Game Thread: Carson Newman v Lady Vols, Thurs Oct 31; Home-FCC; 6:30PM; SEC+ network....Win Lv's 135-49

[dapeak]

She’ll be in the portal after her first season.

She might be… but that was weird to tweet at a kid

 

[dapeak]

Now that I’ve sat with it and calmed down

This was an amazing launch to the Kim Caldwell era. It’s not JUST tiring out other teams but as an opposing coach/player it’s literally making an adjustment every 2 minutes to how a new group of players and their individual styles and skillsets. It’s both physically and mentally taxing. If this is the worst they look, we’re in for a great season.

Ruby, Spearman, Coop, Jewel are all SEC potential. Jill looked the best she’s looked since she’s been at Tennessee imo and I’m sure recently coming out of concussion protocol played a part in her playing time. Boyd is a hooper and one to keep your eye on. Avery will be productive in this system and honestly it fits her. Sara looks better in this system. Spencer is a healthy, bigger version of Jojo and I love it. Latham had good minutes even if she didn’t score, she made a good impact when she was on the court. By mid season Tess will be able to play overseas ball if she wants to.

One thing I really liked is letting the girls just play and be free. At times, Kellie would see a player get hype or aggressive play and she’d sit them. This is exciting ball. Expect commits soon. That MTSU game will be telling.

 

[OrangeBeachVol]

Unofficial rule #1 of the Lady Vols VolNation forum - never read too much into the Carson-Newman exhibition game.

Agree with this but one thing that did stand out in this game is: LV's are loaded with athletic talented players that can play this style of BB. Win or lose games they will cause a lot of problems for future opponents. I see I repeated many posts about this. Sorry didn't read them all first.

 

[KnoxLikeUs]

Spencer is a healthy, bigger version of Jojo and I love it.

Jojo did well for herself in the SEC but her and Spencer are not similar. Pretty much there’s no comparison. Samara Spencer is a three year starter and former SEC freshman of the year. She has a great chance this season to lead the SEC in assist per game. Would not be surprised to see her play in the WNBA.

 

[RAVOL]

I guarantee everyone here, this version of the LV’s will be considered by all SEC teams to be a bitch to play. Most will take a loss and the best teams will struggle in their matchups. This is real. I’m not predicting an SEC championship in CKC’s first season, I’m saying you can see what she is building. I think she is a great coach with a new cutting edge system and she knows the players she needs to make it work. She will get good players to this system. She is a keeper type unless I’m just wrong here.

Could be some bumps in the road the first year, small matter.

Listening to her post game comment on K Boyd yeah she is very high on her future and after watching her last night big future with Lady Vols and Cooper as well. If your team does not have good depth look out. In CHRIST Alone

 

[dapeak]

Jojo did well for herself in the SEC but her and Spencer are not similar. Pretty much there’s no comparison. Samara Spencer is a three year starter and former SEC freshman of the year. She has a great chance this season to lead the SEC in assist per game. Would not be surprised to see her play in the WNBA.

When I say similar I mean defensive energy, ability to set up their teammates, and shoot when the team needs for them to score. I absolutely think Samara is obviously much better from a skill level perspective but it’s THAT that I see. She’s unselfish but impactful in ways people miss if they don’t pay attention and she has that killer instinct. I also would not be surprised and think eyes should be on her for the next level.

Now.. considering that’s the only thing you pointed out I’m going to assume you agreed with everything else lol

 

[madtownvol]

Tempered optimism. I remember thinking the football offense and Nico were about to set season records. We saw how competition level can grossly overstate how good you are.

Still, it’s hard not to be highly encouraged by how this team played. Add in the UNC result if true and this group of ladies is looking much better than anyone would have thought a month ago.

That is the right comparison. The big positive is that CKC has great buy-in and the players are implementing her system. The platoon subbing did not break momentum and the offense flowed and the defense was intense.

But CN was an athletically overmatched team with no real capacity to handle that pressure. They were overwhelmed and exhausted by the mid point of the first quarter. So, it was easy for the LVs to look great. They had to have the capacity to look great (which they did) but they faced no resistance (Just like when the VOLS blew out Kent St.

 

[Mafiaboss]

She might be… but that was weird to tweet at a kid

Yeah. Her uncle randomly DM’ ed Lady Vol fans on Twitter when she was committed to TN. I guess some fans hold on.

 

[therickbol]

Only 9 turnovers is wild, actually! You'd be hard-pressed to find a recent LV game with only 9 TOs... has been such a consistent issue for the past decade or so.

Obviously there are other things that also go into it. But that is one of the by-products of the system. We take the first decent shot attempt we are offered. That leads to more shot attempts (which we have a chance to rebound) and therefore fewer turnovers. We shoot it before we have the opportunity to turn it over. The math is in our favor. Shoot a quick shot that might be a few percentage points below in terms of quality of shot but then make up for it with more shot attempts (due to less turnovers and more offensive rebounds).

 

[therickbol]

Not missing anything. I didn't say they were bad. I didn't say they couldn't play. I just said I wouldn't draw any strong conclusions from the Carson-Newman game. I have seen many many UT vs Carson-Newman games over the years. I have learned to take very little from them.

Then you do not know what you are looking for. There are quite a few takeaways from that game that would be meaningless. You are correct. But there are absolutely details that you can see and takeaway from that game that mean something.

 

[volsagain]

This team finally has the most entertainment since the last final 4 run . Finally have electricity with the new coach heading in the right direction. Lady VOLS have been in the wilderness almost as long as the football team. DW sure seems to know how to pick a coach. That he got it right once again. She sure is saying the right things and looks like an exciting brand.

