We've got National Title Talent

#27
#27
On the negative side, these talented freshmen are not joining a group of upperclassmen who can demonstrate--explain to them in practice, between practices, and by example--fully how it should be done, because they haven't proven able of doing it consistently themselves.

On the positive side, these upperclassmen have experienced beating the best teams. What it took to accomplish those wins is something they can pass along.

Biggest question for me is do the upperclassmen understand how and why they lost the games they did to teams they should have beaten. To the degree they have that corrected in their minds when practice begins, these freshmen will have a better chance to positively impact the W-L record.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4 people
#28
#28
Let me ask a question. If Holly was hired from outside the program to follow Pat would the results we have gotten to date be acceptable? I ask to clearify because I don't understand why people constantly yell nega vol when unacceptable performances are questioned.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3 people
#30
#30
T.J. said:
Holly lost her first game as Head Coach to Chattanooga. I remember it well. Folks around here was talking about how Pat lost her first game, too. :loco:

She didn't have that team prepared. Fast forward 5 years later.

Fire Holly. :eek:k:
Click to expand...

Funny how anyone would compare pat losing first game with Holly lol.. Pat built her team from ground up & Holly was given a power house program.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#31
#31
NCVol1998 said:
Let me ask a question. If Holly was hired from outside the program to follow Pat would the results we have gotten to date be acceptable? I ask to clearify because I don't understand why people constantly yell nega vol when unacceptable performances are questioned.
Click to expand...

Very good question
 
#32
#32
Despite the accolades of players who will be on the present roster, I fully expect more record breaking milestones in the wrong direction to be set. Holly will continue to make excuses for why this is happening, and other coaches who beat her will talk about the burden of following a legend.

Tournament time, we will count ourselves fortunate to be a #10 seed while we join hands in the stands singing rocky top woo, kumbaya, and we are the world.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people
#33
#33
NCVol1998 said:
Let me ask a question. If Holly was hired from outside the program to follow Pat would the results we have gotten to date be acceptable? I ask to clearify because I don't understand why people constantly yell nega vol when unacceptable performances are questioned.
Click to expand...

Let me answer that question with a resounding no. Holly has gotten a lot of passes because she is a former Lady Vol, she was Pat's choice to succeed her, and firing her while Pat was alive might have made her struggle harder.

The reason we wanted these girls to recapture the former glory of Pat's time was for her, not us. Call us who don't support Holly negas all you want. I feel many wanted Pat, if her disease allowed her, to enjoy knowing the team she built were national champions one more time, and that sentiment made the lame excuse making less tolerable. Now that Pat is gone, it is hard to be emotionally invested anymore.

But if an outsider had come in and matched what we have seen the last few years? The fans would have found it less acceptable, but I doubt the boosters and administrators care either way. Oh, they show up to be seen and flap their gums when they win, but when they aren't? Nothing happens.
 
#34
#34
But for all that Holly, her staff, and the players have NOT shown us... there remains the recruiting. Whatever negatives LV fans are convinced of, parents and players who could afford to be mighty choosy are obviously not.

Who besides Geno has recruited this well? And these are not legacy players! Nor are these players of sufficient age to have grown up sentimentally enamored with Tennessee Orange & Summitt Blue. This staff's recruiting--yes, Holly's recruiting--have sealed the deal better than any of us would have expected. Ask yourself: has anyone ever accused CHW of being a smooth talking, silver-tongued sales lady?!

Reason says something good (that we sure can't see) is going on in the LV offices and practice court. I believe if Holly had come in as a fresh hire, we'd actually be more excited now, because of the steadily improving recruiting achievements.

I can't explain all the past underachieving. But those quality wins last season do prove that the problem is not this staff's ability to improve players and create a team. Inconsistency and playing down to the competition were our achilles heels after injuries shortened the bench. None of us KNOWS why that happened, we all just have our opinions.

But the players, the staff, parents and recruits have not been scared away. The girls, the families, coming to Tennessee had plenty of options--options we fans think were better--but they put their futures on the line to be here.

So call me a sap, but I'm muzzling my Holly-bashing for another year. I'll approach next season with zero expectations, and I'm confident I'll enjoy it more than this one.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 6 people
#35
#35
Recruiting is HALF the battle and pretty pointless if you can't coach them up. Players need good coaching---which means providing real leadership, making smart decisions, motivating the players and building a confident, tough-minded, cohesive team. Warlick gives us NOTHING in those respects. Last year's team massively underachieved. Warlick has been over her head from day 1. We're talking about a person who was mostly a no. 2 assistant for most of her years with PS. She was not the lead assistant--and for good reason. Indeed, we are the most prominent example of good recruiting with bad coaching in the country--and have been for many years.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people
#36
#36
TNRazor said:
In Holly's 1st year she overachieved, but since then she's underachieved. If you go back and look at the high school rankings, then there's not another team in the country who will have as much talent as the Lady Vols. Anything short of an SEC championship and a Final Four and she should be fired.
Click to expand...

ya gotta factor in injuries too,I don't think CHW has had a healthy team all year yet,it seems there have been at least 2 players or so banged up every year

and no,I don't put a lot of stock into freshmen either :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3 people
#37
#37
governmentmule said:
ya gotta factor in injuries too,I don't think CHW has had a healthy team all year yet,it seems there have been at least 2 players or so banged up every year

and no,I don't put a lot of stock into freshmen either :)
Click to expand...

