Game Thread: #11 Lady Vols at #15 Kentucky. Thursday, Feb. 27, 7pm ET, SECN.

#551
#551
NoBackBoard said:
Brooks proved in this game he is the SEC Coach of the Year but they will probably give it to Vic.
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Nah. Brooks lost to UNC by 19 and to Texas at home by 18. Your real point (we are not deceived) is that you can’t lose even one game by those kinds of lopsided margins and deserve COY. He did it twice.
 
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#552
#552
I get your point. It’s my opinion based on the principles of being a fullcourt press team and running an uptempo offense. I’m not seeing the logic behind the decision to frequently sub 10 players close to equal minutes if multiple players aren’t impacting the game defensively or making wide open shots.
Beyond the system and all the useless comparisons between last year’s team and CKC first season at Tennessee, when the games matter it’s going to come down to making adjustments and play who helps you win that game. Forget the system. Forget mass substitutions. Forget analytics. Just play and coach, rinse and repeat.
The 8th loss won’t show anything different than the first 7 unless there’s an adjustment made. That could mean going from 10 players to 6/7 or going with a different 10 but for some time now there’s been signs that both Latham and Ayodele bring what’s missing in terms of defense, rebounding, and energy to the court.


lvocd said:
I am on Team Latham, for sure. And earlier in the season I was excited about the super tough Ayodele. But for whatever reasons (I would love to know them) Kim has chosen not to give Favor more than a minute or two, if any at all, for most of the season. She only got 4 tonight in a clear blowout that was an obvious opportunity for the staff to give extended 4th-quarter minutes to those who don't get any in the tight matchups. Yet, she only got four.

The point is, I'm thinking if Kim hasn't played her up to now, unfortunately I don't see her getting more minutes as things get even tougher and more urgent. I hate it 'cause she looked like she could have been a Keyen Green-type player.
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#553
#553
Cb153181 said:
We as fans have been asking for this but why doesn’t then coach see it. She rather play ppl who don’t want to play defense or rebound. Latham never takes a play off.
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Yes we’ve mentioned it. Yet you have some that act as if it’s no way to correct this flaw. You have to play the players that show they take pride in defense. Boyd, Latham, Cooper, and Ayodele take pride in defense. That’s your foundation to improving the defensive deficiencies right now. We don’t need high school recruits right now. Or the transfer portal. Just some adjustments to play players that will give 100% effort on defense every possession. Kentucky is not even a dominant team. They are slightly above average in many key areas and to score 58 points against that group is a sign of deficits in preparation before and during the game.
 
#554
#554
Don’t understand why people are confused by the slow starts. Who do you think has the advantage when the other team plays their starting 5 for the first 6-8 minutes and Tenn has players 6-10 in the game a minute in? I can’t think of any situation in basketball history where matching you bench against their starters has been a winning strategy. Maybe to send a message in a particular game, but not as a team philosophy.

It’s common sense. Name any top 10 team at any level that pulls their top 3-5 players out a minute in and puts their end of bench players in vs the other teams starters. You spend half the first quarter at a significant talent disadvantage. Can this work against a lesser team that might wear down over 40 minutes? Sure. But KY will win by 10+ points 9 out of 10 times if Amoore, Strack and Key play 34 minutes and 10-15 of those minutes are against Tenn’s 6-10 bench players. Kim will be ok if she isn’t too stubborn to tweak her style. I don’t care what class is coming in, a good or great team will always have the advantage if their stars are playing 8-12 more minutes than Tenn starters. Just tweak it where the top 2-3 play 32-34 minutes and hockey sub players 4-8.

People bring up 40 minutes of hell. But check and see how many players Nolan used in a big time matchup. Maybe 7. Eight at the most. Again, this can work, but not if stubbornness or pride gets in the way.
 
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#555
#555
SheShoots said:
Don’t understand why people are confused by the slow starts. Who do you think has the advantage when the other team plays their starting 5 for the first 6-8 minutes and Tenn has players 6-10 in the game a minute in? I can’t think of any situation in basketball history where matching you bench against their starters has been a winning strategy. Maybe to send a message in a particular game, but not as a team philosophy.

It’s common sense. Name any top 10 team at any level that pulls their top 3-5 players out a minute in and puts their end of bench players in vs the other teams starters. You spend half the first quarter at a significant talent disadvantage. Can this work against a lesser team that might wear down over 40 minutes? Sure. But KY will win by 10+ points 9 out of 10 times if Amoore, Strack and Key play 34 minutes and 10-15 of those minutes are against Tenn’s 6-10 bench players. Kim will be ok if she isn’t too stubborn to tweak her style. I don’t care what class is coming in, a good or great team will always have the advantage if their stars are playing 8-12 more minutes than Tenn starters. Just tweak it where the top 2-3 play 32-34 minutes and hockey sub players 4-8.

People bring up 40 minutes of hell. But check and see how many players Nolan used in a big time matchup. Maybe 7. Eight at the most. Again, this can work, but not if stubbornness or pride gets in the way.
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Good post.

