The Official “Let’s Rally Behind The Team” Thread

[37620VOL]

Careless, lazy, to me they are much the same... If you are lazy (physically and/or menially) you are careless or you are just not good enough to be in the position you are in. Either way, be it lazy, careless, or whatever, our point guard play shows me a lack of experience, and maybe not enough basketball intelligence to play with SEC type ability.

Laziness is a lack of effort. Our turnovers usually are a result of someone trying to do too much, playing too fast, or trying too hard. Literally the opposite of laziness. The challenge with this team is to get them to slowdown and play within themselves.

I could see us going through a bit of a mid-season lull here with Green going down. Harper had settled into a pretty good rotation. The team had gotten used to it and it was successful. Now she has to change and adjust. Do we fill Greens minutes with small ball or introduce a new player like Striplin or Saunders? Harper is big on analytics and it's going to take 5 - 10 games to get good data, then another 3-5 games for the team to get in the flow of that new rotation. My hope is that we settle down and hit our stride late this year and ride some momentum into tournament time.

 

[madtownvol]

Laziness is a lack of effort. Our turnovers usually are a result of someone trying to do too much, playing too fast, or trying too hard. Literally the opposite of laziness. The challenge with this team is to get them to slowdown and play within themselves.

I could see us going through a bit of a mid-season lull here with Green going down. Harper had settled into a pretty good rotation. The team had gotten used to it and it was successful. Now she has to change and adjust. Do we fill Greens minutes with small ball or introduce a new player like Striplin or Saunders? Harper is big on analytics and it's going to take 5 - 10 games to get good data, then another 3-5 games for the team to get in the flow of that new rotation. My hope is that we settle down and hit our stride late this year and ride some momentum into tournament time.

Fans looking to trash the team or coach will easily confuse mental and emotional fatigue for laziness....

 

[chuckiepoo]

Fans looking to trash the team or coach will easily confuse mental and emotional fatigue for laziness....

They’ll find a way to denigrate the program or Kelllie, the players just to satiate a general dissatisfaction with life. We got problems? Oh yeah, but we’ve had larger obstacles to success this year and managed around them. GLV!

 

[Dak1219]

Fans here can apply all the turd polish they want, but Auburn sucks, and beating Tennessee doesn't change that fact. They're the worst team in the SEC and lost 23 conference games in a row before this win... which still leaves them at the bottom of the standings.

One of the things Kellie's water carriers could hang their hats on her first couple of seasons was at least she didn't have any "bad" losses like Holly. Make no mistake, this was about as BAD a loss as it gets, rivaling any of Holly's low points...

This at no point rivals an 8-8 record in the SEC nor does it rival an ongoing losing record to Alabama. Not even close!

 

[savannahfan]

Laziness is a lack of effort. Our turnovers usually are a result of someone trying to do too much, playing too fast, or trying too hard. Literally the opposite of laziness. The challenge with this team is to get them to slowdown and play within themselves.

I could see us going through a bit of a mid-season lull here with Green going down. Harper had settled into a pretty good rotation. The team had gotten used to it and it was successful. Now she has to change and adjust. Do we fill Greens minutes with small ball or introduce a new player like Striplin or Saunders? Harper is big on analytics and it's going to take 5 - 10 games to get good data, then another 3-5 games for the team to get in the flow of that new rotation. My hope is that we settle down and hit our stride late this year and ride some momentum into tournament time.

I will not take issue with your assessment of the situation. However up to 15 games is way too long for the staff and players to be searching. the likely outcome (record wise) for a "adjustment" period this long would likely put our Ladies way down the list come NCAA time.

 

[ThatVolGuy]

I was majorly skeptical of Kellie's bonafides when we hired her, but I've been pleased with the progress, especially this season. It was nice to see the Lady Vols being talked about as a one seed.

That being said, I'm not sure how a loss like this one doesn't erode your confidence just a bit. She doesn't have any notable accomplishments yet (winning the regular season or SECT title, making the Final Four, etc.), and it's not like Holly's teams didn't achieve high rankings during the regular season. That's not the goal.

Maybe it's the battered Vol syndrome, but I'll believe she's the right coach when her team does something concrete to prove it. Hasn't happened yet, and losing to Auburn can't be overlooked.

 

[youcancallmeAl]

It seems the excuse for the Auburn loss, and the future losses, will be the Green injury.

Are you saying that didn't have an impact?

 

[youcancallmeAl]

Almost no one. One genius is convinced the refs are why the team turns the ball over a hundred times a game...

And one genius has been convinced and said so many times for years now that Kellie couldn't win at Tennessee because she didn't win at NC State. Looking at 18-2 is hard..............

 

[youcancallmeAl]

She doesn't have any notable accomplishments yet (winning the regular season or SECT title, making the Final Four, etc.),

True, but this is only her third year in a rebuild project, the first two of which were heavily impacted by Covid. She still has a ways to go before we can declare her to be a success or not, but so far the results are better than anyone predicted three years ago.

