Tennessee Falls Apart at ND

#51
#51
thetennlegend said:
Izzy is soft and that's one of the biggest problems this team has. I hear holly this holly that but what I see is a two bigs who shoot layups at a 50 percent clip. Graves and Harrison miss way to many easy shots for this team to go anywhere. Also diamond deshields will do wonders for this team next year.
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I'd like to be wrong about this, but you heard it here first: the Lady Vols will probably be about as good next year as they are this year. They might be a little better. They might be a little worse. There's a couple of reasons for this.

#1 The Lady Vols LOSE 3 key, productive members from this squad: Izzy is our best player, Ariel is our leading scorer and best 3 point shooter, and Burdick is our best vocal leader. Even though Ariel isn't technically starting, she should be and it's in that respect that we're losing 3 starters.

We have Diamond and Mercedes coming back but they both took off a year and they are only Sophomores. They will likely not be the saviors everyone is looking for.

#2 UCONN still has Stewart next year and ND still has Jewell next year.

The year after when they lose those key players and our big guns develop both chemistry amongst themselves and physically with basketball skills and their bodies, I think we can take a significant step forwards.
 
#52
#52
stubbs9 said:
I agree and think Diamond will put us back to being an elite program.
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I really hope Diamond is that girl..but losing Harrison and Burdick may be too much for her to overcome. This program is all about titles and even though a final four would feel good again, a championship is all that matters. I am afraid we may not have enough help for Diamond to lead us to a title, as I feel if we had her in the program this year we would easily be neck and neck with UConn. If we do not win win in the next few years with Diamond, then we are back to square one with no superstar players.
 
#53
#53
gule said:
UConn, 1st is one, their 2nd team is two, Nd's 1st, Texas, Baylor, UL, USC, lots of better teams than what Holly is putting on the floor.
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UConn's 2nd team isn't even top 25, because Luigi doesn't ever play them. He likes his starting 5 to average 30+ minutes a game, to better help them route the sisters of the poor otherwise known as the AAC, and bloat their team stats....

UConn's bench only averages 22 ppg. USC reserves Coates and Wilson as an example average 24.5 ppg between the 2 of them. The Gamecock non-starters are averaging a total of 41.3 ppg...
 
#54
#54
Rockytop1977 said:
Guess we'll never know! Pats not the coach anymore. She is now a big fan and supporter of Holly just like we all need to be. I'm sorry but I can't say that we are not good when we are still consistently in the top 10 in the nation almost every year. A 12 game winning streak is pretty impressive to me but maybe it just doesn't take that much to impress me.
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She's a fan of Tennessee, like the rest of us. Warlick is only worthy of support as coach in terms of how she can affect the success of UT. If she can help, then I like her. If she can't, I don't.

As it stands, wcbb is a very top heavy sport, so her winning a lot of games isn't as indicative of her quality as is beating those group of teams in the upper echelon, which is where UT's talent lies, as well. So far, it's not been good.
 
#55
#55
I think Teacherdean's original post is spot-on. There were times when the LVs cut the lead to one point and had a chance to take the lead. And they would get a good shot in the post only to miss it (or after grabbing an offensive rebound and then shoot a brick from one foot. And ND would then score a quick basket or three in transition. those kind of plays are momentum changers and it happened on several occasions. At at some point the wheels came off. And even then in the last 2 minutes, the LVs still had a shot if they could have pulled off a score, get a stop, score run.

This game was both frustrating and encouraging.
 
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#56
#56
LurkerExposed said:
UConn's 2nd team isn't even top 25, because Luigi doesn't ever play them. He likes his starting 5 to average 30+ minutes a game, to better help them route the sisters of the poor otherwise known as the AAC, and bloat their team stats....

UConn's bench only averages 22 ppg. USC reserves Coates and Wilson as an example average 24.5 ppg between the 2 of them. The Gamecock non-starters are averaging a total of 41.3 ppg...
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Sorry but no one on UConn averages 30 minutes. Lewis averages 29.5, the most. Everyone except the 2 walk-ons average double digit minutes.

