Lady Vols Recruiting Info

#2,376
#2,376
Holly and company do not know how to use players like Middleton and Dunbar. Also, I see that some of you think a "project player" or two might help the program. Really can't see projects helping, simply because, this coaching staff was having enough problems coaching McDonald's All Americans and couldn't get them to play, projects would definitely not work with this staff.
 
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#2,377
#2,377
Middleton? This season she was nothing more than Carter-lite. All she does is dribble around looking to pass to somebody while rarely looking to shoot.
 
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#2,378
#2,378
UConn is full of role players, jus sayin... They are just taught how to do it better.

Holly needs to clean out her staff or leave with them.
 
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#2,379
#2,379
gule said:
UConn is full of role players, jus sayin... They are just taught how to do it better.

Holly needs to clean out her staff or leave with them.
Click to expand...

What are you talking about? Here is the UConn players that played against Texas and their espn recruiting rankings out of high school...

Breanna Stewart #1 player overall in her class
Moriah Jefferson #2 player overall #1 player at her position
Morgan Tuck # 6 player overall # 3 player at her position
Gabby Williams # 14 player overall # 2 player at her position
Kia Nurse # 33 player overall # 10 player at her position
Katie Lou Samuelson # 1 player overall

only real contributor off the bench:

Napheesa Collier # 6 player overall # 3 player at her position

Where are all these role players that you speak of?

I agree Holly needs to step up and possibly even leave but at least keep our complaints factual.
 
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#2,380
#2,380
Question here, I see a lot of references to picking up a JUCO or two but not much of any talk about recruiting big overseas or Canada. Teams like USF and a few others in the Tourney had much of their starting lineup from abroad. Even if a lot of the US players are looking elsewhere, I would think that it would be a natural for foreign players to think that playing for a team with 8 NCs would at least up their own visibility and that they might make huge contributions to carry on the tradition. There is a lot of great talent abroad, and I would think that would be better than scouring the lists for any remaining uncommitted athletes at likely a lower level. Maybe bring on a recruiter whose job is to target the overseas possibilities?
 
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#2,381
#2,381
volbeast33 said:
What are you talking about? Here is the UConn players that played against Texas and their espn recruiting rankings out of high school...

Breanna Stewart #1 player overall in her class
Moriah Jefferson #2 player overall #1 player at her position
Morgan Tuck # 6 player overall # 3 player at her position
Gabby Williams # 14 player overall # 2 player at her position
Kia Nurse # 33 player overall # 10 player at her position
Katie Lou Samuelson # 1 player overall

only real contributor off the bench:

Napheesa Collier # 6 player overall # 3 player at her position

Where are all these role players that you speak of?

I agree Holly needs to step up and possibly even leave but at least keep our complaints factual.
Click to expand...

Chong and Elkmark don't get off the bench much these days, although both were rated pretty high (I think Elkmark was higher than Nurse).

I'm surprised that they don't use Butler more, but they may not have a choice next year with no true post on the team...although I think they have the rest of the pieces to do a guard-oriented offense with 6'0 Collier playing the low post.

Will be nice to see them with some numbers in the "L" column :)
 
#2,382
#2,382
Amb3096 said:
Chong and Elkmark don't get off the bench much these days, although both were rated pretty high (I think Elkmark was higher than Nurse).

I'm surprised that they don't use Butler more, but they may not have a choice next year with no true post on the team...although I think they have the rest of the pieces to do a guard-oriented offense with 6'0 Collier playing the low post.

Will be nice to see them with some numbers in the "L" column :)
Click to expand...
Not in the conference their in
 
#2,383
#2,383
armchair said:
I thought Cooper played too much this year and Middleton too little. Cooper did not justify all her PT. She's not a good shooter--she's not very effective against zone defenses--and yet she played big minutes all year, and often not very well. Middleton has got a better jump shot, is a better passer--and in my mind plays defense just as well. We know this: you can't develop sitting on the bench. It's not like our guard play was strong all year--it was weak! We lacked scoring all year--we lacked three-point shooting, which was a major issue--and two players who could have helped in that respect sat on the bench most of every game. Dunbar would make a three and then Warlick would taker her out! She did this numerous times. Leave her in and see if she can make another three.
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John Adams talked about Cooper unorthodox shooting form in his pod cast. But the problem with Middleton she can not create her own shot. To me if Holly was smart she would make a big push for 2016 Recruit, Sabrina Ionescu or Tyasha Harris
 
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#2,384
#2,384
volbeast33 said:
What are you talking about? Here is the UConn players that played against Texas and their espn recruiting rankings out of high school...

