Game Thread: Liberty v Lady Vols, Sat. Nov 16th; Home-FCC; Noon; SEC+ network; win 109-93

[madtownvol]

Mtv, Boyd is absolutely blowing me away. I have no idea why, but I expected Kaniya to look tentative and too green to contribute much this year. But MAN was I ever wrong about her. Boyd (and obviously Cooper) was definitely a lucky break for Caldwell. Kim probably wouldn't say it out loud -- maybe not even to her own husband -- but she's probably thanking God every day for her roster.

Agreed. She is so far ahead of the curve it is kind of mind boggling. As I always say, sports is cruel and one players injury is another's opportunity. Wynn missing the season created more chances for the Boyd to show her stuff and gain experience. Awful for Kaiya but kind of a blessing in disguise for the team.

 

[Ovol]

Strange semi-meltdown on this board. But as they say reality bites. Many seemed convinced the LVs were going to look like an insane video game where their press completely imploded the opposition and generated a 100 steals and 200 points a game and where bets would me made on whether the LVs would give up a point over the course of the season.

Some have been very quick to shutdown any consideration of weaknesses. No, this team has no flaws!! We are fielding of 12 Candace Parkers and no coach will be able to find any way to have success against this never before seen or imagined system!!

That Polyannishness sets the stage for unrealistic expectations.

The reality is that this squad is a make-shift one. I am happy to see Tess and Sara being integral to the rotation and making positive contributions but I don't think they are players CKC would have recruited (same for Jillian and Avery).

Jewell is struggling a bit to find her groove in this system, particularly on the defensive side.

Boyd is a freshman, Whitehorn, Spearman, Latham, and Ayedole are still learning and adjusting. Spencer looks pretty comfortable and Cooper is the one player in this set who seems really at home and has been consistently stellar.

SO count it up, that is SEVEN new and key players that are being integrated and all the rest who are learning very different roles. And they are down Wynn who was the returner who seemed best suited to play in the new system.

In other words, that is A LOT!!! And they are just 4 games into the season.

PS. I just listened to Ruby's post-game comment that it is a challenge to make defensive adjustments when you are being rotated out so much and playing with different combinations of players.

That makes sense and likely plays a role in why CKC says her teams start slow. You need players who are completely interchangeable and play with have a "hive mind". It is a longer process to achieve that kind of cohesiveness than when you are working with 7-8 player rotation scheme.

This is a damn great post.

 

[Dak1219]

Agreed. She is so far ahead of the curve it is kind of mind boggling. As I always say, sports is cruel and one players injury is another's opportunity. Wynn missing the season created more chances for the Boyd to show her stuff and gain experience. Awful for Kaiya but kind of a blessing in disguise for the team.

Boyd definitely looks like she will make an all freshman team this year. She looks very ready to go and will only get better

 

[therealitytheory]

Whoa. 103 points and Lanier only had 5..

 

[VolBall09]

Boyd definitely looks like she will make an all freshman team this year. She looks very ready to go and will only get better

And what did she do the rest of the game? Mostly reacted to whistles and gave up open shots due to poor rotation.

My beef with Darby will always be defense. Just too slow.

 

[madtownvol]

And what did she do the rest of the game? Mostly reacted to whistles and gave up open shots due to poor rotation.

My beef with Darby will always be defense. Just too slow.

4 pts, 4 assists and 2 steals in 17 minutes for +8. Yep, off with her lazy head!!!

 

[lvocd]

Darby brings a lot of positives, to be sure. I'm so glad she is a LVFL. But she has always, and will always, struggle to stay in front of the player she is defending. I love her and am not insulting her. It just is what it is.

 

[Dak1219]

Darby brings a lot of positives, to be sure. I'm so glad she is a LVFL. But she has always, and will always, struggle to stay in front of the player she is defending. I love her and am not insulting her. It just is what it is.

