LADY VOLS ARE NOW THE #2 TEAM IN THE COUNTRY-THE OFFICIAL TENNESSEE ⚽️ THREAD

#1,426
#1,426
turbovol said:
Mad: Where did you hear/read that the SEC tourney was being moved? That is interesting, if true. Orange Beach has seemed like a good location for the tourney, for years--but IMO the league should downsize the event. My biggest issue with Orange Beach has been the field: It's usually in good but not perfect condition to start the tourney--you are not going to get a lush green soccer field in southern Alabama, along the Gulf coast, in early November--and with 10 teams in the event, it means 9 matches in one week on one field. That's too many--and by the semifinals and finals the field is in pretty rough shape--not enough grass.

I'd like to see the field reduced to six or eight teams. The ACC tourney is only six teams: The teams finishing the regular season in spots 3-6 play first-round matches, with the top two teams, regular season, getting byes. And then it's straight into the semifinals and final. So if you finish in the top 2 regular season, you play a max of two games in the tourney; if you are 3-6, you play a max of three games. That makes the tourney less grueling. The Vols and Arkansas each got a bye in the SEC's 10-tourney--but they still ended up playing 3 matches in a week. That is not easy to recover from, physically--and then you've got the NCAA tourney starting within days--and you might very well have to travel.

I'm sure some if not many SEC coaches like the larger SEC tourney format because it gives teams that had, say, a mediocre/average regular season a chance to win a couple of games and get into the NCAA tourney--and maybe even save their jobs. I do like the idea of giving the top-two regular-season teams--division winners, I guess--first-round tourney byes--a deserved reward for a good regular season.

I'm not sure why the SEC decided--recently, I think--to break soccer up into divisions--as we do with football. I don't think any other league as soccer divisions--and it doesn't seem to make much sense. It would if, like football, the two division winners played each other in a title game to determine the league champion--but that's obviously not what the league does. I don't see the point in having divisions. I mean, yes, it gives teams a chance to trumpet the fact that they're a "division winner"--as we've done last year and this--but a team's //overall// league record is what's really relevant--not one's divisional record. In any case, I'm curious to know where the SEC tourney might be moved.

One thing about George: If she plays for us next year--and let's hope she does--I think Pensky has got to give her more rest. She is a physical player who is often double-teamed; she is mixing it up with opposing defenders all game--and she usually plays 80+ minutes in SEC games. That is tough on one's body over the course of the season. George is a tough cookie--very tough, and Pensky said recently that she recovers well from games--but we also saw her pick up an injury early in the first-round NCAA game and wear a thigh-wrap in the next two games. Cumulative wear-and-tear over 20+ matches is a thing--and so it might be prudent to play her fewer minutes during SEC games. It's hard because most league games are tight and very important, and you want to have your best players on the field as much as possible, but you also don't want your best players to be worn out late in the season. I think UT will have the depth next year to enable Pensky to rest his key players a bit more. We'll see!
Click to expand...

I believe they are turning it into a football stadium for the local high school. They interviewed Greg Sankey at one of the matches during the tournament and he said they were going to start looking into a new venue.

B715391C-6D38-4ECA-97A9-5AE27D69DF7F.jpeg
 
#1,427
#1,427
mad4vols said:
I believe they are turning it into a football stadium for the local high school. They interviewed Greg Sankey at one of the matches during the tournament and he said they were going to start looking into a new venue.

View attachment 414418
Click to expand...
Interesting. I think Knoxville would be a great location. 😀. Somehow I suspect it will be somewhere in Alabama.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MAD
#1,429
#1,429
VOLINVONORE said:
Way too early to talk about seeding. Wait until the end of January and everyone will have a pretty good idea where the seeds will fall.
Click to expand...

The only way I can understand your post is to assume you are talking about Lady Vol basketball. I was referring to Lady Vols soccer in my post.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MAD and kregman
#1,430
#1,430
StrangeVol said:
I picked up an interesting tidbit this afternoon (11/23). Guess which college campus is so overwhelmed with the FLU that they have called in the CDC to help them get their campus under control?

If you guessed Michigan @ Ann Arbor you'd be right. I wonder if they asked for help before or after the tournament?

I think that this newly revealed information is highly suggestive that our team was suffering from the flu bug either before or during the match.
Click to expand...

Yea, I saw on the news last week that the CDC announced they were headed to Ann Arbor. The stories I heard were several days before the games were played. I wonder if the NCAA considered moving the venue in light of such a serious flu outbreak. I thought this was pretty well known.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MAD
#1,432
#1,432
This is an episode of Rocky Top Rundown, a show produced by students at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville's School of Journalism and Electronic Media.

