Tennessee

[amb3096]

I believe that Tennessee has the potential to be a top 5 team by the end of the season. They have the talent, they just don't have the chemistry.

They have upside, but they need to play to that potential. They are far from it right now.

The biggest problem I see is that the best offensive players suck at defense and the best defensive players suck at offense. Horston and Powell are the closest to being 2-way players. Key should dominate on both ends but doesn't. Hollingshead, Jackson and Pissott have the potential to be great at both. Many of the others are too slow or have poor shot mechanics, so I don't know where they fit in.

 

[EricLA]

I believe that Tennessee has the potential to be a top 5 team by the end of the season. They have the talent, they just don't have the chemistry.

What talent? This is the mantra people keep saying and it's just not true. Horston and Jackson were top 5 recruits. Pissot was 11, and over rated IMHO. Not a single other player on their team was in the top 40 coming out of HS. Key has overperformed from her HS rankings as has Powell (xfer from Minny). But where's the "talent"?

 

[CBus13]

Good analysis, but you didn't note that Green and Burrell were both injured last year - Green played 19 games and Burrell 22, so the average minutes is deceptive since it wasn't based on the 34 games TN played.

Wouldn't the average minutes played be relative to each players "games played" ?

Keyen Green's season-ending injury happened in January, her "minutes per game" wouldn't be changed based on the games she wasn't even available, would they?

Horston only played 1 more game than Burrell and averaged 29.3 minutes a game compared to Burrell's 26.5 minutes. I believe. Burrell's numbers would be affected by her injury since she was injured early on and would have needed minutes restrictions when returning. The previous season she averaged ~32 minutes a game.

But even more so for experience, six players for Tennessee played in at least 33 games last season, only Alexus Dye (23.1 minutes per game) of that group is no longer on that team.

Of those players who played in nearly every game, none averaged more than 27.3 (Jordan Walker) minutes per game and only Brookylnn Miles averaged less than 20 minutes (19). So, I think that number lends to how deep of a bench Tennessee usually plays which then lends to more in-game experience. Of all players, Emily Saunders played in the least amount of games (18) and the lowest minutes a game (4.6).

So, Tennessee had 13 players on their team last season. Three played less than 20 games. Of the 10 who played more than 20 games, only 2, Karoline Striplin and Kaiya Winn, averaged less than 9 minutes a game. Of the eight who saw regular game time (at least 20 games and 19 minutes, only three didn't see the court against Indiana (Dye and Burrell, graduation/ Horston injury, who only played 23 games last season). Of the players left, 5 of them played at least 33 games and averaged at least 19 minutes to the most minutes being Jordan Walker with 27.3.

Indiana had 3 players who didn't play more than 8 games (two no more than 4). Six of their players never even averaged more than 6.9 minutes a game. So, 13 players, Six barely played. Of the seven who did get regular minutes, three are no longer on the team. So, of the remaining 4 players from Indiana's team last year, only three played in the game against Tennessee. Berger played the most games (33) and Minutes per game (36.4). Holmes was injured for a lot near middle of the season and played in 25 games and averaged 28.5 minutes. Moore-McNeil played in 31 games and averaged 21.2 minutes.

So, I'd say the teams were pretty similar with "Veteran" play but Tennessee's players have more in-game experience with their coach. Tennessee also added three Sr/Gr transfers who have plenty of college game experience. A fourth transfer being So. Hollingshead who played in 20 games at UGA. Indiana brought in two Sr/Gr transfers and one Junior Transfer (23 games as a Sophomore at Oregon).

I think Jackson and Powell are talented and will help the UT team improve, but the issue of the first three games has to be on the coach and the scouting team and not on the "players experience".

 

[Jmsdawg]

Rickea Jackson needs to fall out of love with tough midrange jumpers and get to the rim more. That's when she was at her best.

Agree

 

[stwainfan]

Horston played today.

 

[visitingcock]

Congrats on a win. Hey! It was against a P-5.

 

[Plebe]

Congrats on a win. Hey! It was against a P-5.

Who cares. Rutgers is horrible. I don't understand this p-5 idol worship.

 

[Coler]

Who cares. Rutgers is horrible. I don't understand this p-5 idol worship.

We might be horrible, but at least we don’t wear orange.

 

[genzhusk]

Who cares. Rutgers is horrible. I don't understand this p-5 idol worship.

agree. p-5 bias. if the team is atrocious it shouldn’t matter what conference they are in.

 

[visitingcock]

Who cares. Rutgers is horrible. I don't understand this p-5 idol worship.

Must I use blue for everything I type in jest?Don’t you know me well enough by now?

 

[visitingcock]

agree. p-5 bias. if the team is atrocious it shouldn’t matter what conference they are in.

It doesn’t but no P-5 school should ever let their talent Level drop them below Quad 2. There are no excuses especially for a rich Big Ten school that has the money to pay for facilities, tutors, chartered jets etc etc to give them a recruiting edge over schools on much tighter budgets.

But “should” ain’t “does.”

 

[Plebe]

It doesn’t but no P-5 school should ever let their talent Level drop them below Quad 2. There are no excuses especially for a rich Big Ten school that has the money to pay for facilities, tutors, chartered jets etc etc to give them a recruiting edge over schools on much tighter budgets.

But “should” ain’t “does.”

I really don't buy in to this mentality.

Sports should not just be decided by a spending contest. Sports should not just be a ritual in which the trophies and glory are handed to the fat cats by default.

So no, this is neither a case of "should" nor "does".

 

[UcMiami]

It doesn’t but no P-5 school should ever let their talent Level drop them below Quad 2. There are no excuses especially for a rich Big Ten school that has the money to pay for facilities, tutors, chartered jets etc etc to give them a recruiting edge over schools on much tighter budgets.

