ND/TENN - Who Do You Want To Win?

[RadyLady]

I guarantee that RU fans know this, they were discussing it in the stands after the game.

Frankly, I was in the camp of those expecting that this would be C. Viv's swan song year, but I'm reassessing my thoughts. She is doing a better job of designing a game plan to match the available talent than I had expected. I had pegged her as a "I have a vision on how the game should be played, and you will attempt to execute that plan, whether you have the skills to do so or not". I think that assessment was wrong. Despite a 30 point margin, the team played well.

I didn't see the Memphis game, so maybe I'm jumping to the wrong conclusion based upon a single observation, but this team has potential.

I was going to post something to this point after the Rutgers game, but my hand kept cramping....saying something nice about Rutgers is not easy for me, but yes, Stringer appears to be making changes to keep Rutgers competing.

 

[rocky rococo]

when the AA's stop thinking that UTenn is an okay place to play, it will be time for the Summitt to change its name to the Pit.

Folks in New Mexico see nothing wrong with playing in The Pit.

 

[doggydaddy]

Agree. She is so streaky and very hard to determine if she will be a positive or negative player on the floor. When ND started to make their run, Simmons was a disaster. I would have put in Carter. I thought she gave them some real good energy and love the way she plays. Much more disciplined then Simmons.

Carter was the defender that lost Mabrey for several 3's.

 

[Fightin Choke]

I disagree that the Tennessee zone was the cause of ND's offensive woes in the first half. It was the Irish running up the court like their pants were on fire and driving into the paint willy-willy, sometimes into three defenders, that caused their problems. No patience, no tempo, just a streetball game. It was uncharacteristic of ND and even Pam Ward saw that the Irish needed to slow down and run some offense.

And while ND definitely played better in the second half both offensively and defensively, the LVs went into some sort of funk all by themselves starting at the end of the first half. They heaved up the craziest shots, most of which had no prayer of going in. The LV "offense" in the first half looked better because their one-on-one shots went in (yes, I saw the nice pass by Simmons. I almost fell off the couch when I saw Tennessee actually get an assist) but, really, they don't play offense. Honestly, it looked like an AAU game and that's just sad for a program with Tennessee's pedigree.

I'm sorry for being unclear, but I meant that Tennessee offense feasted on the Notre Dame zone. The Notre Dame offense had no trouble scoring on Tennessee, and certainly not due to a zone, as they lit it up from outside. The poster to which I responded was puzzled why Muffet waited so long to go to man-to-man defense, so I was pointing out the personnel and the foul issues to explain why Muffet waited until the second half to go back to man-to-man.