What are your expectations now?

[ivyleague]

No I would not hire her....She seems like a fun person, but not a leader.....Pat was a leader...The girl's did not want to let Pat down. Holly, well she's almost one of them...Not tough enough on them.

How much of your time do you spend interacting with Holly and the players? How much time do you spend at practices? How much time do you spend in the locker room? How much access do you have to the huddles at games? How much time do you spend observing Holly as she interacts with and teaches her players? If your answer is "none," which I assume it is, then you are wholly unqualified to make this assessment. You're just pulling comments out of thin air because it suits your preconceived (and ill-conceived) notion that Holly isn't a leader, she's not tough enough on her players, and her players don't care if they let her down.

 

[Voldon18]

How much of your time do you spend interacting with Holly and the players? How much time do you spend at practices? How much time do you spend in the locker room? How much access do you have to the huddles at games? How much time do you spend observing Holly as she interacts with and teaches her players? If your answer is "none," which I assume it is, then you are wholly unqualified to make this assessment. You're just pulling comments out of thin air because it suits your preconceived (and ill-conceived) notion that Holly isn't a leader, she's not tough enough on her players, and her players don't care if they let her down.

I never assume anything, but if you have spent time interacting with Holly and the players and have observed practices, etc. maybe you can tell us what makes Holly a great coach and leader.

I did actually attend countless Pat practices, games and even had the pleasure of being a "honorary coach" at a Stanford game years ago, which included the pregame meal and halftime talk by Pat in the locker room. I and many many fans and close program insiders can tell you Holly (and Tyler until his mother told him to never tell her one complaint by any player) was the coach players went to when there were issues with Pat. Holly was never the disciplinarian, just the opposite. Even during her playing days, Holly was everyone's pal. This I know for a fact. I witnessed it.

Once again, Ivy, you revert to belittling anyone with a differing opinion. Bless you, get a good night's sleep and try to bring some joy to even one person tomorrow. You'll feel better!

 

[clkou]

Woah woah woah I came on here to check the score because I didn't get to watch the game, and from all the comments I thought we had lost. So I headed over to ol' ESPN and saw that in fact it was a win against a top 25 squad...I'm super confused. Why such negativity?

Watch the game and then see how you feel ...

 

[ivyleague]

I never assume anything, but if you have spent time interacting with Holly and the players and have observed practices, etc. maybe you can tell us what makes Holly a great coach and leader.

Her teams win.

I did actually attend countless Pat practices, games and even had the pleasure of being a "honorary coach" at a Stanford game years ago, which included the pregame meal and halftime talk by Pat in the locker room. I and many many fans and close program insiders can tell you Holly (and Tyler until his mother told him to never tell her one complaint by any player) was the coach players went to when there were issues with Pat. Holly was never the disciplinarian, just the opposite. Even during her playing days, Holly was everyone's pal. This I know for a fact. I witnessed it.

And for that reason, I am confident she knows what she has to do to be a head coach.

Once again, Ivy, you revert to belittling anyone with a differing opinion. Bless you, get a good night's sleep and try to bring some joy to even one person tomorrow. You'll feel better!

I bring joy to many people's lives, and I don't need to feel better because I feel fine already. You know very little about me; you are only assuming based on what you read here. In "real" life, I am not nearly as blunt and condescending as I am on this board (at least not outwardly). I'm actually quite polite and amiable.

 

[Darth_Vol]

Expectations still the same as the last three years... even with this supposed "best" of Holly's teams. Probably second in the SEC, stumble into the Sweet 16 on pure talent and with a few breaks maybe the Elite 8. I knew Holly would never win a title, but now I have serious doubts if she will ever even reach a Final Four....

 

[madtownvol]

Eh, it is a little early to be hitting panic buttons. We have a freshman PG who is ahead of the curve but still making lots of rookie mistakes and three key players who sat all last year.
DeShields is still finding here way and who knows how much the leg injuries are bothering but I am betting her talent will start shining through.

Jasmine looked much better than against PSU and that it is a good sign. Graves had another AA caliber game. This team does not some outside shooting and to cut down on the TOs but the glass is more than half full here.

 

[roddo518]

My expectations are what they were last year. The Lady Vols will beat most of the scrub teams and lose to several of the top ten teams. Holly takes the top talent in the country and does less. We will make the sweet 16 and maybe win to get in the elite 8. After that, it's excuse time and wait till next year because of the talent we have coming in next year. The Holly lovers will say I'm not a true fan, and that getting to the sweet sixteen is a great accomplishment in today's game with such parity. (Parity doesn't seem to bother UConn). Those are my expectations. There has been no grit, toughness, nor tenacity with her teams. I also do not have any confidence that she could direct her team to overcome any great coached game by an opponent.

 

[PineyBluff Vol]

If memory serves, this is two games in a row now going 1-12 from 3. Not good.

