Game Thread Lady Vols vs St. John's in the NCAA Tournament

#177
#177
On to Louisville hope we come out with a better game plan. I was hoping Duke would be our number two.
 
#178
#178
Tennessee wins 67-51.

The Good:
-Burdick
-Simmons after her 3rd foul
-didn't give up a run after they made theirs in the second half
-izzy's double double
-Defensive intensity the last 12 minutes or so
-Russell got a block!

The Bad:
-Sloppy passes and turnovers
-zone defense
-lack of intensity
-Graves with another invisible performance
-Carter's defense on Handford
-Reynolds playing like freshman
-Free throws

The Ugly:
- Jasmine Jones holding a basketball
 
#179
#179
I live in East Tennessee and they showed the whole game thru the finish. I thought as long as you lived anywhere in Tennessee, they wouldn't go away from the coverage. I guess that wasn't the case..Anyhow, here on out, each game should get their own exclusive coverage..

On a brighter note, we might get Ariel back for the rest of the tournament, at least that was what Holly said..
 
#180
#180
POG=Burdick. 11 rebounds and 21 points. Harrison with a double double, as well, with 11 rebounds and 10 points. Speedy with 17.
 
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#181
#181
Volfan2012 said:
Jones better get a lot better over the summer or she want see the court next season. A lot of talented players coming in she want get to play if she plays the game she played tonight.
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Jones was a McD AA and Russell was supposedly the best player in her class (!).

I'll believe that the incoming freshmen are good when they prove it on the court.
 
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#184
#184
Good, workmanlike win over a gritty team. Yeah, we will have to play better in each round, but it is not like we can't play at a high level. We just have to do it at an opportune time for a change.

With this team it is all about confidence. They play as well as they believe they can play. When they doubt, or let themselves get frustrated their play suffers. I think the Elite 8 is as far as we go... but the ladies seem to be on a revenge tour this year and Louisville is a team they would certainly like revenge against.

Let's hope they can pull it all together and make believers out of all of us.
 
#187
#187
I'm glad we finally got it in gear and put away a stubborn team, but I thought the coaching staff's substitutions were a bit off. Simmons sat way too long in the 2nd half. Jasmine Jones played way too much. They even brought Jones into the game when we had a good rhythm, she turned the ball over, and then they immediately took her out. I'm thinking, "Why'd you put her in to begin with". I just hold my breath whenever she gets the ball on offense.

Man on man did Simmons have a sweet pass to Carter on that one breakaway.
 
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#188
#188
Amb3096 said:
Jones was a McD AA and Russell was supposedly the best player in her class (!).

I'll believe that the incoming freshmen are good when they prove it on the court.
Click to expand...

Jones was never a shooter even though she was ranked 39th in her class. It was all about her athleticism. She seems to have had very little coaching in high school. It really is harmful to the competence of our coaching staff that they can't make her a better player. She is an athlete needs to be taught basketball skills and IQ play. Mercedes could average a double double a lot of games she is playing behind a junior and seems to still be very timid about being aggressive on offense. She was passing last night when she was in position to shoot. She will shine eventually.

Middleton has an aggressive style of play hits 38 percent from the three. She will help immediately. Tucker should be ready also but that is a wait and see. You can't average over 30 points in high school and not be a very good player Nared should help immediately. Players have to be great players with good coaches when they get here or it will take a while. Middleton has had superb coaching and so has Dunbar. Nared don't know about her coaching just know she shot 53 percent from the field and 80 from the line. This staff doesn't really develop players Izzy developed her own game playing and practicing with Jarnell Stokes. Burdick stays in the gym a lot she seems to finally be getting better.


I don't see any way that Middleton and Nared are not ahead of Jones right now. It is up to Jones to become a basketball player this summer or I think she will be far down the bench. I think she gets a lot of playing time now out of necessity than ability.
 
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#189
#189
gule said:
I hope they play texas instead of MD next....
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Texas, or Maryland, it seems like we always play to the level of our competition. (Up or down). That's the reason we can never really blow anyone away. Either way it is going to be a close game. As much as I love them, they still lack that determined, killer instinct. That is one of the biggest things that distinguish Notre Dame and that other 0- loss team from us.
 
