Non-Lady Vol Basketball News 2023-24

[LadyVols_WBK]

ik what you are gonna say

 

[glv98]

Nikki is one of my all time favorite players so I was really pulling for her. I'm surprised not only that she has failed, but failed spectacularly. Her resume looked pretty solid coming into the job.

So if we're surprised she "failed" and her resume was solid, is it possible she turns it around in yr 2? I get we're speculating a mass player exodus, but I don't want to give up on her and declare her a weak branch just yet. Following what Vic did was always going to hard,

 

[VolBall09]

So if we're surprised she "failed" and her resume was solid, is it possible she turns it around in yr 2? I get we're speculating a mass player exodus, but I don't want to give up on her and declare her a weak branch just yet. Following what Vic did was always going to hard,

Always hard to take over a great team at a bad school. What Schaefer did there was really pretty amazing. His and his staff’s ability to develop players and win games made MSST.

I think Nikki can get it done, but she’s missing her chance right now. If she can’t show she can be successful with the talented roster she has she will very quickly have trouble recruiting to Starkville. New coach and 8th place in the SEC doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in recruits. She’s got two more seasons most likely. If next year is similar she had probably start job searching.

The Schafer show was maybe the most exciting thing to happen to MSST athletics. They only have 28 conference championships all time. 17 of those are baseball. Not exactly an athletics juggernaut. To have a team consistently at the top of the SEC made fans and the Univeristy very proud. McCray already seems unpopular with the fanbase, tough act to follow unfortunately.

 

[Amb3096]

So if we're surprised she "failed" and her resume was solid, is it possible she turns it around in yr 2? I get we're speculating a mass player exodus, but I don't want to give up on her and declare her a weak branch just yet. Following what Vic did was always going to hard,

Depends what she's left with. If Carter leaves, she's screwed; if Rickea joins her, MSST will be battling Auburn for last place in the SEC. Frankly, there's no recovering from that. Not next year, and unlikely ever afterwards because she will have lost what makes MSST attractive to recruits: a winning program. Maybe she wasn't ever going to *be* Vic, but he sure set her up for success by leaving her with a loaded roster. She had one job, which was not to screw that up...and she failed.

She better be working double time to convince her players to give her another chance next season, because if they bail on her, I doubt she will get another P5 coaching opportunity once her contract expires. And if she does convince them to stay, she needs to start actually coaching them.

 

[sisaq]

I`m not sure firing her right now is the correct move she has a pretty good 2021 class coming in.

It's just her first year wow. When ever things are not going well people start pointing. They were ranked top 10 be4 the season started and I mentioned teams that were not supposed to rank at that time. Just because a name of the school makes a team to be rank doesn't mean they're good. Vic ran to Texas and with all his star players he couldn't beat anyone.

 

[VolBall09]

Interesting that beating us didn’t move UGA at all in the NET. We dropped back to 15 and UGA held steady at 16. It seems to be fluctuating much less as more and more games are played.

 

[Darth_Vol]

So if we're surprised she "failed" and her resume was solid, is it possible she turns it around in yr 2? I get we're speculating a mass player exodus, but I don't want to give up on her and declare her a weak branch just yet. Following what Vic did was always going to hard,

Assuming she gets a second year. I know it's rare to fire a coach after the first year, but I don't think anyone dreamed it would be THIS bad...

 

[Rickster]

I don't know why people didn't expect that program to drop when Vic left. Coaching changes rarely produce overwhelming results in year 1. She deserves a chance to succeed but the fan base is not happy. Tough situation.

 

[VolBalls33]

First time watching Arizona this season, and believe first time watching their star McDonald. Stanford has a great defensive game plan to force her one way. Arizona playing tough as it's tied after one. Stanford seems to go 20 deep lol. Jones for Stanford wasn't she a #1 recruit coming out of HS? She doesn't look all that good(or elite being that top player), at least this one game. Brink has impressed.

 

[Amb3096]

I don't know why people didn't expect that program to drop when Vic left. Coaching changes rarely produce overwhelming results in year 1. She deserves a chance to succeed but the fan base is not happy. Tough situation.

I can't think of an example where the incoming coach was left with so much talent to start with and it wasn't a rebuilding job. McCallie @ Duke and Holly @ UT are the closest examples, and both of them had relatively successful rookie years. Even then, I don't think either of them had as quite a deep/talented roster as Nikki had with MSST.

