Game Thread: Lady Vols vs. (13/13) Arkansas

[W.TN.Orange Blood]

@LadyVols_WBK is usually the man. I have sling so I’m rewatching on there. If SEC network comes with your TV subscription you should be able to watch on the ESPN app by signing in with your cable provider.

Ok ..... thanks. I didn't know Espn already had it up for replay. I'll check this out sometime tomorrow

 

[LadyVols_WBK]

one of these days Coach kellie might get ejected from the game...this is a highlight of the game but someone made SURE to include the best part of the game

 

[VolBall09]

Ok ..... thanks. I didn't know Espn already had it up for replay. I'll check this out sometime tomorrow

It’s generally available on demand almost immediately after the game finishes on ESPN. Sometimes there is a short delay

 

[W.TN.Orange Blood]

one of these days Coach kellie might get ejected from the game...this is a highlight of the game but someone made SURE to include the best part of the game

Thanks for posting this. I don't think CKH would be ejected from a game. Maybe she'd get a "T" but not ejected that would be too harsh I think.

 

[VA_VOLFAN]

I guess it could have been Zaay Green. But anyway, thanks for helping out with my memory.
I'll put it to rest for tonight.....

No problem it gave me a chuckle thinking about zaay tossing her eye lash between plays lol

 

[W.TN.Orange Blood]

No problem it gave me a chuckle thinking about zaay tossing her eye lash between plays lol

Now that's funny right there. Seems like I do remember her doing that now that you've mentioned it.
Good times in women's basketball.

 

[VolBall09]

There was a specific sequence from about the 8:20 mark to the 8:00 mark in the 3rd quarter.

First we got the ball to Tamari at the short corner, a weak spot against the zone they had just switched to. Tamari missed the short jumper....but!

Rennia skyed in for a great oboard outside of her area. She kicked the ball back out to Horston on the wing.

This is my favorite part....

There is a split second where Tamari looks open on the block, you can see Jordan almost pass the ball. It took every fibre of her being not to do it. It would have been a certain turnover right into the hands of the defender.

Instead, she swung the ball around the perimeter to Suarez who hit Rae, a player with a better angle. Rae dumped the ball to Tamari on a wide open pass and T turned and scored right at the rim.

Perfect team basketball. Obvious they are being coached up finally. Rae is a different player as well. It’s beautiful. Totally thrilling to see Jordan have an obvious moment of progression after I dogged on her about the first play of the game. Last season she would have absolutely turned the ball over there forcing the pass. Love these girls.

 

[CannonVol80]

Yep. But I'm still trying to think of the player we had who would where these long black eyelashes in games a few years back. I can see her face in my mind but can't get her name to come forward in my brain to speak it. Oh well .... that's the way it goes in life when you have problems in recalling names.

Are you, by any chance, thinking of Shyra Ely? Without a doubt, she was one of, if not the most fashionable of the Lady Vols.

Jim

 

[VolBall09]

Fun fact, we had our 10th turnover of the game at the 4:41 mark of the 3rd quarter. We had 11 for the game. Can’t remember the last time we played a quarter of basketball against a good team without turning the ball over.

Let alone 12 minutes.

 

[GameTime]

Kasi was big tonight....

 

[Chippo]

An excellent win for the LadyVols and outstanding team play. If they keep going in this direction they can and will go far. And yes, Kellie Harper is the right person to be our coach and should have been years ago.

Well unfortunately it took a couple of bad
seasons to change that. Now if Fulmer
could do it with the football program.

 

[JCP201]

There was a specific sequence from about the 8:20 mark to the 8:00 mark in the 3rd quarter.

First we got the ball to Tamari at the short corner, a weak spot against the zone they had just switched to. Tamari missed the short jumper....but!

Rennia skyed in for a great oboard outside of her area. She kicked the ball back out to Horston on the wing.

This is my favorite part....

There is a split second where Tamari looks open on the block, you can see Jordan almost pass the ball. It took every fibre of her being not to do it. It would have been a certain turnover right into the hands of the defender.

Instead, she swung the ball around the perimeter to Suarez who hit Rae, a player with a better angle. Rae dumped the ball to Tamari on a wide open pass and T turned and scored right at the rim.