#190
#190
Volfan2012 said:
Jones was never a shooter even though she was ranked 39th in her class. It was all about her athleticism. She seems to have had very little coaching in high school. It really is harmful to the competence of our coaching staff that they can't make her a better player. She is an athlete needs to be taught basketball skills and IQ play. Mercedes could average a double double a lot of games she is playing behind a junior and seems to still be very timid about being aggressive on offense. She was passing last night when she was in position to shoot. She will shine eventually.

Middleton has an aggressive style of play hits 38 percent from the three. She will help immediately. Tucker should be ready also but that is a wait and see. You can't average over 30 points in high school and not be a very good player Nared should help immediately. Players have to be great players with good coaches when they get here or it will take a while. Middleton has had superb coaching and so has Dunbar. Nared don't know about her coaching just know she shot 53 percent from the field and 80 from the line. This staff doesn't really develop players Izzy developed her own game playing and practicing with Jarnell Stokes. Burdick stays in the gym a lot she seems to finally be getting better.


I don't see any way that Middleton and Nared are not ahead of Jones right now. It is up to Jones to become a basketball player this summer or I think she will be far down the bench. I think she gets a lot of playing time now out of necessity than ability.
Click to expand...

I thought Jones looked way better last year. She seems to have regressed this year. She misses jumpers and layups, and is really only good at rebounding her own misses, getting fouled, and making 1 of 2 FTs. Even her defense is overrated when you consider how well she can defend players from good teams. She's not going to slow down Alyssa Thomas. I agree that she's getting playing time because they really don't have anyone to spell Burdick if she needs a break, especially with Massengale out.

Russell...I just don't see it. She's soft on offense and defense, she doesn't hold her position well, she catches like she's wearing iron mitts, so doesn't block shots, and her only offense moves are offensive put backs and shooting over opponents when she's in perfect position. You compare her footwork to Izzy's around the basket and you can see the difference between someone who knows how to play, and someone who is tall. She's as much of a project as Jones is.

For the incoming players, Tucker and Nared are probably the most important. Middleton will be a nice option if they need her, and Dunbar will probably be next to Nia at the end of the bench. Tennessee needs reliable wings with good basketball IQ, can play defense, can rebound and can make open shots. Watching St. Johns ignore Burdick or Jones when Tennessee had the ball was painful. Burdick was smart enough to capitalize on it. Jones looked like she was playing hot potato.
 
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#191
#191
I can already tell that many of you will be disappointed with our new players next year because you're already putting unrealistic expectations and pressure on them. If you go back through our national championships, the overwhelming majority did not rely on Freshman or even have Freshman play a crucial role - the same can be said of all other teams who won national championships. Without going through the archives, Holdsclaw is the only one that comes to mind who was a major contributor. We have a good team this year as we speak and we will only lose one player, who theoretically could be replaced with a player who is out with injury now but will be a Senior next year and played half this year.

As much as I would like our new players to step in and produce, there is no pressure for them to do so and we certainly don't need to lean on any of them to be a star.

Burdick, Ariel, Carter, Izzy, and Graves should get the lion's share of the minutes with Mercedes getting the majority of the post bench minutes and Reynolds getting the majority of the guard bench minutes. If another guard can step up and contribute that'll be gravy or good if we get into foul trouble but not a critical cog to competing for a national championship IMO.
 
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#192
#192
clkou said:
If you go back through our national championships, the overwhelming majority did not rely on Freshman or even have Freshman play a crucial role - the same can be said of all other teams who won national championships.
Click to expand...

Either you haven't been following basketball outside of Tennessee, or you just refuse to acknowledge last year when freshman Brianna Stewart was MVP while leading UConn to the NC.

Other examples:

Tamika Catchings, Semeka Randall, Theresa Geter from the 1998 championship team.

Chamique Holdsclaw from the 1996 NC team.

Barbara Something, Ann Strother and a tall center from the 2003 NC team.

Kara Wolters from the 1995 NC team

Tiffany Hayes 2009 NC team.

Kristi Toliver and Crystal Langhorne 2006 NC team.

So that makes 7 of the last 20...1/3 of NC where freshmen played a starting role...including last year. I can add another 9 (1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012) where a sophomore was the best player on the NC team.

So no...most good players don't take 3 years to develop and then are good by the time they are seniors. If they are any good, you'll see strong traces of it their freshman year. You can see it with Diamond this year just like we saw it last year with Stewart. If a player literally has no standout performances their entire freshman year (like Russell), then they probably aren't in the upper echelon of their class.

