Nia Moore's game. Why has it

[Sandvol]

improved so dramatically? Her elevation, quickness, defense, coordination, everything. Is she on roids? What is the deal? I don't think I've ever seen a Tennessee player make such a dramatic change. Was she mostly injured before? Can anyone clarify?

 

[Special Ed]

'roids helped my elevation.
I wasn't able to sit properly for over a week.

 

[Orange Maniac]

improved so dramatically? Her elevation, quickness, defense, coordination, everything. Is she on roids? What is the deal? I don't think I've ever seen a Tennessee player make such a dramatic change. Was she mostly injured before? Can anyone clarify?

The main thing that has improved is she is getting playing time. She was always this productive when she was put in a game. It was always a head scratcher to me as to why she didn't get more time. She has improved but I don't think she has improved as much as people think. She is just getting a chance to show what she can do.

 

[W.TN.Orange Blood]

Maybe she's had those qualities all along. All I remember is coach had her sit on the bench & would use her for mop-up duty. There was only one poster here that seemed to know anything about her. He would constantly yell & tell coach to "free Nia".

 

[Volfan2012]

The only thing I see different about her is that she is far more aggressive in her play and is getting a lot of minutes. She played well last season when given the opportunity.

 

[Sandvol]

I've seen her play like all of us have the last couple of years and she seemed to mostly be a non entity. Did not stand out. Didn't seem to display the quickness or elevation she has now. Maybe in practice but I never saw those. If so though, what was Holly thinking?

 

[Sandvol]

'roids helped my elevation.
I wasn't able to sit properly for over a week.

You're clever.

 

[BigOrangeD]

She did play well last night. Would like to see her put on some weight to be tougher inside. She is very thin.

 

[Amb3096]

I've seen her play like all of us have the last couple of years and she seemed to mostly be a non entity. Did not stand out. Didn't seem to display the quickness or elevation she has now. Maybe in practice but I never saw those. If so though, what was Holly thinking?

She learned to play. Her freshman year, she had no post moves. Last year, she was somewhat better but still not of the quality to play as part of the regular rotation.

Nia doesn't have the variety of moves that Harrison has, but she has a handful that she can use over and over with good results. I think that she's just worked hard with the coaching staff to develop her offensive arsenal, and now it's paid off for her. She still needs to be more aggressive rebounding, but her offensive efficiency and timing on her blocks has been excellent.

I was worried coming into this season that too much weight would be on Izzy's shoulders, but Nia's emergence as a capable backup has left me with a really good feeling for this season.

 

[Volfan2012]

One thing you quickly notice is that from 10 to 12 feet she is deadly accurate with her shot. I can't remember her missing one of those last night.

 

[tomballvol]

In the first half, her shake and spin into the lane for the left hand hook was the best single move I've seen by a female post in a long time. It was a quick, decisive move.

 

[Chris89128]

Keep in mind they played Penn and ORU, I am waiting to see how Moore does against Texas Stanford and so on

 

[Sandvol]

She learned to play. Her freshman year, she had no post moves. Last year, she was somewhat better but still not of the quality to play as part of the regular rotation.

Nia doesn't have the variety of moves that Harrison has, but she has a handful that she can use over and over with good results. I think that she's just worked hard with the coaching staff to develop her offensive arsenal, and now it's paid off for her. She still needs to be more aggressive rebounding, but her offensive efficiency and timing on her blocks has been excellent.

I was worried coming into this season that too much weight would be on Izzy's shoulders, but Nia's emergence as a capable backup has left me with a really good feeling for this season.

I think her game is even better than your description. She is more accurate on the 10-12 than Izzy from what I can tell and she puts in the close 2 footer better than Graves. I don't want her to put on any more weight. She is quick and can elevate.

 

[gule]

I think it's a combo of weak competition, 2 years learning her craft and perseverance. I've been touting her for so long because I had no faith in Graves and thought she had a better upside. Glad to see she has gotten an opportunity to play finally. it's a feel good story that we all can enjoy, imho

 

[Volfan2012]

She was maneuvering around that big 6'7" girl really well. Stanford tallest players that play are all 6'3". I'm certain she can score on anybody. Her ability to rebound will come into question against big body girls we'll see how she does.

 

[armchair]

I'm sure she has improved some--but this is the first time she's gotten decent playing time. I don't know how many minutes, total, she got last year--but it had to have a tiny number as I'd never seen her play until year. She's got work to do--but she's already better offensively than a LOT of past four-year center starters at UT, and she's got UPSIDE. She can get better because she's athletic. The one thing I don't understand is why the coaches don't teach our centers the most basic of post moves: Catch down low, pivot with ball raised, shoot it off the glass. No dribbling.

Moore reminds me of Dobbs with the football team. All the diehards are saying, wow, look how 'improved' he is. No, he's just playing. It was easy to see last year that he was UT's best bet at QB. Why Jones, who gets paid millions to assess talent, didn't see that, I don't know. Coaches make mistakes.

