I'd ask for a change but

[Tenacguy50]

agreed, but i'm just not sure diamond will have as good of a supporting cast around her as stewart will at uconn. I hope you're right though, and would love to see the 2 teams meet next year in the tourney. It would be an intense game for sure. To say the least, i miss the lady vol vs uconn rivalry. Especially when it was pat's team vs geno's. That was one of the best rivalries in all of sports. Hope we get back to that level sooner than later, and as early as next year. I think diamond is going to be a special player here. Lord knows she showed out at unc as a freshman, and i expect she will be even worse here.

fyp.

 

[Voltopia]

She has a lot of thinking to do. She has the defense piece down but we have got to fine some consistent offense.

Holly is doing what she learned to do. I remember a while back, somewhere in the very early 2000s, UT lost in the SEC tournament and Pat was on a tear on the radio, talking about how UT was going to get its defense down in time for the NCAA tournament. Defense, defense defense. She stressed it in every interview -- they were going to learn to play defense or else. Well, they practiced defense just fine, and and then went out and lost to Xavier (and, I think, Melanie Balcomb who ended up being hired at Vanderbilt soon after that display) who could put the ball in the hoop. It's always been about defense at UT, regardless of offense. But it'd be nice if they could run some more consistent offense through their guards. Go shake the many trees for new ideas or at least new energy. Go steal that Hammer set San Antonio uses -- they practically won a few titles in the NBA with it.

BUT. And this is the big but. Players make the teams. Everyone's going to want to compare UT to UConn, and everybody'll froth at the mouth about how Geno is the best coach and so on but he had a stretch there where he didn't get the best players and they burned out in the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 for a few years -- so he started recruiting the best again and now he's winning again. It's really not rocket science, regrettably. The team with the better players is going (usually) win. Where a Geno or a Pat (before her struggles) would change the game is they'd get their teams further than they had any business going. Meh. UConn has the advantage of having a Hall of Fame legendary coach and ESPN in their backyard. Easy aces in recruiting. Nothing to be done there. UT needs to gameplan how to get up off the mat and be competitive at that level again. Gotta have the horses. Signing the best player, signing an elite class for a season, UT has to have those moments or else it won't ever scale the top so long as that other team's lapping the field.

I wouldn't quite write off this new-era UT just yet. But the next two years are about as good as it's going to get and they have to show something with it. You've got a consensus top 3 pick in Russell, a near consensus top 3 pick in Diamond, Graves who is athletically gifted as all get out, and then players like Carter and Jones and Moore and so on to plug in. UT has to show it has a mindset and a mentality to win. Pat hated losing more than anything, and right now I don't know if that's the case. I believe they want to win, I mean, but there's just something not quite ... just not sure if they can get to the top without some serious attitude which so far we haven't seen except in brief spurts. Less turnovers, more defensive commitment, all that. The number of lazy passes -- I want to see some yelling, some accountability, something, when we see lackadaisical turnovers. I back them, I'll cheer for them, I'm as VFL as it gets, but sometimes I wonder how serious they take things like that when those passes keep showing up in late season play. Eh. Now I'm rambling. They are who they are.

(Also, I realize you can't just go and pick up a professional NBA team's sets and use them -- especially a team with as much orchestrated planning as SA -- but surely there's some things to be learned from good franchises and programs).

 

[madbamahater]

The way we fill openings hasn't been encouraging so guess we'll keep Holly.

Butch Jones was an excellent hire!

Donnie Tyndall was a hell of a coach and did a tremendous job with nothing. Not UTs fault at all that he ended up a liar and cheater. It's just simply NOT UTs fault. Tyndall was a great hire at the time.

Holly just went to the elite 8 with her best player out with injury.

If he hires Rick Barnes, that will be another solid to potentially fantastic hire. Barnes MORE THAN has the resume. He isn't my first pick, but Gregg Marshall will never coach at UT. When Barnes became available, it was almost a no brainer....

What more do you want dude? UT athletics is on a major upswing as a whole!

 

[508mikey]

Looked to me like she needs some shooters.

That Brown girl killed the 3 for the Terps.

They have Courtney Dunbar from outside but ... she didnt play -- my biggest complaint about the loss -- Warlick coached like a middle school coach by holding her out and letting that air ball girl shoot all the time

 

[armchair]

Let's stop pretending that going to the Elite Eight was a major accomplishment. Who did we beat to get there? Three teams, two of them at home--none of whom had more than half the talent we did and none of whom were in the top 35 in the last polls. And yet some want to laud Warlick for her brilliant coaching. We only beat Boise State by 10, as I recall; we limped home against an average Pitt team, hanging on for the win; fell way behind against Gonzaga before rallying. Everybody points to Izzy's injury as an excuse. Yea, it hurt us--but we still had far more talent than the first three teams we played in the tournament, and yet struggled, and we had as much talent as Maryland. Last night's game was VERY winnable--but we laid our usual offensive egg in a big spot and lost it. With any kind of halfway decent shooting night we would have won it. 4-22 from three-point line. Seriously? We are not a confident team in big spots. It may sound harsh, it's unfortunate, but it's true.

 

[GameTime]

Offense needs to be given as much practice as defense.....

Our shooters have to learn how to shoot/hit the 10-15 jumpers regularly.

Great season.

 

[golf437]

She doesn't even know that piece is missing.

There is not another coach in Division I dumb enough to keep trying to get it down low to Graves in these past couple of games instead of getting some match-ups with the face up game. That is just flat out coaching incompetence and there is no excuse for it.

Our offense perked up when Graves went out. And it is not that she is a bad player, but it is that she was not being used properly and she was being asked to do things she can't do. That is the hallmark of a bad coach and Holly is a really, really bad offensive coach.

She needs to hire someone to be the offensive coordinator and just turn that side of the ball over to them. That is the only way we ever become competitive again without having to just out talent everyone. And there is no amount of talent that can overcome a coach who puts her players in such bad positions.

Holly needs to apologize to that team for what she did to them in the tournament and for not adjusting on offense.

Thanks for laugh. Satire is good.

 

[LVJeff]

They have Courtney Dunbar from outside but ... she didnt play -- my biggest complaint about the loss -- Warlick coached like a middle school coach by holding her out and letting that air ball girl shoot all the time

Dunbar is a tree - unable to move on defense. UT played man defense to try and prevent MD's guards from going off. It worked for a while. But this puts a premium on foot and lateral movement for all 5 defenders. MD would have went around poor Dunbar all game long had she played.

 

[Volicity]

Tennessee beat Stanford by 19 points. Do a little Homework before you make silly comments.

UTC beat them both...........

 

[Volicity]

They have Courtney Dunbar from outside but ... she didnt play -- my biggest complaint about the loss -- Warlick coached like a middle school coach by holding her out and letting that air ball girl shoot all the time

which air ball girl? The 24% shooter or the 28% shooter?

 

[508mikey]

which air ball girl? The 24% shooter or the 28% shooter?

both lol

 

[508mikey]

Dunbar is a tree - unable to move on defense. UT played man defense to try and prevent MD's guards from going off. It worked for a while. But this puts a premium on foot and lateral movement for all 5 defenders. MD would have went around poor Dunbar all game long had she played.

No - this would not have happened - UT needed her shooting to stay in the game the last 6 minutes - a smart coach knows how to sub for D and O -- Warlick does not.