Lady vols got the win over Texas!

#18
#18
Fire those horrible refs! That short haired Lady ref is a joke and blind as a mole. Seriously the worst. Davis and Russell got mauled all game. She also missed a kicking the ball by Texas that was painfully obvious to the most casual observer. Basically the entire crew was clueless. I hope none are allowed to work an NCAA game. Tennessee won inspite of some huge bad and missed calls.
 
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#19
#19
Texas has mostly played cupcakes...I think we’ll find that their no. 2 ranking was a bit of a stretch. End of season they’ll be more in line with their true ability...maybe top 15
 
#21
#21
PreacherVol2 said:
Is sisaq part of Back to Future or something??
Click to expand...

sisaq said:
Certainly! I am the future teller of lady vols.
Click to expand...

Hopefully this will be the season we LV fans accept legacy as history and stop looking backward for our future. The future is now and ahead, with the staff and players we have.

This success is yours, Lady Vols.

As Peter Drucker said, "The best way to predict the future is to create it."
 
#23
#23
I haven't commented much since the end of last season because my enthusiasm was pretty tattered and I was having trouble seeing the silver lining. Even with us supposed to be having a great incoming Freshman class, I feel like we've had great classes before, so why would this season be any different? I haven't kept as close of an eye on the team this year as I usually do although I have seen a few games and I went to the Texas game and had great seats - 105, row 11.

Even though the team is 10-0 and we got a great win against #2 ranked Texas, I hesitate to say the "team is back" as I am hearing many people say because of a few problems, but first, here's the positives I noticed from the game and season in general:

Good
- Senior leadership. Although Mercedes didn't turn out to be the player many of us had hoped, she is still having her best season and being more assertive by her standards. Jamie is also being more assertive. It's very rare to win with Freshman being your best players or having to even count on them, so having two Seniors producing is HUGE IMO.

- Team ball. Watching Texas, it felt like for the first time in a long time that there was a team concept on the floor. There was communication on defense. There was ball movement (something I haven't seen in years). And, there was just the sense that it didn't matter who scored OR that if something bad started to happen that we didn't need to have one player try to bail us out.

- Freshman and new players looked promising. I'm still a bit worried that we have two Freshman starting. That's usually more of a red flag than a feather in our cap, BUT I thought Westbrook looked very poised and has a very sweet shot. I really liked Davis's athleticism. She gets off the floor really well. I wasn't as impressed with her shot. I'd like to see her slashing to the basket more and getting inside against inferior defenders. I liked Green's speed getting up and down the floor and the way she fights for the ball. But, like Davis, I also didn't like her outside shot much and hopes she sticks to the inside moving forward. Hayes made me a bit nervous. Maybe I need to watch her play more, but she drives so fearlessly and she's only 5'7''. She got the shot off but I'm not sure if they were all high confidence releases or just making sure she doesn't get blocked.

- We are beating inferior opponents instead of playing down to them. Last year and every year Holly has coached we would have never or very rarely scored 131 points or beat anyone by 50. We would usually be undisciplined and not stick it to them or in some cases even lose to unranked, inferior opponents. This year we are sticking it to people, which is what a good team is supposed to do.


Still a concern
- Turnovers. There were several spots in the game last night where it was like "here we go again": turnovers that just should not have been turnovers. Davis alone had 7 turnovers. 18 for the game is too many. Hopefully it's just Freshman growing pains. We did have an earlier game with only 4 turnovers matching a school record, in a good way, I believe, so perhaps there is still hope on that front. Valuing possessions is very important. We are definitely better than years past so far, but this is something we all want to watch closely as I'm not convinced we've turned the corner yet.

- The schedule TO THIS POINT looks so much more watered down compared to years past. Usually our unranked games were still ACC/B10 opponents that were top 50 or 75 caliber teams. Only two teams, Marquette and Texas, were ranked and it's debatable where the unranked opponents fall but I suspect they won't pad our resume any. Even Texas yesterday was suspect for a #2 team based on my eye test. They missed at least 2 or 3 layups or point blank shots. Had they been a bit more competent, we may have lost. They looked more like a top 10 or 15 team based on that game, not top 5. Long story short, I'm not sure where we are as a team because of the schedule. Fortunately the SEC, with South Carolina, Mississippi State, and all the outlier teams like Missouri, Kentucky, etc. will provide PLENTY of opportunity to see where we are and need to go. We also have a road game against ranked Stanford and Notre Dame which has never been an easy game. I guess it isn't the end of the world to have some easier games when the schedule is about to get pretty tough. The 4 games from 1/11 - 1/21 include #21 Texas A&M, #5 South Carolina, #3 Notre Dame, and #6 Mississippi State. Only one of those games is at home. I just hope we don't have sticker shock when those tougher games get going.

- Coaching staff. It appears they have made some changes around Holly. It took 5 plus years for me to form an opinion about Holly, so I won't be easily changed in that opinion by just a few games into one season. As far as I'm concerned, she is who I thought she is until proven otherwise. On the other hand, if you surround yourself with good people, you can often times be successful in spite of yourself.

