Top 25 Teams

#51
#51
FrozenLVFan said:
Interesting. Holly was widely quoted as saying that the problem that kept DD from playing in Italy was "shin splints." And DD was in a walking boot and didn't play in the WUG for "an ankle injury."

It would be nice if this was clarified just a bit.
Click to expand...

I never saw it referred to as an ankle injury. The injury was called a 'lower leg' injury, and it is shin splints. She has them as a result from another injury to her leg that required surgery after getting to UT. They flared up after the USAB tryouts, presumably because that was the most physical activity she had done in about a year.

Patella tendinitis is rather common among basketball players. I'm not sure why people are making a fuss about it. She likely isn't the only player on the team that has it and there have been several past LVs who had it who performed just fine (i.e. Alexis Hornbuckle).
 
#52
#52
The announcers at the WUG games said DD was "in a boot for an ankle injury." Wouldn't be the first time a couple of announcers were wrong.
 
#53
#53
uconn, nd, usc, ul, ohio state, baylor, maryland, FSU, then UT. to start the season.

no better than 9th.
 
#54
#54
gule said:
uconn, nd, usc, ul, ohio state, baylor, maryland, FSU, then UT. to start the season.

no better than 9th.
Click to expand...

No. Just no. Tennessee should be top four easily, and the case could certainly be made for 2nd or 3rd. No way -- none, zero, nada -- that Baylor, Louisville, Ohio State, Florida State, and Maryland are better than UT. Given their current rosters, UT is right on par with USC and Notre Dame; I think the difference between these teams is negligible at most. Furthermore, I look for UConn to lose a couple of games this year, and I don't consider them a lock for another title. They've still got Jefferson, Stewart, and Nurse, but they lost a prolific scorer in KML and a solid post presence in Stokes.

You are just being dramatic, and like so much of the dramatics that permeate the Tennessee fan base, the shtick has gotten so old that it is positively moldy.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#55
#55
gule said:
uconn, nd, usc, ul, ohio state, baylor, maryland, FSU, then UT. to start the season.

no better than 9th.
Click to expand...

come on gule,at least a top 6 :)

you got to remember that the Lady Vols will be driving a healthy Mercedes this year lol
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#56
#56
gule said:
uconn, nd, usc, ul, ohio state, baylor, maryland, FSU, then UT. to start the season.

no better than 9th.
Click to expand...

I'm a bit of a fence sitter...the team has potential for sure, but I have to see them in action before I commit to much. Coaches, please, please pick a lineup and stick with it. I am not with a lot of the fans who like to send 'em in in bunches. They don't have time to gel as well that way. Pick 7-8 players and play them to death I say! JMO.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people
#58
#58
gule said:
has ivy ever made a post without getting hysterical?
Click to expand...

What is hysterical about my post? I'd like specifics.

I'm not the one who stated that obviously inferior teams should outrank an obviously superior team, just for the hell of having something to whine and complain about. That was you, junior. This team should not be ranked ninth. They should be ranked anywhere from 2 to 4. The absolute lowest I can seem them ranked is 5th, and to me, that is a stretch. There are not four teams that are better than the Lady Vols. I'm not convinced there are even three that are better.
 
Last edited:
#60
#60
Here are the 2016 top 20 from The Sporting News:

1. South Carolina
2. Connecticut
3. Notre Dame
4. Baylor
5. Ohio State
6. Florida State
7. George Washington
8. Duke
9. Tennessee
10. Oregon State
11. Arizona State
12. Louisville
13. Texas
14. UCLA
15. South Florida
16. Princeton
17. Chattanooga
18. Northwestern
19. Texas A&M
20. Maryland
 
#61
#61
linkster said:
Here are the 2016 top 20 from The Sporting News:

1. South Carolina
2. Connecticut
3. Notre Dame
4. Baylor
5. Ohio State
6. Florida State
7. George Washington
8. Duke
9. Tennessee
10. Oregon State
11. Arizona State
12. Louisville
13. Texas
14. UCLA
15. South Florida
16. Princeton
17. Chattanooga
18. Northwestern
19. Texas A&M
20. Maryland
Click to expand...

