Tennessee Lady Vol News

#7,881
#7,881


Hopefully this will work. It is a good interview, nothing really new but some detail we maybe hadn't heard.

Enjoyed the opening discussion about whether back to back Sw 16s is enough. Talked about how the game has changed since LV dom period, many more better players and coaches, much more investment. KJH said there are two camps, those in the trenchs who realize it's harder and everyday smuck fans who don't know/don't care. She conveniently left out the third, which is most of us, who know its harder but still expect to keep moving forward. Other schools do it.

Long discussion of Rickea and her glories. This is clearly her team and everyone is good with that. Have worked on her handles. Plan is to move her around alot, max emphasis on getting her to her spots. Let her crazy efficiency do the rest. All I can say is please Lord, Let It Be.

Same gobbledygook about TK. At least we know the situation for sure now, her mins will currently be quite limited. They discuss her value as a rim eraser and defensive mistake coverer, and I realize any mins we get from her will be bonus. The hope from all is that the mins will slowly but surely increase. Meanwhile, Jill's role becomes huge.

Everyone loves Jewel, even her professors. I actually think the bubbly Jewel has been really good for Rickea. We're all going to love Jewel as a big scoring option taking lots of defensive pressure off Rickea.

Kellie's discussion of Wells was the best part to me. Ole Kel the PG was practically giggling over her. Said if she never shot a shot or scored a point she'd be huge for us. Talked about how good her decision making is, and how good she is coming off screens and in 2 man game w Rickea. But DW does shoot shots and last year hit 46% of them from long range! She may be the one we've been sleeping on.

Talked about the Fla St road game as an early measuring stick, apparently Fla St coach said the same thing.

Time to effin GO!
 
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#7,882
#7,882
glv98 said:


Hopefully this will work. It is a good interview, nothing really new but some detail we maybe hadn't heard.

Enjoyed the opening discussion about whether back to back Sw 16s is enough. Talked about how the game has changed since LV dom period, many more better players and coaches, much more investment. KJH said there are two camps, those in the trenchs who realize it's harder and everyday smuck fans who don't know/don't care. She conveniently left out the third, which is most of us, who know its harder but still expect to keep moving forward. Other schools do it.

Long discussion of Rickea and her glories. This is clearly her team and everyone is good with that. Have worked on her handles. Plan is to move her around alot, max emphasis on getting her to her spots. Let her crazy efficiency do the rest. All I can say is please Lord, Let It Be.

Same gobbledygook about TK. At least we know the situation for sure now, her mins will currently be quite limited. They discuss her value as a rim eraser and defensive mistake coverer, and I realize any mins we get from her will be bonus. The hope from all is that the mins will slowly but surely increase. Meanwhile, Jill's role becomes huge.

Everyone loves Jewel, even her professors. I actually think the bubbly Jewel has been really good for Rickea. We're all going to love Jewel as a big scoring option taking lots of defensive pressure off Rickea.

Kellie's discussion of Wells was the best part to me. Ole Kel the PG was practically giggling over her. Said if she never shot a shot or scored a point she'd be huge for us. Talked about how good her decision making is, and how good she is coming off screens and in 2 man game w Rickea. But DW does shoot shots and last year hit 46% of them from long range! She may be the one we've been sleeping on.

Talked about the Fla St road game as an early measuring stick, apparently Fla St coach said the same thing.

Time to effin GO!
Click to expand...

I really have a feeling we’re in for a fun year! I can’t wait to enjoy it with you all! We deserve! 😩🥹
 
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#7,883
#7,883
glv98 said:


Hopefully this will work. It is a good interview, nothing really new but some detail we maybe hadn't heard.

Enjoyed the opening discussion about whether back to back Sw 16s is enough. Talked about how the game has changed since LV dom period, many more better players and coaches, much more investment. KJH said there are two camps, those in the trenchs who realize it's harder and everyday smuck fans who don't know/don't care. She conveniently left out the third, which is most of us, who know its harder but still expect to keep moving forward. Other schools do it.