I agree that it needs tweaking and you do a good job of pointing out the reasons why.

This is Kim's 1st season, not just at Tennessee, but as a coach in major college basketball. Therefore, I'm trying to think of this as a fluid work in progress. Appropriate adjustments will be made, especially as we bring in more elite talent.

Go Lady Vols!!!!
 
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#557
#557
SheShoots said:
Don’t understand why people are confused by the slow starts. Who do you think has the advantage when the other team plays their starting 5 for the first 6-8 minutes and Tenn has players 6-10 in the game a minute in? I can’t think of any situation in basketball history where matching you bench against their starters has been a winning strategy. Maybe to send a message in a particular game, but not as a team philosophy.

It’s common sense. Name any top 10 team at any level that pulls their top 3-5 players out a minute in and puts their end of bench players in vs the other teams starters. You spend half the first quarter at a significant talent disadvantage. Can this work against a lesser team that might wear down over 40 minutes? Sure. But KY will win by 10+ points 9 out of 10 times if Amoore, Strack and Key play 34 minutes and 10-15 of those minutes are against Tenn’s 6-10 bench players. Kim will be ok if she isn’t too stubborn to tweak her style. I don’t care what class is coming in, a good or great team will always have the advantage if their stars are playing 8-12 more minutes than Tenn starters. Just tweak it where the top 2-3 play 32-34 minutes and hockey sub players 4-8.

People bring up 40 minutes of hell. But check and see how many players Nolan used in a big time matchup. Maybe 7. Eight at the most. Again, this can work, but not if stubbornness or pride gets in the way.
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This makes a lot sense, excellent explanation.
 
#559
#559
The Tennessee men had a game like this at Florida went down there and lost by 30 points. The good part about that was they have played their way back into a number one seed and in the rematch against Florida won by 20 points. We don't get the opportunity for the rematch unless some strange things happen in the SEC Tourney, but we still can play at home and still be a three seed although it will take a huge couple wins in the SEC Tourney and beating Georgia Sunday.

Totally looks like we will be playing Vanderbilt or Miss St in the first game of the SEC Tourney unless one of the lower ranked teams beats one or both of them. Won't know until the games are played Sunday. Miss St holds the tiebreaker over Vandy but are 6 and 9 and Vandy is 7 and 8. We have to beat Georgia to avoid dropping below Vandy if they win at Missouri which is not going to be easy for them.

If we get seventh we line up with the two seed and eighth the one seed so it will be Texas or SC who we will play if we make it past the first game. Ole Miss is at LSU so I am thinking seventh for us exactly where we were picked to finish in the league. Seventh plays the two seed which with SC and Texas tieing for the title will be determined Sunday.

I think if we win Sunday and the first game of the SEC we hang onto the four seed and play at home. A win against those two and against Texas or SC could move us back to the three line or at least to one of the top two four seeds.

Kentucky gets the double bye even if they lose by having the tiebreaker over Oklahoma. A Oklahoma win would match them up with Kentucky in that game.

Going to be interesting and all I am wishing for is to hold on to that home court atvantage for the NCAA.
 
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#560
#560
What happened last night happens from time to time. We did not play defense on top of that they were hitting all the shots. We played a couple of players in this game and many other games that just don't need many minutes. When our philosophy for the game didn't work it was already to late to change because it was just there night. Regroup and move on. We need another big to contend with a team that has this many bigs and knows how to use them.
 
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#561
#561
Had to dvr and watch this morning. SO many questions in my head...#1 is "how long do you continue the crapshow Speaman put on, throwing the ball in the general direction of the hoop?"
 
#562
#562
I saw the pregame interview with Kim and Samara and Kim looked absolutely pissed. Samara kind looked a bit disengaged and made a comment about the team not being connected. Makes one wonder if something happened outside of the game to put a rift within the team.

Huge game coming this Sunday, and it also being senior night. I hope whatever we saw last night was a one time fluke and that we get it figured out before game time. I don’t care who you play in the SEC, anyone and everyone can win.
 
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#563
#563
therealitytheory said:
Had to dvr and watch this morning. SO many questions in my head...#1 is "how long do you continue the crapshow Speaman put on, throwing the ball in the general direction of the hoop?"
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Not just Spearman, I lost count of the number of missed layups in the 1st quarter but had to be double digits. Couple that with several lapses in defense that left people wide open and it was a disaster. I stopped watching after the 1st quarter but according to the box score it did not get any better (31% FG%, 21% 3pt%, 50% FT%). Lady Vols never closed the scoring gap either: 1st - down 11 points, 2nd - down 19 points, 3rd - down 29 points, 4th - 24 points. Just an ugly game. Hopefully this is just a one off but against athletic teams Lady Vols struggle and have all year.
 
#565
#565
ShortyMac10 said:
Not even mad bad shooting night couldn’t contain Kentucky bigs I knew we would split between them and bama..but once again did we attempt to get baby key?😅
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Baby Key would have been lovely to have but there was zero chance of that after Harper was let go. The Key family lovvved Kellie and there was no way she was coming here once that happened.
 
