Culture change in LV basketball program

#53
#53
VolDango said:
Possibly the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Diggins is the Halle Berry of sports. You need to put the drink down.
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Diggins is fine but I Just saw Lister tonight. She is a graduate assistant at UCONN and she is fine too.
 
#54
#54
When I look at one of our games I don't see a team on the floor. I see a collection of players with no defined roles who don't know what they are trying to accomplish or how to go about it.

I also see poor fundamentals in a lot of areas and players are being asked to play to their weaknesses rather than their strengths.

And there is no rational process by which we decide who will play and who will sit. This is mainly because there is no strategic reasoning going on. How can you pick players to meet a goal when you have no goals? We throw out a bunch of girls with poor offensive skills, ask them to play out of position and then wonder why they lose. It's not like their defense and rebounding is so awesome that they don't need to score points.

Harrison will help paper over a lot of these problems, but they will show up in the big games all over again unless Holly changes some things. You can't do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.

I thought she did a decent job the past two seasons, but that was predicated upon her being in the process of building something. We are several years in now and still losing to teams we shouldn't (and in some cases the same teams) and not being competitive with the elite programs. We still have recruiting deficiencies and what we are seeing with the post play will be the norm since no one bothered to project the makeup of our classes going forward when recruiting.

Holly needs to get a win over ND or Stanford in the worst way. I just don't see it happening.
 
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#56
#56
VolDango said:
This is what I picture you looking like for some reason:

ButchNfem.jpg


:question:
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Tennessee could use her on the offensive line:crazy:
 
#57
#57
Voluble2 said:
When I look at one of our games I don't see a team on the floor. I see a collection of players with no defined roles who don't know what they are trying to accomplish or how to go about it.

I also see poor fundamentals in a lot of areas and players are being asked to play to their weaknesses rather than their strengths.

And there is no rational process by which we decide who will play and who will sit. This is mainly because there is no strategic reasoning going on. How can you pick players to meet a goal when you have no goals? We throw out a bunch of girls with poor offensive skills, ask them to play out of position and then wonder why they lose. It's not like their defense and rebounding is so awesome that they don't need to score points.

Harrison will help paper over a lot of these problems, but they will show up in the big games all over again unless Holly changes some things. You can't do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.

I thought she did a decent job the past two seasons, but that was predicated upon her being in the process of building something. We are several years in now and still losing to teams we shouldn't (and in some cases the same teams) and not being competitive with the elite programs. We still have recruiting deficiencies and what we are seeing with the post play will be the norm since no one bothered to project the makeup of our classes going forward when recruiting.

Holly needs to get a win over ND or Stanford in the worst way. I just don't see it happening.
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Nice post. I would like to add as a young coach, I think she sticks to her game plan a tad too much, and dont react to the flow of the game, obviously Cierra playing the 5 spot is not ideal, rather than trust Moore, let Moore get used to the game, it was low scoring game in the first half, this was the perfect game for her to get better but Holly denied her that opportunity.

Holly need to become a better game manager and stop being so indecisive. She herself, disrupt the flow of the game with her substitutions. Let them play, as a unit, longer.

Holly had made up her mind that Moore couldn't play and she stuck to it, the whole game, that's sign of an inexperience coach. Plans change Holly and don't hold onto your plans if they are literally falling apart in yo face, let em play.
 
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#59
#59
You can't sit on the sidelines as an assistant coach for 20 years and then take over a program like this. It is not the same. You're not going to know how to build a team and play winning basketball. All these good coaches like Karen Aston and Dawn Staley are going to rip her to shreds.
 
#60
#60
Pat4life said:
Nice post. I would like to add as a young coach, I think she sticks to her game plan a tad too much, and dont react to the flow of the game, obviously Cierra playing the 5 spot is not ideal, rather than trust Moore, let Moore get used to the game, it was low scoring game in the first half, this was the perfect game for her to get better but Holly denied her that opportunity.