Long discussion of Rickea and her glories. This is clearly her team and everyone is good with that. Have worked on her handles. Plan is to move her around alot, max emphasis on getting her to her spots. Let her crazy efficiency do the rest. All I can say is please Lord, Let It Be.

Same gobbledygook about TK. At least we know the situation for sure now, her mins will currently be quite limited. They discuss her value as a rim eraser and defensive mistake coverer, and I realize any mins we get from her will be bonus. The hope from all is that the mins will slowly but surely increase. Meanwhile, Jill's role becomes huge.

Everyone loves Jewel, even her professors. I actually think the bubbly Jewel has been really good for Rickea. We're all going to love Jewel as a big scoring option taking lots of defensive pressure off Rickea.

Kellie's discussion of Wells was the best part to me. Ole Kel the PG was practically giggling over her. Said if she never shot a shot or scored a point she'd be huge for us. Talked about how good her decision making is, and how good she is coming off screens and in 2 man game w Rickea. But DW does shoot shots and last year hit 46% of them from long range! She may be the one we've been sleeping on.

Talked about the Fla St road game as an early measuring stick, apparently Fla St coach said the same thing.

Time to effin GO!
Click to expand...

I am confident this team is going to be a good offensive team and should be better on defense. I am only concerned about rebounding as you just can't give up second chance shots and expect to win. It will not be a problem with a lot of teams we play, but SC, LSU, and a few others thrive on winning the boards and getting the easy putbacks from rebounds. Hopefully we'll be better on the boards than I expect a lot depends on Tamari being able to be effective this season.
 
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#7,884
#7,884
glv98 said:


Hopefully this will work. It is a good interview, nothing really new but some detail we maybe hadn't heard.

Enjoyed the opening discussion about whether back to back Sw 16s is enough. Talked about how the game has changed since LV dom period, many more better players and coaches, much more investment. KJH said there are two camps, those in the trenchs who realize it's harder and everyday smuck fans who don't know/don't care. She conveniently left out the third, which is most of us, who know its harder but still expect to keep moving forward. Other schools do it.

Long discussion of Rickea and her glories. This is clearly her team and everyone is good with that. Have worked on her handles. Plan is to move her around alot, max emphasis on getting her to her spots. Let her crazy efficiency do the rest. All I can say is please Lord, Let It Be.

Same gobbledygook about TK. At least we know the situation for sure now, her mins will currently be quite limited. They discuss her value as a rim eraser and defensive mistake coverer, and I realize any mins we get from her will be bonus. The hope from all is that the mins will slowly but surely increase. Meanwhile, Jill's role becomes huge.

Everyone loves Jewel, even her professors. I actually think the bubbly Jewel has been really good for Rickea. We're all going to love Jewel as a big scoring option taking lots of defensive pressure off Rickea.

Kellie's discussion of Wells was the best part to me. Ole Kel the PG was practically giggling over her. Said if she never shot a shot or scored a point she'd be huge for us. Talked about how good her decision making is, and how good she is coming off screens and in 2 man game w Rickea. But DW does shoot shots and last year hit 46% of them from long range! She may be the one we've been sleeping on.

Talked about the Fla St road game as an early measuring stick, apparently Fla St coach said the same thing.

Time to effin GO!
Click to expand...


Great synopsis glv98. Thanks. Agree with you completely on the third "camp".
 
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#7,885
#7,885
Volfan2012 said:
Have totally changed my thinking on who will start this season. Right now I see Destinee, Jewell. Tess, Rickea, and Jill. That is the way it looks we'll start the season. Things could change as the season progresses.
Click to expand...
I could see Tess starting but if rebounding is the issue it’s hard to not start your best rebounder. However we are short staffed at post/forward with TK limited
 
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#7,886
#7,886
VolFuture said:
I could see Tess starting but if rebounding is the issue it’s hard to not start your best rebounder. However we are short staffed at post/forward with TK limited
Click to expand...
I think starting Darby would be good, that surrounds Rickea with shooters, and gives her room to work, and also gives Jillian room as well.
 
