A thought about Tennessee

[UConnCat]

Is Tennessee gonna play ANY road games this year? The season is like halfway over.

The only non-conference games played on the road was against Memphis. They didn't leave the state of Tennessee but the game was in Memphis's arena. The first conference game game was at aTm and Thursday's game will be at LSU.

 

[Magy Cannon]

The only non-conference games played on the road was against Memphis. They didn't leave the state of Tennessee but the game was in Memphis's arena. The first conference game game was at aTm and Thursday's game will be at LSU.

Playing Thursday at Tennessee.

 

[Baller29]

Playing Thursday at Tennessee.

I have TN winning between 15-20 points

 

[UConnCat]

Playing Thursday at Tennessee.

Correct. I misread the schedule. The game later in the season is at LSU.

 

[JellyBean]

Congrats to Oklahoma. They hung in there. Like @triaddukefan said, Oklahoma dang near gave the game away. I was expecting the Lady Vols to get the win today. They were close at the end. What a nice comeback for the Lady Vols. They have nothing to be upset about. They fought back. Another test is coming soon and that is against LSU and then Arkansas. Now if they lose to Arkansas, I will be concern.

 

[Darwin]

To be clear, I was not defending the OP, but rather responding to @darrell that Auriemma coached the same way.

Notre Dame won a championship with only six viable players, but they were all elite and they played in a way that did not wear them out. If you want to press for 40 minutes you need more than six players in the rotation and they all need to be at an elite level if you want to win a championship. The odds are working against you.

As for the OP, I do not know Caldwell, what she believes or intends, so I am not defending that sentiment. I can only claim that Auriemma coaches differently when an opponent has been thoroughly outmatched and there is a good reason for that.

Did you see the Xavier game? Sure looked like a full court press being used against an opponent who managed 27 points, for the entire game.

 

[diggerfoot]

Did you see the Xavier game? Sure looked like a full court press being used against an opponent who managed 27 points, for the entire game.

I do not get to see the games in real time, so I will take your word for now that UConn pressed with intensity throughout the game. Bear in mind again that I did not share the objection of the OP, I claimed Auriemma had a difference in strategy and not in sportsmanship. To that end perhaps you could confirm or refute a few observations.

Xavier was the first time they pressed for a full 40 minutes (assuming this happened) this season. Is this correct?

UConn did not press opponents for 40 minutes in any of their championship years. Is this correct?

They did not even press Syracuse for 40 minutes in the one game in which it was obvious that Auriemma and Moore were settling a score, with Moore scoring 40 and UConn over a hundred. Is that correct?

There is not enough of a pattern for me to hazard a guess as to why Auriemma would press 40 minutes for this particular game. However, he would have to press all teams all the time for the rest of the year … and win a championship … for my observations to be wrong. Considering that you revived this thread for the Xavier exception, I am sure you will revive it again if the exception becomes the rule and UConn wins a championship.

But if that indeed happens I will not mind being wrong.

 

[Darwin]

I do not get to see the games in real time, so I will take your word for now that UConn pressed with intensity throughout the game. Bear in mind again that I did not share the objection of the OP, I claimed Auriemma had a difference in strategy and not in sportsmanship. To that end perhaps you could confirm or refute a few observations.

Xavier was the first time they pressed for a full 40 minutes (assuming this happened) this season. Is this correct?

UConn did not press opponents for 40 minutes in any of their championship years. Is this correct?

They did not even press Syracuse for 40 minutes in the one game in which it was obvious that Auriemma and Moore were settling a score, with Moore scoring 40 and UConn over a hundred. Is that correct?

There is not enough of a pattern for me to hazard a guess as to why Auriemma would press 40 minutes for this particular game. However, he would have to press all teams all the time for the rest of the year … and win a championship … for my observations to be wrong. Considering that you revived this thread for the Xavier exception, I am sure you will revive it again if the exception becomes the rule and UConn wins a championship.

But if that indeed happens I will not mind being wrong.

I wasn’t implying UCONN pressed the entire game, I was talking about X scoring 27 points in the entire game. Sorry for the confusion. It may well be that they did, but I cannot say, I wasn’t able to watch the game. I simply read the post game articles that mentioned UCONN broke out a full press from the tipoff. I’m not sure what that means tbh. But the articles mention the effectiveness of the press in the 2nd qtr and so it was still in play at that point, when X had less than 10 points.

 

[JoePgh]

UConn used the full court press against Xavier for the entire first half, and at halftime UConn had a huge lead, had generated 21 Xavier turnovers, and had played all available players for significant minutes.

Geno called off the press in the second half but still played aggressive defense. At the end of the game, Xavier had 32 turnovers and only 28 field goal attempts, of which they made 9.

Final score was 81-27.

 

[triaddukefan]

No quarrels on the UT schedule, but the point remains, both FSU and Iowa are superior to South Florida who Duke didn’t handle very well. I believe you are grossly underestimating this LV team due to their schedule, and to be fair to everyone here, we will wait and see as you suggest. My early thought is that UT ends up ranked higher than NC, NCSU and also Duke.

Perhaps we could consider a wager…..

 

[nwhoopfan]

So...will they end up ranked lower than all 3?

 

[Plebe]

Receipts

 

[triaddukefan]

So...will they end up ranked lower than all 3?

Well they are ranked lower in this week's poll. Unlikely to host in the tournament. Perhaps they could make a deep run to the Elite 8.... but likely they won't finish higher

 

[triaddukefan]

Receipts

I always keep receipts

 

[PhilipVU94]

They didn't leave the state of Tennessee but the game was in Memphis's arena.

I'm replying to a two-month old post I know but that "leaving the state" thing kind of amuses me. The distance from Knoxville to Memphis is roughly the distance from Storrs to the southern part of the DC/VA suburbs, to Harrisburg, or to Montreal.

Yeah U of TN has a big fan base in Memphis. In other sports it's not massively bigger than Ole Miss, Arkansas, or U of M but in WBB I'm sure it's bigger.

 

[LETTERL]

My early thought is that UT ends up ranked higher than NC, NCSU and also Duke.

This post has not aged well AT ALL.