Holly need to become a better game manager and stop being so indecisive. She herself, disrupt the flow of the game with her substitutions. Let them play, as a unit, longer.

Holly had made up her mind that Moore couldn't play and she stuck to it, the whole game, that's sign of an inexperience coach. Plans change Holly and don't hold onto your plans if they are literally falling apart in yo face, let em play.
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What I don't understand about Holly's reasoning is the game was tied for about the first 5 minutes with Moore in the game. She pulls her out and then Texas goes on a run. I think it is that Holly has a comfort level with her old players, Mass, Burdick, Carter, Jones, and she's not going to play anyone else any meaningful minutes. I'll bet her answer to this will not be to develop the freshmen or Moore but to sit them more.
 
#64
#64
Sandvol said:
What I don't understand about Holly's reasoning is the game was tied for about the first 5 minutes with Moore in the game. She pulls her out and then Texas goes on a run. I think it is that Holly has a comfort level with her old players, Mass, Burdick, Carter, Jones, and she's not going to play anyone else any meaningful minutes. I'll bet her answer to this will not be to develop the freshmen or Moore but to sit them more.
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Moore has been our best player without Harrison out there. She's scored, rebounded and could probably have blocked a few of those wide open lay ups Texas got. Burdick is like a 35% shooter and turns the ball over constantly. Moore >> Burdick and it doesn't take a genius to see that.

Massengale also still hasn't learned how to play defense. The point of playing seniors over freshmen is so the freshmen get to watch how to play defense and be tough. If your seniors and juniors haven't fugured it out yet, might as well play freshmen/sophomores.
 
#66
#66
VolDango said:
The problem I see with the modern LV basketball program is that the players are more worried about looking good (hair, nails, etc) than being tough and playing hard. It's almost like they're trying too hard to fight the mindset that girl basketball players are manly or not feminine. You don't see that kind of attitude with UCONN players. In fact, Mosqueda-Lewis is quoted on ESPN talking about this specifically, stating that she doesn't care about looking a certain way and all that matters is how she plays ball.

These Lady Vol basketball players, and I think it dates back about 5 years, couldn't hang with Shemeka Randall, Tamika Catchings, Holdsclaw, etc. Those girls weren't worried about hair and makeup. UCONN is getting all those girls and UT gets the soft ones who are more worried about Instagram and Facebook selfies.

When you add in that Warlick is meant to be an assistant coach, who are better at being friends with players than being hard on them, the entire culture is now different. The Lady Vols have gone soft. That's the bottom line.

New culture:

volscars08_4394041_ver1.0_640_480.JPG
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I could not agree with you more. Wait, a second, I have to chase those dang kids off my lawn!!!!...

Okay, I am back. Kids today!!! They have all those new fangled gadgets that they do their twitterface posting and their instabooking with their fancy computer phones. Why in the old days, all players did was run killer drills, watch game film (on reel to reel projectors), and make lye soap! And they did not care how they looked. They were issued a set of grey overhauls and a hair net and that was all they wore. And another thing! TOO much book learning. putting all those ideas in their heads, makes them to distracted to play ball.

If you change all that, why fer sure we would win every game. Of course, I guess you could say not having a post player against a team with a strong interior might have had something to do with the loss but obviously, it them hussy players getting all dolled up on a banquet night that created ALL the problems.
 
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#67
#67
Players obsessed with their looks don't play with suction cup marks all over their shoulders. I thought there was a lot of toughness and physicality from the LVs last night. And they didn't look like they were playing scared this time. But they didn't play disciplined and they didn't play that smart and they didn't play much defense. Seems like they should have lost by a lot more, so they must have done some things right.

They really, really needed to get some stops. I hope they'll take their defense seriously.

And one more thing - you can be feminine and still get your rebounds. Chamique was always the most graceful player on the court, whether running, shooting or rebounding.
 
