Game Thread: Lady Vols v UCONN; Thurs. 8PM; on ESPN

[DarkPhoenix]

The reason Rickea did not have a good game was two reasons.....1) the defense that was devised by the UCONN Coach which was double team her every time she got within her effective shooting range....and the LV's never adjusted to that by any inside out three point shots or passes to the open person inside ( that is because we have no low post presence at all against good ,tall teams) and 2) the refs calls on the flops by UCONN was outrageous .These two things imo was why Rickea was not effective in this game.I look for LSU and South Carolina and every other team they face the rest of the year to use this strategy.

If we had a scoring threat center they wouldn’t have been able to double her. That’s actually what we are lacking, besides a Pg.

 

[Majors]

It’s not about the program, LSU has a better roster overall. Say we had Angel Reese with Rickea and Jordan, don’t u think we would be undefeated as well?

We don’t, so why entertain that. That’s just a deflection of what ifs to soften the blow of who we are.

 

[glv98]

Unfortunately, the old rule that the response always gets the foul call not the instigation held true here.

Mighty mild response to shove the leg that is holding you in a scissorlock after having several other abuses dished out, but that's obviously what they saw at first. Ater review when they saw what actually happened they added the tech on Edwards, but should have been flagrant. Oh well, just glad RJ didn't get hurt.

Say we had Angel Reese with Rickea and Jordan, don’t u think we would be undefeated as well?

Yes, but someone would be dead.

 

[youcancallmeAl]

I don't think I was entirely wrong. Edwards dominated her matchup vs. Jackson, and Juhasz/Hollingshead were basically a wash. I do think that Jill did a much, much better job than I was expecting, and she's the only reason that the inside matchup wasn't even more one-sided in favor of UConn.

On the backcourt matchups, I agree with you that the speed of Lopez Senechal and Griffin was too much on the wings. Lopez Senechal owned her matchup. So did Horston, but Griffin was able to contribute on the offensive end. The rest of Tennessee's backcourt really didn't bring much to the game. So I guess it was a combination of their efficiency inside and outside that made the difference. I thought they'd go to Edwards/Dorka inside first and have LLS as a roaming perimeter threat, but their PG did a great job in getting the ball to whichever one was in the best position to score.

I thought Hollingshead was terrific. She is improving each game. I thought Franklin gave a good accounting of herself. Paint points were even, probably more due to Horston than anyone else. We don't have a good point guard distributor on offense nor do we have enough speed and quickness to defend the perimeter. We could do nothing with Lopez, even though Kellie singled her to our defenders that she must be stopped.

 

[alexvol]

If we had a scoring threat center they wouldn’t have been able to double her. That’s actually what we are lacking, besides a Pg.

That is what I said also.....double teams leave someone else unattended .

 

[Jax_Vol]

That’s why I said we need to get pg‘s that are 5’10 and up going forward.

Why do you only come around after we lose?

 

[DarkPhoenix]

All of these players are top 100 talent. The problem is that they need to get some top 10 talent to go with that. Kellie has Jordan and Rickea for another few months, and then that's it.

We need that number 1 talent as well.

 

[Amb3096]

key word in you argument is "should"

I love Jasmine's spirit,,,, but Dorka was a seasoned overseas player before she ever donned a connie uniform and Jasmine was an elite mid-major player for all but this year...Did Jasmine make our U19 team? Dorka made hers

Pat Summitt received advice from her father that I would give to every coach,,,"Father: Let me tell you one thing. You don’t take donkeys to the Kentucky Derby. You better get yourself some racehorses."

After TK went down, our racehorse was Hollingshead
Our highest rated shooter is Pissott
invest in your racehorses!

further,,,how many racehorses have we recruited (acquired) for the next couple of years?

Pretty much any decent international player is on their country's U18/19 team. Hell Charlotte Kohl from MSST was on Germany's team, which I'm sure was better than Hungary's. If anything, the fact that Dorka was a 2-time first team All Big 10 was her advantage, because that meant she was a really good proven college player when she transferred from Ohio State to UConn.

Your 2nd point is the more relevant one. UConn had 5 of the best 7 players on the court. They brought the racehorses and Tennessee for the most part didn't.

 

[DarkPhoenix]

the lack of movement has been there all season. To much standing around. UConn showed how in shape they were with constant movement in spite of only playing 8.

UCONN played motion offense / inside-out and screen high and low. UT played stand and watch JH RJ and hope when they passed it out that a UCONN player hadn’t noticed so UT could get an open look.

nothing last night was different than 90% of the rest of the games this season except the opponents skill and the execution of their excellent Ahole coaches plan.

Look UConn has more athletic players, if we had athletic players all over, we would show how in shape we was as well.

 

[DarkPhoenix]

We don’t, so why entertain that. That’s just a deflection of what ifs to soften the blow of who we are.

We are a team with Rickea and Jordan and that’s it, this team is very limited athletically and overall. No matter what if we have those 2 players at the top of their game at the same time we can win.

