What do you REALLY EXPECT?

[movinonup]

I figure we will probably lose more than we win the rest of the way and possibly out of the tournament in the first weekend since we lost Tamari Key for the season. We can’t fill that void on offense or defense.

Sending my ER bill to you...........geez

 

[PRG]

NAME. RANKING

Horston. #2

Rae. #43
Sarah. #43
Karoline. #45
Key. #47
Wynn. #62
Emily. #100

Green. 3 ️
Dye. 3️
Darby. 3️
Miles. 3️

Walker. NOT RANKED
MARTA. NOT RANKED
RENNIE. NOT RANKED

While I believe rankings are not accurate…. They do point to possible success ? This TEAM HAS OVERACHIEVED !

playing at UCONN :

Fudd. #1
Williams’s #1
Westbrook. #2
ODO. #5
Juhasz. #12 PN
Edwards. #23
Muhl. 3️

When you play a team with this many 5️ Players and top ranked recruits ! You need more than Horston a # 2 ranked player and a team full of 3 & 4 ️ Players ….
The results are pretty much predetermined! JMO

 

[Majors]

Winning the games we are supposed to win handily. ETSU, UTC, TN Tech type games
Winning the games close that should have been handled by double digits by 8 or less - VT Tech, UCF, South FL
Losing games we should have won - Aub, FL
Tough win vs. Texas
Getting blown out in the games that matter. - UConn, Stanford.

I'm sure I'm missing games in each column except games that matter and that game will be against USC. That game will be a big indicator of this season.

This team is across the board and it seems now vulnerable. We are a far cry from a Final 4 team at best Sweet 16.

 

[Majors]

I think the recruiting ranking numbers are very enlightening. It really is close to what I expected. What I see as a major problem is that the roster is poorly assembled. To many players are on the roster that have redundant skill sets. How many under sized forwards does a team need? To me Puckett Striplin and Marta are the same skill set. Darby and Dye are both 6 feet 1 or less. One is athletic and one is a better shooter, one is undersized and quicker for defense and rebounding, the other small with inadequate lateral quickness. Two small PG one who is a mini mite. Walker can play off guard with Rae or Horston. Horston can play 3 or 4 but physically gets beat all to heck under the basket but rebounds and defends with her 6-2 size. Our offense goes thru Horston and she is our best defender on the perimeter, she is worked to death in the zone chasing open shooters, and spends a part of her close to 40 minutes getting mugged under the basket with her slender body build. On top of that she has to sometimes be our primary ball handler on the press. Our true post has no backup unless 6-2 Puckett gets put in in the small package. Marta has been absent close to 2 years and I wonder how much rust her game has. Rae looks unstable on her injured leg as the announcers finally said more than once during the process. She lost a step as far as quickness and sometimes falls on cuts. She shoots a great outside ball but defenses will force her to drive the basket and she is not effective. No bigs in this years class, KJH better work the portal

"What I see as a major problem is that the roster is poorly assembled." Really goes right to the issue.

 

[BruisedOrange]

Back when Jim Mora was coach of the New Orleans Saints, they'd start the season reeling off 5 or 6 wins with a stifling Dome Patrol defense and an adequate, ball control offense that only needed to score 2 TDs to merit a win.

Until they'd get exposed. The Saints staff used schemes to hide their weaknesses (usually a defensive back). Fine, until some offensive coordinator (usually the 49ers) would come in with a game plan that negated a strength and isolated that weakness... and the Saints would get blown out. And for the rest of the season they'd struggle against everyone, good team or bad.

It may be that our Lady Vol coaches have done a tremendous job this season, successfully cloaking our weaknesses through January like a dance of seven veils.

Maybe we just ran out of veils.

 

[Volfan2012]

Back when Jim Mora was coach of the New Orleans Saints, they'd start the season reeling off 5 or 6 wins with a stifling Dome Patrol defense and an adequate, ball control offense that only needed to score 2 TDs to merit a win.

Until they'd get exposed. The Saints staff used schemes to hide their weaknesses (usually a defensive back). Fine, until some offensive coordinator (usually the 49ers) would come in with a game plan that negated a strength and isolated that weakness... and the Saints would get blown out. And for the rest of the season they'd struggle against everyone, good team or bad.

It may be that our Lady Vol coaches have done a tremendous job this season, successfully cloaking our weaknesses through January like a dance of seven veils.

Maybe we just ran out of veils.

Our weaknesses are point guard and post play other than those two positions were really awesome. We have plenty of capable wing players or even stretch fours. When Key has a bad game we have nothing in the post. The point guards are hot and cold mostly cold and lack of scoring from that position 50 minutes from Miles and Walker against UConn 0 points is hard to overcome.

