Rae Burrell appreciation post

[luballer]

Rae is a great example that yelling and benching players are not always the answer. There were many on this board last season that wanted her benched every time she was out of control. Kellie kept speaking on her energy and how they had to teach her how to keep that same energy while playing under control. Later in the season, she was in the starting lineup and playing with a lot of confidence that has carried over into this season. Rennie is another example of a player that was playing with great confidence late last season. She was missing 3s and Kellie was encouraging her to shoot more when she’s open. Horston and Key had also started playing with much more confidence. 3 of the players I mentioned are just sophomores and did not have a normal offseason with their position coach or strength coach so we have to have patience. Even the sophomores at South Carolina haven’t looked as good as they did to end the season as Freshmen last year. As fans, we have no idea how this pandemic has affected these ladies mentally.

Kellie has a plan and if you truly pay attention to the games, you can see bits and pieces of it unfolding. The culture is already changing! Just watch them play and listen to them speak post game. During the Furman game, the last group “valued their minutes” and really got after Furman. And for all those doubting her recruiting all 5 of the newcomers seem to be good additions. They may not be consistent yet but they definitely helped upgrade the roster. Darby was the only one we hadn’t seen and the way she shot the 3 with confidence was all I needed to see. Shin splints suck as a basketball player and will slow her down this year, but I really think she can be a great player for the team. Looking forward to the Texas game! GBO!

 

[Amb3096]

Rae is a great example that yelling and benching players are not always the answer. There were many on this board last season that wanted her benched every time she was out of control. Kellie kept speaking on her energy and how they had to teach her how to keep that same energy while playing under control. Later in the season, she was in the starting lineup and playing with a lot of confidence that has carried over into this season. Rennie is another example of a player that was playing with great confidence late last season. She was missing 3s and Kellie was encouraging her to shoot more when she’s open. Horston and Key had also started playing with much more confidence. 3 of the players I mentioned are just sophomores and did not have a normal offseason with their position coach or strength coach so we have to have patience. Even the sophomores at South Carolina haven’t looked as good as they did to end the season as Freshmen last year. As fans, we have no idea how this pandemic has affected these ladies mentally.

Kellie has a plan and if you truly pay attention to the games, you can see bits and pieces of it unfolding. The culture is already changing! Just watch them play and listen to them speak post game. During the Furman game, the last group “valued their minutes” and really got after Furman. And for all those doubting her recruiting all 5 of the newcomers seem to be good additions. They may not be consistent yet but they definitely helped upgrade the roster. Darby was the only one we hadn’t seen and the way she shot the 3 with confidence was all I needed to see. Shin splints suck as a basketball player and will slow her down this year, but I really think she can be a great player for the team. Looking forward to the Texas game! GBO!

That all sounds good, but bottom line is it has to translate to games against better competition. No one will remember 14 threes made against Furman if they shoot 10% from deep against WVU, Texas or UConn...the only 3 OOC games that matter. Take them out, and the average Massey rating is 247.

Rae has been great in all of the games EXCEPT against WVU. Hopefully she can replicate her Furman performance against Texas or UConn, because that's really what Tennessee needs right now.

 

[volnationnj]

That all sounds good, but bottom line is it has to translate to games against better competition. No one will remember 14 threes made against Furman if they shoot 10% from deep against WVU, Texas or UConn...the only 3 OOC games that matter. Take them out, and the average Massey rating is 247.

Rae has been great in all of the games EXCEPT against WVU. Hopefully she can replicate her Furman performance against Texas or UConn, because that's really what Tennessee needs right now.

 

[luballer]

That all sounds good, but bottom line is it has to translate to games against better competition. No one will remember 14 threes made against Furman if they shoot 10% from deep against WVU, Texas or UConn...the only 3 OOC games that matter. Take them out, and the average Massey rating is 247.

Rae has been great in all of the games EXCEPT against WVU. Hopefully she can replicate her Furman performance against Texas or UConn, because that's really what Tennessee needs right now.

We don’t know if it translates against better competition yet. THIS team has not played Texas or UCONN yet and the WVU game would have been a blow out game the last few years with the way we shot the ball. Instead it was a overtime loss. I’m not a moral victory person so a loss is a loss, but if you don’t see the improvements then you are not looking. As far as Rae, she had 18 pts against WVU and when she finally started hitting her shots I wanted her to be a bit more selfish down the stretch. This team is so used to going to Rennia down the stretch, and rightly so because she is our go to player, that they started looking for her and went away from the hot hand. No knock on Rennia but she had an off night and this was a game that deferring to her cost them.

 

[Amb3096]

We don’t know if it translates against better competition yet. THIS team has not played Texas or UCONN yet and the WVU game would have been a blow out game the last few years with the way we shot the ball. Instead it was a overtime loss. I’m not a moral victory person so a loss is a loss, but if you don’t see the improvements then you are not looking. As far as Rae, she had 18 pts against WVU and when she finally started hitting her shots I wanted her to be a bit more selfish down the stretch. This team is so used to going to Rennia down the stretch, and rightly so because she is our go to player, that they started looking for her and went away from the hot hand. No knock on Rennia but she had an off night and this was a game that deferring to her cost them.

Looking at the WVU game, it looked just like any other Holly-led team loss against an inferior opponent. Poor shooting, tons of turnovers, shaky ball movement, a lot of 1-on-1...and overall trying to win from crashing the boards and playing defense. Even Rae...it's not that she started hitting shots; it's that they were fouling her (and a lot of those plays were basically her charging into 3 defenders). She hit 1 shot in the 3rd quarter, 1 in the 4th quarter (but got to the line a ton of times), and 0 shots/FTs in OT. She never got going with her jump shot.

Rennia had an off night, but honestly...the entire team did, except Keyen Green. Even Horston should have been able to score more against the small WVU backcourt, and Key should have been dominating inside.

 

[luballer]

Looking at the WVU game, it looked just like any other Holly-led team loss against an inferior opponent. Poor shooting, tons of turnovers, shaky ball movement, a lot of 1-on-1...and overall trying to win from crashing the boards and playing defense. Even Rae...it's not that she started hitting shots; it's that they were fouling her (and a lot of those plays were basically her charging into 3 defenders). She hit 1 shot in the 3rd quarter, 1 in the 4th quarter (but got to the line a ton of times), and 0 shots/FTs in OT. She never got going with her jump shot.

Rennia had an off night, but honestly...the entire team did, except Keyen Green. Even Horston should have been able to score more against the small WVU backcourt, and Key should have been dominating inside.

I agree that they all had an off night shooting. As a player if your shot is not falling then you drive and get to the free throw line which is what Rae did and that to me is growth. I felt like she was taking advantage of what the officials were calling fouls on.

As far as a Holly-led team, I just don’t see it. They didn’t look lost and confused like in the past. When you’re having a bad shooting night then you better try and make up for it by crashing the boards and playing defense. That is just a part of basketball. Kellie isn’t preaching that’s all they need to do to win. In fact, she focused on offense due to the pandemic putting them behind and said they would have to play catch up on defense throughout the season. As far as Key, you can’t dominate if you are in foul trouble. She has to learn when to just let them go and accept that she got beat and do better on the next possession. That will come as she continues to grow. She is still just a sophomore and has tons of upside.