Observations about TSU

[madtownvol]

Guard play continues to come along. Horston had some nice offensive moves and brilliant passes.

Jazmine had another solid game. She played well on both side of the court and I really liked her demanding the team “lock it down on D” when TSU was making a little run.

Davis did not have a great shooting night but hit the boards and worked on hard defense. Fortunately, the game did not require Rennia be on her full A-game.

Rae had her share of out-of-control moments but settled down and had several good offensive plays. Nice to see her knock down a 3. The Lvs will need more of the aggressive and effective Rae.
It is hard to evaluate the post play because our players had such a massive size advantage but Saunders was the best finisher tonight. It was a bit of a down game for Key but some game to game fluctuation is to be expected for a freshman but she has

to become more consistent over the course of the season.

The one worrisome aspect of this game is that like ETSU, the LVs are having some trouble defending smaller, quicker guards. Related to that, the rotation from our bigs needs to get better. Key is probably the best on the dimension but Saunders needs to really improve in rotating over (as does KK).

I think this game as a little bit of two steps forward one step back but the team still showed a real commitment to the defense and rebound mantra, particularly in the 2nd half.

 

[FrozenLVFan]

Jazz had another solid game. I had doubted that she would be able to run this team effectively but she is doing a good job now that she is out of Evina's shadow.

I do hope that KJH will decide to sprinkle the substitutions in rather than throw 4 or 5 people onto the court at once. When she does the latter, the offensive flow goes to **** pretty quickly.

 

[RollerVol]

...and ten Lady Vols got some game experience...not a bad day...def got to be quicker protecting the lanes...

GO LADY VOLS!

 

[Volfan2012]

Actually Davis had an A game for the time she was in 12 points on 8 shots is a 1.50 per shot which is awesome. Her rebounding and defense in this game were tremendous.
Rae has to be settled down she did end up scoring 14 but only on 13 shots and that is an average performance. Her turnovers sometimes are just silly like the pass into the post to KK with two players in front of her.
Nothing tonight from Rennie who actually shot a three point shot behind the goal never seen that before. Harris didn't have much effect tonight either. I thought Saunders gave a good performance in the minutes she played she needs a lot of seasoning, but she has good hands and when she catches inside is tough to stop.
The major problems in this game were the teams failure to box out in the first half and turnovers that wouldn't be made if players were just paying attention. The offense has no movement and teams are still packing zones wanting us to shoot the perimeter shots. Were doing a fairly good job of getting the ball inside because off Horston and Massengill's ability to go inside and dish. Turnovers don't hurt you much against this level of competition as the extra shots they get usually are misses. We can't be giving teams plus 17 shots at the goal like we did Notre Dame lucky for us or thank you defense that they could only hit 32 percent. We were at a shot deficit again last night but like Notre Dame made some of it up by winning the free throw line attempts.

 

[lvocd]

Actually Davis had an A game for the time she was in 12 points on 8 shots is a 1.50 per shot which is awesome. Her rebounding and defense in this game were tremendous.
Rae has to be settled down she did end up scoring 14 but only on 13 shots and that is an average performance. Her turnovers sometimes are just silly like the pass into the post to KK with two players in front of her.
Nothing tonight from Rennie who actually shot a three point shot behind the goal never seen that before. Harris didn't have much effect tonight either. I thought Saunders gave a good performance in the minutes she played she needs a lot of seasoning, but she has good hands and when she catches inside is tough to stop.
The major problems in this game were the teams failure to box out in the first half and turnovers that wouldn't be made if players were just paying attention. The offense has no movement and teams are still packing zones wanting us to shoot the perimeter shots. Were doing a fairly good job of getting the ball inside because off Horston and Massengill's ability to go inside and dish. Turnovers don't hurt you much against this level of competition as the extra shots they get usually are misses. We can't be giving teams plus 17 shots at the goal like we did Notre Dame lucky for us or thank you defense that they could only hit 32 percent. We were at a shot deficit again last night but like Notre Dame made some of it up by winning the free throw line attempts.

Good post. thanks. Yeah, I was sitting in that section behind the LV bench, and the moment Jessie took that shot I could tell that it was way, WAY off. It either slipped a little or that was one of the most hilarious zone-out moments I’ve ever seen in a player.

I said the other night that I think Tennessee will play better against teams with similar size. Those little carnival-size girls just confuse the heck out of them with their fast little carnie legs and little carnie arms waving around like crazy people.

 

[madtownvol]

Actually Davis had an A game for the time she was in 12 points on 8 shots is a 1.50 per shot which is awesome. Her rebounding and defense in this game were tremendous.
Rae has to be settled down she did end up scoring 14 but only on 13 shots and that is an average performance. Her turnovers sometimes are just silly like the pass into the post to KK with two players in front of her.
Nothing tonight from Rennie who actually shot a three point shot behind the goal never seen that before. Harris didn't have much effect tonight either. I thought Saunders gave a good performance in the minutes she played she needs a lot of seasoning, but she has good hands and when she catches inside is tough to stop.
The major problems in this game were the teams failure to box out in the first half and turnovers that wouldn't be made if players were just paying attention. The offense has no movement and teams are still packing zones wanting us to shoot the perimeter shots. Were doing a fairly good job of getting the ball inside because off Horston and Massengill's ability to go inside and dish. Turnovers don't hurt you much against this level of competition as the extra shots they get usually are misses. We can't be giving teams plus 17 shots at the goal like we did Notre Dame lucky for us or thank you defense that they could only hit 32 percent. We were at a shot deficit again last night but like Notre Dame made some of it up by winning the free throw line attempts.

On Davis, I will go with her own self-assessment that she could have played on the offensive end but got it done in other ways. She got to the line (6-7) and most of her FTs came from getting fouled on getting an offensive board. So, the effort was there but the offensive spark, a bit like the whole team, was not quite as bright.

With Zaay out, there is a LOT of pressure on Davis to be an offensive force but not against TSU level competition. How way she handles that pressure will be a big factor in how the team goes this season.

I agree with your assessment on the stagnant nature of the offense but we may not see that much change over the season.

Offensively, the team will look pretty good (as it did against ND) when they are hitting from outside and they better attack the boards like fiends on other nights.

Horston, Davis, and even Burrell showed that they can create shots by beating off the dribble and that skill will also be vital to the team's offensive output.

I think the LVs are going to become a good defensive long before they become a consistently good offensive team.

 

[TenUhSee]