Game Thread Lady Vols at LSU

[volbabyvol]

But but its the players fault, we have the best coach that's available she has won SEC title and been to the elite eight.

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[djohnnyg]

You can't absolve the players...but sooooo much of this falls on Holly. Face it....there's no way this team gets past Miss St. anyway...or UCONN....or even unranked LSU in the SEC tourney...so the best we can hope for is a decent season. The unraveling of this season is in full effect. What is this...4 losses in the last 5 games? Right when the season gets tough. They are folding like lawn chairs. This team sure as heck in no way deserves a top 10 ranking....and their rankings will keep falling from here on out leading to the inevitable early exit come tournament time.

You guys have fun with this disaster. Another late game meltdown due to terrible coaching. When are people gonna wake up and realize Holly is taking this program NOWHERE. Tennessee recruits itself basically. We'll be fine, but need a coach to take us to the next level. Today was yet another embarrassment on the loooong list of tragedies Holly has wrought.

The going gets tough and this "talented" team wilts, cowers and bumbles to an unranked conference opponent as usual.

Let Holly ride her Harley into the sunset...for the love of gawd.

 

[teacherdean]

Observation: Holly sucks as a head coach. She was out coached by a coach of an unranked team. The Lady Vols were out hustled and out played the second half. It is time to quit giving Holly excuses.

 

[djohnnyg]

Observation: Holly sucks as a head coach. She was out coached by a coach of an unranked team. The Lady Vols were out hustled and out played the second half. It is time to quit giving Holly excuses.

Waaaaay past time...but the Holly lovers are content with mediocrity and watching 5 star players run around aimlessly and stumble and bumble through disappointing, under-achieving season after season.

With Holly, you can't trust even a 20 point 2nd half lead against inferior opponents...cuz you know she'll find a way to choke it away.

Holly lovers love the abuse apparently.

 

[coach31]

They should hire the best male available and give him the best salary out there, maybe other than Connecticut.

 

[WVU05UT09]

It’s unfortunate the schedule set up the way it did at the beginning of the season. Cupcakes and Texas/Stanford with key players out or just back. The team was never elite. It’s a SEC 5-6 seed out in second round of NCAA. Take it to the bank.

 

[VA_VOLFAN]

If you play well enough as a team you don't need to stare anyone down. Let the scoreboard speak for how you impose your will. This team doesn't need to be mean. They need to be poised, focused, coachable, internally motivated, and offensively & defensively consistent. They should get back to fundamentals and see if they can fix some of these issues because its clearly systemic. You can't have a new starting 5 but the same issues and it not be systemic.

From someone who is a UCONN fan two words for you DIANA TAURASI... she stared down opponents, punched backstops, etc. so yea let’s not talk about not staring down anyone. I like that edge!

And continue to stare down and be tough young lady. An injection of mean wouldn’t hurt and I’m not talking about beating an opponent up I’m talking about being tougher.

 

[LA Vol]

Surely you have noticed that the exact things happen every single season regardless of the players involved.

At the beginning of the season we heard great stories about how dedicated to turning the program around the players were in the offseason. And then every year at about this point, when opposing coaches know exactly how to beat Tennessee every time, then suddenly the players get blamed for "not having pride."

Bull. What they have are broken hearts and broken spirits because they know their pride can only take them so far at this level of the game.

Every year it's the same. It can't always be blamed on lack of pride. Think.

I think Pat would say, "Suck it up, buttercup." Nikki and Mickie might say that, too. They've had some hard losses and managed to bounce back and play tough.

 

[SandyO]

Our girls were out hustled all day. That starts with coaching. Did you hear Nikki in the locker room giving her pregame speech? She had those girls ready to play. I would love to hear what holly says. She’s TOO nice. I saw a lot of standing around on offense and just getting out muscled for the rebounds. No excuse. You don’t hustle, you come out. I saw a UConn game this season where geno sat gabby Williams the entire second half. NOBODY is too good to be sat. Those girls need a good old fashioned ass chewing. Holly should “retire” so we can get a real coach. That would prove how much she loves the LV program if she would move on!

 

[PRG]

We are four and three in SEC play. We were lucky to beat Vandy and Miss. We could be three and five??

Texas A&M next and Georgia, and Missouri and South Carolina should be four more loses? I figure we are nine and six going into SEC tournament. If we can beat Vandy, Ark., Florida, and Alabama???