If Tucker or Nared comes in next year and can give 8-10 points off then bench (not padded against weak competition), then that would be considered a success.
 
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#193
#193
I don't really think Jones really knows what her role is she usually always tries to do too much and ends up playing out of control i can say the same about the others. she needs to play to her strengths which is probably her playing close to the basket, she's not much of a scorer she's more of a hustle type of player that has athleticism and can get you rebounds, second chance points and trying to play defense by i would rather her forcing turnovers for the other team instead of turning it over her self, we also do not need her handling the ball at any point cause those always leads to turnovers for us.
 
#194
#194
It's funny that you quote my text and somehow STILL misinterpret and change my words. I didn't say that Freshman don't play at all ever. I said they rarely RELY or play Crucial roles. And I mentioned Holdsclaw was an exception and you still tried to use her as an example.

When you look at recent years, I think of Griner, Parker, Moore, Adams from TAM - upperclassman. A national championship team 9/10 wins mostly on the backs of experience and upperclassman. For anyone looking for our Freshmen to be the answer next year, you will likely be disappointed. If we compete for a title, it'll most likely be because of the players I mentioned.
 
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#195
#195
clkou said:
It's funny that you quote my text and somehow STILL misinterpret and change my words. I didn't say that Freshman don't play at all ever. I said they rarely RELY or play Crucial roles. And I mentioned Holdsclaw was an exception and you still tried to use her as an example.

When you look at recent years, I think of Griner, Parker, Moore, Adams from TAM - upperclassman. A national championship team 9/10 wins mostly on the backs of experience and upperclassman. For anyone looking for our Freshmen to be the answer next year, you will likely be disappointed. If we compete for a title, it'll most likely be because of the players I mentioned.
Click to expand...

So now you can also forecast the future? Wow. You are a talent.
 
#196
#196
Those who don't learn from history are doomed to be disappointed when next year's class doesn't live up to their unrealistic expectations. Face facts: we'll be lucky (as would any university) to ever have a Freshman class as good as Candace Parker's and they did not win a national championship their Freshman year or their Sophomore year because ... well, as I said, Freshman don't win championships. Upperclassman do. Now, when that class became upperclassman, funny thing happened, they used their talent AND experience to win two national championships. You do not play as a Freshman with college experience because it is literally impossible. You NEED that experience to be successful. High school <> College no matter how good you were in high school.

And for the record, I'm not sharing some wonderful secret with you all. This should be damn near common sense.
 
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#197
#197
clkou said:
It's funny that you quote my text and somehow STILL misinterpret and change my words. I didn't say that Freshman don't play at all ever. I said they rarely RELY or play Crucial roles. And I mentioned Holdsclaw was an exception and you still tried to use her as an example.

When you look at recent years, I think of Griner, Parker, Moore, Adams from TAM - upperclassman. A national championship team 9/10 wins mostly on the backs of experience and upperclassman. For anyone looking for our Freshmen to be the answer next year, you will likely be disappointed. If we compete for a title, it'll most likely be because of the players I mentioned.
Click to expand...

And yet you missed that just last year, Breanna Stewart was MVP of the FF as a freshman. UConn doesn't win without her. Toliver was the best player on Maryland's NC team. Strother was 2nd best after Taurasi for her fist NC win. Catch was right up there with Chamique for her NC win.

Just admit that you can't back up this assertion of yours and move on. Sheesh, already!
 
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#200
#200
clkou said:
Those who don't learn from history are doomed to be disappointed when next year's class doesn't live up to their unrealistic expectations. Face facts: we'll be lucky (as would any university) to ever have a Freshman class as good as Candace Parker's and they did not win a national championship their Freshman year or their Sophomore year because ... well, as I said, Freshman don't win championships. Upperclassman do. Now, when that class became upperclassman, funny thing happened, they used their talent AND experience to win two national championships. You do not play as a Freshman with college experience because it is literally impossible. You NEED that experience to be successful. High school <> College no matter how good you were in high school.

And for the record, I'm not sharing some wonderful secret with you all. This should be damn near common sense.
Click to expand...

It sort of depends on how good the competition is in a given year. If I recall, Candace wasn't physically able to play her freshman year or she would certainly have contributed.
 
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