GAME THREAD: @ Oklahoma, Sunday, 2 pm EST, ESPN

#101
#101
glv98 said:
I don’t understand this. If a player is playing for money, the last thing they want to do is play poorly and have their coach call them out as a quitter. If you’re basically auditioning for the next bag or the next level you should be the most motivated player on the court. Maybe not motivated in the traditional love of school way we’ve romanticized, but seems counterintuitive that playing for money would make you not care.
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I can't disagree. If earning money and wearing the orange are not considered, what other factors could it be? I suspect it's all about the inner workings of coach/player and player/player personalities, decisions and feelings.
 
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#103
#103
VA_VOLFAN said:
just depends on the day you say that. From last game it appears. So from previous games we would say Coop or Mia was that player.

Today we need bodies because they are up tempo like us but in this “system” everybody plays so tired legs shouldn’t be an issue with subbing so frequently.
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Janiah Barker is the best overall player on this team, I’m not talking about stats from a specific game.
 
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#106
#106
Janiah Barker is not the best overall player on this team. She can’t play a lick of defense. Has very minimal to no intangibles at all. Gifted scorer with great size. A high level offensive scorer. But far from the best overall player on this roster. I’ll take Talaysia Cooper any day of the week to build my team around over Janiah Barker, Lazaria Spearman, or Ruby Whitehorn.
Talaysia would thrive if Coach Caldwell ran a more balanced/traditional basketball system.
 
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#107
#107
KnoxLikeUs said:
Janiah Barker is not the best overall player on this team. She can’t play a lick of defense. Has very minimal to no intangibles at all. Gifted scorer with great size. A high level offensive scorer. But far from the best overall player on this roster. I’ll take Talaysia Cooper any day of the week to build my team around over Janiah Barker, Lazaria Spearman, or Ruby Whitehorn.
Talaysia would thrive if Coach Caldwell ran a more balanced/traditional basketball system.
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Whitehorn was the glue for the team. It is hard to describe how important she was to their success.
 
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#113
#113
Oklahoma 83
Lady Vols 59
A serious question and please don't come after me.. I know Mia and Janiah are hurt, but I remember one game when Coach Kim said a player could have played but didn't. I see so many men's teams where they are short handed by 2-3 players. Do you think the NIL has caused a mentality of " I don't have to play if I don't feel like it?"
I don't even watch the NBA anymore because you never know which players are " just resting " that game...
 
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#114
#114
From ChatGPT:

Here’s the updated **UT @ Oklahoma** predictions table (including the two newly added score predictions), **sorted ascending by margin (UT–OU)**.

UserTennesseeOklahomaMargin (UT-OU)
mudcat19735786-29
brittannica6492-28
Volfan20125885-27
vols905478-24
Golfteacher6687-21
37620VOL7088-18
LadyVolsDiehard7992-13
Memvol447180-9
1reVOLver7784-7
Orange Maniac7271+1
Ladyvol7778078+2
J-Dog 13138374+9
MAD8668+18

Notes (so you know what I did):

* **LadyVolsDiehard** posted “Sooner: 92 / LVs: PAINFUL” — I used the same “PAINFUL = 79” decoding shown in-thread (so UT 79, OU 92).
* **37620VOL** posted “Final score 88-70” without explicit team labels; context reads like **OU 88, UT 70**, so I normalized it that way.
* There’s at least one post that appears to be **image-only** (attachment) that could contain a hidden prediction, but the thread view doesn’t show a readable score in-text.
 
#118
#118
I'm gonna miss the game again today, but (regardless of the outcome, which, on paper, should be horrible) I'm most interested in seeing from whom the leadership comes today--if it comes.

Janiah has it in her, but her position/role limits the "reach" of whatever leadership she brings. Leadership from your point guard/distributor is ideal, but I would (whether as coach or in loco parentis) still want to limit Mia's exposure to contact against this Oklahoma team today.

For all Kim and her staff have done to rehabilitate, coach up, and develop our transfers, as young humans they each are still of two minds: irresolute and prone to self-doubt or self-criticism. They've been growing in grit* ...but not quickly enough to keep pace with the demands of this schedule.

What follows will be unfair and too much to ask, but (switching to a golf analogy) the best shot we could make from where the ball lies today would be if the freshmen made a pact among themselves to take over and put this team's destiny on their own shoulders. It might split the team. Older players might resent it, or be shamed by it. It might destroy this season. But the future would look immeasurably brighter for Lady Vol basketball if it happened.

I've read and given thought to all the critiques of CKC and her system, both here and elsewhere. I'm still not convinced by the arguments--and I won't be until I see her players, playing her system, for 4 quarters, and still get beat. In one and two-thirds seasons, that is something I've not yet seen. Wish I had higher hopes for today.
------

* Educators will tell you that they are seeing similar traits among the various cohorts who went through the COVID lockdown period, the severity depending on their age, home life, and lifestyle prior to the lockdown.
I also wonder about the psychology of players who would be most drawn to transferring into a "new" system. It may be that such a scenario attracts players who've blamed their circumstances for their underperformances with other teams, blaming coaches, chemistry, system, etc. rather than taking ownership of their play. IF there is a shared character/developmental flaw that is infecting this LV team, that might be it.
As a coach, you can't throw your players under the bus for their psychological makeup or emotional woundedness, but neither can you make their competitive world easier or less demanding. All I can see that's positive--for the team, the program, but also for the individual players to whom you've committed your time and heart--is to keep making them face the hard reality that they must learn to own their attitude and their commitment. That's not just for the season or the prorgram, but for the rest of their lives if they're going to experience success when it really matters.

To do otherwise would be malpractice for an educator--and IMHO coaches are the highest practicioners of being an educator.
 
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#120
#120
Orange_Mamba said:
She said a mouthful
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I'm sorry, but that's just a stupid statement. These players were all recruited to play in this system! These players chose to come here in order to play in this system! In size, speed, and skills, and how they like to play, they are ideally fitted for this system. No one was tricked. There's been no bait-and-switch.

No. That is not the problem.
 
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#121
#121
Ole Miss getting the same beatdown we did. That is the game that makes the the most upset we should've won that Ole Miss game. Letting McMahon score like that was just incompetence. She hasn't been any good since.
 
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#123
#123
BruisedOrange said:
I'm sorry, but that's just a stupid statement. These players were all recruited to play in this system! These players chose to come her in order to play in this system! In size, speed, and skills, and how they like to play, they are ideally fitted for this system.

No. That is not the problem.
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Agree other than the three point shooting part. They should never or very seldom shoot the three and it should only be two or three different players that ever shot them. This team should be a superior mid-range and get to the basket and score team. They should be shooting a lot of free throws, but they can't make a layup and they don't get to the line cause no one has to foul them on the shots they are taking.
 
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#124
#124
Volfan2012 said:
Ole Miss getting the same beatdown we did. That is the game that makes the the most upset we should've won that Ole Miss game. Letting McMahon score like that was just incompetence. She hasn't been any good since.
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I’m not watching, but will they quit, will their coach allow that?
 
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