Starting to look like the roster is set for 2020 team. If were adding any other player would think it would be in the next four or five weeks before the start of the second summer semester. Players will be working out and doing what they do during the summer as much as possible. I suspect if we don't see an addition before July 6th our roster for 2020 is final.
PG- Jordan Horston, probably backup Destiny Salary
2G-Rae Burrell backups Tess Darby, Jesse Renne
C-Tamari Key, Kushkituah Kasiyahna, Emily Saunders
PF-Keyen Green, Jaiden McCoy
WF-Rennia Davis, Marta Suarez
This is basically same team as last year except we lost Massengil and Harris. I don't count Green as a loss from last year's team because she didn't play.
Horston and Key need to show a lot of improvement we need both players to far exceed their contributions of last season. Same for Burrell she needs to step up to another level like she was beginning to reach late in the season last year. I see her working out, shooting shots on the videos they show of her. Burrell is a key player for us if were going to be a better team than last season. Also hoping that Green can give us far more at the four than we got last season. We got like 9 ppg from that position and very poor shooting percentage and free throw percentage. Hoping she can be as excellent a player for us as she was for Liberty. Rennia Davis so glad to see her back she should have more help than she had last year. You expect the sophomores to step up big and you hope that Burrell will play well enough to make it impossible to box and one Davis.
The Backups
Destiny Salary- Video I've seen of her she is an excellent shooter and ball handler. She knows how to get to the basket and score. I think she will be a lot better scorer than Massengill and just as good a handle hopefully won't make a lot of poor mistakes and can find the open players. Massengill was a superior assist to turnover player hopefully Salary can keep her turnovers down. Salary will have to learn and play with a higher motor. The game I saw her play she did a lot of jogging down court and way to much standing in the half court. She will have to get the energy up and not take plays off. I think she will find out quickly this is a lot different than high school. I think we'll be asking a lot of her as a freshman looks like our backup point guard.
Tess Darby- I saw her play four games last season one was when they played Salary's team. She hit fives threes versus Salary's team and a couple were close to thirty feet. She is a very active player in the games i saw her play very active on defense and really moved well without the ball. She also had a better handle than I expected. I doubt she does much driving to the basket but she can stop and pop the ten to 12 footer quite accurately. She is almost automatic at the free throw line.
Marta Suarez- Don't know much about her seems to be a fairly accurate three point shooter 35 percent and the small amount of video I have seen very excellent ball handler as well. I figure she will backup Davis which won't put to much pressure on her as expect Davis to go over 30 minutes a game as a senior.
Jesse Renne- I hope she has improved her on court dribbling and defense. She can shoot when she gets open, but is small 5'8" which means team has to get her an open look. I thought her defense was getting a lot better late in the season.
Jaiden McCoy- I like her energy on the court can give you some solid minutes if you have a key player in foul trouble. I hope she has worked on her free throw shooting she is the type player that get fouled a lot needs to be able to make the free throw shots.
Emily Saunders- You wonder what is going to happen with her. I am expecting her to play around five to 8 minutes in almost every game. My hope is that she has really improved her speed and strength and can help us next season.
Games I know we'll have on the schedule are Kentucky at home, SC at home, Stanford at home. Notre Dame at home, UConn at home, Texas on the road is one I think we'll still play. We'll probably still have a home and home with Vandy. Road games I think we'll have to play at Texas A&M, Miss St, Alabama, and Georgia. Schedule will be a lot tougher than last season won't see any 300 rpi teams.
The subs will be young and inexperienced at this level. Expectation is that the starting five will be one of the top groups in the SEC key of course is the improvement of the sophomores and Burrell. Biggest problem will be if the freshmen can give quality minutes at this level of play. There will be a learning curve for them as it is for all freshmen we need to them to give us quality minutes without mistakes. I feel they are all very good offensive players may struggle on defense as I doubt if any of the three have ever guarded the quality players that are on every team in the SEC. This team has to see the five starting players vastly improved and the subs be able to hold their own when a starter is on the bench.
I don't have much of an idea how we'll match up in the SEC race will know a lot more when we play a few games during the season. I hope we can get this virus behind us really looking forward to the basketball season.
2020-21 Women's Basketball Roster - University of Tennessee Athletics