Breanna Stewart #1 player overall in her class
Moriah Jefferson #2 player overall #1 player at her position
Morgan Tuck # 6 player overall # 3 player at her position
Gabby Williams # 14 player overall # 2 player at her position
Kia Nurse # 33 player overall # 10 player at her position
Katie Lou Samuelson # 1 player overall

only real contributor off the bench:

Napheesa Collier # 6 player overall # 3 player at her position

Where are all these role players that you speak of?

I agree Holly needs to step up and possibly even leave but at least keep our complaints factual.
Click to expand...

Graves #5
Russell #1
DeShields #3
Nared #6
COOPER. #12
Not much difference. I don't want to speak for Gule, but my interpretation of his UConn "role players" is that they each have a defined roll and purpose in their offensive scheme. Can we say the same for the LV's.?
 
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#2,385
#2,385
RE Middleton: Nobody is going to come into a game cold and start shooting--not when you're playing, what, minutes a game? Players need confidence--all of them--and you don't build confidence playing 8 minutes a game. Same is true for Dunbar. And you can see what a player might bring if you never play her, tho I realize coaches see a lot in practice.

Yes, Cooper is quicker than Middleton, but she did not have a very good year. She had 74 assists/97 turnovers for the season-that's (obviously) a negative A/TO ratio. She shot 36 percent for the season. In the final game--she had 0 assists and 5 turnovers?-Yes, Cooper can penetrate--but we faced zone defenses most of the year that are hard to penetrate, and that's a big reason why she was not effective. Was she a freshman, yes; does she have upside, we all hope so.

Middleton is a better shooter and passer than Cooper--and we need shooting. She certainly knows how to use the bounce pass more effectively than our other guards.She shot 38 percent for the year and had 41 assists/37 turnovers--positive A/TO ratio. You need shooters to beat a zone defense--and yet we had our best shooter, Dunbar, and one of out better shooters, Middleton, on the bench most of the year--instead playing Cooper, who is one of our worst shooters. I think the metrics people would say that is dumb.

Am I saying Middleton should start? No. Am I saying she played great this year? No. I'm saying what Piney is saying: She could have been better utilized this year. The truth is, we had yet another year of weak guard play--which has been an going problem. Reynolds was our only consistently decent guard in all facets of the game, and she's not exactly a star.

Dunbar, too, was poorly utilized. To leave your best shooter sitting all year on a team that struggled to shoot against zone defenses all year, and that was a bad 3-point shooting team all year, well, not smart. And I'm tired of hearing about Dunbar's defense--she hasn't even played enough to know whether she can play defense. And, besides, Warlick's obsession with defense is one of her problems. We have been losing games because our offense struggles.
 
#2,386
#2,386
We can recruit the best but until we make a change in coaching philosophy, we will be at this point next year and the next, etc. This change starts at the top, administration, Athletic Director, etc. We just do not have the ability to coach players up to their fullest potential. I believe we have seen the best this coaching staff has to offer and it is no where near a top 10 coaching staff. The way I see it is, we can bring in the best players in the universe, but unless we have a coaching staff that can coach, we are no better than Duke's women have been. McCallie is a great recruiter, the prestige of Duke alone, sells itself, but what has she done with all of her top ten recruiting classes? The women's game, because of Genno and Pat, has evolved into a more complexed game that requires knowledge, salesmanship, psychology and not only the desire to beat the best, but to be the best. Excuses and throwing players under the bus will never bring the LVs back to where they need to be, it takes real KNOWLEDGEABLE committed coaching. TO reach that goal you might have to replace coaches, or coaching staff personnel and replace them with coaches that are outside of the Volunteer family.
 
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#2,387
#2,387
All I know is PT is earned in practice. The coaches' trust is also earned. If that means a seven or eight player rotation, so be it. There is plenty of PT if the team is ahead in a blow out. Bottom line is player has to realize what they must do AND what the coaches must do to get a player PT.
I hope Holly learned that new talent is needed along with better conditioning. Mass subs are just not doing it for me.
 
#2,388
#2,388
We are very fortunate that we won the games we did in the SEC tournament. And extremely lucky we beat Green Bay. Imagine this board if we lost that game.
 
