Yikes. 224.

#1
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lvocd

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#1
DI Women's Basketball Rankings - NCAA Women's Basketball RPI | NCAA.com

The Lady Vols program was seriously, grossly mishandled by whichever persons on the previous administration put together a schedule that, even at 7-1, has resulted in having an RPI of 224. And this new #224 is actually an improvement over last week’s ranking.

At least the current administration will strive to remedy that. The schedule that Kellie and Missouri State put together for this year’s team has them at 8-1 with an RPI of #2. That’s a great sign of things to come.

But DANG.
 
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#2
#2
P.S. At one point, three games in, I defended the easy schedule because I thought this particular team needed it. But now EIGHT games in I’m no longer feeling so charitable. lol
 
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#7
#7
Embarrassing yet some on here will defend it somehow by saying a young team needs to play awful teams or some average teams won’t play us so let’s just play the terrible teams. Not CKJH fault but change it next year please!
 
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#9
#9
The projected strength of schedule when all is said and done is 25 so that isn't the best but way from the worst. I think you need three or four easy games at the beginning to get the team used to each others play without taking a loss. Notre Dame turned out to be a lot worse than projected. We were ready to play against Texas made to many mistakes took to many bad shots couldn't hit the easy ones. Texas guards played way above any level they have reached this season. The way the schedule was designed was supposed to give us a final sos below 20 it still could but Notre Dame and Texas would have to get a lot better and win some big games.

Before you can critique a schedule you have to play the entire schedule. Where were projected to finish is better than everyone except 24 teams.
 
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#10
#10
Orangefog said:
#1 Stanford, #2 UConn, #5 South Carolina, # 11 Texas A&M, # 14 Kentucky, # 15 Mississippi St., # 21 Arkansas....
It's coming soon
Click to expand...

Yes, it's still early. Sure, the OOC schedule hasn't been great, but the SOS will change a lot.

Missouri State's will dip a lot too. The RPI has some flaws.
 
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#11
#11
Welp... just as I said... The Lady Vols should NEVER play some of the teams they have played such as APB. We will be on the NCAA bubble, if we are lucky, after the meat of this schedule. Our SOS has to be way up there to help us get in.
 
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#13
#13
Yes, the schedule is weaker than any of us would have liked. Having more than 3 or 4 cupcakes at the very beginning of the season has obviously affected the staff's ability to this adequately prepare this team for real competition.

But I honestly don't recall anyone on here saying that they thought FOR SURE that this team would reach the E8. There really is no need to be ay-holes about any of this, folks. Some of you appear to be enjoying getting digs in at every opportunity, and that's not helpful at all. Sad.
 
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#15
#15
Back in the day, including some of the pre-championship Candace teams and the baby vol era, (when I was on the SummiTT), posters often lamented how the hyper tough was killing the team and compared to the lighter load that Uconn faced.

Then the argument was that the easier comp let Uconn work out the kinks and perfect their system, whereas the LVs were getting their confidence beat down and not able to experience sharp execution.

My point: When the team is struggling people grasped for tangible external factors -- the preseason schedule is too weak; the preseason schedule is too demanding; we don't have enough quick, athletic players; we have too many quick athletic players and need more pure shooters; we need to get bigger; we need to get smaller. If only a time-out!

Here is the reality -- this team is a major work in progress. Two elite players left the program; a third is out with an ACL. No one loses that much talent without missing a beat.

Two of the teams main cogs are freshman (Horston and Key).

We have one experienced preseason all-conference candidate -- Davis.

Our other main player is a sophomore who is still wildly inconsistent and probably won't be a consistent big time player till she becomes an upper classman - Rae.

Our other key player KK is now just becoming a passable post but still does not match up against comparably sized players.

To succeed, this LV team needs to gel as a defensive unit and find an identity on offense. That process takes a little time.

This is Coach Harper's first season. Maybe give her at least till the conference season before passing out verdicts.

