Game Thread: Lady Vols Vs UCONN. ; Thurs Feb 6th ; Home game; 6:30 PM Eastern; ESPN...WIN 80-76

[Woodlawn VOL]

She has brought her system and the players are buying in. She is also doing it with many players still around from the previous staff. All of them have bought in, we are clearly better under Caldwell. I can’t till we see a few more recruiting classes of players she recruits. Congrats to the staff and the players as they battled hard as a unit tonight and kept up the intensity on both ends of the floor. Way to go Lady Vols!!!!

 

[Benionsopinion]

If only I had not been booted from the boneyard a week or so ago, I could go there tonight and see the carnage. Oh well, let me just imagine, sometimes that is even better than the real thing. What a great game by UT.

Rooster,let me be among the very first to say that you called this some time ago. You were the first poster that I recall saying that the Lady Vols would beat Ucon. Your prognostication proved accurate. My hat is off to you and the great group of athletes that took the measure of Ucon. I’m glad that the Lady Vols are your second favorite team.

 

[madtownvol]

Well, if all those heartbreaking losses were needed to beat UConn, then so be it!!!! What a great signature win for the team and CKC, particularly given the Paige Bueckers sob story ESPN chose to highlight. Super impressive to get this win with Coop, Jewel, and Ruby having subpar offensive nights. Maybe the break through game for Spearman and a great floor general game from Spencer.

 

[papatomany]

Bueckers Is way overrated. Great player yes. All time great no way. Lots of UConn players better than her.

Well, career 53% fg and 42% on 3s, which includes a half year playing gimpy recovering from a major injury. Compare that to Caitlin Clark's 46%/37.7%.
Thankfully, she was cold as can be tonight, but that's pretty rare.

 

[superfly]

I was so happy with the outcome. You could tell your girls were playing tight in the end, but they held serve. I called my sister, and she was elated. I have spoken to her and been with her for many Tennessee games and this might be the most excited she has been. I am happy for her and her team. "Tennessee is back", as she said. I guess UCONN is still the measuring stick for most programs. Congratulations guys and girls.

 

[feathersax]

Duh, uh.....Geno was really articulate, eh?

 

[Rons1989]

Kim kicked his ass. Don’t try to minimize what our ladies accomplished.

Facts n luckily they made a lil run cuz this couldve got ugly....we all knew this is a top ten team when they dont beat themselves

 

[BigBadVol]

Edit.

 

[Rons1989]

Glad we didn’t we should expect to win these type of games going forward to restore our standard. We should never storm the court for the lady vols program.

Right....we are TENNESSEE act like u been here before

 

[KTrain]

Hell of a win for the Kim and the Lady Vols. I’m stunned. This is massive. Despite the free throw issues, we took them down on the boards 45-34, which was huge!

Onto Baton Rouge, time for some revenge on those Tigers.

Free throw % were not great and Cooper playing with residuals of Flu, still there. Great win and a great piece to the puzzle of getting back to the top. with a great recruiting class in our back pocket. GBO

 

[StorrsCentral]

Waiting on the responses from Stoors, Maple etc for their take…

Congratulations to the LVs for a great win. It was just a matter of time, and I think this is what the series needed to keep the interest going, and it is the first time in a while that the talent on the floor was very close to being even. I thought both teams played ok, each making great plays offensively and defensively. I had predicted at the Boneyard that we would win 92-83. I thought the pace of the game was fast enough to reach that score, but neither team could make a 3 point shot to save their lives, even when it was not contested. Of course, I am disappointed in some of the players that we depend on to carry us, so that will bother me for a while. My wife left the room when she got tired of me yelling at the TV over the multitude of missed lay-ups. Another lesson learned, have to move forward. The fouls on Paige and Azzi didn't help their aggressiveness on defense, but overall I thought the officials called a fair game. Can't complain, the LVols just played harder and deserved to win. So, how about playing like that on Monday, maybe you can keep it going. Good job.

 

[1morevol]

Can't say I agree that he passed her in 2000. Can't say I agree with that one bit. Hell, he didn't even "catch" Pat in titles until 2013. He did, however, have the best player in the game during the years that immediately followed 2000. And having the best player counts for a lot in this sport.

But personal disagreement aside, I did also think tonight that UConn didn't look anywhere as crisp as his best coached teams. The aura was definitely not what it's been in the past. Tennessee had a big part in throwing them off pace, of course. And If I recall correctly, they are missing a few important players, so perhaps that's a part of it as well.

So, Coach Caldwell will have to win 12 national championships before she passes Geno in any sense of the word? I took the comment you referenced as a passing of the torch to the next generation of coaches. Just my opinion of course.

 

[mudcat1973]

Can't say I agree that he passed her in 2000. Can't say I agree with that one bit. Hell, he didn't even "catch" Pat in titles until 2013. He did, however, have the best player in the game during the years that immediately followed 2000. And having the best player counts for a lot in this sport.

But personal disagreement aside, I did also think tonight that UConn didn't look anywhere as crisp as his best coached teams. The aura was definitely not what it's been in the past. Tennessee had a big part in throwing them off pace, of course. And If I recall correctly, they are missing a few important players, so perhaps that's a part of it as well.