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#68
#68
VollyParton said:
Players obsessed with their looks don't play with suction cup marks all over their shoulders. I thought there was a lot of toughness and physicality from the LVs last night. And they didn't look like they were playing scared this time. But they didn't play disciplined and they didn't play that smart and they didn't play much defense. Seems like they should have lost by a lot more, so they must have done some things right.

They really, really needed to get some stops. I hope they'll take their defense seriously.

And one more thing - you can be feminine and still get your rebounds. Chamique was always the most graceful player on the court, whether running, shooting or rebounding.
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Hey Volly, there you go again being a voice of reason! It's LV bashing, homophobe time!

But since you started it. The LVs second half offense looked pretty good (particularly in direct response to the abysmal first half). I am not sure what changed exactly, except they started hitting a few jump shots and that seemed to be open up some spaces in the paint for Graves and the guards (particularly Carter). This team does not have a lot of offensive fire power. Players get hot here and there but on a night in night out basis, they need a healthy dose of points in transition, second chance points, etc. They have the athleticism and depth to be a high pressure, defensive team (a bit like KY has been in recent years). And that is the area where Nia Moore can contribute (because the half court post up game is not her strength). The LVs do not make some major improvements in their defensive intensity and execution (fast). It has been lacking all season. It was just against their early season patsies, it did not matter much. I am optimistic for a better showing against Stanford. Texas has become the new Rutgers. So in the end, losing against them on the road may not be that damaging to the LVs seeding.
 
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#69
#69
madtownvol said:
Hey Volly, there you go again being a voice of reason! It's LV bashing, homophobe time!
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I'm what?? Hey, madtown, it's nice to see you posting again! :)

(I think rather than being the new Rutgers, Texas may be the new Tennessee, because of their post players. Remember when we had big ole' post players?)
 
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#70
#70
VollyParton said:
I'm what?? Hey, madtown, it's nice to see you posting again! :)

(I think rather than being the new Rutgers, Texas may be the new Tennessee, because of their post players. Remember when we had big ole' post players?)
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I do. Kelly Cain where are you? I am hoping that the corrective surgery does the job for Mercedes.
 
#73
#73
Franklin Pierce said:
Kelly Cain was a huge bust.
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Hey, if you say so...

Kelly Cain:

Has 28 career double-digit scoring games...Has nine career double-figure rebound games...Set school record with 12 blocks against LSU on Feb. 22, 2010...Has six career double-doubles, four of which came in 2009-10...Named to State Farm WBCA All-Region Team for Region 3...Named Associated Press First Team All-SEC...Named First Team All-SEC and SEC All-Defensive Team by the league coaches...Complete season averages were 10.5 ppg, 7.7 rpg and 3.4 bpg...Averaged 11.9 ppg, 7.9 rpg and 4.5 bpg in SEC games only..

Kelley Cain Bio - UTSPORTS.COM - University of Tennessee Athletics
 
#74
#74
madtownvol said:
Hey, if you say so...

Kelly Cain:

Has 28 career double-digit scoring games...Has nine career double-figure rebound games...Set school record with 12 blocks against LSU on Feb. 22, 2010...Has six career double-doubles, four of which came in 2009-10...Named to State Farm WBCA All-Region Team for Region 3...Named Associated Press First Team All-SEC...Named First Team All-SEC and SEC All-Defensive Team by the league coaches...Complete season averages were 10.5 ppg, 7.7 rpg and 3.4 bpg...Averaged 11.9 ppg, 7.9 rpg and 4.5 bpg in SEC games only..

Kelley Cain Bio - UTSPORTS.COM - University of Tennessee Athletics
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Kelly Cain virtually never played well against the better teams, especially if said team had a player almost as big as her.

Cain always complained about playing with knee pain. "Retired" from basketball and quit the team because of her supposed concern about her health.

Then Cain went back to playing basketball again.

I will take Russell over Cain, and Russell was a highly over-rated player.
 
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