Game Thread Lady Vols at Arkansas

[Volfan2012]

Team has certainly changed in the last 15 games. We were a very aggressive defensive team in almost every game we played early. Tonight you could see in the very first quarter some of the players didn't want to give much effort and they didn't.

 

[Nute Gunray]

Turning it over time after time trying to throw into a triple team to Russell standing still. What kind of play is that and why have we turned it over 10 times a game this season trying to make that play.

I wish I knew how many points Arky scored off this kind of turnover. Holly and a lot of commentators think that most LV offensive plays should go through Russell because of her almost 70% scoring percentage. All LV opponents are aware of this and they are going to double or triple team Russell. I believe that Holly should let Russell concentrate on drive defense and rebounds. I think her best scoring threats are Davis and Nared. If Holly could light a fire under Davis, she could be unstoppable.

 

[LA Vol]

Realistically, every game is going to be tough from here on out. The LVs are going to have to fight for every W. UGA is playing great and teams like UF and Bama have improved. I'm not sure the LVs have improved overall. In some ways, they've regressed.

 

[W.TN.Orange Blood]

I think we lose at Missouri. Were a lot better at home so Georgia and Alabama could be wins. Texas A&M had Ole Miss 48 to 13 at half didn't see the final score.

Oh god....Missouri. They'll stomp us in the ground.

 

[Volfan2012]

Davis finally broke out with the three tonight. I knew it had to happen she was awesome in high school 39 percent for the four years. Finally she dropped some tonight.

 

[Volfan2012]

I wish I knew how many points Arky scored off this kind of turnover. Holly and a lot of commentators think that most LV offensive plays should go through Russell because of her almost 70% scoring percentage. All LV opponents are aware of this and they are going to double or triple team Russell. I believe that Holly should let Russell concentrate on drive defense and rebounds. I think her best scoring threats are Davis and Nared. If Holly could light a fire under Davis, she could be unstoppable.

Russell is not a mobile player she is not Candace Parker. She stands in one place and it is easy to deflect a pass to her. What they do gives us a lot of easy 10 to 12 footers if we could hit a decent percentage of those then much better to get a shot every possession than turn it over 10 times on the very same pass.

 

[Slydell]

We turned the ball over 19 times. About our average or less. They only had 7. Player or Coach?

I didn't see Holly turn the ball over once. So, I don't know.

 

[Nute Gunray]

Team has certainly changed in the last 15 games. We were a very aggressive defensive team in almost every game we played early. Tonight you could see in the very first quarter some of the players didn't want to give much effort and they didn't.

All WCBB players have heavy legs this late in the season. It is the HC's responsibility to motivate them to play defense with intensity.

 

[LA Vol]

Wonder what has happened to Westbrook? Davis and Hayes have had career games recently, but Westbrook hasn't been on top of her game since... Stanford?

 

[Slydell]

All WCBB players have heavy legs this late in the season. It is the HC's responsibility to motivate them to play defense with intensity.

Also, the player's responsibility to respond to the coaching.

 

[Oldfoggyfan]

From a little more objective view on tonight’s game. Arkansas played out of their minds. It happens many times and one can only shake your head and say why tonight. Tennessee did do some good things, more balanced scoring, outrebounded Arkansas 45 to 16. As well as 24 assists. Yes, the ladies still look tired and don’t put in a 40 minute effort. Going forward if they don’t play with more energy and effort, they will be doomed.

 

[Nute Gunray]

Also, the player's responsibility to respond to the coaching.

I agree with your statement. My only question is: Does the Miss St players respond more to their coach than the LV players to their coach? Of course they do. However, the head coach has plenty to do with the player's response. Vic Schaefer would be undefeated with this team also.

 

[Only1COJ]

Something to celebrate...42 consecutive 20 win seasons!!! Let’s pray that this streak never ends!

 

[clkou]

Eeeked out a win against a .500 team with a losing SEC record. It is better than a loss but it's discouraging in its own way.