Connecticut Huskies Statistics : Points per Game - Women's Basketball State
 
#57
#57
I know everyone looks for the superstar, but I have always thought the LVs have talent at least equal with just about everyone in the country

yes jewel is good..... that is why i had hoped for a box defense with the 5th person blanketing her everywhere she goes..... Turner is good, but they are dependent on Loyd
 
#58
#58
madtownvol said:
I think Teacherdean's original post is spot-on. There were times when the LVs cut the lead to one point and had a chance to take the lead. And they would get a good shot in the post only to miss it (or after grabbing an offensive rebound and then shoot a brick from one foot. And ND would then score a quick basket or three in transition. those kind of plays are momentum changers and it happened on several occasions. At at some point the wheels came off. And even then in the last 2 minutes, the LVs still had a shot if they could have pulled off a score, get a stop, score run.

This game was both frustrating and encouraging.
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Its deflating, especially when its your anchor,your go to player. But we could have picked her up by defending and rebounding. The first lost of the season with Izzy in the lineup. Izzy has to calm down, looks like a player with the world on her shoulders, and its noticeable, she just fell apart tonite. She has to become mentally stronger, cos the team follow her lead.

We gone have to beat a team like Notre Dame to get the Elite 8 so get ready ladies.

We got some work to do,and it starts with defense and rebounding. And yeah making layups. Damn.
 
#59
#59
I emptied the bar tonite with all those missed layups. lol Izzy,I wasnt so nice tonite but neither was your play. You get one freebie. We need you, just play the game with the freedom, grace, and aggressiveness you displayed last year.

LSU, Danielle Ballard ala Lloyd. Wow, lloyd is a special player. Ahh, we'll have one next year.

This was to me ND weakest team in the past five years and we lost to them...ugh
 
#60
#60
This was a road loss they shot 58 percent. They got to the foul line 27 times made 20. We should have played a match up zone. It was a good effort on our part but Holly will learn you cannot play man to man against the better teams with drivers like Lloyd. You have to make another player beat you. I'd rather give up outside shots than layups.
A very good learning experience hopefully for our team and coaching staff. Miami dominated Notre Dame guess we did not watch the film.
 
#64
#64
I'm curious to know what kind of defense Miami played against Notre Dame.

McGraw torches our Man-for-Man defense--and yet Warlick apparently missed the last two games we played against ND, when they embarrassed our defense. She made a, er, regrettable decision to play man last night. Actually, it wasn't dumb to start playing man--but it was foolish to stick with it as much as we did. We gave up 88 points! Somebody said that, if we played zone, ND would just make threes. Well, I'm quite sure making threes is considerable harder than making layups--40 percent chance vs. 100 percent chance!

We played the game at a very fast tempo that clearly favored Notre Dame. We needed to slow down the pace of the game. We hung in there gamely for a half, but we don't have the depth or talent or fundamentals to go up and down the court with them. Izzy gets tired and we have NOBODY to spell her--Moore has been terrible lately (weak basketball IQ). Also, we have only ONE guard who is good defensively--Carter. We have four guards, but only Carter is good on the perimeter. That is a problem against a team like Notre Dame, which has excellent, quick guards--all of whom can move and score and pass the ball deftly. I thought Carter would do a better job on Lloyd--but she let her get off in the first half. Carter started the second half playing very good defense--but ND found other ways to score.

I'm not sure what happened to Harrison at the start of the second half. Maybe she was playing too fast, rushing her shot--but it was incredible: She literally missed about 7 straight layups or two-foot shots. I'm not sure I've seen anything like it. Had she made those, the game would have been closer--but we weren't going to win because we couldn't stop ND. We can never stop ND. They have players and they are very smart and very well coached.

Graves' play was encouraging. Tip of the hat to her--she played hard and strong. I wish she would stop bringing the ball down to her waist every time she gets it, or gets an offensive rebound, but otherwise she was good. We need her to score and play big to have any chance of making noise this year. It's frustrating because if we had Russell and Jones, we'd be a final four team, I think. Russell's size would help inside immensely, and Jones would give us defensive depth. Freakish injuries to both--and Warlick apparently decided to be cautious with Russell, who as I understand perhaps could have played this year.