 

[lvocd]

Mighty mild response to shove the leg that is holding you in a scissorlock after having several other abuses dished out, but that's obviously what they saw at first. Ater review when they saw what actually happened they added the tech on Edwards, but should have been flagrant. Oh well, just glad RJ didn't get hurt.

Yes, but someone would be dead.

Literally laughed out loud!

 

[glv98]

Look UConn has more athletic players, if we had athletic players all over, we would show how in shape we was as well.

If we had athletic players all over we'd be saying they have no basketball skills. Problem is players with both, athleticism and skill, are hard to find and they all want to go to about 5 schools that aren't us.

 

[creekdipper]

Literally laughed out loud!

Ditto. That parting comment was priceless.

 

[turbovol]

It looks that way right now. Only thing that would save it if all the Seniors stayed their covid year and Key was able to play again. We go out and get and elite player or two especially a point guard out of the portal. That is a lot that I know want happen figure Jackson can't wait to get out of here. I figure Horston will try her hand at the WNBA as well and Key may retire. All that and were looking really bad for next year.

Key is not going to help us a lot, I'm sorry to say. People vastly overrate her abilities.

I agree with whoever pointed out that Horston should have been guarding their guard who lit us up. That was a major mistake by our coaches. Smart coaches OFTEN put bigger, athletic defenders on opposing guards who can score. It shows that our coaches simply aren't very astute.

Same with not starting Horston. Stupid. How many points behind were we when she entered the game?

Same with starting Striplin in the 3rd quarter--only to take her out after 2 minutes in the same way you had to in the first half!

Our only chance was to play our best players as long as possible--longer than they would normally play. Geno played 6 players in the game! Actually, 7--but the 7th only played a little over 1 minute, and the 6th played under 10 minutes.

 

[Amb3096]

Key is not going to help us a lot, I'm sorry to say. People vastly overrate her abilities.

I agree with whoever pointed out that Horston should have been guarding their guard who lit us up. That was a major mistake by our coaches. Smart coaches OFTEN put bigger, athletic defenders on opposing guards who can score. It shows that our coaches simply aren't very astute.

I don't think this is so cut and dry. Horston was split between defending Aubrey Griffin and spent some time on Nika Muhl. I can see the logic in that. Griffin would abuse any one else defending her other than Horston/Jackson and could easily go off for 30 points by blowing by her defender for easy layups. Having Horston on Muhl took away some of her line of sight for the passing angles...something they couldn't do with the shorter players on Muhl. The problem is that UConn had 3 players with good size (and 2 with excellent athleticism) and they didn't have the personnel to guard all three of them.

 

[Prophet1]

First five in.

 

[turbovol]

Never a more true statement. Because the best players can execute your game plan better than average players. They can do the things because of their athletic ability that others can't do. You can have a 150 IQ but if you have two left feet your still just a smart person not an athlete.

No, it's not JUST about having the best players. The players have to be coached up--and coached up well. Of course we could use more talent---but it's not like we've got nobody. Jackson and Horston are two of the best offensive players in the country, even accounting for Horston's sometimes erratic play. There isn't a coach in the country who wouldn't die to have those two. Hollingshead is good and getting better. And we've got some complementary players with varying degrees of talent.

We have talent AND coaching issues. UConn hasn't been great for 20 years simply because of their talent. Geno had no talent when he started--none. I've said this many times over the years: When UConn and UT started playing each other, we had more talent--but UConn showed it was well coached and soon became a much better (more efficient) offensive team than we were. When he started UConn was a nothing program and we were the game's big dog. We see what happened over time--because of coaching disparities. UConn became the big dog and we became a little dog. He built that program because he's a great coach--period. Great coaches overachieve with their talent--win more than they might be expected to win--and then the talent starts to notice and come. McGraw did the same thing at Notre Dame--great coach.

Do we overachieve or underachieve with our talent? We underachieve--and it's been true for 15 years because our coaching hasn't been good enough. PERIOD. Harper is a decent/solid coach--not a great coach--and she is a poor recruiter, and so this is where we are. I'm not suggesting that we lost last night because of coaching alone--but if Geno took our team of last night and Harper took his team, what would the game's outcome have been? I don't know--but I'd bet the house that Harper's UConn team wouldn't win by 17.

 

[Prophet1]

View attachment 533266
First five in.

or maybe.

 

[Nute Gunray]

Not so much Jordan not starting, but rather who else did start. We had a slow footed team out there at several positions which was getting beaten down the court on every possession. By the time we subbed them out and stopped UConn's momentum the game was over.

That is on Kellie. And yeah, it is just idiotic that you don't start both Rickea and Horston. Horston had to wear herself out to will us back into the game by going all out in the second quarter and that made her less effective later coming off illness like she was.

Butch Jones had the same trait as a coach. He was stubborn about certain things and always ended up putting his players in positions which made it very difficult for them to succeed. Kellie does the same with her lineups and momentum killing rotations. No other coach does what she does in that regard, and for good reason.

