Coach Jumper
"the right words"
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After Game Comments:
A 12-3 run Q2 from 8:42-3:41 with no timeout
An 8-0 run Q3 from 9:25-6:13 with no timeout
Nuff said.
- Opponent: Texas
- Date: Sun., Dec. 8
- Tipoff: 2 p.m.
- Venue: Thompson-Boling Arena
- Watch: ESPN 2
- Listen Live
- Live Stats
- UT Game Notes (PDF)
- RECAPPING OUR LAST GAME
- Junior Rennia Davis just missed her fifth double-double, recording 18 points and nine rebounds to share leading scorer honors with sophomore Rae Burrell, who posted a scoring career high for the second straight game.
- Three other Lady Vols scored in double digits, including junior Kasiyahna Kushkituah, sophomore Jazmine Massengill and freshman Tamari Key, who contributed 13, 11 and 10, respectively. Massengill added a game-high six assists.
- The Falcons shot only 29.6 from the field, but out-rebounded Tennessee, 40-39. It marked the first time all season UT has been beaten on the boards.
- NOTES FROM THE LAST GAME
- On The Break: UT recorded a season-high 15 steals against Air Force, converting those into a season-high 21 fast-break points. The Lady Vols had previous season highs of 12 and 20, respectively, vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff in the last game.
- Consistent Bench Play: Sophomore Rae Burrell and Kasiyahna Kushkituah each finished the day in double figures with 18 and 13 points, respectively. It marked the fourth-straight game the pair had come off the bench to contribute double-digit points.
- Rae Heating Up: Sophomore Rae Burrell has improved her career high in two straight games, recording 17 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff and 18 against Air Force. Her previous best was 14 points, initially set against Florida A&M on Nov. 18, 2018, and tied earlier this season against Tennessee State.
- Balanced Attack: UT finished the day with five players in double digits (Davis, Key, Massengill, Kushkituah, Burrell) and nine of 10 active Lady Vols contributed at least one bucket.
- Point Guards Dishing: Freshman Jordan Horston and sophomore Jazmine Massengill lead the team in assists this year with 33 and 32, respectively. If the season ended today, Horston's average of 4.7 apg. would rank second all-time for Lady Vol freshmen behind only Ariel Massengale who averaged 4.9, while Massengill's average of 4.6 apg. would rank fifth all-time for Lady Vol sophomores.
- HARPER HISTORY IN THE MAKING
- Kellie Harper coached the 500th game of her head coaching career on Dec. 1, as the Lady Vols defeated Air Force, 81-54, in Knoxville. She improved to 292-208 in her 16th season on the sideline.
- Kellie Harper will attempt to open a season 8-0 for the first time in her head coaching career. She twice opened 4-0 at NC State in 2011-12 and 2012-13 before topping that with a 7-0 start at UT this season.
- On Nov. 18, 2019, Kellie Harper became the 40th person to play for and coach an AP-ranked women's basketball team when UT debuted at No. 23.
- She became the 13th person to accomplish that feat at the school where she also played.
- According to Hoops Guru Mel Greenberg, UT and USC are the only schools with two alums to accomplish that feat. Harper and Holly Warlick did so at Tennessee, while Cheryl Miller and Cynthia Cooper-Dyke did so at Southern Cal.
- Harper is one of only 11 coaches to lead three different women's teams to NCAA Tournament appearances (Western Carolina, NC State, Missouri State).
- She will attempt to join Jim Foster (St. Joseph's, Vanderbilt, Ohio State, Chattanooga) in becoming the only coaches to take four different women's teams to the NCAA tourney.
- TENNESSEE TOPICS
- Tennessee has opened a season 7-0 for the third year in a row and will attempt to make it 8-0 for the third time in as many seasons and for only the fifth time in the past 10 years.
- The Lady Vols defeated Texas last season to go 8-0.
- Reserves Rae Burrell and Kasiyahna Kushkituah each have scored in double figures in the past four games. Burrell is second among active players at 10.6 ppg., while Kushkituah is third at 9.4 ppg.
- Burrell is UT's leading scorer in home games at 13.4 ppg., hitting 47 percent of her shots in Knoxville.
- Starter Rennia Davis has scored in double figures in five straight contests and is up to 16.0 ppg.
- Centers Kasiyahna Kushkituah (.634), Tamari Key (.579) and Emily Saunders (.769) are all hitting high percentages on their field goals.
- Kasiyahna Kushkituah averaged 14.0 ppg. last week in two games while shooting .857 from the field.
- Tennessee is holding opponents to 46.0 ppg. at home, while those foes shoot only .265. UT, meanwhile, is averaging 76.4 ppg. and shooting .489.
- The highest field goal percentage UT has allowed in a game this season was .348 to ETSU in the opener.
- The Lady Vols had won the rebounding battle in the first five games before Air Force outworked the Lady Vols, 40-39, last Sunday. UT still has a +15.6 margin vs. opponents that ranks No. 2 nationally.
- Seven Lady Vols average better than 5.0 rpg.