It's great they are winning. The last season we started better than 10-0 I believe was the 2005-2006 when they went 18-0 to start. So, it's the best start in 11 seasons. Bottom line for me though, for us to "be back", we will have needed to fix the glaring problems of the past. Hopefully we have fixed some. Time will tell ... Here's to hoping!
 
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#24
#24
The LVs were 10-0 in 2013-2014. They finished the regular season with a record of 24-5. Mea Culpa!, you said better than 10-0.
 
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#25
#25
clkou said:
I haven't commented much since the end of last season because my enthusiasm was pretty tattered and I was having trouble seeing the silver lining. Even with us supposed to be having a great incoming Freshman class, I feel like we've had great classes before, so why would this season be any different? I haven't kept as close of an eye on the team this year as I usually do although I have seen a few games and I went to the Texas game and had great seats - 105, row 11.

Even though the team is 10-0 and we got a great win against #2 ranked Texas, I hesitate to say the "team is back" as I am hearing many people say because of a few problems, but first, here's the positives I noticed from the game and season in general:

Good
- Senior leadership. Although Mercedes didn't turn out to be the player many of us had hoped, she is still having her best season and being more assertive by her standards. Jamie is also being more assertive. It's very rare to win with Freshman being your best players or having to even count on them, so having two Seniors producing is HUGE IMO.

- Team ball. Watching Texas, it felt like for the first time in a long time that there was a team concept on the floor. There was communication on defense. There was ball movement (something I haven't seen in years). And, there was just the sense that it didn't matter who scored OR that if something bad started to happen that we didn't need to have one player try to bail us out.

- Freshman and new players looked promising. I'm still a bit worried that we have two Freshman starting. That's usually more of a red flag than a feather in our cap, BUT I thought Westbrook looked very poised and has a very sweet shot. I really liked Davis's athleticism. She gets off the floor really well. I wasn't as impressed with her shot. I'd like to see her slashing to the basket more and getting inside against inferior defenders. I liked Green's speed getting up and down the floor and the way she fights for the ball. But, like Davis, I also didn't like her outside shot much and hopes she sticks to the inside moving forward. Hayes made me a bit nervous. Maybe I need to watch her play more, but she drives so fearlessly and she's only 5'7''. She got the shot off but I'm not sure if they were all high confidence releases or just making sure she doesn't get blocked.

- We are beating inferior opponents instead of playing down to them. Last year and every year Holly has coached we would have never or very rarely scored 131 points or beat anyone by 50. We would usually be undisciplined and not stick it to them or in some cases even lose to unranked, inferior opponents. This year we are sticking it to people, which is what a good team is supposed to do.


Still a concern
- Turnovers. There were several spots in the game last night where it was like "here we go again": turnovers that just should not have been turnovers. Davis alone had 7 turnovers. 18 for the game is too many. Hopefully it's just Freshman growing pains. We did have an earlier game with only 4 turnovers matching a school record, in a good way, I believe, so perhaps there is still hope on that front. Valuing possessions is very important. We are definitely better than years past so far, but this is something we all want to watch closely as I'm not convinced we've turned the corner yet.

- The schedule TO THIS POINT looks so much more watered down compared to years past. Usually our unranked games were still ACC/B10 opponents that were top 50 or 75 caliber teams. Only two teams, Marquette and Texas, were ranked and it's debatable where the unranked opponents fall but I suspect they won't pad our resume any. Even Texas yesterday was suspect for a #2 team based on my eye test. They missed at least 2 or 3 layups or point blank shots. Had they been a bit more competent, we may have lost. They looked more like a top 10 or 15 team based on that game, not top 5. Long story short, I'm not sure where we are as a team because of the schedule. Fortunately the SEC, with South Carolina, Mississippi State, and all the outlier teams like Missouri, Kentucky, etc. will provide PLENTY of opportunity to see where we are and need to go. We also have a road game against ranked Stanford and Notre Dame which has never been an easy game. I guess it isn't the end of the world to have some easier games when the schedule is about to get pretty tough. The 4 games from 1/11 - 1/21 include #21 Texas A&M, #5 South Carolina, #3 Notre Dame, and #6 Mississippi State. Only one of those games is at home. I just hope we don't have sticker shock when those tougher games get going.

- Coaching staff. It appears they have made some changes around Holly. It took 5 plus years for me to form an opinion about Holly, so I won't be easily changed in that opinion by just a few games into one season. As far as I'm concerned, she is who I thought she is until proven otherwise. On the other hand, if you surround yourself with good people, you can often times be successful in spite of yourself.

It's great they are winning. The last season we started better than 10-0 I believe was the 2005-2006 when they went 18-0 to start. So, it's the best start in 11 seasons. Bottom line for me though, for us to "be back", we will have needed to fix the glaring problems of the past. Hopefully we have fixed some. Time will tell ... Here's to hoping!
Click to expand...

I agree with your concern on the Turnovers, Also i would like to point out we did get the win and a good one at that. I also would like to see Holly let Hayes run the point more when she is and Westbrook are in the game together. Westbrook had 7 turnovers. I think moving Hayes to the point would help Westbrook field goal percentage Just my opinion,
 
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