You are dead on correct, Volube2. Look at the game stats. All of UConn starters played 35-40 minutes. You put your best players by position on court and let them play. Your are correct about Kellie's lineup and momentum killing rotations. She learned this from her mentor, Pat Summitt. Pat made it work but Kellie is not Pat Summitt. Kellie needs to look at how Geno positions his lineup and rotations. It is little change if any in both. Kellie will never suceed at UT if she does not change her coaching mehods to resemble Geno's.

 

[Nute Gunray]

No, it's not JUST about having the best players. The players have to be coached up--and coached up well. Of course we could use more talent---but it's not like we've got nobody. Jackson and Horston are two of the best offensive players in the country, even accounting for Horston's sometimes erratic play. There isn't a coach in the country who wouldn't die to have those two. Hollingshead is good and getting better. And we've got some complementary players with varying degrees of talent.

We have talent AND coaching issues. UConn hasn't been great for 20 years simply because of their talent. Geno had no talent when he started--none. I've said this many times over the years: When UConn and UT started playing each other, we had more talent--but UConn showed it was well coached and soon became a much better (more efficient) offensive team than we were. When he started UConn was a nothing program and we were the game's big dog. We see what happened over time--because of coaching disparities. UConn became the big dog and we became a little dog. He built that program because he's a great coach--period. Great coaches overachieve with their talent--win more than they might be expected to win--and then the talent starts to notice and come. McGraw did the same thing at Notre Dame--great coach.

Do we overachieve or underachieve with our talent? We underachieve--and it's been true for 15 years because our coaching hasn't been good enough. PERIOD. Harper is a decent/solid coach--not a great coach--and she is a poor recruiter, and so this is where we are. I'm not suggesting that we lost last night because of coaching alone--but if Geno took our team of last night and Harper took his team, what would the game's outcome have been? I don't know--but I'd bet the house that Harper's UConn team wouldn't win by 17.

Outstanding and accurate analysis, turbovol.

 

[Volfaninfl2]

fellas if I was you I'd cancel this series, if Geno thinks he's doing Tenn a favor he can go kick rocks. Let him play Depaul and win by 70 and see if that gets you ready for the tournament. Was great tho to see him get brutally destroyed on Twitter as a bully, the way he treated Holly Rowe just shows his character. Will always be mind boggling to me why recruits will go play for him. When the team loses it's the players fault, when they win it's all him.

Are you another sc fan?

 

[djtee]

Cora Hall just retweeted a series of pictures of Edwards absolutely doing the dirty on the Rickea takedown. Said that's what she thought she saw live, but pics confirm and according to Hall, look really bad on Edwards. Basically grabbed around waist with both hands, flipped over, intentionally locked legs around and kicked RJ in the head when she tried to get out of the leglock.

And initially, they called this foul on Rickea! Take a look at those pics. Cora Hall calling out Edwards as dirty. Also cc to Lobo, who owes RJ an apology, as if.

I also saw that and From The Ball Out page : We might be writing a column about this game, and one thing we know from sources is that UConn's game plan was to get in Rickea's head and be EXTRA physical with her.

 

[Dadof2Vols]

Pat stated man, many times that the secret to her success was simple - have the best players. Her rosters were full of them and did not suck to be her.

wonder who is supposed to get those players? Danny White!

 

[madtownvol]

View attachment 533269
or maybe.

Hmm, five players who need to score in the paint and have no conisistent outside shot? What could possibly go wrong?

 

[Dadof2Vols]

No, it's not JUST about having the best players. The players have to be coached up--and coached up well. Of course we could use more talent---but it's not like we've got nobody. Jackson and Horston are two of the best offensive players in the country, even accounting for Horston's sometimes erratic play. There isn't a coach in the country who wouldn't die to have those two. Hollingshead is good and getting better. And we've got some complementary players with varying degrees of talent.

We have talent AND coaching issues. UConn hasn't been great for 20 years simply because of their talent. Geno had no talent when he started--none. I've said this many times over the years: When UConn and UT started playing each other, we had more talent--but UConn showed it was well coached and soon became a much better (more efficient) offensive team than we were. When he started UConn was a nothing program and we were the game's big dog. We see what happened over time--because of coaching disparities. UConn became the big dog and we became a little dog. He built that program because he's a great coach--period. Great coaches overachieve with their talent--win more than they might be expected to win--and then the talent starts to notice and come. McGraw did the same thing at Notre Dame--great coach.

Do we overachieve or underachieve with our talent? We underachieve--and it's been true for 15 years because our coaching hasn't been good enough. PERIOD. Harper is a decent/solid coach--not a great coach--and she is a poor recruiter, and so this is where we are. I'm not suggesting that we lost last night because of coaching alone--but if Geno took our team of last night and Harper took his team, what would the game's outcome have been? I don't know--but I'd bet the house that Harper's UConn team wouldn't win by 17.

I don’t think half this team would stay and play for Geno. I think his no excuse, in your face style would run half off. I think Kelli is a players coach who tries to be tuff, very few can pull that off and be successful. I think Geno would be happy that half left if he took over because some might think it would be soft ones leaving.

BUT I do believe part of the problems are coaching and the team that was left would overachieve with Geno. they executed their cuts and picks perfectly last night. Excellent Xs and Os.