Game Thread: Lady Vols v Florida A&M, Tues Nov 7, 6:30, Food City Center, Knoxville

[glv98]

You'd be tired, too, if you had two defenders bodying you every time you touched the ball!

They were literally draped on her when she tried to post up, sometimes 3 of them. That's alot of how Jewel got so open. But Kea is going to see that all year and has to play thru it. She got some good shots, they just didn't go down. But she needs more than 11 shots.

I thought Kea played some excellant one on one D, espec on the perimeter. She's so long and disruptive. She's not one of the defensive problems.

I remain concerned about whatever is going on with her legs, though she got less intense treatment on the bench. But whatever they wrap her in makes her unable to stand on her own and she has to be helped up off the bench for time outs. This is giving me an ulcer! BC as mentioned above, we're going to need Kea and Jewel for 30 mins a night.

 

[FormerLadyVolFan]

I hope that's preventative treatment. If you notice after games they wrap Jillian's knees the same way.

I remain concerned about whatever is going on with her legs, though she got less intense treatment on the bench. But whatever they wrap her in makes her unable to stand on her own and she has to be helped up off the bench for time outs. This is giving me an ulcer! BC as mentioned above, we're going to need Kea and Jewel for 30 mins a night.

 

[glv98]

I hope that's preventative treatment. If you notice after games they wrap Jillian's knees the same way.

I think it's both preventative and that there's a chronic issue, thankfully nothing acute. But I got concerned seeing the precautions they take w her in practice - no extra running, lots of treatment and biking when not participating. Kea mentioned this summer (when she was playing nonstop) that her knees "aren't what they used to be". LOL sounds like an old lady at 22.

She was such an iron women last year and we need her for 30+ mins again this year so my ulcer continues to progress.

Re Jill, she continues to get shoulder treatment as well.

 

[brassie]

The most important game stat was 21- 12.

 

[WinnerCircle]

I haven’t heard it said yet… so here’s a thorough breakdown of the LVs opener:

The post play was phenomenal. Jill and Striplin were both battling in the paint. They can play a finesse or physical game which is impressive for the junior duo.
The entire team had to prepare for and play at two extremes which is going from playing the world’s best to an opponent that everyone picked them to blowout.
I was impressed with how the entire roster was able to quickly focus and start to play as a team while getting into the flow of the game.
Jewel Spear keeps this up through the November schedule and she goes from #4 to the #1 portal transfer.
I said it since day 1 only with a few others, Spear is elite. Destinee Wells is a floor general.
Twitter is in a frenzy right now with the highlight passes she made being posted by both the NCAA and SEC pages!

Last two things, because it’s kind of misinformation. I think one of the main issues with the defensive production is right now they (the staff) is playing it vanilla. Meaning it’s strictly man to man.. either half-court or the guards pick up full-court. Defense is a chess match.
Until we see the adjustments and other defensive sets this team can use effectively it’s not fair to the players to put a lot on them about the defensive production.

Also, the team looks and plays healthy on the court! Any staff and major program worth anything will go beyond to ensure their players are getting top of the line treatment.
I’ll never speculate on players health or anticipate the worse. I believe certain things should be off limits.

Wynn and Strickland can go… meaning” they both can play and bring energy off the bench”
Scary hours on Rocky Top.

 

[Higbee]

I haven’t heard it said yet… so here’s a thorough breakdown of the LVs opener:

The post play was phenomenal. Jill and Striplin were both battling in the paint. They can play a finesse or physical game which is impressive for the junior duo.
The entire team had to prepare for and play at two extremes which is going from playing the world’s best to an opponent that everyone picked them to blowout.
I was impressed with how the entire roster was able to quickly focus and start to play as a team while getting into the flow of the game.
Jewel Spear keeps this up through the November schedule and she goes from #4 to the #1 portal transfer.
I said it since day 1 only with a few others, Spear is elite. Destinee Wells is a floor general.
Twitter is in a frenzy right now with the highlight passes she made being posted by both the NCAA and SEC pages!