If MSST had finished something like 4th/5th in the SEC, that would be one thing. But they have completely imploded and from watching the players on the court, they look absolutely lost/dejected/disorganized. I can see why fans would be upset. The product she's putting on the floor is terrible.

 

[VolBall09]

First time watching Arizona this season, and believe first time watching their star McDonald. Stanford has a great defensive game plan to force her one way. Arizona playing tough as it's tied after one. Stanford seems to go 20 deep lol. Jones for Stanford wasn't she a #1 recruit coming out of HS? She doesn't look all that good(or elite being that top player), at least this one game. Brink has impressed.

Jones is very good. Her only flaw is that she isn’t more aggressive. She could take it and score in transition every time she gets a rebound. Too selective in when she attacks.

Arizona has a great team defense as well. Two good looking teams so far. Both teams hitting big shots.

 

[Darth_Vol]

I don't know why people didn't expect that program to drop when Vic left. Coaching changes rarely produce overwhelming results in year 1. She deserves a chance to succeed but the fan base is not happy. Tough situation.

Except this wasn't just a "drop." Even Holly didn't crater an elite program in one year...

 

[creekdipper]

Still amazed (speaking objectively; understand the pro-UConn bias) that Conn. is ranked #1 ans projected as #1 overall seed. They simply have not earned even a #1 seed in tournament at this point. Seeing all these other teams being challenged by other ranked teams now with more upcoming ranked games in their conference tournaments while Conn skates laughing at everyone else just makes a mockery of the process.

 

[VolBalls33]

I despise UCONN but they 100% deserve a 1 seed, and I'd put them as the overall #1 currently. As much as that pains me to type out. What 4 teams would be above UCONN on the 1 seed line? And that wouldn't include South Carolina with UCONN beating them head to head.

 

[creekdipper]

UConn beat SC head to head in Storrs in overtime (and only because SC couldn't hit 3 gimmes in the closing seconds). We beat SC in Knoxville in regulation.

Conn has played one top ten teams. We have played three. Other than in-and-out-of- the-rankings DePaul twice, Conn has played #1 (overtime home win), #15 (road loss), and #25 (final minute road win).

You seriously think that Conn has proved this year on the court that they have been tested in the way other teams like SC and Texas A&M have been tested? Most years they deserve to be in Top 1-3 slot, without question. What have they done this year that has been so impressive given their weak schedule?

 

[Terrells Bay88]

Still amazed (speaking objectively; understand the pro-UConn bias) that Conn. is ranked #1 ans projected as #1 overall seed. They simply have not earned even a #1 seed in tournament at this point. Seeing all these other teams being challenged by other ranked teams now with more upcoming ranked games in their conference tournaments while Conn skates laughing at everyone else just makes a mockery of the process.

Even during their "down" years at worst UConn will be a #2 seed. The bad blood between UConn and the former Big East teams along with the Tobacco Road teams that happened during conference expansion is one of the reasons why UConn isn't in the ACC. Barring them losing 3 or 4 non conference games, they will be a #1 seed.

Jones is very good. Her only flaw is that she isn’t more aggressive. She could take it and score in transition every time she gets a rebound. Too selective in when she attacks.

Arizona has a great team defense as well. Two good looking teams so far. Both teams hitting big shots.

Jones can get in the lane anytime she wants to but she forced quite a few passes tonight that led to turnovers.

 

[VolBalls33]

UCONN wouldn't have lost to Colorado(Stanford), UNC/Virginia Tech(NC State), Florida State(Louisville), UT(South Carolina), LSU(Texas AM). All teams have bad losses outside of South Carolina and UCONN. UCONN doesn't lose to unranked teams like the ones stated above. Having said that I don't think UCONN wins it all this season. But still IMO no way there are 4 better profiles. They will be getting a #1 seed and it's not even debatable. Take off the orange glasses. Anyone that is objective would laugh at the idea having UCONN as a #2 seed this season.

 

[Terrells Bay88]

UCONN wouldn't have lost to Colorado(Stanford), UNC/Virginia Tech(NC State), Florida State(Louisville), UT(South Carolina), LSU(Texas AM). All teams have bad losses outside of South Carolina and UCONN. UCONN doesn't lose to unranked teams like the ones stated above. Having said that I don't think UCONN wins it all this season. But still IMO no way there are 4 better profiles. They will be getting a #1 seed and it's not even debatable. Take off the orange glasses. Anyone that is objective would laugh at the idea having UCONN as a #2 seed this season.

Do you think any of those teams would've lost any games in the Big East if you swapped them out with UConn?