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#566
#566
SheShoots said:
Don’t understand why people are confused by the slow starts. Who do you think has the advantage when the other team plays their starting 5 for the first 6-8 minutes and Tenn has players 6-10 in the game a minute in? I can’t think of any situation in basketball history where matching you bench against their starters has been a winning strategy. Maybe to send a message in a particular game, but not as a team philosophy.

It’s common sense. Name any top 10 team at any level that pulls their top 3-5 players out a minute in and puts their end of bench players in vs the other teams starters. You spend half the first quarter at a significant talent disadvantage. Can this work against a lesser team that might wear down over 40 minutes? Sure. But KY will win by 10+ points 9 out of 10 times if Amoore, Strack and Key play 34 minutes and 10-15 of those minutes are against Tenn’s 6-10 bench players. Kim will be ok if she isn’t too stubborn to tweak her style. I don’t care what class is coming in, a good or great team will always have the advantage if their stars are playing 8-12 more minutes than Tenn starters. Just tweak it where the top 2-3 play 32-34 minutes and hockey sub players 4-8.

People bring up 40 minutes of hell. But check and see how many players Nolan used in a big time matchup. Maybe 7. Eight at the most. Again, this can work, but not if stubbornness or pride gets in the way.
Click to expand...
I think it is a great strategy, especially when you play a team which likes to run set plays and have limited numbers of talented players on your team. Kentucky has more talent and much bigger players. We got limited offensive rebounds and they got a lot go offensive rebounds. Add that to ice cold shooting by us and we didn't have a chance last night. Part of our shooting woes was Kentucky, with their bigger players, played terrific defense both inside and on the perimeter. A number of our shot were air balls due to their pressure. We got fewer steals than usual and they often beat our press with speed and finding the open player. Kentucky is a better team than I expected. I had nt seen them play this year and I am impressed by their size and skills.
 
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#567
#567
utVolFanInVA said:
Not just Spearman, I lost count of the number of missed layups in the 1st quarter but had to be double digits. Couple that with several lapses in defense that left people wide open and it was a disaster. I stopped watching after the 1st quarter but according to the box score it did not get any better (31% FG%, 21% 3pt%, 50% FT%). Lady Vols never closed the scoring gap either: 1st - down 11 points, 2nd - down 19 points, 3rd - down 29 points, 4th - 24 points. Just an ugly game. Hopefully this is just a one off but against athletic teams Lady Vols struggle and have all year.
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Started cold, they started blazing and it got out of hand so fast it was demoralizing.

Net net, I am not all that bummed, it was one of those games we could have played really well and still lost the game. I do not believe in moral victories or moral losses and it only counts as 1.

Best thing might be a rematch in the tourney, with the potential of the same result of the 2nd FL game by the men. Time will tell.
 
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#570
#570
Kentucky is a slightly above average team. Tennessee simply wasn’t prepared to adjust as a team. It’s really not complicated at all. They don’t have more talent. Didn’t do anything Tennessee hadn’t seen all year. This is team that has losses to Texas A&M and Ole Miss. Tennessee loss because they had arguably the worse performance of the season and came out lacking the energy and the will to play as a team to give themselves a chance to make a run to get out of the hole from the opening tip. That’s on the coaches and players to use as a learning experience. Every team, every single team on the schedule you can bet gets up to play Tennessee. Until the coaches and players meet that standard you’ll possibly see a blowout defeat or two like last night. But again a team that lose to Texas A&M and Ole Miss is not more talented than Tennessee.

VOLINVONORE said:
I think it is a great strategy, especially when you play a team which likes to run set plays and have limited numbers of talented players on your team. Kentucky has more talent and much bigger players. We got limited offensive rebounds and they got a lot go offensive rebounds. Add that to ice cold shooting by us and we didn't have a chance last night. Part of our shooting woes was Kentucky, with their bigger players, played terrific defense both inside and on the perimeter. A number of our shot were air balls due to their pressure. We got fewer steals than usual and they often beat our press with speed and finding the open player. Kentucky is a better team than I expected. I had nt seen them play this year and I am impressed by their size and skills.
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#572
#572
Basketball is a game of matchups. Kenny has developed a team that our method of playing struggles with--strong effective bigs plus, tonight, our defense was particularly awful. A couple of recruiting cycles will hopefully get us some help inside, but our method of playing will always struggle with teams that have a strong, deliberate inside presence. I am not suggesting we can't beat those teams, as we handle that with better shooting, better defense and more nergy, but not tonight.
 
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#575
#575
LadyVol1908 said:
😂😂😂 this tickled me! We need a lot more than just dribbling to come in next year, but I’m hopeful everyone should be able to dribble. 😂
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I think the real question is, do we have anyone who can protect the ball when they dribble, because we have a lot of turn overs while dribbling the ball anywhere on the court. A lot Cooper's turnovers have been when she is trying to penetrate th ball at the top of the key and down the lane. Her pocket is picked a lot.
 
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