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#7,887
#7,887
I'm not saying it will happen, but don't be surprised if Kellie starts Powell over Wells to start the season. Wouldn't surprise me at all.

My projected starting 5

Wells
Spear
Darby
Jackson
Hollingshead

6th man Puckett

I do think there is a chance that Puckett could start over Darby based on the hype she has received this offseason, but I'm still leaning towards Darby as Kellie isn't fond of altering the starting lineup even year to year.
 
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#7,888
#7,888
Darby can't start this year unless she can really pull her weight rebounding. I could easily see rebounding becoming a point of frustration this year. The quote by CKH could certainly be putting her on notice.
 
#7,889
#7,889
Looked up last year’s stats for all our players (not comparing competition or conferences, just stats).

We have 3 players who are top scorers.
Rickea had 19.2, Wells 19.5, and Jewel 16.5 average points per game. Luckily, each of these players averaged between 28-34 minutes per game. They all need to be on the court. Our next highest scorer was Tess at 7.4 points per game, big difference.

To me, Sara and Tess are the same kind of player. Both have good basketball IQ, both are leaders on the floor, both can shoot 3s, but don’t shoot many, neither make layups or get rebounds particularly. It looks like Sara may be reinventing herself to help at the 4.

This is where it gets interesting, both Striplin and Jillian averaged around 15 minutes per game last year. How much more can each play, will they play together or just sub for each other? (If they play together, neither Sara nor Tess should be on the floor). Even though Rickea has said she wants to play the 3, she and Sara may be needed at the 4 position. If Tamari can play, that would give Rickea the chance to play the 3 position she likes.

As far as Powell starting over Wells, no way should that happen, Wells beats Powell in every statistical category, including assists.

We have 13 players on the team. One is ineligible, one may not play due to health reasons, and 2 are mainly practice players. This leaves us with 9 players.

We may have Jillian and Striplin at the 5, Rickea and Sara at the 4, Tess and Avery at the 3, Jewel at the 2, and Wells and Powell at the 1.

In the past, where we tried to get the ball to the post player, that may change somewhat for the post players to clear the way for our scorers.

We better hope all our players stay healthy and injury free, because we don’t have a lot of extra player options.

I do hope we play to win every game, including the USA game.

GO LADY VOLS!!!
 
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#7,894
#7,894
mike099 said:
My question is how is her defense going to be against better competition. Same with Puckett.
Click to expand...
To be fair, we don't know anything about Jewel or Destinee's D either. In fact, Jewel said when she came here defense was the biggest thing she needed to work on. Of course both of them have O that makes up for D.
 
#7,895
#7,895
The team is currently on a retreat that will mark the end of an outstanding offseason both on and off the court.
The 2023-2024 LVs are built to contend for the programs 9th Nat’l championship!
From the foreign tour, to the AmeriCup games with two elite players showcased in Jewel Spear and Rickea Jackson, U21 USA 3x3 selection of a rising star Jillian Hollingshead, and future signees 4-star elite G Kaniya Boyd & former McD All-American 5-star G Talaysia Cooper poised to thrive on Rocky Top next season, the momentum on Rocky Top is set as the #9 LVs according to ESPNW are poise to take on Team USA in Knoxville on Nov.5th.

Former Pitt starter Avery Strickland and elite prolific PG aka floor general Destinee Wells of Belmont join several returning core LVols that give this team depth in every position. Looking at last season, teams that advanced to the Final Four had significantly least depth and a much shorter rotation than this current LVols squad.
The LVols have the talent to truly go “11” deep!
Those teams last season and in prior years managed to have the better fortune in one KEY area which is HEALTH. No team can fully dictate this factor but luck can. So hopefully in 2023-2024 “luck” is on the side of the LVols. If this team stays healthy and reaches it peak at the right time with no setbacks, they will win the Nat’l championship.
 
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#7,896
#7,896
Memvol44 said:
When you rely on a shooting guard to rebound you have big problems...
Click to expand...

Bull, I was SG and rebounding was my thing. Rebounding was Horston's thing. What did Coach Summitt say about rebounding?