Last two things, because it’s kind of misinformation. I think one of the main issues with the defensive production is right now they playing it vanilla. Meaning it’s strictly man to man.. either half-court or the guards pick up full-court. Defense is a chess match. Until we see the adjustments and other defensive sets this team can use effectively it’s not fair to the players to put a lot on them about the defensive production.

Also, the team looks and plays healthy on the court! Any staff and major program worth anything will go beyond to ensure their players are getting top of the line treatment.
I’ll never speculate on players health or anticipate the worse. I believe certain things should be off limits.

Wynn and Strickland can go.
Scary hours on Rocky Top.

What do you mean Wynn and Strickland can go ??

 

[WinnerCircle]

What do you mean Wynn and Strickland can go ??

It’s a saying in sports… “means they both can play”.
I look forward to following their progression over the season.

 

[lvocd]

I'm just grateful the Rattlers were tenacious and never gave up. If you're going to have a few opponents on the schedule you're expected to beat easily, you hope those opponents bring SOMEthing to the arena that makes it worth playing. I thought FAMU played tough (like their famously tough coach!) and showed us some things. Good on 'em.

I'm happy with where we are as a team at this way-early point in the season, and I like the timing of having a Top 20-ranked opponent next. I would not be happy if we were headed to see a Top 6, but the Seminoles are going to be just the right level of strong that's good for us at this point.

Tennessee could lose this one, but I think our chances are better that we'll get the win. Not that Jillian and Karoline aren't doing a terrific job in the post, because the are, but I'd like to see more of Tamari in this next game than we've been seeing in order to (hopefully) boost her confidence that she can do well against a ranked team. Kellie is definitely going to need her at full strength and playing well by the time we have to have the bodies to take on Cardoso later on. Good grief, she's a beast already!

 

[alexvol]

A decent result against an extremely outmanned opponent. I would encourage folks to read neither too much or too little from this one. Florida A&M was 6-23 last year. And before anyone jumps on me with salad forks with the lemon juice still on 'em so it hurts when you stab, I'm not saying Tennessee is good or bad or anything. I'm just saying it's hard to read too much into this game. Probably some room to improve on defense. Florida A&M is not a high scoring bunch, so it would have been nice to see them held under 50. I look forward to seeing just who gets what rotation spots in Thursday's game, as that one will be a real deal.

Also, folks saying "fear the spear" is doubly amusing since that's one of FSU's catch phrases. On to Thursday.

" Fear the Spear " was the moniker given to Spear for her outstanding play in ACC ....has nothing to do with FSU .

 

[glv98]

I'd like to see more of Tamari in this next game than we've been seeing in order to (hopefully) boost her confidence that she can do well against a ranked team. Kellie is definitely going to need her at full strength and playing well by the time we have to have the bodies to take on Cardoso later on. Good grief, she's a beast already!

From what I've observed and espec from what Kellie said to Brian last night, this is not going to happen. At least in the near future.

 

[LadyVol1908]

Who doesn't love Wynn and I'm so happy for her hard work. But we may be getting over our skis on her a bit. Great to see her hit a 3, but her offensive game still needs work and when I watched replay, KW gave up several of those to-the-rim D problems. As did Powell, Wells, and Spear.

In the postgame interview, KJH indicated Wynn's role will still be as defensive stopper. She's def quicker than Sara, but doesn't do alot of things as well, esp on offense. IMO it's Tess's off the bench minutes Wynn is likely to take.

Dang Edie! I still don't think she gets meaningful mins but her improvement and progress is very impressive. IMO she's actually more skilled at this point than Strickland. But no shade on Strickland, she plays hard and fearless and after time in strength and conditioning and more practice experience I think she actually will contribute in the future.

Okay I’m glad I’m not the only one that noticed the blow bys on Wynn as well. I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves on anointing her a defensive stopper because she gets her hands on the ball every once in a while in a passing lane.

It reminds me of everyone anointing Andraya Carter as a defensive stopper and she actually got blown by too. In all actuality she just hustled really hard and created an illusion of a defensive stopper. She was good at anticipation in the passing lanes and stripping the ball, but she still got blown by….a lot. The last good perimeter defender I remember is actually Jasmine Jones, other than that, it’s been a while since I’ve seen anyone shut down a dribble drive for us.

