Tennessee Lady Vol News

[VolBall09]

January was the rough month last season.

We didn’t get tested enough early in the season last year. Should make a difference this season.

 

[volsagain]

January was the rough month last season.

With all respect those conferences don't have the teams a the top of college basketball. By the time we get to the elite in conference play we just got to hope we have become a better team. Even though you're probably going to to to some really good teams no matter how much better we have progressed. We could lose about the same number of games as last year. Just hopefully they jell as a TEAM.

 

[vols90]

AP Top 25 Women's College Basketball Poll

The official page for the AP Top 25 women's college basketball poll. Keep up to date and view the latest NCAA women's basketball ranking updates each week for the 2025-26 season.

apnews.com

The new AP poll came out. We moved down to #15.

 

[volfaninpa]

Losing Whitehorn right before the start of the season and Latham being out are probably affecting the team more that we know.

Long season ahead to get it worked out.

 

[VolBall09]

AP Top 25 Women's College Basketball Poll

The official page for the AP Top 25 women's college basketball poll. Keep up to date and view the latest NCAA women's basketball ranking updates each week for the 2025-26 season.

apnews.com

The new AP poll came out. We moved down to #15.

That is more in line with where we should have been pre-season imo.

 

[Hoosier_Vol]

I can live with #15

 

[Rickster]

 

[KnoxLikeUs]

Regular season rankings are going to change year around.
This is a Top 5-10 team and that’s where they will end this season.
GBO solid!

 

[Rickster]

 

[Volfan2012]

View attachment 790146

Never know how it affected her rating by the services to have to sit out with a knee injury. I've seen enough on Hudl to really be excited about her as a player.

 

[Dak1219]

We didn’t get tested enough early in the season last year. Should make a difference this season.

That is more in line with where we should have been pre-season imo.

Not really, not with 7 McDonalds All Americans and many other top 50 players. We deserved the high preseason ranking by the way we looked on paper, but lack of execution on both ends of the floor against very inferior teams talent wise makes us look like we are not a top 20 team right now. This team is not even close to bought in on the style of play we saw out of last years team. The press has been passive and the not so fast break is getting up the court at about 75% speed. It is kind of mind blowing actually with the amount of elite level athletes on this team. Kim said that she had to slow this team down because of how athletic they were and they naturally wanted to move at a high pace. My advise would be to never do that again.

 

[chuckiepoo]

Not really, not with 7 McDonalds All Americans and many other top 50 players. We deserved the high preseason ranking by the way we looked on paper, but lack of execution on both ends of the floor against very inferior teams talent wise makes us look like we are not a top 20 team right now. This team is not even close to bought in on the style of play we saw out of last years team. The press has been passive and the not so fast break is getting up the court at about 75% speed. It is kind of mind blowing actually with the amount of elite level athletes on this team. Kim said that she had to slow this team down because of how athletic they were and they naturally wanted to move at a high pace. My advise would be to never do that again.

Good article:

McDonald's picks not guaranteed NBA success

During a 20-year stretch from 1993-2012, 42 percent of McDonald's All American selections wound up playing fewer than 25 career NBA games.

www.espn.com

 

[VolBall09]

Not really, not with 7 McDonalds All Americans and many other top 50 players. We deserved the high preseason ranking by the way we looked on paper, but lack of execution on both ends of the floor against very inferior teams talent wise makes us look like we are not a top 20 team right now. This team is not even close to bought in on the style of play we saw out of last years team. The press has been passive and the not so fast break is getting up the court at about 75% speed. It is kind of mind blowing actually with the amount of elite level athletes on this team. Kim said that she had to slow this team down because of how athletic they were and they naturally wanted to move at a high pace. My advise would be to never do that again.

Of those all Americans how many are in their second season at Tenneseee?

One.

We have a completely new team with a bunch of talented freshmen who are going to play a lot. They aren’t going to gel overnight. I like the tougher schedule Kim created. It’s going to build resilience and prevent us from losing those 1-5 point games in the SEC. Guarantee you.