 

[teacherdean]

I agree with your statement. My only question is: Does the Miss St players respond more to their coach than the LV players to their coach?[


I think the players do respond to Holly. During the 4th quarter Holly called a timeout after Arkansas scored on a Hayes turnover. Instead of Holly, showing some discontent, she was giving the players high 5’s. I am not saying she should be in a rage, but giving players high 5’s after a screwups, especially in a close game, does not show that there are consequences for foolish turnovers. I really believe that Holly is way too soft. I believe that a good coach has to show emotions which allows their players to feel when they are upset with mistakes. Look at all the great coaches, I can’t name one that high 5 players after mistakes.

Six years under Holly and we are still making way too many turnovers. Now we have an issue with defense in the key. If players are simply ignoring Holly, then Holly is not the best coach for this program. We have to eventually lay the problems at the feet of the coach and quit blaming the players we recruit.

 

[volfanIND]

Anybody else feel this way.
Holly’s first couple years her teams could play defense but lacked a lot of scoring. Now we are starting to score but can’t play defense?

Regardless it’s wonderful to see these shots go through the hoop!!! My hope is this can grow some confidence with them and spread! I didn’t watch but the 4th quarter only and I was seeing uncontested 3’s by Arkansas. I’m assuming this happened the whole game. If we would of decided to play some defense this game could of been a 60-90 outcome.

 

[madtownvol]

If Davis and Jackson don't combine for over 50 points we lose to Arkansas. Arkansas hasn't come close to 85 points this season. The most they had scored in the SEC was 76 versus Alabama. Miss St beat them by 42. Missouri beat them by 34.South Carolina beat them by 48.

Yes, that is true but that is equivalent to saying that if we did not score more points that Ark, we lose.

The fact that our typical scorers were taken out of the game, though Jamie came on down the stretch, and others stepped up in a huge way IS A GOOD THING!

 

[Texas]

So excited to see them score 90 and only 7 be from Mercedes. Says that there are other options to pounding the ball into Mercedes.speaking of Mercedes, if they are triple teaming her in the lane, get the hell ouuta the lane! Do the lady Vols know that you can set a screen in a zone as well as in a man? In the zone It can cause some really bad rotations and wide open lanes to the basket. Do they know they can set a screen at all for a guard around the arc to create a cascade of events?

Mercedes doesn’t need to be CP! Just get her outta the way and have her set a screen! Her pg mind, height and recent range displays say she can be very effective outside the paint! Really, when they pack 3 around her, she essentially becomes an additional defender in the paint while playing offense.

 

[madtownvol]

How terrible we won on the road! The box score is interesting. The LVs dominated the rebounding column and had just about half as many TOs as ARk (10 to 19) and a great assist total.

Those have all been points of emphasis for the team and they checked those boxes (though they had some almost costly TO in the last 5 minutes).

But Ark. had a great shooting night from beyond the Ark and the Lvs were slow, make that sloooow, in their rotation. Nonetheless, Ark hit some deeep 3s and made some tough shots under pressure. This could have been their very best game of the year and the Lvs were not firing on all cylinders.

Westbrook injury (whatever it is) is creating some problems. She would have been the steadier hand at point down the stretch than Hayes who has a tendency to hang on to the ball too long. I admit to getting frustrated at her defensive effort. She is simply too gifted to not be a better one on one defender. I think she loses focus on the defensive end and that is just not going to work at this level.

But Davis and Jackson were respectively unbelievable and excellent. They saved the team tonight. And that will need to be the case going forward. Teams are going to make defending Russell a point of emphasis until it is proven that the other LVs can make them on a consistent basis. So, let's hope that tonights performances from Rennia and Meme were not fluke events.

 

[FrozenLVFan]

What an ugly, ugly win. Thank God for Davis and Jackson...hopefully they'll stay on this course. Hayes and Nared need to be prohibited from taking 3-pt shots unless the shot clock is <2 secs. They were a combined 0-8 tonight, shooting .242 and .238 on the season, and aren't doing the team any favors by launching it from out there.

The coaches need to run a clinic for all the freshmen on playing man-to-man defense, starting with not playing defense flat-footed, and learning that running out to a perimeter shooter at the last nanosecond isn't effective. Their opponents were blowing by them at will, which isn't anything new for Hayes but Westbrook and Davis looked pretty bad too. Then the whole team could use a practice or two devoted to setting and utilizing screens. I don't understand how they don't know some of this stuff, plus the need to box out, long before they arrive at Tenn.

