Is Texas Lady Longhorns Coach Goestenkors Preparing to Have the Last Laugh?

Texas Lady Longhorn coach Gail Goestenkors told the halftime interviewer, “That was a bad, bad call on my part,” as a sheepish smile curled the corners of her mouth.

How often does the cliché-riddled verbiage of athletes and coaches resort to such blunt honesty?

But what else can really be said about the strategic defensive choice to defend Brittney Griner with one defender—defending from behind, yet.

It was indefensible.

With the help of Coach G’s gaffe, Griner and her top-ranked Baylor Lady Bears took a 4-4 game and made it 23-4 in a matter of six minutes on their way to an easy 77-59 win on the road Sunday afternoon.

By the time the 6’8” junior All-American took her first short breather 15 minutes into the game, she’d notched 19 points on eight-for-10 shooting, with the two misses coming from point-blank range.

The Erwin Center crowd was treated to one counter-assault that closed the deficit to 13 at 42-29, but a strong Baylor finish to the half restored a 49-29 cushion.

The game was never close again.

In truth, Coach Goestenkors had no good calls at her disposal on this day. The deep and talented Lady Bears were ready for any ploy—from a trapping defense to a set-shot-taking post player.  (UT center Ashley Gayle tallied 12 primarily perimeter points.)

The late scratch of 6’4” sophomore Cokie Reed, the Lady Horns’ most physical inside presence, didn’t help but isn’t likely to have really mattered.

Power forward Destiny Williams and wing Jordan Madden brought their A-games, along with their lunch pails, in support of Griner’s almost mundane magnificence.

Griner was free to work on her passing game, Coach Kim Mulkey’s most challenging decisions were how much time to give recuperating forward Brooklyn Pope and her softball-playing, back-up guard daughter.

The Texas girls, who’d upset defending national champion Texas A&M in their prior outing, huffed and puffed and battled; Coach G continued to exhort her young team; and the clock, mercifully, continued to tick.

Then it was over, the Lady Bears winding their merry way back to Waco, UT left to re-group and assess.

In the final analysis, though, except for that early spurt—facilitated, let’s note, by a handful of missed Horn foul shots—this was a one-point game, in favor of Texas.

And the head coach has chosen to take the fall for that—on live TV, no less.

Maybe, just maybe, there’s reason for Coach Goestenkors’s players to think they can indeed compete with this great team.

And from such seeds of belief is cultivated team confidence, a winning edge, that certain something that separates the champions from the also-rans.

Every iconic upset victory in the annals of sport was achieved by a team that believed it could, when “they” all said it couldn’t.

Such genuine belief, while devised and honed in the seclusion of the practice gym, is forged in the fires of actual competition.

With a rematch in Waco on Feb. 21 looming as well as Big XII? Conference and NCAA tournaments (not to mention Ms. Griner’s senior season), does Coach G foresee that turn-around game on the horizon for her team?

It will require veteran leadership from guards Yvonne Anderson and Ashleigh Fontenette, as well as Gayle—all seniors.

It will require the continued development of talented youngsters like Reed and wing Chassidy Fussell, both sophomores.

It will require some luck, too.

But luck can happen when opportunity meets preparation.

Maybe that wasn’t a sheepish grin we recognized on Coach G’s face at halftime, but a Cheshire grin we didn’t.