Have we been afflicted with injuries more so than other teams... Notre Dame went far with key injury this year, South Carolina won the NCAA title with key starter out
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#38
#38
LasVegasBill23 said:
Have we been afflicted with injuries more so than other teams... Notre Dame went far with key injury this year, South Carolina won the NCAA title with key starter out
Click to expand...

I would bet money that Holly uses the injuries as an excuse. Anything to keep people from paying attention to games as that will provide all the answers. :eek:k:
 
#39
#39
T.J. said:
I would bet money that Holly uses the injuries as an excuse. Anything to keep people from paying attention to games as that will provide all the answers. :eek:k:
Click to expand...

She have no excuses at all. Especially, when she kept on winning great team today & lose to several worst teams is no where a reason to blame injury.
 
#40
#40
I agree no excuse but I don't think holly has gotten any pass prior to the last two years she won 3 sec titles every year and you guys were still calling for her job because Harrison tore her acl two weeks before NCAA and Ariel was gone a week before ppl please
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#45
#45
xanamanax said:
Fail. Holly's already won SEC championships with less talented rosters than that.
Click to expand...

Holly is and always will be asst. coach material. Mickey Demoss was always the better coach. I've read where she doesn't want to be a head coach, but if Holly fails, I would break the bank trying to get her to change her mine. Go Lady Vols!
 
#46
#46
007Racer said:
Holly is and always will be asst. coach material. Mickey Demoss was always the better coach. I've read where she doesn't want to be a head coach, but if Holly fails, I would break the bank trying to get her to change her mine. Go Lady Vols!
Click to expand...

Sure, hire a 62 year old who will only be around 3 or 4 years who doesn't want the job and break the bank besides. What a can't miss plan!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people
#47
#47
LasVegasBill23 said:
Have we been afflicted with injuries more so than other teams... Notre Dame went far with key injury this year, South Carolina won the NCAA title with key starter out
Click to expand...

I think posters often confuse the attitude players should take toward injuries ("Next man up!") with the reality of what injuries cost a team (there's a reason the "next man" was found on the bench).

Losing a key player forces a coach to develop new options. It forces the other starters to focus, grab a couple more rebounds, score a few more points. It forces bench players to begin thinking like starters. What it often does is force a team to improve sooner.

But losing several players--even if none are starters--reduces a coach's options. It limits how you gameplan for the next opponent. It reduces what you can accomplish in practice. It changes what you even attempt in practice, and (I would suspect) changes your in-season approach to strength & conditioning.

Maybe coaches at the top level think differently, but when injuries have sidelined several players, most coaches end their pre-practice staff meeting with the final thought: "...and let's try not to get anyone else hurt!"

That's a different mindset from the normal "let's see what we can improve today" attitude. It's the coaching equivalent of standing at the first tee, going through your pre-swing routine, then having as your final swing thought, "...and don't slice it into those trees!"
 
#49
#49
TNRazor said:
In Holly's 1st year she overachieved, but since then she's underachieved. If you go back and look at the high school rankings, then there's not another team in the country who will have as much talent as the Lady Vols. Anything short of an SEC championship and a Final Four and she should be fired.
Click to expand...

In Holly's first year, pretty sure Pat was still an occasional presence at practice. She was there often enough that the traditional expectation of tough-mindedness and respect toward staff at practices was still holding on.

So results that first year were pretty good.

The backward slide seems to me to correlate with the ever-decreasing level of Pat's presence at practice. I have heard that the players "run over Holly" in practice. I'm sure that didn't happen when Pat was in the gym, even merely as a silent spectator and sometimes unable to focus herself.

But she was there, and practice was still serious business.

With Pat totally gone, not so much. :unsure: The longer they've gone without a strict authority running practices or even occasionally looking in, the less the lingering affects of having once had one has shown up as success.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people
#50
#50
007Racer said:
In a win now world, 3 or 4 years? Ill take it! Go Lady Vols!
Click to expand...

Most fans would take it now--but not after. Easy to prove.

Consider the Pat Summitt years your "win now" period. And even better, it lasted decades rather than just 3 or 4 years! Wow!

Now... feel better about 20-12? Feeling any consolation for finishing 5th in the SEC? No? That glorious past not doing anything for your mundane present?

Face it, fellow long-time LV fans--we have a championship monkey on our backs and we're desperate for a fix. The first step to recovery is admitting we have a problem. Not Holly, not the AD, not the players--WE have the problem.

Reality is not as exciting as the highs we floated to on Pat's coat tails and her players' work ethic. Getting back to the top is going to be more difficult than ever in the current NCAAW landscape. But if we want to feel close to the team, want to share in the players' accomplishments, we'll have to join them in the real world.

All of us sports fans should keep this sarcastic meme on our screens, just to provide us a reality check:

"If you can imagine it, they can do it."
 
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top