 "Photo: Paul Chouy/The Daily Texan")
Ever since the Longhorns’ schedule came out months ago, one game was circled on everyone’s calendar — Nov. 17 versus Connecticut.
The Huskies are the defending national champions and were unanimously voted as the top team in the preseason polls. But before the Longhorns make their way down Interstate Highway 35 to play Connecticut at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, they will welcome a team from the Alamo City to play in the season opener at the Frank Erwin Center.
UTSA comes into Austin on Friday hoping to upset the Longhorns in front of their home crowd.
“We’ve been preparing for both of these teams awhile now during practice, and we certainly won’t overlook them,” said head coach Gail Goestenkors.
The Roadrunners are coming off their second consecutive Southland Conference championship and almost became the first 15 seed to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament after falling to Baylor in overtime to end its year.
While UTSA lost most of its key players from last season, the Longhorns, who are 32-3 in home openers, have plenty of familiar faces returning despite only having ten players on the team. One of the biggest strengths of the team is its depth.
”There is no spot where we really lack,” said junior Kathleen Nash. “We have both posts and guards who are capable of doing a lot on the court.”
The Longhorns plan on being a fast-paced team this season and feel that having only ten players should not hurt them.
“It should be hard for teams to keep up with our pace,” Nash said.
The Longhorns enter the season emphasizing ball security as turnovers and rebounding were a big a problem for last season’s squad.
“We want to maintain our aggressiveness but have some poise under pressure situations, which we just didn’t see last year,” Goestenkors said.
The Longhorns had the third-most turnovers in the Big 12 last year, averaging 16.9 a game.
“Our main focus has been to take care of the ball,” said freshman Cokie Reed.
Texas is also trying to avoid a midseason collapse such as last year’s, in which the team won its first 11 games but went 10-12 for the remainder of the season.
“Last year, we started the season really well, and then we dipped and lost our confidence,” Goestenkors said. “Every team goes through tough times, but we have to stay strong through those tough times.”
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