Game Thread - (5) Lady Vols vs (12) USF Bulls

#52
#52
glv98 said:
Kim said all of this. Said it was an adjustment she’d make next year.

I suspect excessive wear and tear is one of the reasons more teams don’t play like this. And also why pro teams don’t
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I suspect the adjustments will be impacted by the number of ladies, more physically fitting her system, that she has available when this current class plus any other additions start practice. If a couple of agile bigs of choice want to join up and she can basically go 3 deep I don’t see backing off the key concepts on either end. Should be digging fewer and shallower holes second year in with experienced leadership. Better mix of risk/reward starting day 1 with quicker instinctive adjustments.
 
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#55
#55
GUNTERSVOL said:
I suspect the adjustments will be impacted by the number of ladies, more physically fitting her system, that she has available when this current class plus any other additions start practice. If a couple of agile bigs of choice want to join up and she can basically go 3 deep I don’t see backing off the key concepts on either end. Should be digging fewer and shallower holes second year in with experienced leadership. Better mix of risk/reward starting day 1 with quicker instinctive adjustments.
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I suspect you're right. I suspect she's only working on half court D bc she has to and would rather not spend time on half court D or O at all. Like you, I suspect next yr w her recruits on board its going to be all out, balls to the wall 'system '. Pretty sure she's not giving up on it without at least one swing w her own players. I disagree w those who think shell dial it back significantly, tho I do expect them to be somewhat more prepared for half court emergencies.

My question is if increased athleticism will change late season burnout. I saw it teamwide this season, both athletes and klutzs, and both mental and physical. Does going even harder preseason help or eventually hurt? Its possible the load is too much for almost everyone and once agan, the reason more teams don't do it.

Eventually I see the LVs settling on an uptempo hybrid that's still fun but much more efficient. But not next year.
 
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#58
#58
The idea that the players getting worn down over the season is due to what happens in the 20-30 minutes each player is in a game is quite silly to me. If they can survive that and still be hooping at the end, how can doing that and then regularly having 3 days without basketball possibly be what wears you down?

Not denying that they are worn down! just that the way they're worked in practice* and particularly the way they do S&C is to blame, not our tempo play style. That is where we need adjustments. Making adjustments in game yet keeping the bad "everyday" habits (remember players saying that game day was easier than practice days, early in the season? Maybe that should be talked about more now that the narrativ is "this System wears us down"...) will hold us back.

*not that practice isn't necessary, it obviously is, just that in this area is where adjustments need to be made, but in the 40 minutes of game time, we should be doing what maximizes our win probability: generating turnovers and steal-n-scores at as high a rate as possible, no compromising unless we're already up 20+ late.
 
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#60
#60
RespectAPA said:
The idea that the players getting worn down over the season is due to what happens in the 20-30 minutes each player is in a game is quite silly to me. If they can survive that and still be hooping at the end, how can doing that and then regularly having 3 days without basketball possibly be what wears you down?

Not denying that they are worn down! just that the way they're worked in practice* and particularly the way they do S&C is to blame, not our tempo play style. That is where we need adjustments. Making adjustments in game yet keeping the bad "everyday" habits (remember players saying that game day was easier than practice days, early in the season? Maybe that should be talked about more now that the narrativ is "this System wears us down"...) will hold us back.

*not that practice isn't necessary, it obviously is, just that in this area is where adjustments need to be made, but in the 40 minutes of game time, we should be doing what maximizes our win probability: generating turnovers and steal-n-scores at as high a rate as possible, no compromising unless we're already up 20+ late.
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Don’t recall anyone saying that. Obviously ,it’s cumulative . Tired legs in Feb aren’t new. Common sense is the more miles on the legs the worse the problem. And both the pressing system and the s &c needed to prepare for it put many more miles on them.
 
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#61
#61
glv98 said:
Don’t recall anyone saying that. Obviously ,it’s cumulative . Tired legs in Feb aren’t new. Common sense is the more miles on the legs the worse the problem. And both the pressing system and the s &c needed to prepare for it put many more miles on them.
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S&C is needed to prepare the team for this system, yes. "The S&C" — meaning what Caldwell did this year? I'm skeptical. I said it early in the season, that coach doing the same S&C stuff she did in D2, and hiring a S&C director from D2 Glenville State who wasn't even on the staff the year they won a natty (nor was he with her last year during her very successful first D1 season) is suspect when competing with SEC schools who ar on the cutting edge of S&C research and WBB performance.

The solution to "bad S&C" is not "no S&C", it's "good S&C". And it doesn't really mean squat if the S&C had the team playing well in November if they weren't in a conditional position to even contest an SEC championship this year.

And that's what we need most in our system: modern, accurate ideas about how S&C is best done, not old 'wisdom' which gets players to 90%, but not to 100%. And the fact that this is what we're talking about now, and what coach herself is talking about now, is exactly what you would expect to see if I was right on the money back in November wrt Caldwell's S&C programme being an Achilles' heel for her performance in March and April. We aren't the same team that was intercepting long passes and giving our opponents hell in November and December, the team that beat UNC preseason, turned Iowa over like crazy, went into 2025 undefeated, and which still stands undefeated non-conference right now. And the simplest explanation for that is that our S&C programme had our girls peaked in November, but worn down by March. Not good! Better athletes will help, but if that lesson isn't learned (or worse, the *wrong lesson* is learned) then this particular issue with cast a shadow over her run here. And a damn shame that would be considering what we've already seen of what it can do when run with healthy girls.
 