It was a good test--and if we meet ND again, I hope Warlick sees the need to play zone! We might not win, but we won't give up almost 90 points.
 
#65
#65
The percentages are with you if a team makes threes more than if you give them layups. Looks like they made about 90 percent of their layups so if they shoot 20 that is 36 points. If they shoot 20 threes percentages say no way they will make more than 50 and usually more reasonable 40 percent. Even considering 50 percent that is 30 points and 40 percent more likely 24 points. You have to stop layups at all costs even if you have to put everyone in the paint.
 
#66
#66
It is too bad... man for man... i think we are at least as good as ND..... Loyd is very good yes..... but we have some amazing players..... I thought we would win it
 
#69
#69
Took a look at the UConn vs Notre Dame game and Notre Dame shot 31 percent. Lloyd scored 31 but only 10 of 27 from the field. The rest of the team did virtually nothing. I don't know what kind of defense UConn played that day. I figure it was a match up zone. It certainly worked on stopping them cold and as a result 76 points was enough to win by 18.
 
#70
#70
Volfan2012 said:
Took a look at the UConn vs Notre Dame game and Notre Dame shot 31 percent. Lloyd scored 31 but only 10 of 27 from the field. The rest of the team did virtually nothing. I don't know what kind of defense UConn played that day. I figure it was a match up zone. It certainly worked on stopping them cold and as a result 76 points was enough to win by 18.
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I don't recall it being a zone, but there were a few things that stood out. Loyd was hitting the same crazy shots in the first half against UConn that she hit against Tennessee, but the shots stopped falling in the second half. Kia Stokes was huge in that game...she cleaned up the glass and limited ND to One-and-Done pretty much the entire second half. She also pretty much put a stop to any back door attempts and had a ton of blocks. The last thing was that Mabrey was a complete non factors. Mabrey missed a bunch of open threes badly. By the second half, the ND offense was Jewell jacking up a shot and hoping for the best while the rest of the team stood around.

I also think it's hard to compare a game where Brianna Turner was on the bench in street clothes. I don't know if she would have been the difference maker for ND to win the game, but they wouldn't have lost by 18 with her in the game. At the least, she would have gotten some offensive rebounds and extra possessions for ND instead of letting Stokes clean the glass the way she did.
 
#71
#71
armchair said:
I'm curious to know what kind of defense Miami played against Notre Dame.

McGraw torches our Man-for-Man defense--and yet Warlick apparently missed the last two games we played against ND, when they embarrassed our defense. She made a, er, regrettable decision to play man last night. Actually, it wasn't dumb to start playing man--but it was foolish to stick with it as much as we did. We gave up 88 points! Somebody said that, if we played zone, ND would just make threes. Well, I'm quite sure making threes is considerable harder than making layups--40 percent chance vs. 100 percent chance!

We played the game at a very fast tempo that clearly favored Notre Dame. We needed to slow down the pace of the game. We hung in there gamely for a half, but we don't have the depth or talent or fundamentals to go up and down the court with them. Izzy gets tired and we have NOBODY to spell her--Moore has been terrible lately (weak basketball IQ). Also, we have only ONE guard who is good defensively--Carter. We have four guards, but only Carter is good on the perimeter. That is a problem against a team like Notre Dame, which has excellent, quick guards--all of whom can move and score and pass the ball deftly. I thought Carter would do a better job on Lloyd--but she let her get off in the first half. Carter started the second half playing very good defense--but ND found other ways to score.

I'm not sure what happened to Harrison at the start of the second half. Maybe she was playing too fast, rushing her shot--but it was incredible: She literally missed about 7 straight layups or two-foot shots. I'm not sure I've seen anything like it. Had she made those, the game would have been closer--but we weren't going to win because we couldn't stop ND. We can never stop ND. They have players and they are very smart and very well coached.

Graves' play was encouraging. Tip of the hat to her--she played hard and strong. I wish she would stop bringing the ball down to her waist every time she gets it, or gets an offensive rebound, but otherwise she was good. We need her to score and play big to have any chance of making noise this year. It's frustrating because if we had Russell and Jones, we'd be a final four team, I think. Russell's size would help inside immensely, and Jones would give us defensive depth. Freakish injuries to both--and Warlick apparently decided to be cautious with Russell, who as I understand perhaps could have played this year.

