What has changed and what has not

[LVJeff]

We beat oregon state on the road and the team acts like it won the national title. That's rather sad, as far as I'm concerned. It shows how far we've fallen, really. It fine to be happy, but jubilant? Tells you a lot about the state of our program and the confidence of the players.

I was happy for them, that's all.

 

[hokievol12]

does not a season make! Oregon State had played absolutely no one up until this game. I'm not a hater...some are labeled as such by others, especially over on the paid board where mods have a history of using injuries, plane problems, almost anything to explain away poor performances. Something Dean Lockwood said was very telling...he mentioned that the coaches were not in panic mode as a result of inconsistent play in past games, but were starting to look around...not exactly an endorsement of confidence in future improvement in team execution. Optimistic, surely, but far from a resounding proclamation that the team had suddenly "arrived". The season, as they say, is a marathon, and not a sprint. The OSU game was a step in the right direction, but just one, single step. There will be plenty of games during the SEC schedule for this team to show improvement, and for the coaching staff to do likewise!

 

[Pat4life]

Well we all know our player's confidence is not at all time high, but to have a goal and reach it as a team, and give the program its first top 10 road win in almost a decade, especially after that _______ against Stanford. I was ok with them celebrating. It made me feel sad I didn't get to see that effort in person tho.

I was happy for them, but then I thought big wins at Tenn are expected, we don't cheer we walk off the court its suppose to happen, but see that's the old Lady Vols, these Lady Vols have to establish their own standard of play under Holly, and for these Lady Vols that was a big win, for the most of the fans, it was too. We needed that win to keep us engage and we wanted to know if our ladies could compete on the big stage, that was a big stage.

Good for them to go home with a huge win before Xmas break, now they have something to build upon, and hopefully keeps them motivated, to play lady vols basketball, nice win! It doesn't change the fact we lost three games, and we only scored 53 points, but hey if you hold the other to team to less points, you win. I'm ok with that Lady Vols basketball.

And I hope its the launchpad to more consistent play and effort from our ladies.

Guard play will decide our fate, it was better but not great.

 

[reno tony]

It was a good win, but like others have said..... 53 points won't win a lot of games. They need a way to score 70-75 per game before anyone takes them seriously. Take a look at the top 10 teams in the country and point out one that TENN can beat by scoring 53 points. I don't see one, but I am kind of near-sighted.

 

[xanamanax]

It was a good win, but like others have said..... 53 points won't win a lot of games. They need a way to score 70-75 per game before anyone takes them seriously. Take a look at the top 10 teams in the country and point out one that TENN can beat by scoring 53 points. I don't see one, but I am kind of near-sighted.

How about 7th ranked Oregon State? That's right, they're no longer in the top ten (#11 now) after we beat them on their home court.

 

[Trixietrouble]

I agree that Russell has to learn how to play her position. Diamond has to be involved in almost every play and she must play under control.

I can see the better coached teams left on the schedule be content with forcing DD to be a volume shooter (at 30 - 40%) and shutting down other options like Graves and Nared.

DD is great, but not good enough to carry the whole load the way that Mulkey used to rely on Sims after the Griner days.

 

[PineyBluff Vol]

The body of work for this team is just starting...I wish them much success. I fear that we are about to see how ready we are for the upcoming schedule. Looking back over the wins and loses of this team. In comparsion of where we are and where we would like to be...we are pretty mediocre.
Central Ark-9-1 W
Penn State-5-6 W
Syracuse-7-3 W
Chattanooga-8-4 W
Albany-8-3 W
Texas-10-0 L
ETSU-7-6 W
Va. Tech-11-1 L
Wichita State3-8 W
Stanford-9-2 L
Oregon State-9-1 W
As you can see from the records of the teams we have played thus far. Eight of the teams have compiled winning records. That shouldn't suprise anyone. Most teams play teams of lesser talent if available to start the season. Oregon State seemed to shock some people that we were able to beat them. If you look at there schedule, they too are about to embark on the real schedule. Once again, I wish you much success Ladies. Your true test is about to begin.

 

[reno tony]

How about 7th ranked Oregon State? That's right, they're no longer in the top ten (#11 now) after we beat them on their home court.

Thank you for being a fact checker and making my point.... they aren't in the top 10 because they lost to a team that scored 53 points.

 

[FrozenLVFan]

I'd bet they also aren't in the Top 10 because their All-SEC, WUG, Naismith Watch PG broke her hand in the first half of their game with us and is out indefinitely. Pollsters take injuries into consideration too.

 

[xanamanax]

Thank you for being a fact checker and making my point.... they aren't in the top 10 because they lost to a team that scored 53 points.

No. They're no longer in the top ten because they were ranked #7 and lost. They were near the bottom of the top ten and went from #7 to #11. If they were #3 they would have probably fallen to #7 or #8, but not out of the top ten. The amount of points we scored was not a factor.

 

[reno tony]

No. They're no longer in the top ten because they were ranked #7 and lost. They were near the bottom of the top ten and went from #7 to #11. If they were #3 they would have probably fallen to #7 or #8, but not out of the top ten. The amount of points we scored was not a factor.