 

[LadyVol1908]

The most important game stat was 21- 12.

I enjoyed that as well actually. I’m interested to see how turnovers are this season. I loved Horston but she accounted for a lot of our turnover problems last year.

 

[lvocd]

From what I've observed and espec from what Kellie said to Brian last night, this is not going to happen. At least in the near future.

glv98, I haven't heard/read what Kellie said to Brian regarding Tamari, but ... dang. When thinking about our post-season chances a couple of months ago, in my mind how far we went depended on how big a defensive presence Tamari could be. If we don't have her in the paint intimidating opponents and altering their shots, that's gonna hurt our chances. Both Karoline and Jillian are tough and capable of playing good defense, but few players in the country can bring what Tamari does, defensively, when she is on her game. Opponents worry constantly about getting their shots sent into the bleachers if they drive on her, so when she's not patrolling the paint it reaaaaaaalllllly hurts our guards. We need The Intimidator in the paint so our guards can player tighter defense knowing if their man gets by them, Tamari's got their backs.

Do you get a sense she could be full-time by the time conference games start? Man, we have GOT to hope so!

 

[Voltopia]

" Fear the Spear " was the moniker given to Spear for her outstanding play in ACC ....has nothing to do with FSU .

Uh, I understand that?

But I thought I saw people talking about how folks should "fear the spear," and Tennessee's going to to play Florida State on Thursday, and "Fear the Spear" is one of FSU's marketing things. Those wacky Seminoles with their spears and their chops and whatnot.

 

[DarkPhoenix]

glv98, I haven't heard/read what Kellie said to Brian regarding Tamari, but ... dang. When thinking about our post-season chances a couple of months ago, in my mind how far we went depended on how big a defensive presence Tamari could be. If we don't have her in the paint intimidating opponents and altering their shots, that's gonna hurt our chances. Both Karoline and Jillian are tough and capable of playing good defense, but few players in the country can bring what Tamari does, defensively, when she is on her game. Opponents worry constantly about getting their shots sent into the bleachers if they drive on her, so when she's not patrolling the paint it reaaaaaaalllllly hurts our guards. We need The Intimidator in the paint so our guards can player tighter defense knowing if their man gets by them, Tamari's got their backs.

Do you get a sense she could be full-time by the time conference games start? Man, we have GOT to hope so!

As for me I wasn’t counting on her at all when making my predictions, I wasn’t expecting much, without her we can still reach our goals as long as our important pieces stay healthy.

 

[chuckiepoo]

" Fear the Spear " was the moniker given to Spear for her outstanding play in ACC ....has nothing to do with FSU .

Repurposed for Jewell, yes, but has been used for years at FSU.

 

[DarkPhoenix]

It’s “Fear Da Spear” for Jewel just a little different.

 

[glv98]

I’m interested to see how turnovers are this season. I loved Horston but she accounted for a lot of our turnover problems last year.

I thought about that, but to be fair to Jordy, one of the big problems w her is she always had a partner in turnover crime. First Rennia, then Rae, then Rickea (who btw had 3 of our 12 last night). You can usually stand one turnover prone player but recently we've always had two. Jordy and whoever were always good for 5-7 t.o.s

It's something Rickea still needs to work on. Hers tend to be really careless t.o.s

glv98, I haven't heard/read what Kellie said to Brian regarding Tamari, but ... dang. When thinking about our post-season chances a couple of months ago, in my mind how far we went depended on how big a defensive presence Tamari could be. If we don't have her in the paint intimidating opponents and altering their shots, that's gonna hurt our chances. Both Karoline and Jillian are tough and capable of playing good defense, but few players in the country can bring what Tamari does, defensively, when she is on her game. Opponents worry constantly about getting their shots sent into the bleachers if they drive on her, so when she's not patrolling the paint it reaaaaaaalllllly hurts our guards. We need The Intimidator in the paint so our guards can player tighter defense knowing if their man gets by them, Tamari's got their backs.