 

[PRG]

Winning the games we are supposed to win handily. ETSU, UTC, TN Tech type games
Winning the games close that should have been handled by double digits by 8 or less - VT Tech, UCF, South FL
Losing games we should have won - Aub, FL
Tough win vs. Texas
Getting blown out in the games that matter. - UConn, Stanford.

I'm sure I'm missing games in each column except games that matter and that game will be against USC. That game will be a big indicator of this season.

This team is across the board and it seems now vulnerable. We are a far cry from a Final 4 team at best Sweet 16.

This team is over achieving for the season! So Far …. The main reasons I see are the 4 positions played by Green and Dye ! When an offense has a 10–15 foot scorers at the foul line . This makes zone defense’s a little less effective!
But Green out and Dye fading ….. Along with not handling pressure, has caused the recent loses ! JMO. I think Kellie gets another big to replace Green/Dye , and a TRUE POINT GUARD ! If possible in the Portal or graduate transfer .
If not ….. next year will be worse than this one ?

 

[Volfan2012]

Totally satisfied with what this roster is doing. Have to say won't be very satisfied if we can't upgrade a couple of positions before next season. I think Kellie has done a great job thus far, but we need to take a step up and that has to be upgrading the roster.

 

[Majors]

This team is over achieving for the season! So Far …. The main reasons I see are the 4 positions played by Green and Dye ! When an offense has a 10–15 foot scorers at the foul line . This makes zone defense’s a little less effective!
But Green out and Dye fading ….. Along with not handling pressure, has caused the recent loses ! JMO. I think Kellie gets another big to replace Green/Dye , and a TRUE POINT GUARD ! If possible in the Portal or graduate transfer .
If not ….. next year will be worse than this one ?

I don't see it that way heading in the final stretch as over achieving. I do think they are at crossroads on which way they will go right now. Had UConn and Stanford game been closer I would personally say they are in the right direction. In SEC they are right where they were projected in preseason and 6 SEC games left to play.

 

[Amb3096]

They've played greater than the sum of their individual parts this season. Even if the talent wasn't at the level of a UConn or SC, they played bigger than that and Kellie really did do a great job minimizing their weaknesses while playing up to their strengths. Hopefully she's able to adjust with the current roster for the rest of the season and work the portal for some roster upgrades. I think @PRG has hit it on the head with the recruiting needs and I hope to see some big time recruits lining up to take over from Horston/Key.

 

[teacherdean]

NAME. RANKING

Horston. #2

Rae. #43
Sarah. #43
Karoline. #45
Key. #47
Wynn. #62
Emily. #100

Green. 3 ️
Dye. 3️
Darby. 3️
Miles. 3️

Walker. NOT RANKED
MARTA. NOT RANKED
RENNIE. NOT RANKED

While I believe rankings are not accurate…. They do point to possible success ? This TEAM HAS OVERACHIEVED !

This is a sad reality of the situation. KJH has done, for the most part, a good job with what she has to work with. This is a blue collar team that has to work hard to achieve positive results.

 

[Dak1219]

Now there's a fan who follows closely!

Right. What we have are bunch of people that come on this board to spew a bunch of nonsense and they may have seen 1-2 games and have no idea who the players are other than from the box scores 1 night and think they are experts on the team makeup and chemistry. Tamari's younger sister is out for the season so maybe that's what the previous poster is referring to although she plays for North Carolina. WTH/SMH LOL

 

[youcancallmeAl]

I don’t even follow Women’s BB but this is just so typical of any Vol fan.

1.) Expect the world
2.) Have success and feel substantiated
3.) Fail and rage
4.) Justify failure
5.) See step 1

You can say this about all fans.

 

[youcancallmeAl]

"What I see as a major problem is that the roster is poorly assembled." Really goes right to the issue.

How would you assemble it if you had the chance.

 

[volnationnj]

While I agree that the offense needs improvement in a number of places, it was the defense that was the main culprit in the recent slide. In their last 4 games, the LV's have given up just under 24 more points per game than they have in the first 19 games.

 

[Majors]

How would you assemble it if you had the chance.

Places I would start move Jon out asst. coaching role and more volunteer/game analyst.
Kelley takes over the backcourt/Williams help. Recruit a PG general and use Kara Lawson as everything I'm looking for. Or even a Kelley Jolly.... dont' be great but be consistent each night. More importantly command the court on both ends.
Dean Lockwood comes back to work Forwards/Centers and brings back the intensity and toughness his girls had. Dean maximized his girls.
Get back to being physical- up and down the court, diving on the floor, outhustling everyone, not getting boxed out and winning the glass on both ends. This is where you equalize lack of stars and create opportunities to score.

This is where I would start.

 

[Orange Maniac]

While I agree that the offense needs improvement in a number of places, it was the defense that was the main culprit in the recent slide. In their last 4 games, the LV's have given up just under 24 more points per game than they have in the first 19 games.

