Game Thread: SEC Tournament Second Round. #18/14 Lady Vols (9 seed) vs. Vandy (8 seed). Thurs., March 6, 11 am ET, SECN

[djohnnyg]

These coaches ALL say the same stuff after a win. "I'm just so proud of this group. We've played through all the adversity and they've stayed together playing for each other the entire time. That's a really good team we just played and just happy to come away with the win." Etc etc blah blah blah.

 

[1reVOLver]

I am absolutely in love with Kim Caldwell's energy and confidence and guts and no-nonsense approach. I'm thrilled she is a Tennessee Lady Vol and genuinely suspect she was born to be our coach. Danny White made a terrific hire, and I have ZERO regrets about it.

That said, she's gonna need to make opposing coaches work harder next season.

Well said!

 

[1reVOLver]

Nobody reading all that blah blah blah. We get it you don't think CKC is the answer. When she is don't try to get on the wagon.

Failed reading comprehension twice! Well, everyone has to be special in their own way.

 

[VolBlocker]

Blakes doesn’t play in a system that presses the whole game and Vandy still ended up unranked and 8th in the SEC. I don’t think that is where we want to end up. You have a different opinion but I’ll stand by not depending on freshmen to lead us to where we want to be.

That's dumb a post.

 

[Dak1219]

Three of the incoming Freshmen are shooting in the high 40%.

Against high school defense...That means very little when the college level is twice as fast and the players guarding you at the college level are also elite athletes, have high basetball IQ, and understand a scouting report.

 

[Dak1219]

While the short rests have worked within games, they obviously haven’t worked over the long haul, in spite of some scientific posts here explaining why they should. The team is tired according to their coach.

Speaking of subbing, Sara only played 6 mins today. Perfectly reasonable to give those mins to Strickland, but should have been done weeks ago. All the sudden in the SEC tournament? Doesn’t make sense.

Strickland is not now nor has never been an SEC level player. To play her In a win or go home games doesn't make sense.

 

[ScreamingEagleVol]

I dint think so. This class is better than advertised. Know to get to a F4 maybe 2 classes. We need Edward's and Harpring, then all bets are off. We're ELITE with thise to and this class and all the returning players.

Elite??

 

[Ladyvols4ever!]

Strickland is not now nor has never been an SEC level player. To play her In a win or go home games doesn't make sense.

It's because she plays hard.

 

[papatomany]

Doesn't our defensive style lend itself to more fouls though?

Yes. And we shot twice as many 3s as they did which lends itself to less fouls drawn.

 

[GameTime]

Hell guys, the girls gave it all they had....And Coach KIm coached her ass off...It just didn't happen today. Give em a break

As for ref favoritism, the more aggressive team usually gets more fouls called against it in most sports, especially basketball...Not many teams are more aggressive than the LVs.

There are a few players of the LVs that have slow foot speed, and this lack is exploited by the good teams....Just the way it is.

In any event, the girls do the best they can and I applaud that.

 

[Poultrygeist]

While I pulled for the LadyVols against the Dores I dreaded another match up with our gamecocks.

All I could think about was that wild frenzied comeback against SC in January. Another minute in that game would have spelled our defeat.

 

[Volfan2012]

She can't create consistently. That's why she's been struggling.

I agree recently did first half or season. What has happened with her is not a mystery. She can still created consistently one on one no one can do it when doubled and tripled her not recognzing when that is happening has been a huge part of the problem.

 

[Volfan2012]

Listen, Ruby Whitehorn's game is so basic. Straight line mover with a pump fake and spin move that's it. She's not really a good shooter either. Deniya Prawl has more potential as a shooter and she's much better than Ruby Whitehorn right now. She has an array of moves offensively. She can get to the basket and finish with either hand. She defends and rebounds. Oh and she's very FLUID doing these things.

She's a BABY TAMIKA CATCHINGS!

Did you not read where I said that Prawl was the better shooter and had more range. Yes that is what I said. What I tried to relate and is that she is not a great three point shooter seen her play enough to know that she is average from the three. Her one and two tier are fantastic from the three she is about maybe 30 percent.

 

[Volfan2012]

What game did you watch? Tay Coop gets double and tripled team on drives...when she kicks it out or dumps it off...it's either a blown layup or a missed three. Check tape from today's game. Smh

The same game where she committed four turnovers passing the ball. The game where she took four straight shots on possessions without passing the ball in the third quarter. Season turnovers 105 the most on the team more than the point guard. She is still our best player but is going to need to lower this stat costs a lot of possessions everygame.

 

[Volfan2012]

While the short rests have worked within games, they obviously haven’t worked over the long haul, in spite of some scientific posts here explaining why they should. The team is tired according to their coach.

Speaking of subbing, Sara only played 6 mins today. Perfectly reasonable to give those mins to Strickland, but should have been done weeks ago. All the sudden in the SEC tournament? Doesn’t make sense.

