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".