 

[CannonVol80]

How terrible we won on the road! The box score is interesting. The LVs dominated the rebounding column and had just about half as many TOs as ARk (10 to 19) and a great assist total.

While the assist total was good, you have the TO stat backward. The Lady Vols had 19 TOs to Arkansas' 10.

Once again, against an, at best, mediocre Arkansas team the Lady Vols displayed a distressing lack of understanding of fundamental basketball. In my opinion, Holly is much too accepting of lackadaisical play on the part of the Lady Vols. While there is an abundance of talent on this team, and everyone should want the young ladies to have fun during their play, an emphasis on good fundamental basketball would serve this team well, in my opinion. One of the basics in basketball is that winning is fun! And, a return to basics would aid that endeavor! Again, just my opinion.

Jim

 

[djohnnyg]

Yeah, you'd think our great minded coach would have that corrected by now.

I like when we win...and I want Holly to successful but it's stuff like this that drives me nuts and makes no friggin sense.

If i'm an opposing coach the formula to beat UT is sooooo easy. Clog the middle with two or 3 players and play strong perimeter defense. Holly will invariably have the girls try and force it in to Russell...or whomever is playing under the basket and... VOILA...you've got yourself a turnover.

The reason the Lady Vols are NOT losing alot of these games is the plethora of raw talent that eventually is able to win out in the end.

Holly slapping high 5's with the team right after silly, damaging turnovers is something I have never seen. I guess she doesn't want them to ever feel bad? Or she feels criticism or "punishing" them for bad play will make them feel bad about themselves and affect their play...and gawd forbid we don't want that.

Championship players who have reminisced about their teams have often said the one thing their coach would do is make it so that the team was afraid to fail...for fear of upsetting the coach. They say that about Wooden...Bob Knight...Dean Smith and others. The big fear was letting the coach down...disrespecting him/her.
I've heard former players say that about Pat. That not doing things the right way was disrespecting her.

 

[madtownvol]

How terrible we won on the road! The box score is interesting. The LVs dominated the rebounding column and had just about half as many TOs as ARk (10 to 19) and a great assist total.

While the assist total was good, you have the TO stat backward. The Lady Vols had 19 TOs to Arkansas' 10.

Once again, against an, at best, mediocre Arkansas team the Lady Vols displayed a distressing lack of understanding of fundamental basketball. In my opinion, Holly is much too accepting of lackadaisical play on the part of the Lady Vols. While there is an abundance of talent on this team, and everyone should want the young ladies to have fun during their play, an emphasis on good fundamental basketball would serve this team well, in my opinion. One of the basics in basketball is that winning is fun! And, a return to basics would aid that endeavor! Again, just my opinion.

Jim

I stand corrected. I misread the boxscore. TOs remain a problem.

If you had made this comment after the LSU game, I would have agreed 100% (so the LVs do have those troublesome tendencies). In the game, they looked like a team that wanted to play harder (and did fight pretty hard under the boards) but did not have the "legs."

I am starting to worry that the LVs missed the mark on preseason conditioning. At the start of the season, much was made that Holly decided to let the team play itself into shape because of the short bench. On one hand, that approach makes sense; over working a team with a short bench can create injury problems but it is a fine line to walk. Right now, the LVs seem to be wearing down in this tough stretch of the season.

Hopefull, they can find some source of rejuvenation-- the change to the tournament might be one spark but they need to get more energetic or they will drop games in the SEC.

 

[PineyBluff Vol]

Good job players, you effort was rewarded...Coaches, you need to step up your game if you expect to win the hard games coming up! Yes, I said it before and yes, I am saying it again. Lack of coaching is going to ruin this group!

 

[PRG]

Observations:
1. We out rebounded them by 20!
But we had 19 turnovers ?
It seems like everyone had three or four??

2. Holly’s presser day before game! “They shoot 20 threes a game and make five.. (25%)
They made 11 of 23 for 48%!!!!!! And 48% for all shots for the game! In other words (They shot WAY better than expected)

3. Our counter: MeMe and Davis shoot 70% and have their best games offensively!

4. Somebody better learn defense! Just Saying &#128513;