We are definitely not a top ten team when we end up as a middle of the road SEC team! If we don’t finish in top 16 teams we will not host the first two rounds and even that would not guarantee a sweet sixteen!

Just saying

 

[Volontario]

Our girls were out hustled all day. That starts with coaching. Did you hear Nikki in the locker room giving her pregame speech? She had those girls ready to play. I would love to hear what holly says. She’s TOO nice. I saw a lot of standing around on offense and just getting out muscled for the rebounds. No excuse. You don’t hustle, you come out. I saw a UConn game this season where geno sat gabby Williams the entire second half. NOBODY is too good to be sat. Those girls need a good old fashioned ass chewing. Holly should “retire” so we can get a real coach. That would prove how much she loves the LV program if she would move on!

Holly doesn’t know she’s the problem, just like she doesn’t know what to do or what happened after a loss. And unbelievably admits it in her pressers

 

[VA_VOLFAN]

I hope you are correct! Do you have any past data to support your optimism?

Russell

Freshman- 6.3 ppg
Sophomore - 9.9
Junior - 16.1
Senior - 16.6

Nared

Freshman- 5.2 ppg
Sophomore- 8.6
Junior- 15.6
Senior- 16.6

Westbrook- over the last three games has avg 6 assists and 2 turnovers... so she is showing better judgement. I have to think that will only improve as she gets older and learns to just take over a game.

 

[VA_VOLFAN]

We are four and three in SEC play. We were lucky to beat Vandy and Miss. We could be three and five??

Texas A&M next and Georgia, and Missouri and South Carolina should be four more loses? I figure we are nine and six going into SEC tournament. If we can beat Vandy, Ark., Florida, and Alabama???

We are definitely not a top ten team when we end up as a middle of the road SEC team! If we don’t finish in top 16 teams we will not host the first two rounds and even that would not guarantee a sweet sixteen!

Just saying

Crazy thing is the other host teams beneath us keep losing too so that keeps us in the top 16.

 

[LA Vol]

We are four and three in SEC play. We were lucky to beat Vandy and Miss. We could be two and four???

Texas A&M next and Georgia, and Missouri and South Carolina should be four more loses? I figure we are eight and six going into SEC tournament. If we can beat Vandy, Ark., Florida, and Alabama???

We are definitely not a top ten team when we end up as a middle of the road SEC team! If we don’t finish in top 16 teams we will not host the first two rounds and even that would not guarantee a sweet sixteen!

Just saying

The LVs have been trending down since the beginning of SEC play. There's still a decent chance they can go 2-2 against aTm, UGA, Mizzou and SCAR, though, and that should get them a four seed.

Coaching is what it is. It's not changing this season and probably not next. Talent's going to have to rise above coaching if the LVs are going to make it very deep into the postseason.

 

[SGMVols]

They should hire the best male available and give him the best salary out there, maybe other than Connecticut.

Jeff Walz would never miss a Final Four with the talent we have.

 

[Volfan2012]

Even the most loyal Holly fan needs to admit there is something wrong with her program. Were going in the wrong direction not getting better getting worse. We were averaging 80 ppg and more now we can't get to sixty. We can't rebound after a missed shot and teams are getting 10 to 15 more shots per game than we are.
I hate to see the season go down the drain but I see three or four more probable losses and in the end we want finish much better than last season when there was so much talk about dissension on the team.
The Lady Vols have always been an elite team in the country now were quickly losing that status. It is very sad.

 

[VA_VOLFAN]

Jeff Walz would never miss a Final Four with the talent we have.

He has multiple McD year in and year out his problem is they end up transferring and he just got beat by a less talented team himself. FSU is good but doesn’t have the talent that UL has.

 

[tallvolball98]

Our girls were out hustled all day. That starts with coaching. Did you hear Nikki in the locker room giving her pregame speech? She had those girls ready to play. I would love to hear what holly says. She’s TOO nice. I saw a lot of standing around on offense and just getting out muscled for the rebounds. No excuse. You don’t hustle, you come out. I saw a UConn game this season where geno sat gabby Williams the entire second half. NOBODY is too good to be sat. Those girls need a good old fashioned ass chewing. Holly should “retire” so we can get a real coach. That would prove how much she loves the LV program if she would move on!

