebound the basketball," Walz said. "Vic and and I have gotten to know each other over the past 15, 16 years and just appreciate the the way he does things."

Texas played like the biggest bully on the block against ECU, and those same muscles will have to flex even more against a veteran Louisville team that's no stranger to deep runs in the tournament.

Two big programs are powered by two alpha dog coaches who believe toughness and physicality are the blueprint to the final weekend.

I can't wait to see this guard matchup but the better bigs will play a large role on which team is still standing come the Sweet 16.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas women's basketball used its size advantage to beat East Carolina