 

[creekdipper]

After looking over some of the schedules, I agree that Conn would be a #1 seed based upon Top 25 schedules compared to Louisville, Baylor, Stanford, Louisville, UCLA, etc. (although I think many of their unranked in-conference opponents are still far superior to most Big East teams). But there is no way that an objective viewer can compare A&M's and SC's schedules and think that Conn would not likely have at least a couple of more losses (or more) if they faced the weekly grind of facing ranked, very physical teams. Look at Arkansas, who beat Conn. They play 6 of the Top 10 teams in addition to other ranked teams such as us, KY, and Georgia. Conn would have lost to SC on the road. They barely beat us when we were the last ranked team, so I don't see how you can be so assured that they wouldn't have lost to a good unranked team. Seeing how the best SEC teams have close calls against unranked conference foes while often pounding the SEC team who beat Conn indicates that the level of competition can catch up to anyone given the opportunity.

I'd definitely put A&M and SC ahead of Conn based upon their level of competition. Trying to be fair about it and using same standards, can't say others have been tested any more than Conn against best competition even if overall level may be better. Conn may have faced a few more Top 25 teams than them, but only one of those teams was in Top 15...and they had to have a miraculous effort from one player the win in overtime at home.

We have played 10 Top 25 opponents, going 4-6 against them. We've fared better against top opponents than UConn, beating iur mutual Top 10 opponent and handily beating the team that beat UConn. Our close losses against ranked teams (all currently in Top 20) in addition to our wins against higher-ranked opponents than Conn has faced indicates we should be considered as good as Conn, if not better if we're just basing upon competetive results.. Yet no one, including me, is going to argue that we should be considered a Top 10 team right now.

Just like us, Conn is reliant upon one or two players against the toughest competition. They simply have more talent to take up the slack if a "star" has a below-average night. But they haven't been tested often enough, as their SOS shows. And their loss to Ark and skin-of-their-teeth escapes against SC and us demonstrate their vulnerability against solid competition. They may have "earned" a #1 seed by default, but I think there are several stronger teams who will be seeded below them who got caught on an off night due to stronger overall competition than what Conn has had to face.

 

[creekdipper]

And just for full disclosure, I blame both us and SC for choking and failing to expose Conn as the good-but-not-great team they are this year (and not being able to say that the SEC owns them). I think both of us lost our games rather than Conn winning them, but that's still on us.

 

[VolBalls33]

Do you think any of those teams would've lost any games in the Big East if you swapped them out with UConn?

No if I were being honest, although DePaul came close losing to Texas AM by 2 93 91. I know the Big East is a garbage conference outside of UCONN and when DePaul bombs from 3 they can be tough to beat. The ACC also is wayyyyy down this season. 2 ranked teams, which makes Louisville overall profile really weak this year. They have played 2 ranked teams, yes TWO ranked teams. Lost by double digits to 1 of those teams. Although they gave DePaul their worst loss this season by 41. Most teams just don't have great overall profiles this season, that's all I am trying to say. And honestly in years past I have said how weak the AAC was and griped about UCONN getting the top 1 seed. So I get it, and maybe UCONN doesn't deserve the top #1 seed, but they have a top 4 profile this year.

 

[VolBalls33]

And just for full disclosure, I blame both us and SC for choking and failing to expose Conn as the good-but-not-great team they are this year (and not being able to say that the SEC owns them). I think both of us lost our games rather than Conn winning them, but that's still on us.

I agree 100% with you on this one. And also why I really don't think UCONN wins it all this year. Should be an exciting tournament and wide open for a good 7 to 10 teams to have a shot at the title. Never happens in women's basketball and looking forward to it.

 

[Nute Gunray]

And just for full disclosure, I blame both us and SC for choking and failing to expose Conn as the good-but-not-great team they are this year (and not being able to say that the SEC owns them). I think both of us lost our games rather than Conn winning them, but that's still on us.

A number of posters on the UConn fan forum said UT lost a winnable game with UConn.

 

[Nute Gunray]

I agree 100% with you on this one. And also why I really don't think UCONN wins it all this year. Should be an exciting tournament and wide open for a good 7 to 10 teams to have a shot at the title. Never happens in women's basketball and looking forward to it.

UConn may win a NC this year. They are a good team with an equal chance to win with SC, Stanford, Louisville, NC State and TA&M.

 

[VolBalls33]

UConn may win a NC this year. They are a good team with an equal chance to win with SC, Stanford, Louisville, NC State and TA&M.

I would add Baylor and Maryland in there as well.