 

[GameTime]

Their slow twitch girls had no chance against our fast twitch girls.....All day long.

 

[ttharp]

Did anyone notice that Favor Ayodele wasn’t on the bench at the end of the game?

I saw where she had a hard fall in the 4th Q. Hope she’s OK. She’s going to help this team.

 

[Coach Jumper]

Did anyone notice that Favor Ayodele wasn’t on the bench at the end of the game?

I saw where she had a hard fall in the 4th Q. Hope she’s OK. She’s going to help this team.

I saw it too
twice
the first fall (earlier in the game) her head literally bounced off the floor
2nd one wasn't as bad,,but I look for concussion protocol to be a possibility

 

[Dak1219]

SC is the early favorite to win the conference, and they don’t have a dominant big this season, especially with Watkins likely out for the year. Neither does LSU or Texas and those are supposedly the top three teams in the SEC this season. Think on that. Guard play will decide the conference imo.

I don't think Del Rosario, Oldacre, and Beers know that. They are big sturdy posts. Del Rosario is going to be a lot better than most think.

 

[dapeak]

Yeah. Her uncle randomly DM’ ed Lady Vol fans on Twitter when she was committed to TN. I guess some fans hold on.

Oh trust… I know lol

 

[Mafiaboss]

Oh trust… I know lol

 

[madtownvol]

Their slow twitch girls had no chance against our fast twitch girls.....All day long.

The thing is that the LVs ALWAYS have an athleticism advantage over D2 Carson Newman. Heck, Tess is relatively quick against these players. In past seasons, however, the LVs have not been able to utilize that advantage and CN often has looked surprisingly competitive.

In stark contrast, this game was a complete blitzkrieg blowout.

The wolves were sent, the sharks smelt the blood in the water, the Kraken was unleashed, Godzilla crushed Tokyo, King Kong batted down all the helicopters.

How this absolute, soul crushing, bone marrow sucking domination of a lesser opponent will translate to games against more talented teams, who will have the benefit of scouting reports, remains to be seen. Nonetheless, this game was a good sign in an ongoing series of good signs that have been sent since CKC was hired.

 

[lvocd]

Carson-Newman has a lot of quick players -- the type of players that in the past have been our bugaboo to stop.

So, I don't care if it was CN, albeit a perennial NCAA Tournament team, that our players did so well against. It was the first public view of this group and new staff and they MORE than passed the eye test.

My gosh. That they are already making shots pretty well this early, and moving that well on defense, has me beyond excited for what could be when they've had more time and practice to continue to improve.

I cannot imagine there's anyone out there who is not at least a little impressed, at LEAST, by the quickness and tenacity this team is already capable of. And they WILL continue to improve!

I feel like I'm falling in love with Tennessee Lady Vol basketball all over again.

 

[madtownvol]

Carson-Newman has a lot of quick players -- the type of players that in the past have been our bugaboo to stop.

So, I don't care if it was CN, albeit a perennial NCAA Tournament team, that our players did so well against. It was the first public view of this group and new staff and they MORE than passed the eye test.

My gosh. That they are already making shots pretty well this early, and moving that well on defense, has me beyond excited for what could be when they've had more time and practice to continue to improve.

I cannot imagine there's anyone out there who is not at least a little impressed, at LEAST, by the quickness and tenacity this team is already capable of. And they WILL continue to improve!

I feel like I'm falling in love with Tennessee Lady Vol basketball all over again.

No, CN has not had a lot of quick players. Rather, the LVs were a team that were atrocious at playing face-up defense. It seemed like an intentional strategy to let players get the baseline and drive to the paint where supposedly our bigs would block the shot but (oops we forgot to rotate over or oops we left the perimeter unguarded for a kick out, wide open 3). It was this persistent and inexplicable defensive failing that doomed Kellie. Fair point that CKC brought in a group of players with lots of lateral quickness but the intensity of the defense was a at level not seen around here since the glory days.

I think it is easy to make too much of the "system" when the key is really just doing the fundamentals of keeping opposing players in front of you.

 

[lvocd]

No, CN has not had a lot of quick players. Rather, the LVs were a team that were atrocious at playing face-up defense. It seemed like an intentional strategy to let players get the baseline and drive to the paint where supposedly our bigs would block the shot but (oops we forgot to rotate over or oops we left the perimeter unguarded for a kick out, wide open 3). It was this persistent and inexplicable defensive failing that doomed Kellie. Fair point that CKC brought in a group of players with lots of lateral quickness but the intensity of the defense was a at level not seen around here since the glory days.

I think it is easy to make too much of the "system" when the key is really just doing the fundamentals of keeping opposing players in front of you.

So you don't think CN has quickness? Sure looked to me like they were all, with the exception of the big girl, moving around the court at a good pace.

 

[madtownvol]

So you don't think CN has quickness? Sure looked to me like they were all, with the exception of the big girl, moving around the court at a good pace.

Is this really a question? CN played hard no doubt but in terms of first step explosiveness, nah. Cooper was stealing the ball from their guards and getting to the rim before they even processed what had happened. Heck CN was missing their two best players even.

Let's be clear, I am not questioning that the LVs have had trouble defending teams like this in the past. This game just highlights how atrocious the LVs had been in terms of defensive fundamentals.

 

[VOLLeeann]

SIAP

 

[lvocd]

Jillian showed major improvement, IMO.

 

[therealitytheory]

I'm a big Danny White fan and I trusted his judgement on his choice of CKC despite her lack of Power 5 experience.
So far, so really good. All systems go...