But “should” ain’t “does.”

Looking at the level of competition so far from most P5 schools is disheartening, and many don't face any until their conference schedule begins. Some will start 10-0 and then struggle to reach 18 wins for the year!

 

[SECbbfan24]

Who cares. Rutgers is horrible. I don't understand this p-5 idol worship.

Honestly there are quite a few mid majors teams who would do pretty well in some of the P5 conferences. Not saying they would be the top team but I wouldn’t discredit many of these mid majors. Much tougher outs then a lot of these bottom of barrel P5 conference teams

 

[visitingcock]

I really don't buy in to this mentality.

Sports should not just be decided by a spending contest. Sports should not just be a ritual in which the trophies and glory are handed to the fat cats by default.

So no, this is neither a case of "should" nor "does".

Should in terms of reality - not morality

 

[stwainfan]

 

[triaddukefan]

 

[EricLA]

My mood after Tennessee's beatdown:

 

[Puppy Love]

Historically, Tennessee never had to score a lot of points. They were going to out work, out tough and out rebound every team, so the other team couldn’t score, either. This years team doesn’t appear to have any of those qualities and doesn’t appear to have replaced that approach with an offense that can score a lot of points. I can’t help but wonder how much their coach has adapted to the changes in the game since she played. I think Jordan Horston is tough enough to play the old way but she might be the only one.

 

[eebmg]

Historically, Tennessee never had to score a lot of points. They were going to out work, out tough and out rebound every team, so the other team couldn’t score, either. This years team doesn’t appear to have any of those qualities and doesn’t appear to have replaced that approach with an offense that can score a lot of points. I can’t help but wonder how much their coach has adapted to the changes in the game since she played. I think Jordan Horston is tough enough to play the old way but she might be the only one.

As far as offense is concerned, you need to push players in practice to do things exactly as you want it to be with endless repetition and at real speed. I am guessing there is a lot of corner cutting and rah rah faint praise in the TN practices. Attention to detail is often best observed in well run out of bounds plays. UConn is always spot on and I imagine it is the same in the best programs but I never see any precision with TN.

One thing that I have heard the announcers say is that they do not understnd why TN does not pressure and trap alot more than they do. They have depth although it is clear that the quality was over hyped but she still throws out 11 in a game so at least run them into the ground a bit.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

You can have multiple alphas on a team, but if they can't work together then you're doomed. A lot of ball-dominant players on this squad and it shows. It spills over into defensive intensity which by any measure there is very little.

 

[Dillon77]

Did anyone catch Andraya Carter during the halftime show of the S. Carolina/Stanford game yesterday? When asked if people should be concerned about the Vols -- and remember, she's an alum -- Carter said people should be very concerned. She then concisely proceeded to skewer virtually every aspect of the Vol's play, from turnovers and team composition to wavering intensity levels on both sides of the ball.
The other commentator (was that Steph White?) mumbled something about it "being a long season," but Carter didn't back off her analysis.

Personally, I've watched parts of a few games and couldn't give you an elevator paragraph about who the Vols are right now.
What's that line about the whole being greater (or less) than the sum of its parts? Well, that takes coaching and buy-in from the team.
Maybe this team (coaches and players) can pull it together, but it's got to start happening sooner rather than later.

 

[cancontent]

Did anyone catch Andraya Carter during the halftime show of the S. Carolina/Stanford game yesterday? When asked if people should be concerned about the Vols -- and remember, she's an alum -- she said people should be very concerned. She then concisely proceeded to skewer virtually every aspect of the Vol's play, from turnovers and team composition to wavering intensity levels on both sides of the ball.
The other commentator (was that Steph White?) mumbled something about it "being a long season," but Carter didn't back off her analysis.

Personally, I've watched parts of a few games and couldn't give you an elevator paragraph about who the Vols are right now.
What's that line about the whole being greater (or less) than the sum of its parts? Well, that takes coaching and buy-in from the team.
Maybe this team (coaches and players) can pull it together, but it's got to start happening sooner rather than later.

Andraya Carter deserves more camera time whenever humanly possible in my opinion. She's doing great work regardless of the network involved. Her attention and detail and ability to break it down where it's simple to understand for casual fans is awesome.

 

[UcMiami]

You know Geno years ago talked about how recruits have changed during his career - that in the 80s and 90s HS kids played and practiced with a HS team and mostly played AAU locally with the other locals and held local practices. That evolved to helicopter AAU teams and personal trainers and the HS recruits no longer got the practice in team play, they had advanced their athleticism and individual skills but lost team concepts. Teaching those team fundamentals at both ends became paramount to developing a good college team.

I think that is something even the great Pat struggled with at the end of her career, and her successors haven't figured out. Having toughness and intensity isn't enough if you don't understand defensive rotations and help defense, and it doesn't help if you don't know when and where to set screens or make cuts on offense. And installing a 'system' isn't just drawing Xs and Os on a board, but actually teaching the concepts and the correct stances and the theory so the players can adapt as the defensive and offensive positions shift.

 

[huskeynut]

In his post game presser, Geno addressed this aspect of P5 vs G5 mid majors. And it makes sense.

The portal is literally "free agency" for college sports. A player is highly recruited/ ranked for a national power team. They sign on and don't pay their freshman year. Bingo - I go to the portal to go to a school were I will play.

Mid major/ G5 schools do not take in a lot of portal transfer. These teams recruit well initially, develop their players, build a commeradery and a chemistry of playing together for more that one year. In many cases, the coaching is better that some of the big named schools.

Transfers mean you have a short window to assimilate these players into your culture and style of play. Doesn't always work.

Listen to Wes Moore and Vic Schaffer and their post games pressers. Both reference it.