Game Thread: LADY VOLS AT NO. 16/14 NOTRE DAME

[Coach Jumper]

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee, which is receiving votes in both the AP and USA Today Coaches Polls, hits the road to face No. 16/14 Notre Dame at Purcell Pavilion in the Joyce Center on Monday night. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. ET.

The Lady Vols enter the game with a 2-0 record after winning their home opener and head coach Kellie Harper's first regular-season game at Thompson-Boling Arena vs. Central Arkansas on Thursday night, 63-36. UT opened the Kellie Harper era on the road last Tuesday evening with a hard-fought 72-68 victory over ETSU at sold-out Freedom Hall in Johnson City.

• Notre Dame returned five letter winners, but no starters, from last season's NCAA Final Four runner-up squad that went 35-4.
• The Fighting Irish have won six straight ACC regular-season titles.
• UND welcomed four newcomers, including graduate transfers Marta Sniezek (Stanford) and Destinee Walker (North Carolina), and freshmen Sam Brunelle and Anaya Peoples, both McDonald's All-Americans.
• Key returnees Mikayla Vaughn and Abby Prohaska have suffered injuries, leaving the Irish with seven scholarship players.

RECAPPING UND'S LAST GAME

• Katlyn Gilbert was the heroine of the night in her first career start, blowing past her previous career high of 14 points with a team-best 24 points to lead No. 16/14 Notre Dame to an 84-60 win over Loyola Maryland.
• Freshman Anaya Peoples recorded her second straight game in double figures with a season-best 19 points to go with her seven rebounds.
• Destinee Walker also contributed a big night with 19 points and six boards. Next, Sam Brunelle rounded out the double-digit scorers with a near double-double of 12 points and nine rebounds.
• The Irish finished the game with a 48.5 shooting percentage, while Loyola was limited to 31.6 percent. The Irish also scored 42 of their points in the paint.

VolNation:

I watched the ND game with LMD,,,

We got this!

Zaay on Walker
Rennia on Peoples
Jordan on Gilbert
Lou (or Key) on Brunnelle
Rae (or Lou) on Sniezek

They can't catch us

And once we figure out communications on hedge, under or over screens,,,they won't shoot on us

UT 80 ND 74

 

[DonDiego]

LOL, I wish I could be jacked about anything in life the way you're jacked about the LV's. I salute you for it. Seriously, I love the men and women teams in multiple sports, but you are starting early for a Monday night game. On the other hand, if CKH pulls this off, I could develop a little coach crush. Go LVFLs.

 

[volnationnj]

Some additional details to add to coach j's post.
Yes, they have 7 scholarship players, but one was a walk on who they gave a scholarship to.
To say they are undermanned would be an understatement.
Their tallest player (Cosgrove) is also their least skilled player (Of their top 6) We should be able to dominate the boards. If just 1 of their players gets in foul trouble, they'll have no viable bench at all (Their second player off the bench will be a walk-on).
Even though we're playing in South Bend, I see the following scenario as the only way we lose this game. Some combination of:
1. ND plays a tight zone and we can't hit even a mediocre percentage of shots from outside.
2. Our defense is disorganized and we allow ND to hit on a high percentage of their fga's
3. We fail to get anyone in serious foul trouble early (first half) in the game.
I can't emphasize this point enough. ND has 5 players they trust and a sixth that will have to play a lot because of her height. After that it's all walk-ons.
While it's certainly possible for all of the above to happen, I think that it's unlikely.
LV's 70 - ND 64
PS. My only reservation is that I agree with coach j.

 

[DonDiego]

Some additional details to add to coach j's post.
Yes, they have 7 scholarship players, but one was a walk on who they gave a scholarship to.
To say they are undermanned would be an understatement.
Their tallest player (Cosgrove) is also their least skilled player (Of their top 6) We should be able to dominate the boards. If just 1 of their players gets in foul trouble, they'll have no viable bench at all (Their second player off the bench will be a walk-on).
Even though we're playing in South Bend, I see the following scenario as the only way we lose this game. Some combination of:
1. ND plays a tight zone and we can't hit even a mediocre percentage of shots from outside.
2. Our defense is disorganized and we allow ND to hit on a high percentage of their fga's
3. We fail to get anyone in serious foul trouble early (first half) in the game.
I can't emphasize this point enough. ND has 5 players they trust and a sixth that will have to play a lot because of her height. After that it's all walk-ons.
While it's certainly possible for all of the above to happen, I think that it's unlikely.
LV's 70 - ND 64
PS. My only reservation is that I agree with coach j.

...and they are ranked 16/14 because...and we are ranked ????? because...

 

[LVsinceJV]

We will need to actually score. ND's never been known for D, but if we can't improve our offensive productivity, especially on putbacks, and get to/make shots at the FT line, it'll be an uncomfortable game.

 

[Coach Jumper]

LOL, I wish I could be jacked about anything in life the way you're jacked about the LV's. I salute you for it. Seriously, I love the men and women teams in multiple sports, but you are starting early for a Monday night game. On the other hand, if CKH pulls this off, I could develop a little coach crush. Go LVFLs.

This isn't Carson Newman or ETSU,,,it's Notre Dame,,,top 15
I figured people may want to start talking about this one early

(I usually do the thread when the UT site posts game info....that way I can share their info and put in mine)

 

[volnationnj]

...and they are ranked 16/14 because...and we are ranked ????? because...

