Tennessee Lady Vol News

[th2421]

Much like Georgia?

Nothing's a given, but even with our recent horrid play taken into their metrics/systems, HHS projects us as a 24-point winner over TAMU and Bart Torvik has us as the 21-point favorite.

Massey has us as a 6-point favorite over Vanderbilt on a neutral site (and a 10-point loser to South Carolina).

 

[volsagain]

Girls in basketball now play 12 months a year...they play all 4 seasons. We sub right and left....TOs... commercials, TV TOs etc. Never understood the tired excuse. Why would we be tired and have dead legs but the teams we are playing don't?

I agree. I've seen a few teams we've played this year just absolutely dogged out. There usually the teams that aren't athletic enough and have to dig deep just to try and keep up.

 

[Rickster]

Sara checked out mid season.

No she didn’t. Her skill sets are not optimal for the style Kim plays so she is not as effective as others. She’s a good shooter overall but does not elevate above the opponents post players when she crashes down low. I’m so grateful she came to Knoxville when few were willing to take a chance on LV basketball.

 

[Volfan2012]

Much like Georgia?

We have to say it even if it might turn out not to be true.

 

[Volfan2012]

 

[Moar Steam]

Nm

 

[glv98]

I hate body language reading bc it's so often so far off from reality. But all I could think Sunday was this team is both tired and tired of it. Remember all those times they said how "fun" this "style" is? The LVs do not currently appear to be having fun. I've worried this might happen in this incredibly demanding system. Tank empty both mental and physcal? Peak too early w UConn and home wins against ranked teams?

This iis where a young coach is tested in her team mgmt skills.

Girls in basketball now play 12 months a year...they play all 4 seasons. We sub right and left....TOs... commercials, TV TOs etc. Never understood the tired excuse. Why would we be tired and have dead legs but the teams we are playing don't?

Because we pride ourselves on outworking everyone up to the U.S. Marine Corp. Have heavily publicized our tortous training routines. And we run many more miles in games due to pressing. The worry is all this has worn out LV legs early.

The biggest puzzle to me remains our extremely slow starts. I can understand sometimes not shooting the ball well, but in several games including the last two the opponent had about 10 more rebounds than us by the end of the first quarter

Also known as not being prepared for the game. This is directly on the coach, and not uncommon for a new coach to stuggle with.

rY'all, seriously. At this point I don't think I'm seeing "lack of effort," "lack of urgency" "lack of desire," "lack of execution," or even "lack of focus."

What I saw -- I repeat, what *I* saw -- yesterday from the team overall was a complete lack of energy. I'm afraid this team is physically and mentally spent. Exhausted. They were like gas station hot dogs that have been left on the roller under the heat lamp too long, turning over and over and over. Ugh.

This is not an easy fix because only time away from something fixes an exhaustion problem.

And yes, I know both Samara and Jewell mentioned lack of effort and focus, but what else are they going to say? They know what the coach thinks, so they're going to say what everyone wants to hear. Does anyone really believe they'd sit there and say, "We are exhausted by playing a full season within a system we're supposed to play on warp speed and focus for 40 minutes every game, in the brutal SEC, and with only one offensive setup" (???)

lol OF COURSE they're not going to say that, but it may be that they are so exhausted that they've lost trust and belief in the system, and that is a serious problem that only Kim can address -- WITHOUT BLAMING THE PROBLEM ON THE PLAYERS.

Kim's only chance to turn this around is to make a couple of significant changes in her strategy going into the post-season. She needs to give the team a mental and physical break by switching things up, by her lightening up, and by showing the players love and confidence.

I love this team and I hate to see them so broken. I hate even more that Kim is putting all of the blame for that brokenness on them and that the players are naturally obliged to publicly accept total blame when they know they don't DESERVE to be told they "lack effort" after busting their butts.

Just my two cents.

Absolutely this. I do keep in mind that CKC obviously hates the pressers and enjoys being as short and curt as possible so she might just be spewing coach speak so she can get the hell out. However, if the "effort" and "want to" speech is all she's truly got it's a problem. I do not like when she goes all Pontius Pilate washing her hands of all responsibility. BS on "it's their team they can decide". Coach can and should guide them and help them focus and prepare. This iis her job.

Even if we made the finals I don’t think we would host.

This team, with Cooper, has the ability to do that. If Cooper is not available I think we win one and lose one.

Disagee with the first. If we make the finals iit means we beat So Ca. If we do that, we host. Unlike previous yrs, I think folks want to like this LV team. They've kind been (or were) media darlings.

Agree with the second completely. If no Coop we go out second round. Too valuable on both ends.

I think its simple if we hit shots we have energy on D and set up in our pesty full court D. When we don't hit shots we are not in our regular mode, which is taking teams out of their regular O flow

Always comes down to this doesn't it. The whole streak where we shot well I worried the bottom was going to fall out again. We're just that kind of shooting team. Maybe the pendulum swings back in the tourney.

 

[glv98]

Coop 2nd team USA Today All Sec Team. This isn't one of the main ones, but is usually pretty reliable prediction of what they will be. They sure love Morrow.