#2 Ohio State Goes Down

[Carnac]

Who suffers their first loss first........South Carolina or LSU?

 

[MSGRET]

Considering that LSU plays the team in Orange prior to UConn playing SC, I say LSU.

 

[bballnut90]

Correct. The media is over-hyping what in reality is a game between a highly ranked team and an unranked team. But there are a lot of pre-season voters who thought Tenn was a FF team and so if LSU beats them it will be Mulkey's "signature win" and CC will say "they are now locked into a one seed".

Tennessee is trending up in a big way, I think they're a lot better than #26 right now. In hindsight they faced arguably the toughest non conference schedule of any team (Stanford, Ohio State, Indiana, UCLA, Virginia Tech and Gonzaga) and lost to all of them, but have gone 16-0 against the rest of their foes, and played Stanford/VaTech/Gonzaga extremely close. As a team they've really stepped up their effort and chemistry after losing Key and having Jackson get suspended. Rickea has played lights out since the Stanford game too which has really elevated them. Team effort isn't a question anymore which was a big problem in games early in the season. For the UCONN game specifically, the biggest question mark is the health of Jordan Horston. If she's not able to go or isn't 100% I don't think Tennessee has a good shot to beat UCONN since they just don't have enough offense to realistically compete, and UCONN is playing extremely well right now.

 

[Bone Dog]

Tennessee is trending up in a big way, I think they're a lot better than #26 right now. In hindsight they faced arguably the toughest non conference schedule of any team (Stanford, Ohio State, Indiana, UCLA, Virginia Tech and Gonzaga) and lost to all of them, but have gone 16-0 against the rest of their foes, and played Stanford/VaTech/Gonzaga extremely close. As a team they've really stepped up their effort and chemistry after losing Key and having Jackson get suspended. Rickea has played lights out since the Stanford game too which has really elevated them. Team effort isn't a question anymore which was a big problem in games early in the season. For the UCONN game specifically, the biggest question mark is the health of Jordan Horston. If she's not able to go or isn't 100% I don't think Tennessee has a good shot to beat UCONN since they just don't have enough offense to realistically compete, and UCONN is playing extremely well right now.

I agree about the upward trend. I'm not sure if I'd characterize what they're doing as "team effort," since they don't seem to play as a team for long stretches. Kellie harper seems to struggle to get all of them to accept the team concept. But Horston, Puckett, and Jackson have upped their games individually.

 

[bballnut90]

I agree about the upward trend. I'm not sure if I'd characterize what they're doing as "team effort," since they don't seem to play as a team for long stretches. Kellie harper seems to struggle to get all of them to accept the team concept. But Horston, Puckett, and Jackson have upped their games individually.

I'd say they're playing with a much better team effort overall compared to early in the season. Hustle, body language, overall defense, and taking care of the ball have all improved over the season. Part of that I think is fueled by adversity they've faced and I think they've settled into their roles after coming in with a ton of hype and flailing badly to start the season.

 

[Alydar]

Tennessee is trending up in a big way, I think they're a lot better than #26 right now. In hindsight they faced arguably the toughest non conference schedule of any team (Stanford, Ohio State, Indiana, UCLA, Virginia Tech and Gonzaga) and lost to all of them, but have gone 16-0 against the rest of their foes, and played Stanford/VaTech/Gonzaga extremely close. As a team they've really stepped up their effort and chemistry after losing Key and having Jackson get suspended. Rickea has played lights out since the Stanford game too which has really elevated them. Team effort isn't a question anymore which was a big problem in games early in the season. For the UCONN game specifically, the biggest question mark is the health of Jordan Horston. If she's not able to go or isn't 100% I don't think Tennessee has a good shot to beat UCONN since they just don't have enough offense to realistically compete, and UCONN is playing extremely well right now.

Massey has Tenn ranked 21st, offense- #16; defense - #38
UConn ranked 2nd, offense- #5; defense #3

Despite all the injuries UConn is playing their best basketball of the year right now. It should be a great atmosphere at TBA but I think UConn will win.