 

[ThatVolGuy]

True, but this is only her third year in a rebuild project, the first two of which were heavily impacted by Covid. She still has a ways to go before we can declare her to be a success or not, but so far the results are better than anyone predicted three years ago.

This is a fair point. I just want to start seeing some tangible accomplishments beyond a nice regular season ranking. Women's basketball doesn't have nearly as many top tier programs as men's basketball, so recruiting the talent to achieve a top 10 ranking is, to me, table stakes for a program like ours.

 

[Amb3096]

True, but this is only her third year in a rebuild project, the first two of which were heavily impacted by Covid. She still has a ways to go before we can declare her to be a success or not, but so far the results are better than anyone predicted three years ago.

It's still too early to be crowning this season a success. So far, Kellie's accomplishment has been T3rd in the SEC and a 2nd round tournament exit, and then reaching #4 in the AP rankings for 1 week. There's still a lot less for this season, and truthfully, it's probably unrealistic that they'll get back up to #4 in the rankings with their remaining schedule. Hopefully, they have a good tournament. Otherwise, it will be a repeat of last season...solid, but not great. The next few seasons will be critical. Tennessee is losing a lot this off season, and so far only has Pissott coming in to replace them. I don't know what will be available from the portal and who Kellie will get, but there has to be some forward momentum. There's a real possibility that they take a step back next season, and then even more once Horston/Key graduate. As much as some people here don't like hearing it, she really needs to shore up the recruiting in a big way to keep Tennessee competitive.

 

[madtownvol]

Women's basketball doesn't have nearly as many top tier programs as men's basketball, so recruiting the talent to achieve a top 10 ranking is, to me, table stakes for a program like ours.

I am not sure about that. See current ESPN top 25. With the possible of #22 FCG and 25 KS, all the schools on this list make for pretty formidable competition in the recruiting world.

Top 25


1
South Carolina(29)
20-1748
-
2
Stanford
16-3713
-
3
NC State(1)
19-2698
-
4
Louisville
18-2657
1
5
Indiana
14-2613
1
6
Michigan
18-2606
1
7
Tennessee
18-2564
3
8
Arizona
15-3540
-
9
Baylor
15-4466
2
10
UConn
13-4449
-
11
Iowa State
18-3396
2
12
Georgia Tech
17-4381
2
13
Texas
15-4367
4
14
Georgia
16-4352
1
15
LSU
18-4322
3
16
BYU
18-1313
-
17
Maryland
15-6288
-
18
Oklahoma
18-3287
-
19
Oregon
13-5226
-
20
Notre Dame
16-4195
-
21
Iowa
14-4132
2
22
Florida Gulf Coast
19-1105
4
23
Ohio State
15-485
1
24
North Carolina
16-466
2
25
Kansas State

 

[youcancallmeAl]

It's still too early to be crowning this season a success. So far, Kellie's accomplishment has been T3rd in the SEC and a 2nd round tournament exit, and then reaching #4 in the AP rankings for 1 week. There's still a lot less for this season, and truthfully, it's probably unrealistic that they'll get back up to #4 in the rankings with their remaining schedule. Hopefully, they have a good tournament. Otherwise, it will be a repeat of last season...solid, but not great. The next few seasons will be critical. Tennessee is losing a lot this off season, and so far only has Pissott coming in to replace them. I don't know what will be available from the portal and who Kellie will get, but there has to be some forward momentum. There's a real possibility that they take a step back next season, and then even more once Horston/Key graduate. As much as some people here don't like hearing it, she really needs to shore up the recruiting in a big way to keep Tennessee competitive.

You left out that she beat SC in her second season, but your basic point is true. She hasn't won anything yet even though she is doing very well so far. She probably won't light it up on recruiting until she does, though she has been making noise this year.

There's also the real possibility they'll be better next year, not worse. A point of future discussion.

Exactly how do you define " competitive?". We should have realistic expectations of her. We can't expect a FF in her first four or five years.

 

[youcancallmeAl]

This is a fair point. I just want to start seeing some tangible accomplishments beyond a nice regular season ranking. Women's basketball doesn't have nearly as many top tier programs as men's basketball, so recruiting the talent to achieve a top 10 ranking is, to me, table stakes for a program like ours.

A top five ranking mid season doesn't get us a trophy, but it ain't chopped liver, either. People notice that. As far recruiting, build it and they will come.

 

[chuckiepoo]

You left out that she beat SC in her second season, but your basic point is true. She hasn't won anything yet even though she is doing very well so far. She probably won't light it up on recruiting until she does, though she has been making noise this year.

There's also the real possibility they'll be better next year, not worse. A point of future discussion.

Exactly how do you define " competitive?". We should have realistic expectations of her. We can't expect a FF in her first four or five years.

Set that bar high, boo!

 

[Coach Jumper]

I was majorly skeptical of Kellie's bonafides when we hired her, but I've been pleased with the progress, especially this season. It was nice to see the Lady Vols being talked about as a one seed.