Do you get a sense she could be full-time by the time conference games start? Man, we have GOT to hope so!

I'm paraphrasing. Brian asked about TK getting even less PT last night and Kellie said now that the games count for real, the priority for TKs mins have flipped to how can she help us first and how can we help her second. Said they're looking for situations and match ups where TK can be effective and just didn't find many this game. Which is a really hard situation bc everyone wants TK to come along, most especially for herself. KJH then repeated for the millionth time how hard it is to regain elite athlete fitness.

Just TK's presence, the space she consumes, can be helpful. Several times when she's been in the paint the player w the ball will either stop dead in their tracks or just bounce off her when confronted with that imposing size. On the other hand, her endurance and effectiveness remain very limited.

As far as full time by SEC play, from your keyboard to God's ears. However, if you look at where she is after 6 full months of being cleared, it seems unlikely she'll make that jump in two months. I'm just glad she's OK, part of the team culture, and working on her health.

 

[LV renaissance]

That comment that Kellie said about having to wait for the few times when the match up was favorable for TK to put her in game was concerning given that it is the lowly Rattlers we are talking about. It makes me wonder if there will be any of those moments at FSU. I sure hope so.

 

[DarkPhoenix]

That comment that Kellie said about having to wait for the few times when the match up was favorable for TK to put her in game was concerning given that it is the lowly Rattlers we are talking about. It makes me wonder if there will be any of those moments at FSU. I sure hope so.

From what I see, she only needs to be on the floor maybe 5-10 mins a game. I have more to say but I’ll save that for another day.

 

[th2421]

That comment that Kellie said about having to wait for the few times when the match up was favorable for TK to put her in game was concerning given that it is the lowly Rattlers we are talking about. It makes me wonder if there will be any of those moments at FSU. I sure hope so.

I don't think it was about the "lowly Rattlers" per se, but rather finding the right type of style/match-up for Tamari. Even when she was fully healthy, Tamari struggled more with posts who could step out and stretch the defense. Last night, all 5 Florida A&M starters made a 3-pointer. That's not a good matchup for Tamari.

Makayla Timpson at FSU, on the other hand, could be a better matchup. Yes, she made a 3 in their first game of the season, but it was the first make and second attempt of her entire career. It'll be interesting to see if and how Kellie is able to work Tamari into the game tomorrow.

 

[Rons1989]

On the postgame show, Brian asked Kellie about TK's limited pt and she sounded almost impatient. Maybe with the situation. She said it's real now, games count and so they're just looking for opportunities when matchups may be favorable for her. Said tonight there just weren't many. Bless TK, I'm sure she's the most impatient of everyone.

Yea i love TK but she is not moving well at all.. had to go back and look at previous seasons and its a total 360 and ik it takes time to get thru this and i stand wit her but it look like its a struggle to get up n dwn the court

 

[stllvf]

How will games be refereed this year/ same or different? Remember a few years ago when the over-attention to hand-checking on the perimeter? What is acceptable for a legal screen? and running thru and/or over screens? Were the refs in the USA/LV games from the WNBA or college ranks?

Did you recognize the difference in allowed physicality between the exhibition game and the first college game? An area not yet adequately discussed or observed is what will be emphasized this year (other than flopping)

 

[DarkPhoenix]

Yea i love TK but she is not moving well at all.. had to go back and look at previous a season and its a total 360 and ik it takes time to get thru this and i stand wit her but it look like its a struggle to get up n dwn the court

Why do u think that’s the case?
1. Just solely on the health scare.
2. Not eating right and conditioning to be in good physical shape, once she was in the clear.

 

[DarkPhoenix]

How will games be refereed this year/ same or different? Remember a few years ago when the over-attention to hand-checking on the perimeter? What is acceptable for a legal screen? and running thru and/or over screens? Were the refs in the USA/LV games from the WNBA or college ranks?

Did you recognize the difference in allowed physicality between the exhibition game and the first college game? An area not yet adequately discussed or observed is what will be emphasized this year (other than flopping)

Whatever it is we should adjust to it like everyone else.