You can't shoot the three from the bench...Holly likes to have her three shooters ride the pine!

 

[golf437]

"Then you should love and support all of them?" She is being paid. That is how she is being supported. But, I disagree with the notion that you back a coach no matter what. That is coach worship. Holly is a VOL, true. But she is not doing it for free. Fans should cheer for the team and encourage them but have high expectations and make demands of the coach, especially at a program like Tennessee. Holly is being paid to return this team to the final four-she has said so herself. Pat understood that. "The coaches know more about the game than we do?" Don't agree with that either. They probably know more about the psychology of coaching young women basketball players, but know more about the game? Many of us fans know quite a bit about the game and it's not rocket science.

P.S.-If you were a hiring manager for a company would you hire Holly? Not that impressive. There's something about great coaches. There is an aura about them. Pat had that. Holly doesn't.

So funny. I feel quite certain that She knows more about coaching than you.

 

[ATLVolFan06]

Expectations are the same. This is a similar start to last year. The team is trying to itself. Love the way graves and russell are playing. If we get an offensive flow we'll be okay. Ready for Nared ti return. She really matured last season. In fact my line up would be Russell/Graves/Nared/deshields/Cooper

 

[ivyleague]

My expectations are what they were last year. The Lady Vols will beat most of the scrub teams and lose to several of the top ten teams. Holly takes the top talent in the country and does less. We will make the sweet 16 and maybe win to get in the elite 8. After that, it's excuse time and wait till next year because of the talent we have coming in next year. The Holly lovers will say I'm not a true fan, and that getting to the sweet sixteen is a great accomplishment in today's game with such parity. (Parity doesn't seem to bother UConn). Those are my expectations. There has been no grit, toughness, nor tenacity with her teams. I also do not have any confidence that she could direct her team to overcome any great coached game by an opponent.

Blah.

 

[Volfan2012]

I expect we'll see a bad loss soon unless we change the strategy and let the players make plays with transition. The pass the ball inside creates to many turnovers because teams don't respect our outside shooting and can clog the lane.

 

[Sandvol]

Woah woah woah I came on here to check the score because I didn't get to watch the game, and from all the comments I thought we had lost. So I headed over to ol' ESPN and saw that in fact it was a win against a top 25 squad...I'm super confused. Why such negativity? I think people are forgetting that the gap between 1-4 ranked teams and the rest of the top 25 have gotten smaller over the years- there is simply more plurality in Women's BB. A top 25 win regardless is a good victory. And the season is young so there is room to improve. Maybe I'm missing something? Seeing as though I didn't watch the game I can't comment on how they looked but a win is a win...

I guess many of the fans including myself are disappointed in the creativity of the offense. UConn seems to already be firing on all cylinders. A number 4 team should beat a number 25 team pretty handily at home. UConn would beat Syracuse by 40. The offense for the game was us trying to feed the ball into Mercedes with three Syracuse defenders hanging all over her and then she'd eventually try to pass to an open shooter who would then catch the ball but hesitate until a Syracuse defender was on her and then try to shoot a three. There is no crispness of passing. No understanding of what they want to do with their offense. It was pretty comical.

 

[Sandvol]

Also, when you are substituting that many players, I think we played 11, the philosophy usually is to press the ball up the court. It is to hurry up the tempo because you have many more fresh athletes than the other team. Not Holly, her philosophy is to substitute a lot of players and slow the game down so you can take that advantage that you have away-staggers the imagination.

 

[Sandvol]

So funny. I feel quite certain that She knows more about coaching than you.

Well I don't know. Most of last year I kept saying on the board, Dunbar should be playing the four-not guard. You can go back and check if you like and many posters can verify. Where's Dunbar playing this year? So funny.

 

[Sandvol]

This team should be full court pressing for 40 minutes. We have 12 players who can play. We should be wearing other teams out. That is our advantage. Especially now that Russell can run too.

 

[GameTime]

I guess many of the fans including myself are disappointed in the creativity of the offense. UConn seems to already be firing on all cylinders. A number 4 team should beat a number 25 team pretty handily at home. UConn would beat Syracuse by 40. The offense for the game was us trying to feed the ball into Mercedes with three Syracuse defenders hanging all over her and then she'd eventually try to pass to an open shooter who would then catch the ball but hesitate until a Syracuse defender was on her and then try to shoot a three. There is no crispness of passing. No understanding of what they want to do with their offense. It was pretty comical.

Sandvol, this offense was what we ran in 1990...The ol' throw it inside and fight for the rebound thing....The first 2 games, counting exhibition, the girls were playing that up tempo game....Now that Holly has seen some film on them, her inner 1990 self has kicked in and in practice they are playing toss it into the post thing again...We know a loss is just around the corner, that is why we fans are so adamant about the bad play we are seeing, while the loyalist are saying don't rock the boat...

