NCAA Tournament Game Thread: (3) Lady Vols vs. (14) Middle Tennessee

You seem to be getting ahead of yourself here, she needs to win this next game first. The season is defined by March, and it would be hard to deem this season a success with a second round loss IMO...
I'm aware. Was just wondering how often it had been done.

We'll no doubt debate what's deemed a season of success endlessly starting in about a week or so when its over. But my early take is an admittedly lower bar one. Season would have been unsuccessful if they had flamed out in the first round, especially to MTSU.

Because the reg season accomplishments were so strong, if it ends falling just short of S16 it would be disappointing for sure but would not take much of the shine off. Especially if its with a well played effort, not an embarrassing implosion. IMO the LVs would still be a nicely upgraded brand.

Up to KJH to take advantage of that in the offseason, both with current player development and with recruiting and snagging transfers.
 
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In fairness, she made some great passes today. Her orientation seems to be pass first, shoot second on most plays (except when has decided to take the shot, like at the end of quarter scenario). A couple of her bad passes were cases where she would have been better off going to the rim but she caugth a teammater out of the corner of her eye, and then it was like a "pass it" instinct took over. With a little more experience, she will learn to call her own number when that is the best option. But, her improvement over the course of the season has been noteworthy. The team is going to need more point production from JH at some point during this tournament.
Her orientation still remains indecision too much. The most frustrating player to me in a long time, in the Mercedes Russell category of you just know its in there. Does so many good things, you definitely want and need her on the floor. But the shooting remains poor, the turnovers high. And definitely the team needs more point production from her to take the next step forward. Which I'm convinced is only going to happen if she is able to play more off the ball. Which depends on Jordan Walker. Rinse and repeat.

All that said, and said and said this season, the two Jordans are really fun to watch. JW's rebounding is crazy, fearless. JH is a good rebounder also. I really like that KJH has put such a Patlike emphasis on rebounding but not as a main offensive weapon like Pat did. Able to do it in the context of having an actual offense.
 
KJH deserves some love for the change she made at half time. She pushed the zone out and stopped all the free looks from 3 also stopped the weak side from sliding in to the post which meant the ball reversal stopped working.. MTSU was too slow afoot to run any back cuts while the Lady Vols height meant there was no need to pack in to cover all the defensive rebounds. Great job by Kellie.
,Has happened an impressive amount of times this season. The 3rd qtr has been our friend. Did not see that coming for KJH, good on her
Tuesday, 5 pm ET
Thanks, I'll have the ankles taped and be all ready.
 
lol she has a point they kept calling her Rae and Rae was on the bench....


Obviously bothers her so should bother us. I’m a white person. That announcer gets her name wrong because he doesn’t care. It’s disrespectful and far too common for women like Rennia. She gets constantly disrespected on a national level.

She had a huge double double and torched MTSU and they couldn’t even get her name right because they were too busy talking about Annie Hayes or Paige Bueckers every 3 seconds.
 
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Obviously bothers her so should bother us. I’m a white person. That announcer gets her name wrong because he doesn’t care. It’s disrespectful and far to common for women like Rennia. She gets constantly disrespected on a national level.

She had a huge double double and torched MTSU and they couldn’t even get her name right because they were too busy talking about Annie Hayes or Paige Bueckers every 3 seconds.
I get sick of hearing about Paige Pueckers every couple of seconds

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Obviously bothers her so should bother us. I’m a white person. That announcer gets her name wrong because he doesn’t care. It’s disrespectful and far to common for women like Rennia. She gets constantly disrespected on a national level.

She had a huge double double and torched MTSU and they couldn’t even get her name right because they were too busy talking about Annie Hayes or Paige Bueckers every 3 seconds.

Exactly. When the announcer got Rennia’s name wrong (by calling her Rae), Rae wasn’t even in the game. I was like, huh?

Also, Re is a projected top-five WNBA prospect who’s been a starter since she arrived at UT. She’s been the face of the program for two years. Shouldn’t be getting her name wrong. Do better, ESPN!
 
Yes we should be. They have a player, Naz Hillmon, who scored 50 points in a game this year. She’s a rebounding machine and averages 25 points a game.

And Massey has Michigan as the 70-69 favorite. Her Hoop Stats gives TN a very slight 67.7-67.3 edge (51.5% odds). I wasn't all that impressed watching them against FGCU yesterday, but they did get hot from 3. On the year though, we're even a better 3pt shooting team than them, and we're not particularly good (159th in the NCAA...and they're 207th). On the whole, our team stats aren't all that different, they're maybe slightly more efficient offensively and our defensive numbers are better across the board. We've done it against the #5 schedule (according to Real Time RPI) whereas Michigan's SOS is #35.

Michigan is also without their starting point guard, Amy Dilk, who averages 7.7ppg, 4.8rpg, 3.9apg, and 1.0spg, but she's also missed 10+ games with them this year already so maybe it's not a huge adjustment for them.
 
I get sick of hearing about Paige Pueckers every couple of seconds

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So true guys....I turned on several of the ESPN stations 3 different times yesterday, before the game started, and each time they were doing a Paige B special...They went on and on about how she was the greatest and only going to be even more greater.....bla bla bla.....

Enough already...They can go Buecker themselves...
 

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