COULD TEXAS HAVE WON the NCAA women’s championship without Julien Alfred?
Maybe. Do the math, and sure, it’s possible. The Longhorns were not a one-woman show. This title came because coach Edrick Floréal built a daunting ensemble of talent.
Fifth-year Longhorn director Floréal is where Alfred began in giving credit for her flawless display of grace… nay… power under pressure.
“My coach,” Alfred said to a large gaggle of reporters. “My coach has been my biggest influence in my life, my 5 years here at Texas. Prior to beginning the championships, I went outside to speak to him, and he was like, ‘Let’s not focus on [you], focus on the team. I think that changing the pressure, moving the pressure from myself and doing it for my team instead made a huge difference.”
But remove Alfred from the equation and it would have been a lot more dicey. Championships come a lot easier when a team has a Tom Brady. Or if you prefer a female analogy, a Diana Taurasi. (Or for a Longhorn one, Vince Young.)
That is to say, a player not just loaded with talent, but also one who has the coolness under pressure to deliver. And the Saint Lucian came into the meet with loads of pressure. Our final pre-meet formchart predicted a Longhorn stampede of 88 points, and between the 100, 200, 4×1, and 4×4, Alfred was expected to have a hand in 36. Alfred (with the help of her 4×1 teammates) delivered 30 of 83. The points piled so high (fifth-most under the modern scoring system and highest since ’94) that a semifinals 4×4 disqualification became moot.
After blasting the 4×1 semis with its third Collegiate Record of the season at 41.55, the Texas quartet of Alfred, Ezinne Abba, Rhasidat Adeleke, and Kevona Davis stayed dominant in the finals with a 41.60, nearly a full second ahead of Kentucky (42.46). In the 100, Alfred tied her all-conditions CR 10.72w, and in the 200 similarly produced an all-conditions collegiate best 21.73w.
Said Alfred, “After the 4×1, I was just so high like last year after the 4×1 [which Texas also won in a more-human 42.42], and he tried to calm me down, helping me to breathe in and out. And that helped me out a lot. My coach has had such an influence on my life and I really appreciate him for that.”
Of course, it’s the prep work that makes the onstage performance possible. Alfred said a “change of…
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