This this this ^^^

 

[djtee]

Russell

Freshman- 6.3 ppg
Sophomore - 9.9
Junior - 16.1
Senior - 16.6

Nared

Freshman- 5.2 ppg
Sophomore- 8.6
Junior- 15.6
Senior- 16.6

Westbrook- over the last three games has avg 6 assists and 2 turnovers... so she is showing better judgement. I have to think that will only improve as she gets older and learns to just take over a game.

Yes over the last 2 that stat has improve for Westbrook, But once again she is not a pg and teams now know that. She can get away with that against cup cakes. But against good teams as you see not working. Look Hayes is the on true pg on the team, But her not looking to score from the outside early on in the season has hurt her and the team. But i`m goons fault Holly on this. From here on i think Hayes should start at the point let grow into that position.

 

[VA_VOLFAN]

Yes over the last 2 that stat has improve for Westbrook, But once again she is not a pg and teams now know that. She can get away with that against cup cakes. But against good teams as you see not working. Look Hayes is the on true pg on the team, But her not looking to score from the outside early on in the season has hurt her and the team. But i`m goons fault Holly on this. From here on i think Hayes should start at the point let grow into that position.

Westbrook had 7 assists to 1 turnover? Those look like pg stats to me... and she is one of the tougher defenders on the team. What teams do know is that her shot isn’t as good as it will be and she is more likely to pass the ball. Now if she had a consistent jumper that makes her game more diverse. Honestly, she hit Davis, Russell, and Meme with spot on passes by throwing the ball to where they should be and leading them there and they weren’t able to handle the pass. I believe she is the pg of the future and both she and Hayes can be guards on the floor at the same time. One averages 5 assists the other 3.5 nothing to complain about.

 

[feathersax]

It’s obvious we cannot guard anyone! And now it obvious we cannot rebound! Which is what Pat preached her whole life..... We need some athletes who have some desire and put forth effort!

LSU just played with more effort and wanted it more!! Plain and simple. So sad 😩

Both teams were sloppy, but LSU knew Holly's LV team would fold. The better middle school team won. :snoring:

 

[Nuyoika]

From someone who is a UCONN fan two words for you DIANA TAURASI... she stared down opponents, punched backstops, etc. so yea let’s not talk about not staring down anyone. I like that edge!

And continue to stare down and be tough young lady. An injection of mean wouldn’t hurt and I’m not talking about beating an opponent up I’m talking about being tougher.

Edge is nice. Wins are better. Just a difference of opinion. If I had to go back and watch game tape where I stared someone down then got beat I would feel foolish. From what I have witnessed the past 2.5 seasons technical fouls & stare downs have never really pumped this team up much.

These teams thrive on scoring and running and that is it. If that isn't happening then their effort and motivation decreases significantly. If they ever learn to love ALL of the game, play both sides of the ball, treat the ball like a prized possession instead of a gum wrapper they can make things a bit easier on themselves.

They were inconsistent even when they were unbeaten but people were okay with it because atleast it wasn't a loss. There are issues that have been prevalent since game 1 that haven't gone away, but again since they were winning they weren't addressed. Now that they have started to lose people are upset. This is why I say not all wins are good wins and not all losses are bad losses.

Coaches can only coaches and players have to just play. Is this team learning? Or do you hear broadcasters say the same thing every game? We are what 20 games in... If they haven't learned it by now I would gather people may want to consider the fact that it won't be changing this year. It's a process. There is still a lot of season left but in order for them to get better they have to care about all of the details of winning, not just the fun parts.

 

[ocoandasoc]

Russell

Freshman- 6.3 ppg
Sophomore - 9.9
Junior - 16.1
Senior - 16.6

Nared

Freshman- 5.2 ppg
Sophomore- 8.6
Junior- 15.6
Senior- 16.6

Two things wrong with this chart: 1) It doesn't take minutes played per game into account. (You should score more points when you play more minutes.)

2) The Senior year numbers are based mostly on the easiest part of the schedule. These points-per-game numbers could very well be lower by season's end as SEC games (like today's) are usually lower scoring.

 

[brassie]

This this this ^^^

Not only will he sit a player that he thinks isn't giving 120% effort, they won't play if they don't do it the UConn way in practice. Don't do it often enough and you're gone. With Auriemma it's "my way or the highway".

Does CHW ever get up in a players grill when they are doggin' it on the court or in practice? I know PHS did.

 

[sport3500]

The main reason LSU won today was outworking the Lady Vols on the glass.