Small correction huskies had best player from 2000 to C. Parker arrived in Knoxville

 

[VolBall09]

Watched the whole game this morning. Very proud of how hard the team played. We stayed composed when they made runs and answered everytime we had too.

This uconn team doesn’t have the killer instinct of teams past. Geno knew they were cooked all game. That’s why he blew all his TOs. He kept it close but our players were clutch.

The bucket by Latham, Spear three and that last bucket by Zee were all things of beauty.

 

[Cod]

Great game so glad they got the W, it's been needed for a long time!

 

[ThatVolGuy]

I was so happy with the outcome. You could tell your girls were playing tight in the end, but they held serve. I called my sister, and she was elated. I have spoken to her and been with her for many Tennessee games and this might be the most excited she has been. I am happy for her and her team. "Tennessee is back", as she said. I guess UCONN is still the measuring stick for most programs. Congratulations guys and girls.

Hard not to interpret this as a backhanded compliment. Thanks I guess?

 

[Volfan2012]

Game didn't go exactly as I expected as I thought we'd win both the turnover and the rebound battle and we only won rebounding. I thought they would shoot better than us but we would have more shot attempts. Surprised that we held them to such a low percentage shooting the ball. To win we had to as possesions turned out to about dead even. Keeping them off the free throw line was huge and shooting 46 percent overall , even with 25 percent from the three was encouraging to see. I think if we shoot it at 45 percent in the LSU game we will win that one as well. This was a straight up win no extra possessions we just made more shots didn't depend on getting 15 to 20 extra shots that we've gotten in so many games this season while shooting 35 percent from the field.
The way we were moving the ball in and out was the best we've done in a while We finished at the rim better than we have in the last several games. I see a lot of improvement overall. Coach KIm said February was when you would see it all come together and that is happening.

 

[Sudden Impact]

We beat the No 5 ranked team in the nation that is coached by a coach most VOL fans despise. We are showing improvement as the season progresses. Momentum in Feb for March. Best basketball I have seen in a while since CPHS stepped down. The 3rd Qtr was great but the back and forth in the 4th Qtr was something we will see in years to come consistently.

 

[Puppeteer]

I just now clicked on this presser and like everyone else early on in the year, I was on the fence about whether Kim Caldwell was a good hire or not. Let me tell you, this UConn fan thinks she is the perfect hire. I don't care if Tennesse goes out in the first round of the tournament (not that I think they will)....she is the real deal. She is just so impressive...smarts, personality, sense of humor, and tells it like it is...just looks and sounds like a wonderful coach and person. This UConn fan thinks she was a fantastic hire! Very impressed!

 

[MAD]

How common is it and what are the advantages and disadvantages of subbing in 5 players at a time?

 

[OrangeBeachVol]

DW's strategy for hiring Kim is vindicated.

As far as the game, IMO this team took a big step forward last night. For the majority of the game U Conn forced them to play out of a half court set and that strategy should have worked based on their previous games, but not last night. And they finally didn't panic after U Conn tied it up a 74. A month ago they probably would have lost.

 

[37620VOL]

How common is it and what are the advantages and disadvantages of subbing in 5 players at a time?

It's not common at all. The truth that most coaches don't come to terms with is that humans cannot go a full-on 100% baseline to baseline for more than 3-5 minutes without a measurable decline in performance. Furthermore, when you let a player get completely gassed, it degrades their short-term and medium-term muscle recovery time. If, as a player, you get used to going in and out, it does not affect your rhythm because you're always feeling fresh and you don't have to adjust to your own fatigue. So if you are going to press baseline to baseline and you expect nothing less than 100% effort, then you have to sub frequently and even your best players are going to get an absolute maximum 30-32 minutes per game.

 

[Majors]

It's not common at all. The truth that most coaches don't come to terms with is that humans cannot go a full-on 100% baseline to baseline for more than 3-5 minutes without a measurable decline in performance. Furthermore, when you let a player get completely gassed, it degrades their short-term and medium-term muscle recovery time. If, as a player, you get used to going in and out, it does not affect your rhythm because you're always feeling fresh and you don't have to adjust to your own fatigue. So if you are going to press baseline to baseline and you expect nothing less than 100% effort, then you have to sub frequently and even your best players are going to get an absolute maximum 30-32 minutes per game.

CKC is changing the game planning for Tennessee more than the other way around.

 

[MAD]

It's not common at all. The truth that most coaches don't come to terms with is that humans cannot go a full-on 100% baseline to baseline for more than 3-5 minutes without a measurable decline in performance. Furthermore, when you let a player get completely gassed, it degrades their short-term and medium-term muscle recovery time. If, as a player, you get used to going in and out, it does not affect your rhythm because you're always feeling fresh and you don't have to adjust to your own fatigue. So if you are going to press baseline to baseline and you expect nothing less than 100% effort, then you have to sub frequently and even your best players are going to get an absolute maximum 30-32 minutes per game.

Thanks for the explanation, made a lot of sense.

 

[MAD]