I would say it's about 50/50. We have given up a butt load of snowbirds when we have been on offense and had our pocket picked or threw the ball to the other team. That's not on the defense. We have also for some reason gone brain dead in covering the other teams shooters. Fudd could have sat in a rocking chair and shot the ball. I was like Bueckers. Why would you just go and leave her open? We played too much help defense in my opinion. When Fudd was shooting threes, our defensive player was almost at the bucket at times and trying to get back to her on defense. One thing I didn't understand against UCONN was we needed possessions to get back into the game and didn't press until very late in the game. We should have tried pressing them from the start to see how they reacted. We made a little run when we did press. So...... Anyway, GO LADY VOLS.

 

[Aladywhovolunteer]

I would say it's about 50/50. We have given up a butt load of snowbirds when we have been on offense and had our pocket picked or threw the ball to the other team. That's not on the defense. We have also for some reason gone brain dead in covering the other teams shooters. Fudd could have sat in a rocking chair and shot the ball. I was like Bueckers. Why would you just go and leave her open? We played too much help defense in my opinion. When Fudd was shooting threes, our defensive player was almost at the bucket at times and trying to get back to her on defense. One thing I didn't understand against UCONN was we needed possessions to get back into the game and didn't press until very late in the game. We should have tried pressing them from the start to see how they reacted. We made a little run when we did press. So...... Anyway, GO LADY VOLS.

Great points. I actual said out loud during the UConn game...it's like we think UConn kids have COVID-19 and we are following the CDC guidance. For safety reasons, must remain six feet apart at all times.

 

[Amb3096]

One thing I didn't understand against UCONN was we needed possessions to get back into the game and didn't press until very late in the game. We should have tried pressing them from the start to see how they reacted. We made a little run when we did press. So...... Anyway, GO LADY VOLS.

This team is not a good pressing team. One, they lack speed outside of Miles, Dye and Horston (I left out Wynn because this really isn't a game where her contributions would outweigh her mistakes). There's probably an 80% chance that Dye will blow an assignment. I think they also had some foul trouble in the backcourt, and pressing would have just added to that. Against a team like UConn, if they break the press it'll just be an automatic 3 for them. They made the mistake in the 4th quarter of trying to burn clock and that lead to some sloppy offense on their part. If Tennessee tried to press earlier, they probably would have eaten it alive.

 

[Amb3096]

Great points. I actual said out loud during the UConn game...it's like we think UConn kids have COVID-19 and we are following the CDC guidance. For safety reasons, must remain six feet apart at all times.

That was the case for Fudd. She was so wide open on some of those threes. I'm pretty sure I saw Bueckers on the sidelines with her arms out saying to Fudd, "Why would they leave you open?" after her 5th or 6th three.

 

[creekdipper]

If you run them off the line, you may get beaten on the drive, but giving up two beats given up an open three to a red-hot shooter.

 

[vettefool]

Every team had a bad part of their seasons. I've watch sports a long time and a team can be winning and for a couple weeks they just can't win. This is what is happening to Tennessee right now. They will get there mojo back soon. I believe they will start Thursday with Missouri. They only have two close games left LSU and South Carolina. As always go Lady Vols.

I bet you didn’t think auburn or Florida would be close games. Actually Florida wasn’t.

 

[Orange Maniac]

This team is not a good pressing team. One, they lack speed outside of Miles, Dye and Horston (I left out Wynn because this really isn't a game where her contributions would outweigh her mistakes). There's probably an 80% chance that Dye will blow an assignment. I think they also had some foul trouble in the backcourt, and pressing would have just added to that. Against a team like UConn, if they break the press it'll just be an automatic 3 for them. They made the mistake in the 4th quarter of trying to burn clock and that lead to some sloppy offense on their part. If Tennessee tried to press earlier, they probably would have eaten it alive.

I don't consider UCONN to be a fast team. They are more like us speed wise. I would begin the game pressing to try and rattle their cage. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't but I would have tried. If they easily beat it a couple of times then don't do it. It's simple. Just try something they aren't expecting.

 

[vettefool]

playing at UCONN :

Fudd. #1
Williams’s #1
Westbrook. #2
ODO. #5
Juhasz. #12 PN
Edwards. #23
Muhl. 3️

When you play a team with this many 5️ Players and top ranked recruits ! You need more than Horston a # 2 ranked player and a team full of 3 & 4 ️ Players ….
The results are pretty much predetermined! JMO

Well that’s the point! We need better players. A lot of them. Unfortunately Kellie isn’t getting many.

 

[PRG]

Well that’s the point! We need better players. A lot of them. Unfortunately Kellie isn’t getting many.

She was named our coach in April 2019 , and the signing month was May ! Are you talking about that year ? Or the next years 2020 and 21 when we were in a world wide Pandemic with no face to face meetings or official visits ? She signed a top ten —fifteen class in 2021–22…. Maybe you could enlighten the coaching staff on their ways to improve!!!