With the refs calling all these fouls, full court pressure would be foul trouble withing 10 minutes.

Nothing said here will change anything, it is all lip service anyway. :thud:

 

[ivyleague]

Well I don't know. Most of last year I kept saying on the board, Dunbar should be playing the four-not guard. You can go back and check if you like and many posters can verify. Where's Dunbar playing this year? So funny.

Go put in your application at TBA. See how far that gets you.

Do you people not realize why I spend so much time mocking you? Half of you (more than half of you) present the perfect caricature of the crazy fan who always thinks he or she knows more than the coaching staff. The hyperbolic ranting, the know-it-all self-importance, the hair-pulling, glass-half-empty break-downs even after a win . . . it's glorious. I'm not serious in a lot of what I say here (though I truly am a passionate Lady Vols fan and a huge supporter of Holly), but you guys are too clueless to even realize it. Too. Much. Fun.

 

[ivyleague]

Nothing said here will change anything, it is all lip service anyway. :thud:

And why exactly would you expect anything said by Random Fan #9783 on an internet message board to make a difference to coaches who know they know more than said fan? I mean . . . seriously? LOL

 

[GuntherVol]

R e l a x...

 

[teacherdean]

If you love "your" Lady Vols as you claim, then you should love and support all of them, including the coaches. The coaches know more about the game than you do. You are there to observe, not to sideline coach.

Now, for my expectations. I expect some aneurisms, a bunch of strokes-outs, five exploded heads, and two cases of spontaneous combustion . . . and all for nothing.

I do love the Lady Vols but it does not matter if we love or hate the coaches they need to come up with a new offensive ideology. It might happen later on but the current team is not playing offensively like a top four team. Added to our offensive woes, are our turnovers. Theses things need to be fixed.

Defensively we are not bad. I will give Holly a pat on the back for her defensive strategy, however, we MUST come up with a better offense or we will be fortunate to make it to the elite 8.

To get consistency we need to come up with a set lineup that is our go to lineup. I hope Holly is doing all the mix and matching to give all the girls experience and from that she will find her go to 8. Very few teams, with maybe the exception of UCONN,have 10 to 12 players that are equal in talent.

If you see only blue skys for the Lady Vols, the potential is there, we just need to bring it to the table every game, no exceptions.

 

[Hoya Saxa]

I think people are forgetting that the gap between 1-4 ranked teams and the rest of the top 25 have gotten smaller over the years- there is simply more plurality in Women's BB. A top 25 win regardless is a good victory.

I could not disagree more. The gap between the elite teams and everyone else has gotten wider in the past few years. There really is little difference between team number 5 and team number 100. They all play ugly basketball. Forget the rankings. Watch the games and ask if any of these teams pass the eye test. Just because we have loyalties towards some of these teams does not mean they are exhibiting excellence. For the past three years there has been a huge gap between Notre Dame/UConn and everyone else. Our scores are not close because everyone else is so much better; it is because we are so much worse since Pat's retirement. How can anyone scream parity if the #1 team embarrasses the #7 team (on the road) by 44 points? And then we struggle to beat two cupcakes at home by only single digits.

 

[ivyleague]

I do love the Lady Vols but it does not matter if we love or hate the coaches they need to come up with a new offensive ideology. It might happen later on but the current team is not playing offensively like a top four team. Added to our offensive woes, are our turnovers. Theses things need to be fixed.

Defensively we are not bad. I will give Holly a pat on the back for her defensive strategy, however, we MUST come up with a better offense or we will be fortunate to make it to the elite 8.

To get consistency we need to come up with a set lineup that is our go to lineup. I hope Holly is doing all the mix and matching to give all the girls experience and from that she will find her go to 8. Very few teams, with maybe the exception of UCONN,have 10 to 12 players that are equal in talent.

If you see only blue skys for the Lady Vols, the potential is there, we just need to bring it to the table every game, no exceptions.

Sure they need to get better offensively, as do many teams this early on. For the most part, this is a young team with players (and coaches) still trying to get into a groove. They will be fine once they gel.

 

[GameTime]

And why exactly would you expect anything said by Random Fan #9783 on an internet message board to make a difference to coaches who know they know more than said fan? I mean . . . seriously? LOL

Do you have to comment on everything someone says?....You are not Board Captain....You seem like a good fan, but lighten up with all the negative comments at everyone that posts here...People are only expressing their thoughts and they don't need your permission to express them.

 

[ivyleague]

Do you have to comment on everything someone says?....You are not Board Captain....You seem like a good fan, but lighten up with all the negative comments at everyone that posts here...People are only expressing their thoughts and they don't need your permission to express them.

I will comment on any damn thing I want, and I will do so in whatever manner that pleases me. Don't dare tell me to stop doing the the one thing you claim everyone else has a right to do -- post their views. I will post what I want when I want and how I want. You can go take a flying leap.