I think you are missing the point of my (and many other's) post concerning the issue of the UT offense scoring so few points. If they plan on making any run in the NCAA they need to find a way to score points. Unless you believe scoring 50 - 60 points will get them to the Final Four. We should get a better idea how this will work when they play N.D. in January.

 

[xanamanax]

I think you are missing the point of my (and many other's) post concerning the issue of the UT offense scoring so few points. If they plan on making any run in the NCAA they need to find a way to score points. Unless you believe scoring 50 - 60 points will get them to the Final Four. We should get a better idea how this will work when they play N.D. in January.

I know the offense isn't very good, and if it doesn't improve we'll struggle to compete with the best teams on their bad days. In your original post, if you had said we'll never beat UConn or Notre Dame scoring 53 points, I would've agreed.

 

[Volfan2012]

The reason we can't score 70 points is because we waste at least 20 possessions per game. We always have those quarters where players decide to start going one on one or jacking up bad shots.
Carter at point at least cut the 20 turnovers per game down to about 14 and it would be less than that if she didn't have to rest. I think of the 14 we committed against Oregon State 8 were committed while she was on the bench.

 

[Chris89128]

The reason we can't score 70 points is because we waste at least 20 possessions per game. We always have those quarters where players decide to start going one on one or jacking up bad shots.
Carter at point at least cut the 20 turnovers per game down to about 14 and it would be less than that if she didn't have to rest. I think of the 14 we committed against Oregon State 8 were committed while she was on the bench.

We only had 9 TO against OSU

 

[LVJeff]

We only had 9 TO against OSU

The OSU game is an interesting game to analyze. The team cuts their turnovers by more than half yet still scores only 53 points. Cutting down on the turnovers obviously was not the cure-all some of us, including me, thought it would be.

Other factors contributing to the low score were no three point baskets (there were only two attempts), seven missed free throws out of ten attempts, woeful fg % in the second half, and a low number of shot attempts for the whole game - 57.

Had the team hit for the same fg% in the second half as they did the first and hit 70% free throws, they still would have scored only 69 points. Not very much.

The team has to find ways to generate more shots at the same time they hit for a high percentage while holding the turnovers down.

 

[alexvol]

The OSU game is an interesting game to analyze. The team cuts their turnovers by more than half yet still scores only 53 points. Cutting down on the turnovers obviously was not the cure-all some of us, including me, thought it would be.

Other factors contributing to the low score were no three point baskets (there were only two attempts), seven missed free throws out of ten attempts, woeful fg % in the second half, and a low number of shot attempts for the whole game - 57.

Had the team hit for the same fg% in the second half as they did the first and hit 70% free throws, they still would have scored only 69 points. Not very much.

The team has to find ways to generate more shots at the same time they hit for a high percentage while holding the turnovers down.

Another factor was the rebounding discrepancy especially OSU offensive rebounds.

 

[Rickster]

We only had 9 TO against OSU

It will take time to fine tune everything but cutting down on turnovers is a good start. Once they analyze the differences between the 1st and 2nd halves, they will have more to build on offensively (and defensively). I can't help but be optimistic that they will improve.

 

[LVJeff]

Another factor was the rebounding discrepancy especially OSU offensive rebounds.

OSU's offensive rebounds weren't a factor in the outcome - even though they got a lot of them - because they couldn't convert them into points. OSU converted 21 offensive rebounds into only 9 points. The LV's by contrast converted 9 offensive rebounds into 8 points. Basically they cancelled each other out.

Had the LV's been able to garner more than 9 offensive rebounds, maybe they would have gotten more points. But the rebounding discrepancy didn't effect the outcome, it just made it more of a nailbiter.

The LV's have to protect the boards no doubt, but they also have to score off the set offense and the transition game.

 

[Volfan2012]

We only had 9 TO against OSU

Ok better than I thought and it seemed like most of them happened while Carter was on the bench.

 

[teacherdean]

The OSU game is an interesting game to analyze. The team cuts their turnovers by more than half yet still scores only 53 points. Cutting down on the turnovers obviously was not the cure-all some of us, including me, thought it would be.

Other factors contributing to the low score were no three point baskets (there were only two attempts), seven missed free throws out of ten attempts, woeful fg % in the second half, and a low number of shot attempts for the whole game - 57.

Had the team hit for the same fg% in the second half as they did the first and hit 70% free throws, they still would have scored only 69 points. Not very much.

The team has to find ways to generate more shots at the same time they hit for a high percentage while holding the turnovers down.

I believe that we lack the ability to score with an easy offense to defend. If everyone played us woman to woman defense, we would score points, however, it is no secret that we have difficulty against zone defenses. We do not have an outside or a very good mid range game. To be a final four team we are going to have to figure out how to beat the zone. When we become ineffective with our inside offense, players start shooting ineffective long range shots. The lack of offense affects them mentally and the defense suffers. This is the reason I believe we lose large leads. The problem is we have no offensive plan to counter the other team's second half offense. We still hold teams to a score which should enable us to win more games then we lose.

I still believe that our defense is very good, however, it is up to Holly to come up with an effective offensive plan. That is not the responsibility of the players. Where does Missouri and DePaul come up with these outside snipers? At best they might have one five star.