Game Thread: SEC Tournament Second Round. #18/14 Lady Vols (9 seed) vs. Vandy (8 seed). Thurs., March 6, 11 am ET, SECN

[DarkPhoenix]

Shea Ralph shaking her head at her players' antics and pushing them back into the handshake line.

That’s why I always turn it off before the end if we’re losing so I don’t have to see the other team rubbing it in our faces.

 

[Volfan2012]

I hope we can stay up far enough to go to North Carolina to play. Hate to go to a place far away Kansas St or Ohio St. Other places we could land would be Oklahoma, West Virginia, Even freakin Alabama or Ole Miss depending on what they do. Dropping to a six seems likely couple weeks to rest and get better hope they use it wisely.

 

[Majors]

majors from the top rope! flawless... lol

 

[ShortyMac10]

Certainly fans get a little hostile with some of the recent losses. We have to give her time to recruit her team. She recruited some of these players not all. Put together a team as best she and the Assistants could. Has to be a honeymoon season we have to give her some slack. Next season the grading gets tougher all indications is that the team will be a lot more talented.

Thing is everyone isn’t as patient then ya got ppl laughing&dogging us and saying her style doesn’t work..me personally I’m waiting til she gets all the players she wants but I’m happy she soaking in what sec play is(just going off the a&m presser)

 

[volsagain]

Blaming the refs is one of my pet peeves. It's just so weak.

Vandy came out and took it to us halfway through the second quarter and we didn't respond. Unfortunately, a bit reminiscent of the last 2 regular season games.

We still out played them on the court . They were gifted with many more fouls than the VOLS it is what it is. Several fouls were just ridiculous and several over looked on the dores .

 

[DarkPhoenix]

That to be determined when she has better athletes on the backend to play it. We have a few most graduating that could never play in a system like this and that is what she should have realized. She had no choice but to keep them this season. It will be a lot more on her as a coach next season than it was this season. A lot more on the system next season than this one. If she can't win with it next year she never will in the SEC. Going to have 10 much better options and seeing what they do in the portal hopefully as many as fourteen.

But wouldn’t it be 8-9 new players in the system with 5 being freshman. So it will be they need a season under their belt? That’s why I said 3 years minimum, tell me your thoughts.

 

[Volfan2012]

Thing is everyone isn’t as patient then ya got ppl laughing&dogging us and saying her style doesn’t work..me personally I’m waiting til she gets all the players she wants but I’m happy she soaking in what sec play is(just going off the a&m presser)

Always a reason for losing never a reason for winning. Same system won 22 games this season lost 9. I think it is wise to use the press against teams you know you can affect and not against one it doesn't affect. I knew we couldn't press Vandy effectively they have guards that can handle. Each game is different you need to play different for every opponent you face.

 

[chuckiepoo]

Always a reason for losing never a reason for winning. Same system won 22 games this season lost 9. I think it is wise to use the press against teams you know you can affect and not against one it doesn't affect. I knew we couldn't press Vandy effectively they have guards that can handle. Each game is different you need to play different for every opponent you face.

Creating a game scout? Exactly.

 

[sechamp2012]

What in the cathair was that? Good grief.

The problem is not the players. That's all I'll say publicly.

Jump ship b4 NCAAs better for your health. Your welcome

 

[And1]

Interesting how both times we played them there was a huge foul disparity in Vandy's favor. They play just as physical and push off every time. Just don't understand why the refs swallow their whistles. If the fouls are even we win both games.

 

[spojo13]

Always a reason for losing never a reason for winning. Same system won 22 games this season lost 9. I think it is wise to use the press against teams you know you can affect and not against one it doesn't affect. I knew we couldn't press Vandy effectively they have guards that can handle. Each game is different you need to play different for every opponent you face.

Yeah that’s what I meant by changes to the system. Even with better players, you sometimes have to be able to throw something at a team that they aren’t expecting. I hope she is willing to adjust and really go back to the drawing board on whatever it is we do in our half court defense. Not saying she should get rid of the system but make some changes.

 

[Volfan2012]

But wouldn’t it be 8-9 new players in the system with 5 being freshman. So it will be they need a season under their belt? That’s why I said 3 years minimum, tell me your thoughts.

Don't know I think it might come down as much to athleticism as anything else. If you had ten Coopers it might make the system look like you are a genius when it comes to making the press work. I think you need to have ultimate speed in all your players to make it work. When you trap with two and they have to make that pass you need a player that can close the gap and pick that pass off. At least four or five times a game.

Find out a lot more next season more speed coming do they also need a lot of instruction to play it guess we will find out.

 

[VolBall09]

I hope we can stay up far enough to go to North Carolina to play. Hate to go to a place far away Kansas St or Ohio St. Other places we could land would be Oklahoma, West Virginia, Even freakin Alabama or Ole Miss depending on what they do. Dropping to a six seems likely couple weeks to rest and get better hope they use it wisely.

We deserve what we get at this point.