 

[GameTime]

Nia is more than a pleasant surprise....We all saw how well she shot foul shots last season, but due to her limited playing time, it was not possible to see this coming.

She is EXCELLENT!

 

[BMvol27]

I'm sure she has improved some--but this is the first time she's gotten decent playing time. I don't know how many minutes, total, she got last year--but it had to have a tiny number as I'd never seen her play until year. She's got work to do--but she's already better offensively than a LOT of past four-year center starters at UT, and she's got UPSIDE. She can get better because she's athletic. The one thing I don't understand is why the coaches don't teach our centers the most basic of post moves: Catch down low, pivot with ball raised, shoot it off the glass. No dribbling.

Moore reminds me of Dobbs with the football team. All the diehards are saying, wow, look how 'improved' he is. No, he's just playing. It was easy to see last year that he was UT's best bet at QB. Why Jones, who gets paid millions to assess talent, didn't see that, I don't know. Coaches make mistakes.

Dobbs played last year and sucked.

 

[stllvf]

Alicia Manning's story is one that is to me somewhat similar. Also the other JUCO that came with Bobbitt who produced at tourney time. Remember the comment we hear from all the players "I want to help the team and when my number is called...."

She was a three star who committed to Illinois and then when their head coach came a assistant here she got a release.

 

[Smallvol#1]

She was maneuvering around that big 6'7" girl really well. Stanford tallest players that play are all 6'3". I'm certain she can score on anybody. Her ability to rebound will come into question against big body girls we'll see how she does.

Wondered if that was why Holly left her in so long last night against the big girl. Might as well get used to playing the wide bodies; they're coming.
Dean has shown an ability to coach posts; look,at Izzy between her sophomore and junior years.
But I had wondered the previous years; she wasn't played enough to get comfortable in the game and she always looked like she had ability...just very thin. Gule called it; free at last

 

[Voluble2]

I've seen her play like all of us have the last couple of years and she seemed to mostly be a non entity. Did not stand out. Didn't seem to display the quickness or elevation she has now. Maybe in practice but I never saw those. If so though, what was Holly thinking?

She was lost and tentative last year. If you watched her on defense she was never where she was supposed to be and she did not play aggressively. She got shoved around a lot on both ends of the floor.

The announcers said that she worked really hard on her game over the summer and improved tremendously. Contrary to what some posters like to say on here our post coach gets really good performance out of most of his charges. Izzy had similar improvement from freshman to sophomore year.

I think some of these girls come from programs in high school where they are not developed as much and really benefit from the training they get in college, whereas others are mostly finished products by the time they step on the court at a university. I think UT coaches knew she was a project when they recruited her and it seems to be paying off now. Kudos to them.

It will be interesting to see how she does against the more physical and better posts. Maryland just bullied us last year. Moore is pretty slight of build but extremely athletic so there will be match-up problems either coming or going. But I like what I have seen of Moore so far.

 

[Sandvol]

She was lost and tentative last year. If you watched her on defense she was never where she was supposed to be and she did not play aggressively. She got shoved around a lot on both ends of the floor.

The announcers said that she worked really hard on her game over the summer and improved tremendously. Contrary to what some posters like to say on here our post coach gets really good performance out of most of his charges. Izzy had similar improvement from freshman to sophomore year.

I think some of these girls come from programs in high school where they are not developed as much and really benefit from the training they get in college, whereas others are mostly finished products by the time they step on the court at a university. I think UT coaches knew she was a project when they recruited her and it seems to be paying off now. Kudos to them.

It will be interesting to see how she does against the more physical and better posts. Maryland just bullied us last year. Moore is pretty slight of build but extremely athletic so there will be match-up problems either coming or going. But I like what I have seen of Moore so far.

All this seems reasonable. Then another question for Holly, then why didn't she redshirt her for a year to give her more time to develop?

 

[Amb3096]

All this seems reasonable. Then another question for Holly, then why didn't she redshirt her for a year to give her more time to develop?

My take on Moore was that she was recruited as a bench player for depth, not part of the regular rotation. Every team has players that rarely see playing time...Moore was it for Tennessee.

The fact that she exceeded expectations is just a bonus.

 

[armchair]

Dobbs played last year and sucked.

not suprisingly. He scored on a 40-yard run last year, and many other fairly good runs, and threw the ball decently--not great but decently. You think he stepped into a alley a few weeks ago and came out wearing a Superman cape? It doesn't work that way. People either have skill sets or they don't. It was obvious last year that he had far more upside than our other quarterbacks if only because of his athleticism--which in sport is pretty important.

 

[armchair]

All this seems reasonable. Then another question for Holly, then why didn't she redshirt her for a year to give her more time to develop?

She certainly didn't play much at all last year--a wasted year of eligibility for someone who now looks like someone who will be a contributor.