Game Thread: #23/23 Lady Vols versus #3/5 UCONN

[creekdipper]

They could've called a few more fouls on UConn Refs chose not to including the piggy back ride that was totally obvious to everyone.

Jordan should have just flipped onto one side, dumped Yoko Ono, and then pancaked backward onto her.

All in good fun.

 

[BreatheUT]

We can’t blame Kellie, these are holly recruits she is working with, some of these players lack basketball IQ..yes KK was terrible tonight in every aspect of the game, but I think the same thing would have happened with Jaiden... Kellie has our defense looking better than holly ever did...

I hope we are out there recruiting for next year. We need a point guard that can score and break down the defense.

We need a post player that can make a play and can catch the ball..

Jaiden and Rennie are really not fast enough to play D1

I'm not sure how good of a coach we got right now but I agree this roster is not her fault. The last staff appears to not have been very good at assessing really good basketball players especially post players. I'm talking about players with good game acumen as well.

My concern is future recruiting ability.

 

[Memvol44]

I would recommend not starting Horston not game
but replacing her with Burrell would be no different.
Get well soon Zay .
Coach, please play Emily over Kasi just once.
We should have beat the hell out of icons. For real.

I know Emily is slow, but she is big and strong and has great hands...Are they going for a redshirt????

 

[brassie]

This wasn't a coaching loss. This was a turnover loss.

 

[Lucy]

One bit of good news.
Georgia beat Arkansas and Alabama is up overA&M in the 4th.
Just wondering what everyone’s feelings would be if we didn’t know we were up at the half. Just knew we lost by 15.
The turnovers are really what makes this sting. We probably win with 17 not 27.
I guess it’s like golf where you think you have something fixed on the driving range, front nine you are playing pretty good maybe going to have a special round and then......all the bad old habits come right back. Takes a lot of range work to make changes hold up under pressure.

 

[Volfan2012]

I don't know if we win if we manage to get equal shots at the basket but 17 attempts you need 8 two pointers to get it done. A little less if a combination of threes and twos.

 

[glv98]

No, YOU (and every other poster like you) are the embarrassment. You are an ignorant imbecile who obviously knows too little about the actual teams that competed tonight to have an educated opinion. Your take on this game, without (obviously!) knowing enough information on the participants to draw a respectable conclusion from, makes you look like an idiot. Sorry, but it does

Of COURSE it was awful that Tennessee turned the ball over so often and OF COURSE that was a huge factor in the loss. But if you can’t see, for this team in this year that some feared would lose this road game in a 50-pt massacre, that our team fought HARD but simply was, as expected, beaten by the recent #1 team in the nation, then I don’t know what else to say to you.

LOL Preach sister! We've discussed it before, the dumbassery inherent in the "they quit" "they didn't want it" "they had no pride" rants.

So help me here, at what point did the team get together and decide they were ok if things went to hell the second half? When did they collectively decide we no longer have an eff to give? At halftime they said, "Hey ya'll let's see how many times we can butterfinger a simple pass until we lose! That will look good on tv."?

The very thing that makes the turnover prob so intractable is that it is unintentional, it's mental, and almost always decision making on the fly related. As such, it's one of the hardest things to coach. Sure there are drills and film studying, but alot of it is just experience gathering. Frosh becoming sophs.

Of course, in some cases consistent ball security is a skill that's just beyond the abilities of some players. In spite of current evidence to the contrary, I still don't see Horston in this hopeless category. I believe she can and will overcome the turnover plague.

Burrell, sadly I'm not so sure. Hope so, but just not sure. Needs to be tamed without being broken. Really big coaching challenge.

Mickey should name an All-Thumbs POG tonight......and let about six of them thumb wrestle for it!

LOL co-post of the night. Like the KK tired after getting off the bus post, funny but tinged with the sad truth.

 

[VA_VOLFAN]

This wasn't a coaching loss. This was a turnover loss.

Awe Brassie you could have kicked us while we were down

 

[therealitytheory]

I like this team but they sorely need discipline. Coach Finger-on-chin needs to start lighting a fire under some people. WWPD

 

[RAVOL]

Recruiting is the key identifying right players. We definitely need a true point who can handle in traffic and run the team. I believe Mass understands what Kellie wants but she cant handle the ball in traffic when Athletic guards who know the game get up in her.

 

[Volfan2012]

UConn is ranked number 3 were playing on their home floor and have three upper classmen all ranked either number one or two in their recruiting class. Big if but if we could play without turnovers they lose to us tonight.

 

[Roustabout]

I'm not sure how good of a coach we got right now but I agree this roster is not her fault. The last staff appears to not have been very good at assessing really good basketball players especially post players. I'm talking about players with good game acumen as well.

My concern is future recruiting ability.

I watched a few minutes of that game and my thought was, RECRUIT!! That was the goofiest looking bunch of women I’ve seen in a while. UConn girls look fit and athletic. UTs looked awkward, and some were just fat. That one girl needs to cut her hair.

To be honest, it’s torture to watch some of that. I can’t remember how many Point blank layups missed. Two inch verticals aren’t my thing.