- Tennessee is allowing only 51.6 points per game and has given up more than 55 points only twice.
- Jazmine Massengill has recorded 21 assists vs. only four turnovers in five home games this season.
- Tennessee has had 16 or more assists in each game this season and a season-best 25 vs. UAPB.
- UT reserves have outscored the opposing bench in each game, building an average score of 31.0 to 12.7.
- The Lady Vols have shot for a higher percentage every game.
- UT-TEXAS SERIES NOTES
- Tennessee leads the series with Texas, 25-15, and has a 12-6 edge in Knoxville, an 11-8 record in Austin and a 2-1 mark at neutral sites.
- The Lady Vols ended a three-game overall losing skid in the series in 2017 and halted a two-game road losing streak in the series a year ago. Tennessee now will try to add on to its current two-game winning streak in the series and make it two in a row at home as well.
- While the first meeting in the series was on Dec. 8, 1978 (Tennessee 84, Texas 60), this marks the 38th-consecutive season these programs have met. The UTs played twice in 1986-87 and 1991-92 in regular-season tourney match-ups in addition to the regularly-scheduled games.
- Lady Vol freshman Zaay Green (injured/out for the season) hails from Duncanville (Texas) High School, the alma mater of Lady Vol, Olympic and WNBA hoops legend Tamika Catchings.
- Tennessee is 58-22 all-time vs. schools currently in the Big 12 after winning at Oklahoma State and Texas last season.
- Lady Vol Head Coach Kellie Harper was 4-0 vs. Texas as a Tennessee player from 1995-96 to 1998-99.
- Two of women's college basketball's most successful coaches put these programs on the map: Tennessee's Pat Summitt (1,098-208, 8 NCAA titles) and Texas' Jody Conradt (900-307, 1 NCAA title).
- Popular Tennessee men's basketball coach Rick Barnes' previously coached at Texas from 1998 to 2015.
- ABOUT TEXAS
- The Longhorns returned three starters and eight total letterwinners from last year's squad that finished 23-10 overall and 12-6/3rd in the Big 12.
- Texas has been led this season by the one-two inside punch of 6-3 forward Joyner Holmes (17.3 ppg., 9.9 rpg.) and 6-5 forward/center Charli Collier (16.3 ppg., 10.5 rpg.).
- Guards Sug Sutton, Celeste Taylor and Lashann Higgs are averaging 9.5, 8.6 and 8.1 ppg., respectively. Higgs was Texas' leading scorer through four games a year ago (13.8 ppg.) before an injury ended her season. Sutton averaged 12.7 in 2018-19.
- Head coach Karen Aston is in her eighth season at the school and is 169-76. She is 270-139 in her 13th season overall.
- RECAPPING TEXAS' LAST GAME
- Hawaii held Texas without a field goal for the first eight minutes of the fourth quarter, as the Rainbow Wahine defeated the Longhorns, 73-60, in the Rainbow Wahine Showdown last Sunday afternoon in Honolulu.
- Hawaii (4-4) hit 10 of 19 three pointers and made 21 of 24 free throws. Texas (4-4) led by three at the end of the third period, but Hawaii outscored the Longhorns, 28-12, in the fourth quarter.
- Charli Collier scored 18, Joyner Holmes 17 and Celeste Taylor 13 for Texas. Amy Atwell scored 24 for Hawaii, which included a 9-of-14 performance from three-point territory and six-of-seven from the free-throw line.
VolNation,
Scouting report:
We won't play the game that Hawaii did to beat Texas (10-19 shooting 3 ptrs), we will beat them with depth. TX has four players over 6' and only two of them are primaries: Joyner-Holmes 6'3" and Collier 6'5"...These two also account for nearly half of the total rebounds for TX team...We have to block out and shut these two down. Aside from them, only Sug Sutton (27-15 asst-TO) worries me. She is the type of player that I see going off for a career high. (Shut her down JH and JM!!) Beyond these 3 and Higgs and Taylor, there is no bench.
TX shoots a measly % from 3, so that doesn't worry me. The ones coming off the bench are the ones we have to kind of worry about when it comes to the 3. I saw a couple of them with pretty good numbers. But I believe they're just there to be shooters
TX shoots six 3's a game, and averages 42 Rebs (half of which will be JH and Collier)
Tx is averaging 17 TO's a game
All this doesn't influence me as much as their Coach, Karen Aston. Her last presser reminded me a little of CHW's...right to the scratching and the "need to push the ball inside" verbalization. Also the referrences to "practice". She looks perplexed and in need of answers...Video: Karen Aston press conference - University of Texas Athletics
In this ol coach's opinion, we should manhandle Texas (on paper), however, on the court we better treat them like what they were not what they have been recently. Because TX will play us like we are Tennessee!
I see UT winning 85-60 with the game much closer in the onset and distancing as TX, who has little depth, tires.
Coach J
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God bless and go lady Vols . ( How is the lady Vols going to get to the top ..... We're going to outwork everybody else ... And that's it ) .