Well, this is totally ridiculous.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#62
#62
linkster said:
here are the 2016 top 20 from the sporting news:

1. South carolina
2. Connecticut
3. Notre dame
4. Baylor
5. Ohio state
6. Florida state
7. George washington
8. Duke
9. Tennessee
10. Oregon state
11. Arizona state
12. Louisville
13. Texas
14. Ucla
15. South florida
16. Princeton
17. Chattanooga
18. Northwestern
19. Texas a&m
20. Maryland
Click to expand...


whaaatt????

No way should we be #9
 
#63
#63
linkster said:
Here are the 2016 top 20 from The Sporting News:

1. South Carolina
2. Connecticut
3. Notre Dame
4. Baylor
5. Ohio State
6. Florida State
7. George Washington
8. Duke
9. Tennessee
10. Oregon State
11. Arizona State
12. Louisville
13. Texas
14. UCLA
15. South Florida
16. Princeton
17. Chattanooga
18. Northwestern
19. Texas A&M
20. Maryland
Click to expand...

It appears as though gule is now writing for The Sporting News.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#65
#65
I think TSN is the same publication that had UCLA as a top ten team last year. Or it could've been Lindy's.

To refresh anyone's memory who may not remember ... UCLA didn't make the NCAAT and was never ranked in one of the actual polls.
 
#66
#66
Actually I think at this point Baylor and UT are pretty much interchangable, and they will probably both wind up being better than Notre Dame at the end of the season. Baylor will have Niya Johnson, Alexis Jones, Nina Davis and the incoming freshmen posts. They'll both be relying on some hypothetical situations (at this point) to happen to be Final Four teams.

You'd have to be a total idiot to rank Ohio State, Louisville or Florida State ahead of TN. Everyone talks about "make UT earn it". Ummmm WTF has Ohio State done to 'earn' anything? A second round loss last year? They aren't even remotely in the conversation when it comes to top 4/5. They probably won't be with Mavunga, either. UT isn't the only team in the world who has to earn their ranking. Louisville has like zero post players and hasn't exactly lived up to expectations the last two years. Florida State had a good run last year. Whoopdefreakingdoo.

If you're going to put out a ranking, whether you're a publication or just a random fan on a message board, you have to take where each team stands into consideration. You can sit and say "UT is barely top ten" but then you have to find 8 or 9 teams to put ahead of them ... and those teams don't exist to anyone who knows women's basketball. Tennessee has some question marks with how Diamond will perform, Mercedes, how will we play after losing our seniors, etc. ... and so do a lot of teams. Will Mitchell be able to play for SC? How will ND deal with the loss of Loyd? Will the freshmen perform for Louisville? Will Jones and the freshmen posts perform for Baylor? What about Oregon State? How much will Lexie Brown's absence affect Maryland? Can Texas A&M and Duke play to their potential this year?
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4 people
#68
#68
My top 10 would be:

UConn
ND
South Carolina
Tennessee
Baylor
Florida State
Maryland
Oregon State
Duke
Kentucky

UConn is clearly the favorite to win it all. I still think ND will be better than some may think. MM is a great coach and ND will still be stacked without Lloyd. South Carolina basically returns everybody, but Welch will be greatly missed. The guard production plus DeShields will determine the Lady Vols destiny. I think Russell and Graves will be productive in the post. Our offensive scheme must be better also. Baylor will be stacked, but I think playing a very weak nonconference schedule and not a very strong BIG 12, may hurt them come tourney time. Florida State basically returns everyone which makes for a team that is very athletic and has a lot of talent returning. I still think Maryland may surprise people without Brown. Freese knows how to get her team up to play for the big games, except for UConn, they may struggle a little though. Oregon State has plenty of talent and is very big with a good coach. The beavers may give a lot of teams a lot of problems. Duke is stacked, but I think they will miss Elizabeth Williams handling the middle. The last spot could of went to UK or Ohio State. Both teams play up tempo and rely heavily on their guards, but I think UK may have an edge when it comes to defense. This will be an interesting season. There are a lot of questions to be answered with a lot of teams.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people
#69
#69
VOL720 said:
My top 10 would be:

UConn
ND
South Carolina
Tennessee
Baylor
Florida State
Maryland
Oregon State
Duke
Kentucky

UConn is clearly the favorite to win it all. I still think ND will be better than some may think. MM is a great coach and ND will still be stacked without Lloyd. South Carolina basically returns everybody, but Welch will be greatly missed. The guard production plus DeShields will determine the Lady Vols destiny. I think Russell and Graves will be productive in the post. Our offensive scheme must be better also. Baylor will be stacked, but I think playing a very weak nonconference schedule and not a very strong BIG 12, may hurt them come tourney time. Florida State basically returns everyone which makes for a team that is very athletic and has a lot of talent returning. I still think Maryland may surprise people without Brown. Freese knows how to get her team up to play for the big games, except for UConn, they may struggle a little though. Oregon State has plenty of talent and is very big with a good coach. The beavers may give a lot of teams a lot of problems. Duke is stacked, but I think they will miss Elizabeth Williams handling the middle. The last spot could of went to UK or Ohio State. Both teams play up tempo and rely heavily on their guards, but I think UK may have an edge when it comes to defense. This will be an interesting season. There are a lot of questions to be answered with a lot of teams.
Click to expand...


When you said that UT's "offensive scheme must be better." I've been saying that for 10 years. It's never better. We couldn't even score 50 points against Maryland in the elite 8. It is basically that our coaches have never seemed to grasp team offensive basketball and the importance of great passing--PS was pretty clueless when it came to offense, to be candid; did not care about it, really--and also the players have developed a bad habit of playing tight in big games, I'm sorry to say. And I'm being polite when I say "tight." We have a history of mediocre shooting and it gets worse in big games, typically.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#70
#70
Tennessee at 8 or 9 is about right until the team can actually beat a Top 5 team. Beat Notre Dame or South Carolina for goodness sake.

UCONN is #-1, and no sane person would say otherwise.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people
#71
#71
armchair said:
When you said that UT's "offensive scheme must be better." I've been saying that for 10 years. It's never better. We couldn't even score 50 points against Maryland in the elite 8. It is basically that our coaches have never seemed to grasp team offensive basketball and the importance of great passing--PS was pretty clueless when it came to offense, to be candid; did not care about it, really--and also the players have developed a bad habit of playing tight in big games, I'm sorry to say. And I'm being polite when I say "tight." We have a history of mediocre shooting and it gets worse in big games, typically.
Click to expand...


I can't say you are wrong. We have choked in some big games. I must say we did fight until the end against South Carolina at their place. The SEC Championship and Elite 8 were two games where our offense caused us defeats. Some other games we also looked pretty bad on offense, but our defense bailed us out. We are a very athletic team and if we could install let's say for example a triangle offense and our guards show up consistently in big games with better production and shooting also continue to play a suffering defense then I have no doubt we will be in the Final Four. With the talent and athleticism we have, there could be mismatches all over the floor. It was reports this summer that Holly was installing a new offense. I will keep my eye on that the first few games to see if there's a difference in offensive sets.
 
#72
#72
I see people still just don't get it when it comes to our offense! When you don't have players hit wide open shots it makes the offense look bad when in all actuality, it's just as simple as the player not putting in enough time to hit open shots. When the defense shuts down our play....we haven't had a go to player who can effectively create their own shot in years. People who claim that our offense has been stagnant probably hasn't played a game of basketball EVER! When I see the holes in our offense I see them as players just missing makable shots...not the offense itself being terrible!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 6 people
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.
Advertisement





Back
Top