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#62
#62
i'm not sure where the fatigue is coming from but it could also be mental fatigue. our players' mins per game are far lower than some of the top teams' players. i suspect the practice schedule, in combination with our game style, has taken both a mental and physical toll on some players. the sec is just different. that said, i have NO DOUBT kim is the person to make adjustments. she did not have to say any of this stuff to the press, but she's a straight shooter. we can't forget that we have about 3 players in our current rotation who are not built for this type of system. love them to death but they wouldn't be recruited for the system for a variety of reasons. i will be happy with a sweet 16 this year but i still think we can hit the FF if they lock in. our system is perfect for tourney play IF all players are on the same page for 40 mins.
 
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#63
#63
glv98 said:
CKC said they've worked alot on half court defense. Thats very encouraging. But you wonder if its too late.
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I'm worried they didn't get even nearly enough complete rest, which is what they needed. Kim mentioned in the March 17 news conference that she thinks they're looking better after having had two days off, then two skill days (lighter days), then they ramped it up and were about to begin tapering back down.

So, they only got two complete rest days. Even skills days can wear on tired muscles.

Kim insists they're looking like they did in December and January, and it seems to me they'd have to be going really darn hard in practice for her to say that, so it does concern me that they could quickly lose steam in the tournament.
 
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#64
#64
JMO I think we have been losing mostly because of poor defense, poor shot selction and being called for fouls sending teams to the foul line. Last game versus Vandy we got out rebounded by 8 and they get 22 fouls shots to our 8. This game was won by Vandy at the foul line 16 to 3.

In the Georgia game shot 33 percent on some poor shot selection and got out rebounded by 5. Took 28 threes made six. They took 12 and made 7. Making sure you get a good shot not just something thrown at the basket is this teams weak point. They like to throw up quick shots some when there is no one under the goal to rebound and others that are just poor attempts.

Three things you have to do is rebound, win turnovers or at least stay even, and try to get the best shot you can. We haven't been doing any of these three that well in the last month. Allowing Vandy to score 84 points and 16 of them coming from the foul line is terrible defense, Georgia way over their average for the season against our bad defense.

This team were playing tonight has averaged 66 a game. I don't think they can beat us if they score 66 tonight. They can if we let them score 75 to 80 which we have been doing for some very average teams at best. I can't say it is because were tired or just not playing effective in a game. Been playing ugly defense all season just was scoring a lot more.
 
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#65
#65
RespectAPA said:
S&C is needed to prepare the team for this system, yes. "The S&C" — meaning what Caldwell did this year? I'm skeptical. I said it early in the season, that coach doing the same S&C stuff she did in D2, and hiring a S&C director from D2 Glenville State who wasn't even on the staff the year they won a natty (nor was he with her last year during her very successful first D1 season) is suspect when competing with SEC schools who ar on the cutting edge of S&C research and WBB performance.

The solution to "bad S&C" is not "no S&C", it's "good S&C". And it doesn't really mean squat if the S&C had the team playing well in November if they weren't in a conditional position to even contest an SEC championship this year.

And that's what we need most in our system: modern, accurate ideas about how S&C is best done, not old 'wisdom' which gets players to 90%, but not to 100%. And the fact that this is what we're talking about now, and what coach herself is talking about now, is exactly what you would expect to see if I was right on the money back in November wrt Caldwell's S&C programme being an Achilles' heel for her performance in March and April. We aren't the same team that was intercepting long passes and giving our opponents hell in November and December, the team that beat UNC preseason, turned Iowa over like crazy, went into 2025 undefeated, and which still stands undefeated non-conference right now. And the simplest explanation for that is that our S&C programme had our girls peaked in November, but worn down by March. Not good! Better athletes will help, but if that lesson isn't learned (or worse, the *wrong lesson* is learned) then this particular issue with cast a shadow over her run here. And a damn shame that would be considering what we've already seen of what it can do when run with healthy girls.
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I would bet that our S&C staff are pretty much up on all the new research and practices, even though they came from a D2 program. If you have direct knowledge to the contrary, I apologize in advance.

I do think though there was a D2 miscalculation in terms of understanding how demanding the SEC conference schedule would be. I don't think they "peaked" in November so much as they took full advantage of pretty easy set of cupcake opponents.

Some where saying even then that this team might be bi-polar in the sense that they can completely overrun a mismatched team in a way that prior LV teams could not do but that they might struggle against teams who had the players to handle our press and win the rebounding battles.

They actually had some peaks and valleys throughout the season. The win against Uconn was the latest peak. But even in that strong pre-conference run, there were warning sign games against Liberty who broke the team's press repeatedly and similar issue that made the FSU game a nail biter.

But the wheels kind of came off the wagon at the end of the season, as though the team hit a valley and did not have the energy to get out of it once again.

For this system to work, all you need to have is 12 completely interchangeable elite athletes who can all shoot the three well and avoid injuries all season and an absolutely perfect S&C program that allows each player to stay all season on the redline without blowing a gasket. I mean that is not too much to ask is it?
 
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#66
#66
One thing that has not been discussed much is our opponents have attacked our 3 point shooters at 22 feet, instead of staying back and waiting like teams use to do against us....This high pressure defensive tactic has been at the core of our late season losses....

This defensive tactic has made Puckett, with her slow foot speed and shot release, ineffective in most games...She's almost an interested observer more than a scorer. She's a sweet girl, but extremely limited at both ends of the court...And our opponents see this too.
NCAA%203-point%20line%20040124.jpg
 
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#68
#68
glv98 said:
I think what made folks blame fatigue, besides the fact the coach did, is the slow, flat starts over and over. Definitely felt mental as well as physical.
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I worry about the mental fatigue in some ways more than I worry about the physical fatigue. This is also the crux of the semester and, while I am not as familiar with the rigor of the academic programs at Kim's previous schools, I wonder if the demands of classes are also perhaps in play.
 
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