Perfect team basketball. Obvious they are being coached up finally. Rae is a different player as well. It’s beautiful. Totally thrilling to see Jordan have an obvious moment of progression after I dogged on her about the first play of the game. Last season she would have absolutely turned the ball over there forcing the pass. Love these girls.

Yeah, they were playing as a team. This is the best the Lady VOLS have looked since Pat. I hope it continues.

 

[Memvol44]

Watching again and Salary played great minutes. Her defense was much better tonight, no turnovers, a couple nice passes and she hit both 3s she took. One was waived off due to an off ball foul down low. Nice to see though! She’s a hustler as well, she was on the floor after loose balls a few times. We’ve been missing players like her.

You know this game was special to her,being from arky.

 

[Volfan2012]

For a lot of the game they were getting a lot of touch fouls and although they were doing a lot of bumping and arm slapping as well they were not getting called for anything. The foul on Rennia was not called then they get a ticky tack call on the other end. That is when Harper exploded and it was great to see. After that a much more even game was called she definitely got her point across.

 

[Amb3096]

When they're on, Rae and Rennia are lethal.

Rennia reminds me of Jimi Hendrix. She's an artist. Has that cool swag and little smile that says, "I know I'm good. And you can't stop me."

And Rae is just a flat-out warrior. Someone you'd always want on your side when you go to battle.

Like Grant and Admiral...their games complement each other.

Jordan H. Is starting to show why she was so highly-ranked. After a shaky start, she settled down, made great passes, let the game come to her, and made some momentum-changing defensive plays.

Kasi adjusted and started making her move to basket without putting the ball on the floor. If she works on her free throws, she'll be a great asset. Stamina much better, and she did much better keeping hands up on defense. Nice work!

Walker, Salary, others finding their roles nicely.

Hope Jaidan and Keyen got to enjoy the win even if remotely. We miss you.

Yeah, you get a game where both Rennia and Rae them are clicking like this and they will be difficult to beat for any team. I didn't see the game yet, but from the box score they both were very efficient with their shots and punished the smaller ARK guards. This is a great win for Kellie. They lost to a lesser ARK team last season, so to pull out a win when ARK was playing well is a big accomplishment...even bigger than the Indiana win. If they continue to play like this, they will surely challenge for the SEC title this year.

Kasi did surprisingly well playing starter minutes at the 5. I would have thought ARK would exploit her, but she did a very solid job inside.

 

[glv98]

This team does not appear to get rattled when teams go on a run either. They punch back, which is refreshing. CHW would panic, and thus so would the team.

Huge development for us. Twice in the 4th qtr, Arky threatened a little run, cutting the lead to 10. Let me repeat that bc it sounds so damn good - the ranked team threatened to cut our lead below double digits. At about 9 mins ,leading by 10, KK missed a layup (she had a very good game for her but this happens frequently). Davis soared for a nice tip in, double digits saved. A couple of mins later, KK missed two free throws (again, not picking on her but this happened). Rennia snatched a rebound away fm an Arky player and hit a short jumper in the lane. They were never close to a run again.

Our best player, our senior leader, made exactly the plays we needed to thwart a run, and in the Pat Summitt approved method - aggresive, hustling rebounding and putbacks. Manna from heaven for us starving LV fans! The confidence this gives the team cannot be overstated.

 

[glv98]

Yeah, you get a game where both Rennia and Rae them are clicking like this and they will be difficult to beat for any team. I didn't see the game yet, but from the box score they both were very efficient with their shots

Actually Rae started out a little force-y, the Rae of old. First qtr was actually a bit rough for all, understandable due to all the disruption. That they were able to hang in, not panic, and get it straightened out was huge. Watch the game soon as you can, it was a joy to behold.

If they continue to play like this, they will surely challenge for the SEC title this year.

IMO, we are two big developments away fm SEC title contender. Key MUST get better, and soon. Kasi was wonderful but cannot be counted on to carry the post alone. Sometimes the matchup absolutely will not favor her. As I said last night, Key is regressing. An absolute non factor in this game.