It was a good test--and if we meet ND again, I hope Warlick sees the need to play zone! We might not win, but we won't give up almost 90 points.
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Lloyd was in foul trouble and they didn't have Reimer to help Turner in the post.
 
#72
#72
No matter who we try to blame we went out and recruited five stars, we have 8. We have as many five stars as any of the top 10 teams. Unless we have one stars in five star clothing they should be playing as such. We can blame players but the coach and the coaching staff cannot escape from shouldering a good portion of the blame. Okay the team can't shoot, let us not blame Holly for that one, however, the head coach and her staff does not have a clue how to close a wide open backdoor? Who can we blame for not realizing that the man to man defense was like giving Jewel a freeway to the goal? A few times last night we tried to throw the ball into Izzy when she was covered like flies on you know what and a few time we just threw it away. Yes these are player judgement issues, but who is responsible for coaching players to make better judgement decisions or to take their place on the bench? We literally could not keep up with Jewell if we were painted on her butt. Yes the players made mistakes, errors in judgement, and missed some very good shots but let's us not just blame the players and give the coaching a free pass.

Some of us are patient and satisfied to wait for next year when Russell and Diamond D. and yet to be named other players will come in on white horses, with wings, and save the Lady Vol program. The fact is deal with the here and now, because the future is yet to be determined. We do know that we have 8 five stars who were among the top players in the country but yet it does not appear that we are any closer to cutting down the nets than we were three years ago. Wait until next year!!!! Really!!!! How about this year?
 
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#73
#73
some of what you say is true...but in the womens game 5 star recruits dont mean you actually have the top talent...there are womens players who transcend the recruiting world...swoopes, leslie, holdsclaw, catchings,lobo, taurasi, moore, parker, griner...so and so so forth...if you do not have these special, i guess what you would call 6 star players, then you arent going to win...the lloyd girl proved she is better than anyone we can put on the court...we all know uconn has 2-3 of these type of players...south carolina may have 1-2 of these...we have none of these so called superstars and that is why we lose...its really tha simple...difference in game last night was one player...she switched teams and we win by same amount as ND did...you have got to get those special players in the program...
 
#74
#74
MasterShake Vol8 said:
some of what you say is true...but in the womens game 5 star recruits dont mean you actually have the top talent...there are womens players who transcend the recruiting world...swoopes, leslie, holdsclaw, catchings,lobo, taurasi, moore, parker, griner...so and so so forth...if you do not have these special, i guess what you would call 6 star players, then you arent going to win...the lloyd girl proved she is better than anyone we can put on the court...we all know uconn has 2-3 of these type of players...south carolina may have 1-2 of these...we have none of these so called superstars and that is why we lose...its really tha simple...difference in game last night was one player...she switched teams and we win by same amount as ND did...you have got to get those special players in the program...
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I agree with you 100%...the only three championships that have been won in the last 10 years without a "special" player have been Maryland, Baylor with Sophia Young, excellent player but wouldn't put her in the air of a Parker or Moore, and the other team was Texas AM, the year Gary Blair coached circles around everyone without a "special" player. Besides those 3 every other Championship team has had a "special" player. Right now IMO....the only true special player is Breanna Stewart. Jewell Llyod can be contained....she's All-American good like Sophia Young was with Baylor that year but BS is clearly the BEST player in the country right now. And if you have the BEST player on your team, you're going to win! Parker..."special"...won 2 championships
Maya Moore
Brittney Griner
Holdsclaw
Breanna Stewart....those have truely been "game changers/special players" in their time.
They only come along every once in a while. Fortunately for us IMO....we'll have one next year in Diamond. Her mental toughness and "SWAG" is what needs to be bought back to Tenn!
 
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#75
#75
From my recollection of that UConn ND game last month..... UC put a designated defender on Loyd after she burned them the first few minutes.... and for the rest of the way, her shots were more difficult.....

I still think we have as much talent as anyone else..... just think we have to develop them better and utilize their talents well.
 
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