Te'a Cooper begins season

[Orange Maniac]

Went to see Te'a play tonight. The girl has some moves and a pretty good shot. She can take it to the hole down the lane. When push came to shove near the end of the game she took over and pulled out a win in a game where they were behind the majority of the time. She hit 2 free throws to seal the win for the Indians. I didn't keep track of her points but she scored quite a few. The one thing I saw her lacking was on defense. She kept her hands by her side and didn't look all that enthused about playing defense. It wasn't a regular season game but her defense needs work.

 

[3holenones]

Whew!!! I thought this was a thread about a Kentucky football player.

 

[volfanIND]

Went to see Te'a play tonight. The girl has some moves and a pretty good shot. She can take it to the hole down the lane. When push came to shove near the end of the game she took over and pulled out a win in a game where they were behind the majority of the time. She hit 2 free throws to seal the win for the Indians. I didn't keep track of her points but she scored quite a few. The one thing I saw her lacking was on defense. She kept her hands by her side and didn't look all that enthused about playing defense. It wasn't a regular season game but her defense needs work.

Just curious, how did Caliya Robinson look?

 

[Orange Maniac]

Just curious, how did Caliya Robinson look?

Not very good in my opinion. The girl inside on the St. Francis team owned her under the bucket. If she got the ball she scored on Caliya with ease. Caliya did have a couple of blocks on guards coming into the paint. Maybe she just had a bad game but if I hadn't known who she was, I wouldn't have thought her to be ready for college ball. I will go to the next home game to get a better feel of how the players look.

 

[boxerpupsrcool]

Went to see Te'a play tonight. The girl has some moves and a pretty good shot. She can take it to the hole down the lane. When push came to shove near the end of the game she took over and pulled out a win in a game where they were behind the majority of the time. She hit 2 free throws to seal the win for the Indians. I didn't keep track of her points but she scored quite a few. The one thing I saw her lacking was on defense. She kept her hands by her side and didn't look all that enthused about playing defense. It wasn't a regular season game but her defense needs work.

That's cool that you are able to go watch our recruits play!! I think it was Holly that said something about players kind of neglecting defense because they want to just focus on scoring points.

 

[tennparker3]

Her defensive skills will actually be a strength coming into Tennessee. I've seen her play close to 30 times and she is the best defensive point guard in high school I've seen since Odyssey Sims. Her being a "ballhawk" and someone who can get to the rim at will was a big reason she was selected to the U17 USA team.

 

[Volfan2012]

Her defensive skills will actually be a strength coming into Tennessee. I've seen her play close to 30 times and she is the best defensive point guard in high school I've seen since Odyssey Sims. Her being a "ballhawk" and someone who can get to the rim at will was a big reason she was selected to the U17 USA team.

Thinking about Cooper, Deshields, and Carter on defense is really exciting. Middleton plays great defense as well. This group of perimeter players we'll have next season match anyone in the nation.

 

[Orange Maniac]

Her defensive skills will actually be a strength coming into Tennessee. I've seen her play close to 30 times and she is the best defensive point guard in high school I've seen since Odyssey Sims. Her being a "ballhawk" and someone who can get to the rim at will was a big reason she was selected to the U17 USA team.

I hope you are right, but the defensive play was almost non-existent last night. I will see how she does in more games.

 

[Vol4Real]

Whew!!! I thought this was a thread about a Kentucky football player.

I laughed. A lot.

 

[armchair]

We need Cooper to be a good defender, because perimeter defense has been a problem for UT for a few years--one of a few problems. Massengale hurts us because of her desultory defense. You can't be a good defense if opposing guards are blowing by your point guard. In general we don't play the defense that we did in our glory years, but then the offensive side of the women's game is certainly a lot better than it was 10-15 years ago.