Because it is a lot of work to press full court even for 20 minutes your doing double duty probably the same as playing 35 minutes in a convenional style. The amount of work you do is far more per possession that just running back to a defensive position.

 

[VOLINVONORE]

Against high school defense...That means very little when the college level is twice as fast and the players guarding you at the college level are also elite athletes, have high basetball IQ, and understand a scouting report.

What ever. I feel good about them and really don't care if you want to take the negative road. See Ya.

 

[volsagain]

The same game where she committed four turnovers passing the ball. The game where she took four straight shots on possessions without passing the ball in the third quarter. Season turnovers 105 the most on the team more than the point guard. She is still our best player but is going to need to lower this stat costs a lot of possessions everygame.

Definitely needs to cut down the turnovers. But she does a lot more high risk with the ball than anyone. She creates her own shot and dishes out more than anyone. I've been critical of the same issues. I would like to see her get more air under the ball. She's a fantastic player ! GLV

 

[Volfan2012]

I’m a little concerned about the amount of eggs being put in the freshmen basket. They are good but they will be freshmen who will hit a freshman wall especially in a system that has already tired out athletes that have been in college training programs for years. We need them to help and they definitely will but I don’t know that we should expect them to do all the heavy lifting for next season. We need our returners to get better, find some good portal transfers and give the freshmen room to grow to be successful next year.

Totally they will hit a wall just like the current players have hit one. I think Coach Caldwell is going to have to rethink some things about the press especially in SEC play. It taxes the players even playing just 20 to 25 minutes is a lot of work per possession. Might work for a season if you had 15 elite players playing 14 minutes. What she is trying to accomplish is a shot differential and it works against A&M type teams 80 shots to 49 not against Vandy who had a few more shots than we did mainly because they won the turnover battle and the offensive rebounds were about even. You can win those battles playing a convential style and she may have to realize that when you go up against guards that the press does not affect.

I don't know if there is a conditioning program that can ever gets your legs to a point where you can play full court on 70 possessions an entire season even if your just playing 35 to 40 of them per game.

 

[therealitytheory]

Ray Mears loved the 1-3-1 trap D and was very successful with it. And he only used 7-8 players.
I think we'd be better off picking our spots to fc press and rely more on setting up with a trapping D.

 

[Volfan2012]

Ray Mears loved the 1-3-1 trap D and was very successful with it. And he only used 7-8 players.
I think we'd be better off picking our spots to fc press and rely more on setting up with a trapping D.

I agree not every possession.

 

[Volfan2012]

Were posting as the second or third five seed. The team that could be hosting us still to be determined of course, but at this time I think either of Ohio State, Kansas State or North Carolina. If we drop to a six TCU or Duke look to be the most likely second game opponent otherwise we would be matched against an SEC team Kentucky or Oklahoma.

 

[smoltie29``]

Ray Mears loved the 1-3-1 trap D and was very successful with it. And he only used 7-8 players.
I think we'd be better off picking our spots to fc press and rely more on setting up with a trapping D.

IMO she'll probably decide that her pressing defense isn't nearly as effective against the teams she faces week in and week out now. The lower division teams she has been going up against prior to coming to UT don't have the guards that this league has. Teams with good guards are getting way too many lay ups on the other end against it. Of course, she's playing now with a lot of players she inherited that probably aren't ideal for what she wants to do. It'll be interesting to see what, if any, changes she makes to her system as she goes forward.

 

[Majors]

Against high school defense...That means very little when the college level is twice as fast and the players guarding you at the college level are also elite athletes, have high basetball IQ, and understand a scouting report.

So against players that were once like them. That’s promising.

 

[glv98]

Strickland is not now nor has never been an SEC level player. To play her In a win or go home games doesn't make sense.

I agree about Strick and have said so many times. I'd rather see Sara's mins go to Boyd, Latham, etc.

But CKC is not gong to do that. She's gong to play 10 no matter what, so someone on the deep bench is gong to get Saras mins if she's finally decided to pull back on them. My point was just that It's just strange to make that decision now and not weeks ago if you're going to do it.

 

[Volinnooga]

Here is what keeps eating at me. We play a fun, exciting and rather chaotic brand of basketball that few have seen on a regular basis. Could it be that as the season progressed, SEC teams, at least to some extent, figured out how to handle our chaos? The number of TOs seemed to lessen which left us having to shoot a higher percentage of our 3s, which we were not able to sustain. A & M did not handle the chaos well and we destroyed them. Those that could handle the chaos late in the season gave us fits. One could argue that's in part why we were able to compete with, and beat UConn. I don't want to take anything away from the win because we played great, but perhaps UConn had not had the opportunity to play us and didn't yet know how to handle the chaos.

I also think we looked tired late in the season which added to the end of the year slide. Whether that was because we were worn out for the season or something else, I do not know.