The other development we need is Jordan Horston's offense. Her shooting remains spotty at best and she would make 3 turnovers if she was on the court alone. Who would have thought that halfway thru her second year, Horston's biggest contribution would be defense and rebounding. Not dissing those contributions at all; in fact, I give her tremendous credit for finding a way to make significant plays in other ways. She had a couple of absolute defensive gems last night and is an enthusiastic rebounder. But if she could become half the offensive weapon she should be, and Rennia and Rae stay on course, this could be the best LV scoring juggernaut in years and years.

Another key to real contender status is for Jordan Walker to continue to play exactly as she did last night. Also, we must become more reliable shooting the 3.

The good thing is all of these things seem quite doable, with the notable exception of unlocking Key.

 

[LadyVols_WBK]

another funny part of the game was when Jordan blocked a Arky guard and said "give me that sh*t"

 

[LadyVols_WBK]

Full game:

 

[W.TN.Orange Blood]

Are you, by any chance, thinking of Shyra Ely? Without a doubt, she was one of, if not the most fashionable of the Lady Vols.

Jim

Goodness ....... are we going back 20 years with Shyra's eyelashes now?

 

[Willtalk]

Tenn should definitely be ranked. I expected them to win against Arkansas who I thought was over rated due to their win against an over rated Baylor. I think this game has shown that Tenn is actually better than Baylor. Arkansas is a very difficult team to gage other teams against because they are such a one dimensional team. The real test will be against Kentucky, TA&M and SC. The Vols still need to be given a lot of credit for taking the Razorbacks out of their offense. That was key.

 

[VolBall09]

Shout out to the interior defense as well. Both of Arkansas forwards combined for 2 points total.

We owned the paint for the first time in a long time. And we had a lot of fun doing it. Paint points ended up 52-20 in our favor. Clearly there was an intention and the team followed through. 32 more paint points against a ranked team is wild.

For comparison, Baylor had 44 paint points to Arkansas 32 when they played. Their post players are more offensively talented than ours, they just didn’t execute like our Lady Vols did last night.

 

[W.TN.Orange Blood]

Shout out to the interior defense as well. Both of Arkansas forwards combined for 2 points total.

We owned the paint for the first time in a long time. And we had a lot of fun doing it. Paint points ended up 52-20 in our favor. Clearly there was an intention and the team followed through. 32 more paint points against a ranked team is wild.

For comparison, Baylor had 44 paint points to Arkansas 32 when they played. Their post players are more offensively talented than ours, they just didn’t execute like our Lady Vols did last night.

I'm watching the replay of the game right now. I'm liking a lot of what I'm looking at.....This team last night is a totally different team than what was showing on the floor in earlier games. Moving Davis around & into the paint to score was one key strategy coach Harper came up with in this game...TN controlled the tempo in this game all through that first half. Harper really needs to use this game's winning strategy going forward to the end of the season.

 

[alexvol]

Tenn should definitely be ranked. I expected them to win against Arkansas who I thought was over rated due to their win against an over rated Baylor. I think this game has shown that Tenn is actually better than Baylor. Arkansas is a very difficult team to gage other teams against because they are such a one dimensional team. The real test will be against Kentucky, TA&M and SC. The Vols still need to be given a lot of credit for taking the Razorbacks out of their offense. That was key.

Not really ....on the Baylor comparison.Lady Vols were huge matchup problem for Arkansas as long as they could play slow tempo.That will not be true for other good teams that they will face.They have to have consistent post play and be consistent on offensive end to be competitive with good to great teams.That is still their challenge and the jury is still out ....we shall see shortly how that goes.

 

[PRG]

I'm watching the replay of the game right now. I'm liking a lot of what I'm looking at.....This team last night is a totally different team than what was showing on the floor in earlier games. Moving Davis around & into the paint to score was one key strategy coach Harper came up with in this game...TN controlled the tempo in this game all through that first half. Harper really needs to use this game's winning strategy going forward to the end of the season.

After watching Holly ball for a few years ..... Isn’t it great to see offense plays that get our players open looks ! And sometimes they would run the SAME PLAY and continue to get easy shots ..... What a novel idea !