 

[VolBall09]

Moore basically had two good games all year and both of them were against us. Mostly because we chose not to guard her either time. Have a really hard time understanding the way she was guarded today after the first matchup.

 

[1reVOLver]

Whew.
View attachment 726265

As they say 'round heyuh, “Wickedd pissah!”

 

[Volfan2012]

Yeah that’s what I meant by changes to the system. Even with better players, you sometimes have to be able to throw something at a team that they aren’t expecting. I hope she is willing to adjust and really go back to the drawing board on whatever it is we do in our half court defense. Not saying she should get rid of the system but make some changes.

Agree you can press teams like A&M, Arkansas, Florida, etc. but you have to know when your playing elite perimeter players that are going to break it SC, Vandy, Ky.

 

[ttharp]

Moore basically had two good games all year and both of them were against us. Mostly because we chose not to guard her either time. Have a really hard time understanding the way she was guarded today after the first matchup.

Same with the LSU guard whose name I can’t remember at the moment.

 

[lvocd]

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the system. You don’t make shots, you won’t win. Pretty simple. Put the ball in the bucket. We haven’t been able to do that in the last three losses. The system created the look, but we just didn’t make the shots necessary to win.

Their legs are too heavy at this point. The system has taken a toll, and that may very well be the reason their shots aren't falling. Physical and mental exhaustion affects shooting, especially when always trying to play catch-up on opponents. If the shots are falling the exhaustion is masked by adrenaline. Without that, we're cooked. It's a vicious cycle that didn't worry me as much earlier in the season. But over the long haul of the season, I'm afraid it finally caught up to them.

 

[Volfan2012]

Moore basically had two good games all year and both of them were against us. Mostly because we chose not to guard her either time. Have a really hard time understanding the way she was guarded today after the first matchup.

I said earlier she is one of the players we had to guard closely. She is their best three point shooter Blakes and Pissott included. Giving her open looks is not the answer. Vandy is more of a team you have to get down and defend in the half court for 30 second not even worry about pressing.

 

[ShortyMac10]

Always a reason for losing never a reason for winning. Same system won 22 games this season lost 9. I think it is wise to use the press against teams you know you can affect and not against one it doesn't affect. I knew we couldn't press Vandy effectively they have guards that can handle. Each game is different you need to play different for every opponent you face.

Yea!! Like it works but the thing is is she going to tweak the system for games like this she just gotta find a plan b

 

[ShortyMac10]

Same with the LSU guard whose name I can’t remember at the moment.

Gilbert

 

[CannonVol80]

And I kinda hate this for coach kim she doesn’t understand how tricky it is being the coach of the lady vols already seeing folks turning on her…don’t mind the subbing for fresh legs but she’s going to have to adjust the sec isn’t the sunbelt conference

Not pointing this at you personally, it's just that your comment is the perfect lead-in. I don't know how many people listened to Coach Caldwell's post game comments yesterday, but she acknowledged that the SEC conference schedule took a much more significant physical toll on her players than she had anticipated and that she would have to adjust for that next year. I think that it is apparent that we are seeing the effects of that physical toll in the past weeks. I do not want to get into an argument about the physical capabilities of any of our players, but it seems clear to me that most, if not all of our players lost a step or two as the season progressed, particularly on defense. I'm not sure what adjustments she has in mind to permit her to maintain her system and reduce the physical toll on the players, but at least, she is aware of the need to make an adjustment.

Jim

 

[ttharp]

Agree you can press teams like A&M, Arkansas, Florida, etc. but you have to know when your playing elite perimeter players that are going to break it SC, Vandy, Ky.

Yes. I honestly think this team could play pretty good half court defense with the athleticism we have.

It was pretty clear early in the season that the staff didn’t emphasize it in the offseason.

 

[glv98]

Their legs are too heavy at this point. The system has taken a toll, and that may very well be the reason their shots aren't falling. Physical and mental exhaustion affects shooting, especially when always trying to play catch-up on opponents. If the shots are falling the exhaustion is masked by adrenaline. Without that, we're cooked. It's a vicious cycle that didn't worry me as much earlier in the season. But over the long haul of the season, I'm afraid it finally caught up to them.

Exactly. We don’t know how much of today was due to the back to back.

The good news now is they have 2 weeks to regroup and recover. Bad news is they’ll have much harder opponents as a lower seed and on the road where they haven’t played well

 

[spojo13]

Don't know I think it might come down as much to athleticism as anything else. If you had ten Coopers it might make the system look like you are a genius when it comes to making the press work. I think you need to have ultimate speed in all your players to make it work. When you trap with two and they have to make that pass you need a player that can close the gap and pick that pass off. At least four or five times a game.

Find out a lot more next season more speed coming do they also need a lot of instruction to play it guess we will find out.

Might be a little optimistic to find 10 second team all sec members in order to make the system work. I think you meant just athletes though, but we learned before that just having athletes won’t get it done at times either. I think the talent coming in is great but even then, we need adjustments to the system against teams with great guards and just as much talent. I hope she understands that.