Anyone getting all excited right now is looney, we’re three weeks and 4 games in. It’s going to look a lot different in just one month. By March this will be a different team. Freshmen stop being freshmen about February and then we’ll really see what we have.

Teams that should be worried? Duke, Notre Dame.

Not us.

 

[37620VOL]

Of those all Americans how many are in their second season at Tenneseee?

One.

We have a completely new team with a bunch of talented freshmen who are going to play a lot. They aren’t going to gel overnight. I like the tougher schedule Kim created. It’s going to build resilience and prevent us from losing those 1-5 point games in the SEC. Guarantee you.

Anyone getting all excited right now is looney, we’re three weeks and 4 games in. It’s going to look a lot different in just one month. By March this will be a different team. Freshmen stop being freshmen about February and then we’ll really see what we have.

Teams that should be worried? Duke, Notre Dame.

Not us.

I'm with you VB9, the rational fans are going to withhold judgment on this team until February.

 

[lvocd]

It may be asking too much too soon, but I'm hoping we'll have a breakthrough game (where we can see that the light bulb has come on AND we suddenly are knocking down threes consistently) either Thursday or Sunday so we can take that newfound confidence into L.A. on the 30th.

The Lady Vols have 12 days before they face UCLA and then Stanford soon after. Gawd, what a trip that would be if our team could get it together before then! I know, I know. That's pie-in-the-sky stuff. But it ain't hurtin' anybody for me to hope!

 

[Volfan2012]

It may be asking too much too soon, but I'm hoping we'll have a breakthrough game (where we can see that the light bulb has come on AND we suddenly are knocking down threes consistently) either Thursday or Sunday so we can take that newfound confidence into L.A. on the 30th.

The Lady Vols have 12 days before they face UCLA and then Stanford soon after. Gawd, what a trip that would be if our team could get it together before then! I know, I know. That's pie-in-the-sky stuff. But it ain't hurtin' anybody for me to hope!

Would be easy to achieve cut down on the threes and foul less. Hopefully learn how to pass the ball where another player can catch it and avoid 22 turnovers like the last game. That could easily come out to 15 more shots where even if we make five could be the difference between a ten point and a 20 point win.

 

[LadyVol1908]

Irrational fan here! The team may be better come February, but so will the competition and based on this system's track record, although 1 year at the D1 level, it tends to not function as well during that time of year, no? If I recall, last year we had a team full of experienced players, all new to the system and finished 8th in conference?! Cant wait to see where we finish this year with players that "fit" said system!

 

[VOLINVONORE]

Irrational fan here! The team may be better come February, but so will the competition and based on this system's track record, although 1 year at the D1 level, it tends to not function as well during that time of year, no? If I recall, last year we had a team full of experienced players, all new to the system and finished 8th in conference?! Cant wait to see where we finish this year with players that "fit" said system!

However, the talent level of our Freshmen players is sky high and I expect t.hey will be playing at a very high level come SEC play.

 

[th2421]

Wooden Watch™ - John R. Wooden Award

www.woodenaward.com

Janiah, Talaysia, and Zee all made the 50-player Wooden Watch List! I can't remember the last time we had 3 players on a list like this.

 

[37620VOL]

Irrational fan here! The team may be better come February, but so will the competition and based on this system's track record, although 1 year at the D1 level, it tends to not function as well during that time of year, no? If I recall, last year we had a team full of experienced players, all new to the system and finished 8th in conference?! Cant wait to see where we finish this year with players that "fit" said system!

Young teams have the highest ceiling for improvement, hopefully exponential improvement. Older teams have already peaked and get "chased down" as those younger teams improve.

 

[lfvol]

However, the talent level of our Freshmen players is sky high and I expect t.hey will be playing at a very high level come SEC play.

Of the Fr, Pauldo, at PG and Civil have been very solid but not stars. Prawl has not been what was expected yet. More importantly, none of the very experienced bigs (Spearman, Wolfenbarger and Latham) have been as good as anticipated). How much better they play may be the biggest key.

