The LVs probably won't win the NC. Enjoy the season for what it is

[ChattyVolfan]

Careful, that sounds dangerously close to Debbie Downer talk....

Oh I'm not being a Debbie Downer. I just call it like I see it. Have the LVs made improvements this year? IMHO yes. Are they enough to compete with UCONN? Not yet. But they must keep trying. Unless they are ok with just winning an SEC title every now and then. I hope they, like me, are not ok with that.

 

[teacherdean]

I'll answer ya, Darth. The expectations at UT should always be Final 4's and National Championships. It HAS to be that if we expect to rise back to the elite level set now by UCONN. I want girls that are so mad when they lose that they take it upon themselves to improve individually so another loss won't happen again. I want girls on our team that hate to lose more than they love to win. If anyone expects to catch and/or surpass UCONN eventually, perfection in ALL aspects of the game must be demanded. Winning SEC titles is great and I'll definitely take it but until our team gets tired of losing on the National stage, IMHO we will underachieve every year. Someone has to put in the work necessary to catch UCONN and I pray that it will be us.

A lot of that is affected by the attitude of the head coach, pulling your two best players out of the game when they are not giving their best, getting in players' faces when they make careless unforced mistakes, coaching individual players on the sideline, calling timeouts when the game starts going South, not always being a cheerleader, and correcting, in game, what defenses and offensives are not working. LV has a lot of work ahead of them.

 

[Darth_Vol]

Oh I'm not being a Debbie Downer. I just call it like I see it. Have the LVs made improvements this year? IMHO yes. Are they enough to compete with UCONN? Not yet. But they must keep trying. Unless they are ok with just winning an SEC title every now and then. I hope they, like me, are not ok with that.

Yep. I'm not doing cartwheels after an 8 point win over a losing team. If that makes me a "negavol" so be it....

 

[LadyVol1908]

Well....
So be it then!

 

[PineyBluff Vol]

You think Holly has any Bruno in her or is she all flash in the pan! Try and compare what he says with our basketball team. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bin1ZALXYfM

 

[Volfan2012]

I never thought we would win the National Championship this season. The main reason is that we do not have any drivers of the basketball. We try to force the ball inside and it results in a lot of turnovers. This all changes next season we will have at least two players that can get to the basket. DeShields and Cooper. This will get us to the foul line more and we'll win a lot of games by large amounts if Russell is recovered. Next season Holly has no reason not to get that team to the final four. It will be the year when she must get there.
I hope we get there this year but certainly do not expect to be there.

 

[madtownvol]

I never thought we would win the National Championship this season. The main reason is that we do not have any drivers of the basketball. We try to force the ball inside and it results in a lot of turnovers. This all changes next season we will have at least two players that can get to the basket. DeShields and Cooper.

For what it is worth, I think we have the opposite problem. Carter and Reynolds can both be slashing type players. However, the LVs don't have consistent threat from outside (with the possible exception of Ariel). As a result, teams pack the paint against the LVs, making driving lanes very crowded and forcing our post to make plays in a lot of defensive traffic. DeShields and Cooper won't solve that problem and would be equally impacted by it.

Next year, Middleton, Nared and Dunbar will need to fill this shooting gap. Reynolds could also become a good outside threat with a little more consistency and with DeShields, she would be freed from a lot of drive and penetrate responsibilities.

I do agree that a LOT hinges on Russell's recovery.

 

[armchair]

Reliable outside shooting is an issue with this team. Burdick has shot fairly well this year and the Vols absolutely need her to knock down mid-range shots. Massengale has been our best three-point threat but she has looked pretty bad lately. Neither of them shot well against florida--Mass missed all 8 shots she took. Burdick is an important rebounder for us as well. After those two it is Carter and Reynolds. Carter has a pretty shot but doesn't shoot much--she perhaps should shoot more. Reynolds does not have a pretty shot but made a couple of important treys against florida; her game is more driving to the basket, as she can use her size and her nice short-range jumper. We don't really have anybody who is reliable in the way that UConn's wingers reliably make 45 percent of their shots. We are a very inconsistent shooting team, an inconsistent offensive team: this is why we look bad for stretches (we did not score for the first 5.5 minutes of the second half against florida). You can usually count on two of our shooters to have poor nights--but then often two others will make shots and take up the slack. A well-oiled machine, we are not.