 
#1,440
#1,440
My only niggle about Pensky this year is that I thought he had the depth to give some of his starters more rest than
they got. Some of the up-front players--George, Rain, Burdette, Huff, Katz--logged heavy minutes from the start to finish of the SEC schedule and through the conference tourney. That kind of work load over 23 games can catch up with players--and may have been a factor in our loss to Michigan. It may not have been THE factor, but I suspect fatigue played a role in that defeat.

Izzy Cook, for example, is a pretty good midfielder who's been playing defensive mid the last two years. She's not as good defensively as Burdette, not as physical, but she is a more than competent player and a better ball distributor than Burdette, iMO. She was a starter on the U.S. U20 National Team a few years ago and scored a goal against China. Yet she played very little in the last 10 games as Burdette played pretty much all game, every game. I think Pensky could have played Cook at least 15 minutes a game and given Burdette some rest.

Maria Nelson was a starter at left back two years ago as a freshman, did a decent job (given that she was a forward/mid for most of her soccer career), then suffered a knee injury late in the season that kept her off the field last season as she rehabbed. She came back this season, but by then Rain and Katz had solidified their positions as outside back starters. Still, Nelson is athletic and versatile--and Pensky gave her some decent minutes in the SEC tourney and against Lipscomb in the first-round NCAA game--and she had an assist on the Huff goal in that match (nice cross into the box). Still, I thought he would have played her more. The challenge is to find a position where she can help the most. I would suggest that she could play right-back and give Katz some rest time every game. Also, Jenna Chatterton is a well-regarded midfield prospect who played some during the non-conference part of the schedule, then not at all through most of the SEC schedule--but then Pensky got her on the field some in the last two/three SEC games and. I think, a bit in the tourney. These are alll players you want to keep on the team because they've got talent, experience (more or less) and are versatile. You need quality depth to have a good team. If your quality depth players enter the portal and leave, because they're not playing enough, then your depth is no longer an asset, as players with less experience and maybe less talent, have to relieve the starters--and that's not good!

I mean, it's pretty basic: If you want to keep certain players with talent on the squad, you've got to get them on the field and contributing or else they will transfer out. Pensky has lost some highly rated prospects in recent years. In some cases. of course, a freshman prospect simply does not impress the coaches and will be told that she's likely not going to get a lot of playing time--and hearing that, the prospect will transfer. Pensky had a Top Drawer 100-ranked midfielder from New York State enroll early this past winter, and when I checked the roster in the spring she was not on it. That was weird--and then I learned that after winter workouts she'd transferred to Western Kentucky. I can only assume that the coaches were not wowed by what they saw from her, suggested another school might be a better fit for her--and helped her find a new school. As it happened, she scored the game-winning goal in an early season game for Western Kentucky this past season, and the coach said she had a "bright future." That was good to see. Personnel management is obviously a key part of the coaching job.

Lastly, though UT's roster seems full already, I'd bet heavily that Pensky will bring in at least one or two transfers. Zalusky came in last year--transfer from George Washington. We also got a transfer from Syracuse--but she didn't play much--and Ellis came from a junior college. I read that there are already some 350 players from around the country in the portal--about a third of them 5th years. Every coach will try to find players in the portal whom s/he thinks can fill a need.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Volfaninfl2, StrangeVol and MAD
#1,441
#1,441
turbovol said:
My only niggle about Pensky this year is that I thought he had the depth to give some of his starters more rest than
they got. Some of the up-front players--George, Rain, Burdette, Huff, Katz--logged heavy minutes from the start to finish of the SEC schedule and through the conference tourney. That kind of work load over 23 games can catch up with players--and may have been a factor in our loss to Michigan. It may not have been THE factor, but I suspect fatigue played a role in that defeat.

Izzy Cook, for example, is a pretty good midfielder who's been playing defensive mid the last two years. She's not as good defensively as Burdette, not as physical, but she is a more than competent player and a better ball distributor than Burdette, iMO. She was a starter on the U.S. U20 National Team a few years ago and scored a goal against China. Yet she played very little in the last 10 games as Burdette played pretty much all game, every game. I think Pensky could have played Cook at least 15 minutes a game and given Burdette some rest.