 

[Volfan2012]

Of the Fr, Pauldo, at PG and Civil have been very solid but not stars. Prawl has not been what was expected yet. More importantly, none of the very experienced bigs (Spearman, Wolfenbarger and Latham) have been as good as anticipated). How much better they play may be the biggest key.

It is everything along with Robertson. They have to be consistent players or were going to have a lot of tough games. I can see a lot more out of Spearman and Latham. I'm not expecting much out of Wolfenbarger two perfect passes and she missed both layups in the last game. She just looks like the fourth post give us five or six minutes. Prawl has played fairly well defensively her shooting hasn't come around yet expect we'll see her breakout with a little more adjustment to this style. I'll be happy if MIa and Civil can keep doing what they are doing both doing well from three point and overall good defensively. Mya hasn't played that much not shooting it well expect she will do better.

 

[Coach Jumper]

I read in Skim’s discord that it’s Texas or Colorado and TCU/Tennessee aren’t in it anymore.

I'm gonna wait and see what Bri does,,,Funny how she can be wrong and everyone still holds her in esteem, yet,,,ohh forget it.

No smiling now...

Not losing my smile bc some nut is shooting a rumor out there,,,the only ones who know what's going to happen are Bri and whoever she tells

It really makes no sense how much posters come here spreading rumors from that Skim back channel. All those people are doing is guessing. They don’t have a clue.
They were the ones saying Oliviyah Edwards was leaning towards SC.
They said Jones was likely to commit to LSU during her visit right after visiting Tennessee and you see how that ended up.
They also pushed a bogus rumor about Minus and Tennessee when this new staff had offered the kid all the way back in June/July.
Really ain’t concerned where this player commits to but it’s not down to no Colorado and Texas. She could just as easily pick either of the other schools.

100% KLU !

 

[Dak1219]

Of those all Americans how many are in their second season at Tenneseee?

One.

We have a completely new team with a bunch of talented freshmen who are going to play a lot. They aren’t going to gel overnight. I like the tougher schedule Kim created. It’s going to build resilience and prevent us from losing those 1-5 point games in the SEC. Guarantee you.

Anyone getting all excited right now is looney, we’re three weeks and 4 games in. It’s going to look a lot different in just one month. By March this will be a different team. Freshmen stop being freshmen about February and then we’ll really see what we have.

Teams that should be worried? Duke, Notre Dame.

Not us.

At the time, we had 2 all-Americans (Ruby and Talasia) and 3 of our top 4 scorers back, plus Boyd and Latham returning for the second season, and added 5 all-Americans, and one of those all-Americans had 2 years of experience in the SEC and was the 6th player of the year in the Big Ten. With that group, we looked at the top 5 on paper. There is no way a team of this caliber should be struggling against midmajors even if they are upgraded mid-major teams on the schedule. A team like TCU has a whole bunch of transfers just knocked off NCST. UT Martin has lost to 273 ranked Northern alabama and Belmont just squeaked one out against 160 Dayton. My question would be, are we just playing that poorly, or is the buy-in just not there yet?

 

[Rooster1]

At the time, we had 2 all-Americans (Ruby and Talasia) and 3 of our top 4 scorers back, plus Boyd and Latham returning for the second season, and added 5 all-Americans, and one of those all-Americans had 2 years of experience in the SEC and was the 6th player of the year in the Big Ten. With that group, we looked at the top 5 on paper. There is no way a team of this caliber should be struggling against midmajors even if they are upgraded mid-major teams on the schedule. A team like TCU has a whole bunch of transfers just knocked off NCST. UT Martin has lost to 273 ranked Northern alabama and Belmont just squeaked one out against 160 Dayton. My question would be, are we just playing that poorly, or is the buy-in just not there yet?

Dak, I suspect tweaks are needed to the current system of substitutions and the absolute dedication to a full court trapping press defense to maximize results, but again, I am no expert in these matters. Just seems obvious from a fan’s perspective. I believe as the season progresses, esp in conference play those adjustments will be made. I’m thinking as an example of games against teams with really good guards in the SEC that will break that press easily and also needing your best 5 on the court for longer stretches against top teams.

There are guards like Raven Johnson as an example that will not be hindered by a trapping press.