#2,389
#2,389
Holly can't win for losing. She had a very poor strategy during the Syracuse game. First of all she starts off with a one, two, two full court trap which was perfect, we got out to a lead, and then she stops. If we had stayed in that it would have rendered Syracuse's collapsing zone less effective. We couldn't feed the ball into the paint because they had three to four players in the paint at all times. We didn't move to the mid range jumper or the three because we've been crappy at those all year. We need to develop a mid range jumper game and a three point game or teams will just zone and collapse on Russell all next year. We need to emphasize catch and shoot at the three point line in practice. And, we need to emphasize less dribbling and more passing and shooting.
 
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#2,390
#2,390
volnationnj said:
Graves #5
Russell #1
DeShields #3
Nared #6
COOPER. #12
Not much difference. I don't want to speak for Gule, but my interpretation of his UConn "role players" is that they each have a defined roll and purpose in their offensive scheme. Can we say the same for the LV's.?
Click to expand...

YES, That was my point exactly! Holly has NEVER gotten the team to accept and excel in their defined roles. When stressed they are clueless as to what to do. imho
 
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#2,392
#2,392
djtee said:
John Adams talked about Cooper unorthodox shooting form in his pod cast. But the problem with Middleton she can not create her own shot. To me if Holly was smart she would make a big push for 2016 Recruit, Sabrina Ionescu or Tyasha Harris
Click to expand...

I agree that Holly & staff should make a big push for those 2 recruits BUT neither one of them even have the Lady Vols on their potential list. I think Ionescu is down to 2 schools while Harris is about 6 or 7 I believe but not even consideration for the Lady Vols.
 
#2,394
#2,394
tonybologna said:
I agree that Holly & staff should make a big push for those 2 recruits BUT neither one of them even have the Lady Vols on their potential list. I think Ionescu is down to 2 schools while Harris is about 6 or 7 I believe but not even consideration for the Lady Vols.
Click to expand...

I agree our chances are very slim but like you said Holly & staff should make a big push anyway.
 
#2,396
#2,396
Reading this about the high school that Harris attends, maybe we need to recruit her coach!

"Heritage Christian has won six state titles in the last 10 years, including four straight from 2006-2009 and back-to-back titles in 2014 and 2015."

Jim
 
#2,397
#2,397
tonybologna said:
I agree that Holly & staff should make a big push for those 2 recruits BUT neither one of them even have the Lady Vols on their potential list. I think Ionescu is down to 2 schools while Harris is about 6 or 7 I believe but not even consideration for the Lady Vols.
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I agree with this post! However, I have a different perspective on the 2016 girls. #99 Arella Guirantes 5'11" guard from Bradenton Florida would be interesting! She attends IMG high school which is the same high school that Rellah Boothe 2017 #2 recruit attends! She has Tennessee listed as one of her potential schools! Maybe they can help recruit each other ??????

You may ask why #99 recruit???? The point guard that just beat us from Syracuse was #92 in 2013:)
 
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#2,398
#2,398
PRG said:
I agree with this post! However, I have a different perspective on the 2016 girls. #99 Arella Guirantes 5'11" guard from Bradenton Florida would be interesting! She attends IMG high school which is the same high school that Rellah Boothe 2017 #2 recruit attends! She has Tennessee listed as one of her potential schools! Maybe they can help recruit each other ??????

You may ask why #99 recruit???? The point guard that just beat us from Syracuse was #92 in 2013:)
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Guirantes is number 44 on the Prospects Nation's list. Harris is 18 and I suspect we want see either one of them in a Tennessee uniform.
 
#2,399
#2,399
PineyBluff Vol said:
Holly and company do not know how to use players like Middleton and Dunbar. Also, I see that some of you think a "project player" or two might help the program. Really can't see projects helping, simply because, this coaching staff was having enough problems coaching McDonald's All Americans and couldn't get them to play, projects would definitely not work with this staff.
Click to expand...

You're right-- coaching up project players seems to be a tall order when the staff hasn't been developing McDAAs to full potential. But top players are going elsewhere, and the LVs don't seem to be on the short list of the most desirable undecideds. Project players may be all that's available. The LVs are just a few injuries away from having starters play 40 minutes next year. I don't remember the LVs ever being in this position... until now.
 
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#2,400
#2,400
It's truly sad we missed out on Crystal Dangerfield(#3 overall recruit,#1 PG,signed with UConn). I'm watching her play right now in the McDonald's High School All-American game on ESPNU. How could a player of that caliber get out of the state of TN without us even being on her radar?

Makes me sick to my stomach! She's going to be a star at UConn just like many of the others that go there. It's just sad that we didn't even stand a chance at signing her. If Pat was still coaching I would have bet she would have been on our radar but we can't do anything about that. :ermm:
 
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