The euphoria of the first 7 games was fun but completely premature as is the gloom and doom, what was gone wrong? whose to blame machinations, post-Texas
 
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#17
#17
I don't expect an elite 8 I would be surprised if anyone did would like to see the post of the one who said that. I think we can get to the sweet sixteen if we play well enough to get the home court for the first two rounds. I don't know if we can do that offense lost us our first game even though overall was a really good defensive effort in the second half. I expected we could go 22 and 7 in the regular season and at least 11 and 5 in the SEC. Now that we lost a game I projected we'd win we have to find a way to win all the rest I thought we'd win as well as one I thought we wouldn't.
Right now I don't know what to expect as I didn't like the way the coaches coached, the rotation, or the shot selection in the Texas game. I really thought we'd see a different coaching style and not let teams go out on huge runs without at least trying to refocus the players with a timeout. Still a long way to go teams under Coach Kellie tend to be a lot worse at the beginning of the season than the end. I'll just enjoy the games we win from here on out.
 
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#19
#19
I agree, madtown. And I wouldn't have posted the RPI numbers if they weren't so appalling and more evidence (as if anymore were needed) that the change in LV leadership was absolutely necessary. I guess I still hear enough comments from people who are still upset that Holly was let go and should have been given more time (Sheesh.) that it just hammered it further home that Phil most definitely made the right decision, and that this RPI issue is obviously one that Kellie will address.

The team is actually where I expected them to be at this point, but knowing that we were soooooo close to beating Texas in a game I'd touted was a must-win, really stung. Those extra four cupcakes we've devoured cost us, but, of course, the gradual rise in RPI will soon begin. I just really, REALLY wanted to have somehow managed to beat Texas. :confused:
 
#20
#20
lvocd said:
I agree, madtown. And I wouldn't have posted the RPI numbers if they weren't so appalling and more evidence (as if anymore were needed) that the change in LV leadership was absolutely necessary. I guess I still hear enough comments from people who are still upset that Holly was let go and should have been given more time (Sheesh.) that it just hammered it further home that Phil most definitely made the right decision, and that this RPI issue is obviously one that Kellie will address.

The team is actually where I expected them to be at this point, but knowing that we were soooooo close to beating Texas in a game I'd touted was a must-win, really stung. Those extra four cupcakes we've devoured cost us, but, of course, the gradual rise in RPI will soon begin. I just really, REALLY wanted to have somehow managed to beat Texas. :confused:
Click to expand...


Playing devil's advocate, it is possible that the weak early schedule was a plus for the team (and per that "weak" schedule let's not forget that we had the fortune of catching ND in a real down phase). But recall, how close the LVs came to losing against ETSU. I think if they had matched up against a couple of top 20 teams in these early outings, some big losses could have been in the cards. And at the point, Kellie would have been coaching under crisis and all kinds of questions would be floating as to whether she was up for the job.

Seven wins helped to generate a good vibe around the team and gave a little cushion so that people can rationalize the Texas loss as a potential teaching moment.
 
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#22
#22
lvocd said:
DI Women's Basketball Rankings - NCAA Women's Basketball RPI | NCAA.com

The Lady Vols program was seriously, grossly mishandled by whichever persons on the previous administration put together a schedule that, even at 7-1, has resulted in having an RPI of 224. And this new #224 is actually an improvement over last week’s ranking.

At least the current administration will strive to remedy that. The schedule that Kellie and Missouri State put together for this year’s team has them at 8-1 with an RPI of #2. That’s a great sign of things to come.

But DANG.
Click to expand...

Stupid thread to start after having played only eight games.

Wait until the end of January before you update us.
 
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#25
#25
Scheduling is a minuscule fix. Our schedule apparently reflects who we are currently. Missouri St. can survive and thrive minus Kellie Harper because she had obviously cultivated a blue-collar work ethic immersed in pride. She has to recapture that culture with this program. When I posted formerly that Harper had her work cut out for her, this is it. She has to exorcise the previously excused bad habits and entitled mindsets that plagued our program and manifested down the stretch each of the last few seasons. There is give and take as she cultivates a more disciplined--more structured program. It is a tedious, tenuous process. Right now, we are the poster program for empty swagger. Ugh! Now we can see how a loss impacts corrective practices and how the players receive coaching.
 
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