Watch their run and jump defense, especially near side lines and mid court, Darby tends to play the angles exceptionally well. Then those backcourt ten second calls, I think she has been in on most of them. Now straight line defense that is definitely a different story, then again, I haven't seen too many on this team Excell at that yet and Darby will struggle there even with the best concepts because of lack of lateral quickness. Bottom line is she has consistently been one of the better 3 point shooters in the SEC and to open up driving lanes and great offensive rebounding opportunities by pulling defenses out of the paint, you have to have her on the floor until others prove they can make that shot consistently. The overall 3 point shooting percentage up to this point tells us that most of the others aren't there yet.

 

[Mafiaboss]

note to self: makes no sense to observe that the increased number of shot attempts will generate more assists and rebounds this year.

So, how do you do that? You put up more shots by, wait for it, playing better defense and robbing possessions from the other team. A lot of people think Kim emphasizes offense but she actually emphasizes defense to gain more possessions/shots. In my opinion, she is a defensive minded coach

Yep, the rotation/minutes changes are definitely coming. Meanwhile, everybody's getting into every game (except the obviously-still-not-100% Wells) and getting helpful experience getting used to one another out there. This is all a well-thought-out plan, guaranteed.

I wish I had a crystal ball that would give me just 10 minutes of seeing them in a game at the end of January, because I think they'll be looking pretty solid by then.

But I need to slow down and enjoy the process instead of wishing a huge chunk of the season away because I'm excited about the future.

Great post. KC is trying out rotations, introducing new stuff little by little, getting ready for SEC.

 

[LadyVol1908]

True of most teams.

Most teams don’t shoot 194729305738 3 pointers a game! Hope that helps.

 

[Lucy]

Right but with Kellie at the helm we couldn’t buy a bucket most possessions. Certainly weren’t spreading it around like this. It was rickea or bust.

You forgot to mention Kellie hated puppies and pinched babies. No doubt you’ll get that in a comment soon.

 

[Lucy]

Why stop? Get over it.

Your comments show you actually don’t have confidence in Kim so you feel the need to denigrate the previous coach. If I remember correctly you were crowing about an established home run coach, backing up the brinks truck, etc. and were shocked when KC was hired.
KC doesn’t need the constant denigration of Kellie. Coach KC is going to be just fine.

 

[VolBall09]

Your comments show you actually don’t have confidence in Kim so you feel the need to denigrate the previous coach. If I remember correctly you were crowing about an established home run coach, backing up the brinks truck, etc. and were shocked when KC was hired.
KC doesn’t need the constant denigration of Kellie. Coach KC is going to be just fine.

Interesting take as usual Lucy.

 

[stllvf]

Just watching and then listening to post-game comments after a few November games. Individual players have skills, but they have not either accepted or have the abilities to play this style. For the coach to repeat phrases " we told them in practice they were fouls but they didn't (believe or accept fromt their coaches) 'We practice our half-court defense the way it should be played, but they didn't execute it in the game." "the players (may) think that a W is sufficient but Practice in the next week will be difficult! Her metaphor of "stepping on/off the gas is commitment, but besides being committed the player and the five on the floor must all know what their assignments are to play defense from the inbound pass.

the next game after the coming week of practice will tell us who will be in the first and second team rotation, based on the practice week.

aside: I have a bias when reporters aren't prepared and ask long-winded imprecise questions. Twice if I remember correctly she has answered such questions with No!

 

[Mafiaboss]

Just watching and then listening to post-game comments after a few November games. Individual players have skills, but they have not either accepted or have the abilities to play this style. For the coach to repeat phrases " we told them in practice they were fouls but they didn't (believe or accept fromt their coaches) 'We practice our half-court defense the way it should be played, but they didn't execute it in the game." "the players (may) think that a W is sufficient but Practice in the next week will be difficult! Her metaphor of "stepping on/off the gas is commitment, but besides being committed the player and the five on the floor must all know what their assignments are to play defense from the inbound pass.

the next game after the coming week of practice will tell us who will be in the first and second team rotation, based on the practice week.

aside: I have a bias when reporters aren't prepared and ask long-winded imprecise questions. Twice if I remember correctly she has answered such questions with No!

Perfect example of either/ or thinking. “but they have not either accepted or have the abilities to play this style.” Fallacy. How about: They’ve played a few games as they learn this style.

 

[JohnTN]

Note that LV best Liberty by 16 points, the same winning margin as #14 Duke beat them a few weeks ago.