How Lady Vols basketball made stark defensive turnaround and began shutting down SEC foes
Cora Hall
Knoxville News Sentinel
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Lady Vols basketball was ranked No. 11 in scoring defense in the SEC after its first four conference wins.
Tennessee coach Kellie Harper knew that trend wasn't sustainable, so she shared the league stat with her team before they went to Texas A&M.
Since then, the Lady Vols have held every opponent to fewer than 60 points. Tennessee went from allowing 70.1 points per game to an average of 53.7 points the last three wins. The Lady Vols beat Florida 74-56 on Thursday at Thompson-Boling Arena, holding the Gators (12-7, 1-5 SEC) to 11 fewer points than
their first win in December.
"It’s a big deal for us," said Jordan Horston, who had two of Tennessee's 11 steals against Florida. "We’re so capable of locking down and stopping people, I’m just glad we’re putting it together."
Jasmine Franklin and Sara Puckett each grabbed a pair of steals, and each of the starters had at least one.
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The Lady Vols (15-6, 7-0) were disappointed when Harper shared how their defense ranked in the conference. Harper saw their desire to be better, and it has shown in practices since then.
"We really tried to find opportunities in practice to really ramp up our defense," Harper said. "I think we've had individuals improve defensively. I think there have been times that our communication has been better, just little things. And it might just be small increments right now, but that's that's what we need. We've got to keep keep striving to get better."
Rickea Jackson, who scored a team-high 16 points, echoed Harper's statement, contributing their success to a focus on the little things. One area of emphasis has been improving as off-ball defenders.
"I feel like it shows, especially in Tess Darby," Jackson said. "She’s getting tons of steals — she’s not just locking down her man, face guarding her. We’re just helping each other, and I feel like we just really emphasize that in practice and it just shows in the game."
Besides Darby — who has already matched her previous season-high of 18 steals — there have been other individual improvements. Jackson's highest number of steals in a season is 25 her freshman season. This season, she has already racked up 15. Horston has a team-high 30 steals this season, which is already approaching her previous season-best of 39.
And that's not even mentioning Jordan Walker's consistent production in that category. Walker has the second-most steals on the team with 23.
Steals usually lead to an easy bucket with Tennessee's ability to score in transition. The plays have become even more crucial after the Lady Vols lost 6-foot-6 center Tamari Key for the season due to blood clots in her lungs.
Key averaged 3.5 blocks last season, which were momentum-building plays on defense. Without her, players have stepped up defensively to create those plays in different ways.
"Tamari changed the complexion of our defense," Harper said. "She was our anchor down there, and we can play pretty good position and she'd always erase our mistakes. Right now, we're playing pretty good position. But if we make a mistake, we don't always have somebody to erase it.
"So if we can combat that with a few more steals, maybe a charge or two, here and there — and then we've got to be even a little bit better on the on the defensive boards because of that."