I don't see a 10+/game rebounder on this team, so it will have to be a 5-position, team effort not to get killed on the boards.
 
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#7,897
#7,897
Volfaninfl2 said:
Looked up last year’s stats for all our players (not comparing competition or conferences, just stats).

We have 3 players who are top scorers.
Rickea had 19.2, Wells 19.5, and Jewel 16.5 average points per game. Luckily, each of these players averaged between 28-34 minutes per game. They all need to be on the court. Our next highest scorer was Tess at 7.4 points per game, big difference.

To me, Sara and Tess are the same kind of player. Both have good basketball IQ, both are leaders on the floor, both can shoot 3s, but don’t shoot many, neither make layups or get rebounds particularly. It looks like Sara may be reinventing herself to help at the 4.

This is where it gets interesting, both Striplin and Jillian averaged around 15 minutes per game last year. How much more can each play, will they play together or just sub for each other? (If they play together, neither Sara nor Tess should be on the floor). Even though Rickea has said she wants to play the 3, she and Sara may be needed at the 4 position. If Tamari can play, that would give Rickea the chance to play the 3 position she likes.

As far as Powell starting over Wells, no way should that happen, Wells beats Powell in every statistical category, including assists.

We have 13 players on the team. One is ineligible, one may not play due to health reasons, and 2 are mainly practice players. This leaves us with 9 players.

We may have Jillian and Striplin at the 5, Rickea and Sara at the 4, Tess and Avery at the 3, Jewel at the 2, and Wells and Powell at the 1.

In the past, where we tried to get the ball to the post player, that may change somewhat for the post players to clear the way for our scorers.

We better hope all our players stay healthy and injury free, because we don’t have a lot of extra player options.

I do hope we play to win every game, including the USA game.

GO LADY VOLS!!!
Click to expand...
Our bench is the concern for me, we don’t have a real scoring threat. But that’s why Wells is the key, if she can be a big time scorer in the Sec and big games, u can leave 2 of the three on the floor at all times, between Rickea, Spear and Wells.
 
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#7,898
#7,898
Jordan Horston made her big jump in year 3. She was a tenacious rebounder for the previous two seasons. I think she improved her game last season in the WNBA.
My point is, nobody even the coaching staff knows who will fill this perceived gap in rebounding or if it’ll even by an area of weakness until games are played.
Destined Wells will be the starting point guard regardless of when that becomes official. This is not a knock on our returnees.. it’s a credit to Wells who has a legitimate case for one of the best PGs in WCB. She can matchup with any Power 5 PG in the country. Just watch her film.
Last point, there is not a need for a specific kind of player coming off the bench. The bench will be a strength and I believe it’ll feature Darby, Striplin, Key, Ace, and Powell/Wynn in the rotation. Teams that advance to the elite 8 and final 4, one and two games better than a limited LVols team last season due to injury had a much shorter bench and rotation. Tennessee should regularly play 8 or 9 players when healthy depending on matchups. Our one and only need and biggest factor is to stay healthy. A big portion of the segment during Media Day on SEC network highlighted the options on this deep LVols team. If this group stays healthy they will win championships (plural) in 2023-2024.
 
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#7,900
#7,900
Another counterpoint to the rebounding debate that has been overlooked is the potential improvement the current roster could make in limiting unforced turnovers. It plagued an otherwise potential of building a dynamic offense two years in a row. Turnovers were just as detrimental as rebounding was a bonus for the most part. The team focused on defense based on the coach’s interview during media day. Yet when you add elite guards like Jewel Spear and Destinee Wells who were #1 options at their former programs it could be a major impact for the overall team and improve what in my opinion was the biggest deficiency of this team in recent years. If outside shooting improves, defense improves, and turnovers decrease which all are highly possible then that singular rebounding question mark might not be nearly as big of a concern as it’s perceived to be this season. We need “luck” to stay healthy. The teams that played in the NCAA tourney from the Elite 8 to the NCAA championship didn’t encounter a single injury to their key players. The beauty is we’ll find out all those unknown answers soon and hopefully have a solution if need be. I’m ready for this basketball season to kick-off!
 
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