Maria Nelson was a starter at left back two years ago as a freshman, did a decent job (given that she was a forward/mid for most of her soccer career), then suffered a knee injury late in the season that kept her off the field last season as she rehabbed. She came back this season, but by then Rain and Katz had solidified their positions as outside back starters. Still, Nelson is athletic and versatile--and Pensky gave her some decent minutes in the SEC tourney and against Lipscomb in the first-round NCAA game--and she had an assist on the Huff goal in that match (nice cross into the box). Still, I thought he would have played her more. The challenge is to find a position where she can help the most. I would suggest that she could play right-back and give Katz some rest time every game. Also, Jenna Chatterton is a well-regarded midfield prospect who played some during the non-conference part of the schedule, then not at all through most of the SEC schedule--but then Pensky got her on the field some in the last two/three SEC games and. I think, a bit in the tourney. These are alll players you want to keep on the team because they've got talent, experience (more or less) and are versatile. You need quality depth to have a good team. If your quality depth players enter the portal and leave, because they're not playing enough, then your depth is no longer an asset, as players with less experience and maybe less talent, have to relieve the starters--and that's not good!

I mean, it's pretty basic: If you want to keep certain players with talent on the squad, you've got to get them on the field and contributing or else they will transfer out. Pensky has lost some highly rated prospects in recent years. In some cases. of course, a freshman prospect simply does not impress the coaches and will be told that she's likely not going to get a lot of playing time--and hearing that, the prospect will transfer. Pensky had a Top Drawer 100-ranked midfielder from New York State enroll early this past winter, and when I checked the roster in the spring she was not on it. That was weird--and then I learned that after winter workouts she'd transferred to Western Kentucky. I can only assume that the coaches were not wowed by what they saw from her, suggested another school might be a better fit for her--and helped her find a new school. As it happened, she scored the game-winning goal in an early season game for Western Kentucky this past season, and the coach said she had a "bright future." That was good to see. Personnel management is obviously a key part of the coaching job.

Lastly, though UT's roster seems full already, I'd bet heavily that Pensky will bring in at least one or two transfers. Zalusky came in last year--transfer from George Washington. We also got a transfer from Syracuse--but she didn't play much--and Ellis came from a junior college. I read that there are already some 350 players from around the country in the portal--about a third of them 5th years. Every coach will try to find players in the portal whom s/he thinks can fill a need.
Click to expand...
Is there any way to see the portal and who all is in it?
 
#1,445
#1,445
Florida State vs Michigan just kicked off.
Curious to see all the hype about how good FSU is.
Wish we were playing today.
 
#1,446
#1,446
mad4vols said:
Is there any way to see the portal and who all is in it?
Click to expand...

No, you have to be coach (with a university email account/id) to access the portal. It would be interesting to see. With so many transfers in every sport nowadays, it's another recruiting avenue, essentially. It's an opportunity to pick up a player or two who could help your team, if your due diligence is good.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MAD
#1,449
#1,449
Golden goals can be so cruel. FSU wins it in the final minute of the first OT.

 
#1,450
#1,450
mad4vols said:
Florida State vs Michigan just kicked off.
Curious to see all the hype about how good FSU is.
Wish we were playing today.
Click to expand...

FSU just beat Michigan in OT. Speaking of transfers, the player who scored the winning goal, Olsen, is a Dane (I believe) who transferred from Florida to Florida State this year. Florida State is very experienced, very technical as a team (more technical than we are, for sure) and talented. They are excellent defensively almost every year--and, once again, did not give up a goal today The Noles are well known for their possession game: they can control the ball brilliantly--as they did today--but they knock it around so much that opponents can get most or all of their players behind the ball and make it difficult for them to score, and FSU has not been great in attack in recent years. But if you control the ball for most of the match and don't give up a goal, all you need is one to win--and that's what they got today.

I did not see the first half but FSU had a goal disallowed, because of offside, and then had another ball that came very close to crossing the goal line before being snatched by the Michigan keeper. It was all FSU in the second half as they must have had 70+ possession but struggled to break through the Michigan defense. They got a PK kick call after a foul in the box--but J. Howell missed the PK. Howell, defensive mid, has been in camps with the U.S. women's national team. FSU has been the best program in America for the last 10+ years--better than UNC, and that's saying something.

As for Michigan: It was hard to get a sense of that team today given that they spent most of the game playing defense. I heard that they had /every starter/ back from last year's team, so clearly that was a big factor in their success. One could see that their centerbacks are very good and their overall defensive play is strong--and they've got a couple of dangerous players up front. They came close to getting the match to PKs, but it wasn't to be.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lurker and MAD
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.
Advertisement



Back
Top