Because those polls don't take into account that ND lost 2 more players (One of which is their starting center) and they don't have a viable substitute for her.
In fact, they don't have a viable sub for any of their starters.
If they did, my opinion would be different.
Massey has ND by 22. Would you give me Tennessee and 22 points ?

 

[lvocd]

Massey knows that even in their diminished capacity Notre Dame will have a well-practiced offense that may confound a Tennessee defense that is still very much an early work in progress. McGraw’s teams typically move well without the ball and always gets those defense-gutting, backdoor layups.

Tennessee has the height advantage, but they’re likely to be at a slight disadvantage whenit comes to details and finesse.

It should be a good game, and I can’t wait! A road win against ND would be an amazing confidence builder for our Lady Vols, for sure.

 

[Chippo]

My girlfriend's sister and husband are up in
Indiana from Tennessee to see the game. I asked him to see if there was. Cohesion
between coach and players. From all aspects
from the postings there is but I wanted first
hand knowledge from someone I personally know. Last year a co worker was in SC at that game and unfortunately said no one was on the same page.

 

[Orange Maniac]

I feel this game will be in the low to mid 60's for scoring. I don't see a high scoring affair.

 

[creekdipper]

Got to defend the backdoor cuts that have killed us in recent years.

 

[hammer22]

I’m going to go with Tennessee by at least 8+ on this one. Depth, size, and speed both favor us heavily. They start four guards and a W/F, then bring another W/F off the bench, and that’s their team. They start two freshmen and their three non-freshmen starters all sat out with injuries at ND, Stanford, and North Carolina.

Their other “scholarship” player is really a walk-on who they gave a scholarship to because they needed to.

Don’t let me down, LV!

 

[OrangeBeachVol]

McGraw has always been a thorn in LV's side with her coaching. Seems to be able to keep her teams in games with some great schemes and changes. Holly was no match for her but hopefully KH will be.

 

[Coach Jumper]

preview of Noter Dame...versus Loyola Maryland

 

[mytenn]

McGraw has always been a thorn in LV's side with her coaching. Seems to be able to keep her teams in games with some great schemes and changes. Holly was no match for her but hopefully KH will be.

McGraw is probably one of the best ever. She would have been my choice for UTn, but I doubt UTn even thought about contacting her. However, it would not have hurt anything had they done so.

 

[NoBackBoard]

McGraw has always been a thorn in LV's side with her coaching. Seems to be able to keep her teams in games with some great schemes and changes. Holly was no match for her but hopefully KH will be.

Always? Didn’t the Lady Vols have a crazy win streak like 20 in a row vs ND? And for Holly to be no match, the Lady Vols beat ND in Knoxville in 2017.

 

[Voltopia]

Got my eye on that 2:1 personal foul stat in favor of ND. Only two games but, seeing as how this is a home game for ND, I would not be surprised at all to see the Lady Vols get in early foul trouble on the road. They're going to throwing a lot of guards at Tennessee, and those guards can seemingly score so ... it'll be up to Tennessee's backcourt to keep things in check. Potentially a coming out party for one of Tennessee's bigs but I can't fathom who it'll be.

 

[lvocd]

McGraw has always been a thorn in LV's side with her coaching. Seems to be able to keep her teams in games with some great schemes and changes. Holly was no match for her but hopefully KH will be.

To be fair, A couple of Holly’s teams played Notre Dame pretty well, even beating them in 2017. And was it just last year that Tennessee was up 20 points or more on them before an epic collapse?

 

[lvocd]

Kellie’s latest presser:

 

[bobkitten]

Thank you, Coach J!

 

[volnationnj]

Massey knows that even in their diminished capacity Notre Dame will have a well-practiced offense that may confound a Tennessee defense that is still very much an early work in progress. McGraw’s teams typically move well without the ball and always gets those defense-gutting, backdoor layups.

Tennessee has the height advantage, but they’re likely to be at a slight disadvantage whenit comes to details and finesse.

It should be a good game, and I can’t wait! A road win against ND would be an amazing confidence builder for our Lady Vols, for sure.

The players who will suit up on Monday played 4% of the minutes played by ND last year. That's less than 2 minutes per game.
They have virtually no experience playing together. If Muffet can make them look like a well oiled machine, she should get the coach of the year award right after the game.

 

[djtee]

Looks like Lou Brown will be matched up against 6-2 fr Samantha Brunelle. This is a bad match up for the lady vols she can flat out play inside and out.

 

[Chippo]

Like y

Massey knows that even in their diminished capacity Notre Dame will have a well-practiced offense that may confound a Tennessee defense that is still very much an early work in progress. McGraw’s teams typically move well without the ball and always gets those defense-gutting, backdoor layups.

Tennessee has the height advantage, but they’re likely to be at a slight disadvantage whenit comes to details and finesse.

It should be a good game, and I can’t wait! A road win against ND would be an amazing confidence builder for our Lady Vols, for sure.

Like you said in an earlier post it's good we are playing them early and even if we loose
KJH will be able to put the pieces together
early and we won't have a false sense of
security inSEC time. It was an answer to a
post I made about dreading playing N D so
Soon in the season.

 

[VA_VOLFAN]

Looks like Lou Brown will be matched up against 6-2 fr Samantha Brunelle. This is a bad match up for the lady vols she can flat out play inside and out.

You can stick Rennia or Rae on her both who are around 6’2” as well... Jordan Horston can even match up with her and give her fits due to her length. I guarantee she will try to take Lou off the dribble but Lou should have her beat in the post with strength.

 

[Chippo]

Thanks lvocd for the update on Kellies
Press conference