That being said, I'm not sure how a loss like this one doesn't erode your confidence just a bit. She doesn't have any notable accomplishments yet (winning the regular season or SECT title, making the Final Four, etc.), and it's not like Holly's teams didn't achieve high rankings during the regular season. That's not the goal.

Maybe it's the battered Vol syndrome, but I'll believe she's the right coach when her team does something concrete to prove it. Hasn't happened yet, and losing to Auburn can't be overlooked.

If you think back, during our spiral downward, we still had significant wins against teams we weren't supposed to beat.

Basketball is a game where a short memory is you most important tool. Each game you could win, the next shot will go in, etc...Today's win replaces last game's loss,,,Next up,,!.

 

[ThatVolGuy]

A top five ranking mid season doesn't get us a trophy, but it ain't chopped liver, either. People notice that. As far recruiting, build it and they will come.

Well, yeah, but it's the building part that I'm not quite convinced of just yet. Right when everybody really started singing our praises this season, Kellie guided her team to a loss against ... Auburn. That saps momentum and, to be honest, probably prevents anyone from talking about our team as serious title contenders.

I dunno—maybe we'll never get back to the promised land. I'd like one Tennessee sport to be an unequivocal success.

 

[VolBall09]

Well, yeah, but it's the building part that I'm not quite convinced of just yet. Right when everybody really started singing our praises this season, Kellie guided her team to a loss against ... Auburn. That saps momentum and, to be honest, probably prevents anyone from talking about our team as serious title contenders.

I dunno—maybe we'll never get back to the promised land. I'd like one Tennessee sport to be an unequivocal success.

The rebound win over Arkansas changes a lot of that. They are a very hot team right now. Losing to them after the Auburn loss would have been the easy and expected thing to do. Instead this team stepped up to the challenge and gutted out a really tough win. Just like they have done all season. No reason to believe they won’t continue.

I was (and still am) as mad as anyone about the Auburn game, but bouncing back made it sting a lot less. Need to finish this week strong and it becomes a distant memory.

At this point last season, 9 games in to SEC play, we were 6-3 and had postponed several games. I’ll take 8-1 with no re-schedules every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

 

[Darth_Vol]

Well, yeah, but it's the building part that I'm not quite convinced of just yet. Right when everybody really started singing our praises this season, Kellie guided her team to a loss against ... Auburn. That saps momentum and, to be honest, probably prevents anyone from talking about our team as serious title contenders.

I dunno—maybe we'll never get back to the promised land. I'd like one Tennessee sport to be an unequivocal success.

I dunno if you saw, Kellie did just get a major commitment...

 

[lvocd]

It really is meaningful to me, as a longtime supporter, just to hear the words "Tennessee Lady Vols" in conversations/articles about possible high seeds, about having potential to make a deep run in the post-season, about players having developed, and about what an outstanding job our coaching staff is doing.

I realize some of this good press/talk could go away by the end of the season, but it is not lost on me that this is the first season in a loooooong time that Tennessee has been "in the conversation," so I refuse to let anyone on the internet steal the happiness it brings me while it's still there!

 

[youcancallmeAl]

Well, yeah, but it's the building part that I'm not quite convinced of just yet. Right when everybody really started singing our praises this season, Kellie guided her team to a loss against ... Auburn. That saps momentum and, to be honest, probably prevents anyone from talking about our team as serious title contenders.

I dunno—maybe we'll never get back to the promised land. I'd like one Tennessee sport to be an unequivocal success.

So, what are your expectations of Kellie in her third season? A conference championship? A final four or elite eight or sweet sixteen? To never lose to a lesser opponent in a road game? What is realistic to expect of a third year coach who inherited the program as it was and has seen recruiting hindered by covid protocols? What is fair to expect?

 

[youcancallmeAl]

I dunno if you saw, Kellie did just get a major commitment...

Always the jab in Kellie's ribs. The snark. Snark_Vol. It's very disturbing to see someone so obsessed with attacking someone who has never hurt them and who is the coach of his favorite team. Bizarre.

 

[madtownvol]

Always the jab in Kellie's ribs. The snark. Snark_Vol. It's very disturbing to see someone so obsessed with attacking someone who has never hurt them and who is the coach of his favorite team. Bizarre.

Per the bold, comment just the opposite most likely. I believe elvee/DV is a Vandy fan, of all things.

 

[creekdipper]

Per the bold, comment just the opposite most likely. I believe elvee/DV is a Vandy fan, of all things.

If that's the case, to paraphrase the great Ricky Scaggs, "He's more to be pitied than scorned."

 

[youcancallmeAl]

Per the bold, comment just the opposite most likely. I believe elvee/DV is a Vandy fan, of all things.

He recently expressed an outburst of excitement during a Kentucky game, praising someone in capital letters for a clutch play. He NEVER does that in a UT game, or before or after. I'm wondering if he;s a Kentucky fan.