If the Texas Tech women's basketball team wanted to find out just how good it is, it selected the ideal holiday tournament to attend.
The Lady Raiders will travel to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands for the Paradise Jam Tournament, which starts today and wraps up Saturday. Normally, when a team such as Tech enters a tournament ranked 13th in the latest Associated Press poll, it would have to be considered a favorite to grab the tournament title.
It's not farfetched to admit, however, the Lady Raiders might be hard-pressed to finish third out of four teams in the event.
All four schools at the tournament are ranked in the top 20, with Penn State coming in at No.9, Louisiana State at No.10 and Southwest Missouri State at No.17. Tech will open the tournament against Penn State at 4 p.m. (CST) today.
''I think it is a great test for us because playing against good teams is only going to make you better,'' Tech junior guard Amber Tarr said. ''It doesn't matter if you win or lose, you're going to learn from it.
''It's better to lose to someone who is good than to win against somebody you really didn't have to work hard against. If you can get away with doing something and still win, that doesn't help you out at all. So I think this is a really good test for us because we'll get to play some hard teams and we'll have to buckle up and play our best if we're going to win.''
Tarr and her teammates didn't have to work too hard to grab a season-opening win against Texas-Arlington on Monday. But it is a given they will have to buckle down to topple the Lady Lions and whoever else they face in St. Thomas.
Whatever the outcome of the tournament, the Lady Raiders know they will be better off because of their experience against some of the nation's best teams.
And it should be particularly helpful when the all-important Big 12 Conference season rolls around.
''Hopefully, if we go through some adversity against Penn State, it'll make it easier if we have to go through it against Missouri or Oklahoma or whoever in Big 12 play,'' Tech head coach Marsha Sharp said.
''You hope you do enough in non-conference to have them battle-tested so that when we start against Missouri in the Big 12 that we feel a little bit more confident about how we're going to handle it.''
The team left Tuesday for the islands, hoping to enjoy a couple of days in the sun before getting back to work.
It is work that should be much harder than its season-opening contest.
''I think it will be a good test for us not only will the trip be fun, but we have to go up there and handle business,'' senior guard Katrisa O'Neal said. ''Our main purpose of going down there is playing basketball. With us playing two ranked teams, it would help us a lot in getting mentally prepared for other big games down the road.''
Jeremy Cowen can be contacted at 766-8736 or email@example.com
© 2017. All Rights Reserved. | Contact Us