Texas' twin towers to test UConn
— -- ALBANY -- Stats gurus warn against predictions based on the last game you watched, but that might be Texas' best hope against No. 1 UConn in the NCAA women's regional semifinal here Saturday (ESPN/WatchESPN, noon ET).
The Longhorns played a "Twin Towers" lineup for much of their 73-70 victory at Cal in the second round on Sunday, and 6-foot-7 junior forward Imani McGee-Stafford and 6-5 sophomore center Kelsey Lang together scored 34 points while converting a combined 13-of-19 shots from the field.
Meanwhile, the inside presence of Lang (two blocks, two steals) and McGee-Stafford (11 boards) frustrated Cal's talented tandem of Brittany Boyd and Reshanda Gray, holding the latter to just seven points.
"We complement each other really well," McGee-Stafford said ahead of Friday's workout at the Times-Union Center. "I'm more of a banger, Kelsey's a lot of finesse. She shoots better, I rebound better, and we do what each other can't. It's fun playing with someone who can do exactly what you can't and has your back."
Texas' size might be the Longhorns' lone edge advantage over the 34-1 Huskies, the prohibitive favorite to win the region as well as their third straight NCAA title.
"The biggest team we've played is South Carolina, and they're way bigger than South Carolina," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "They've really found themselves these last four weeks. They're playing as well as anybody right now."
But while coach Karen Aston's move to pair Lang and McGee-Stafford looks obvious after the Cal game, which landed the once-feared Texas program its first Sweet 16 appearance since 2004, the Longhorns' mentor had already tried going big -- and failed. Aston started Lang alongside McGee-Stafford in five regular-season games in January and February, and lost four of them.
The slump was part of a disastrous midseason 2-8 sinkhole for the Longhorns, who opened the season 13-0 but fell into disarray when star forward Nneka Enemkpali sustained a season-ending knee injury on Jan. 19 against Baylor.
That blow, part of a rash of injuries this season, meant it would take time for Texas to rediscover a rhythm. "At the beginning of the season I never expected us playing together, but we had injuries, and we really had no choice," Lang said. "It took a while for us to get used to playing with each other. ... And now we're comfortable, and I think the other people on the court are comfortable with us playing together as well."
To hang with the Huskies, McGee-Stafford and Lang will have to make UConn's interior players uncomfortable. That's something no team has accomplished since Stanford handed UConn its lone defeat, in overtime, on Nov. 17. Kiah Stokes, the 6-3 senior center with 140 blocked shots, is the American Conference Defensive Player of the Year. Sophomore Morgan Tuck, a 6-2 forward, averaged nearly 23 points per 40 minutes this season. And 6-4 superstar Breanna Stewart, the MVP of the past two Final Fours, has the swagger of a likely repeat Naismith Award winner, so much so that her coach baits her in news conferences.
Asked how Stewart has matured and improved in three years, Auriemma said: "I saw her get in a defensive stance the other day, and I thought that was a huge improvement. I know she's from Syracuse, and it takes them a long time to pick things up, but for her to learn to get in a stance after just three years, I thought that was a major accomplishment."
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