 

[VolBalls33]

So so frustrating watching UT just give teams extra possesions each and every game. Not sure who Kellie needs to play to keep the turnsovers down but good grief. If I were coaching I would have lost my mind during a TO and reaming the team out and likely being all over social media for my outburst.

 

[Prophet1]

Sooner or later Coach Kellie will have to seriously
address this turnover dilemma with some kind of discipline.

 

[Volfan2012]

Recruiting is the key identifying right players. We definitely need a true point who can handle in traffic and run the team. I believe Mass understands what Kellie wants but she cant handle the ball in traffic when Athletic guards who know the game get up in her.

We could use a quicker point guard and a quicker two guard. Horston has quickness but she has yet to learn a good pass from a bad one and how to finish layups. I counted six or seven layups that Brown, KK and Horston missed that they should've easily made.

 

[Coach Jumper]

This wasn't a coaching loss. This was a turnover loss.

turnover losses ARE coaching losses

 

[VA_VOLFAN]

So so frustrating watching UT just give teams extra possesions each and every game. Not sure who Kellie needs to play to keep the turnsovers down but good grief. If I were coaching I would have lost my mind during a TO and reaming the team out and likely being all over social media for my outburst.

Haha Kellie chewed someone’s a$$ off the camera flashed to her and she was red in the face after one of the MANY MANY MANY turnovers and she was lighting them up i actually think she was over the half court line

The players have said before that when Kellie isn’t happy nobody is happy. All smiles aside I think she has this team’s attention and I have a feeling she won’t kill them because of the close 3 games in 7 days but she will have their attention and that locker room wasn’t a happy one for sure

 

[Volfan2012]

Sooner or later Coach Kellie will have to seriously
address this turnover dilemma with some kind of discipline.

She will and I think the time has to be soon. We really don't have anyone to bench players but taking them out for a scolding for a minute or two is an option.

 

[Creekdog]

LOL Preach sister! We've discussed it before, the dumbassery inherent in the "they quit" "they didn't want it" "they had no pride" rants.

So help me here, at what point did the team get together and decide they were ok if things went to hell the second half? When did they take a vote and decide we no longer have an eff to give? At halftime they said, "Hey ya'll let's see how many times we can butterfinger a simple pass until we lose! That will look good on tv."?

The very thing that makes the turnover prob so intractable is that it is unintentional, it's mental, and almost always decision making on the fly related. As such, it's one of the hardest things to coach. Sure there are drills and film studying, but alot of it is just experience gathering. Frosh becoming sophs.

Of course, in some cases consistent ball security is a skill that's just beyond the abilities of some players. In spite of current evidence to the contrary, I still don't see Horston in this hopeless category. I believe she can and will overcome the turnover plague.

Burrell, sadly I'm not so sure. Hope so, but just not sure. Needs to be tamed without being broken. Really big coaching challenge.


LOL co-post of the night. Like the KK tired getting off the bus post, funny but tinged with the sad truth.

I agree I do not think the girls lacked effort or quit. UConn really sped the game up in the second half, pressured the ball, trapped the ball handler resulting an almost total loss of composure, particularly in qtr 3.

 

[RAVOL]

One thing I do believe we would have been better in second half playing small ball. Kk is way to slow and Key is so young and just dosen't know how to play the game just yet. I do like her upside however. She just needs to dedicate herself to offseason working on post moves and getting better conditioned.

 

[Volfan2012]

turnover losses ARE coaching losses

Got to find a way if your the coach can't win consistently until you find a way. If you keep giving up 20 shots more than you get to the opponent your gonna lose a lot of games.

 

[glv98]

Then you have a short memory. The 17-18 Lady Vols were blowing out a very good Notre Dame team in South Bend by 23 points in the first half before completely imploding. I'm sure there are other examples that I'm too pissed to remember offhand, but this is nothing new...

Yeah, you're right, that happened. One time, about 50 or 60 games ago.

 

[Volfan2012]

One thing I do believe we would have been better in second half playing small ball. Kk is way to slow and Key is so young and just dosen't know how to play the game just yet. I do like her upside however. She just needs to dedicate herself to offseason working on post moves and getting better conditioned.

We could've done without KK out there passing around on the perimeter.

 

[creekdipper]

So so frustrating watching UT just give teams extra possesions each and every game. Not sure who Kellie needs to play to keep the turnsovers down but good grief. If I were coaching I would have lost my mind during a TO and reaming the team out and likely being all over social media for my outburst.

They could wear helmets so she could yank them by the face mask.

 

[Coach Jumper]

So so frustrating watching UT just give teams extra possesions each and every game. Not sure who Kellie needs to play to keep the turnsovers down but good grief. If I were coaching I would have lost my mind during a TO and reaming the team out and likely being all over social media for my outburst.

It ain't WHO to play,,,its how to settle them down.
They are the same team that whipped the connies in the opening,,same team

I don't pull punches
when you let three 6pt+ runs go by without a timeout,,,don't go inside when you dwarf their interior and sub just to sub...you are NOT going to beat Geno, nor his team!