Penn State (Brianna Banks) On TV Tonight | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Penn State (Brianna Banks) On TV Tonight

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Disappointed to see Brianna leave early......

I mean WOW..... do you think Penn State could learn to box out? Many easy rebounds and second chances for Lady Vols.....

Mercedes did look good albeit vs. a bad defensive effort..... she looks in shape, and the feets be lookin healthy..... good for her
 
I watched the first 1/2 and TN sucked big time! Gosh they're the 4th ranked team in the nation! Has Holly the wonder coach ever seen an offense? Two or three passes then who ever happens to have the ball shoots!
Comparing Holly to Geno would be comparing Mr. Ed to Secretariat!
TN is done! Stick a fork in them..........
They will never reach a Final 4 again! An Elite 8 might be out of the question as well!
TN fans will say. "remember when we used to be good?"
PSU lost their best player in the 1st period and still kept it close! Maria must be crying tonight!
 
ericsandiego said:
Sorry Tennessee fans, but your team is flat out average. All the talent in the world can't seem to make it work. I'm sure fans can look for some sort of silver lining on the game (Graves and maybe Cooper), but Russell was OK and Deshields was average. To quote a LV fan who was on our board the other day, Diamond did not look anything like the top recruit in her class.

But enough heaping on them. Here's the problem with Tennessee - Holly is a disciple of Pat. Zero offense. She's been the HC for 3+ years now. Every single year we hear Tenn fans talk about the improved offense for next season, and how the coaches have been preaching guard play, ball movement, blah blah. And what do we see? Same old.

Offense consists of a few perimeter passes to start the possession, but very rapidly, it degenerates into a one on one game, a miss, and then CRASH the O-boards. That's what Pat taught for almost 40 years. And that's what Holly knows.

If they were to play together right now, even as shorthanded as UCONN is, we'd win by 40+. And that's with us being without Chong, Boykin and Butler. Don't fans realize that not only will Tennessee get better, but so will every single other team in WCBB? After all the hype for Tennessee, I was shocked at how average they looked.

I will not go so far as to say they aren't a top 10 team because I have no idea how good the rest of the top 10 teams are. But at this point, in order of the top 4-5, I'd say...

UCONN
Baylor
ND/SC (pick em)
Maryland

Say what you will about Freese - she does way more with far less talent than Tennessee. Better coach than Holly. I'm just so surprised... I mean this is the PSU team who needed OT to beat Holy Cross, AND they were without Banks. Sheesh!
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I don't think they are "average". What's frightening is that they probably are better than average (I don't think anyone is going to argue they don't belong in the top 25). But they appear far behind the Huskies: And to those that argue that the other teams (MD, ND, SC TN, etc.) are going to be better in four months, "What do you think the UCONN players and coaches are going to be doing over the same period".
 
I love when coaches are "wired" - you get an inside look at how clueless they are

th


th
 
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ericsandiego said:
Should be a blowout - PSU needed overtime to get past pesky Holy Cross in their opening game.
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ericsandiego said:
Sorry Tennessee fans, but your team is flat out average. All the talent in the world can't seem to make it work. I'm sure fans can look for some sort of silver lining on the game (Graves and maybe Cooper), but Russell was OK and Deshields was average. To quote a LV fan who was on our board the other day, Diamond did not look anything like the top recruit in her class.

But enough heaping on them. Here's the problem with Tennessee - Holly is a disciple of Pat. Zero offense. She's been the HC for 3+ years now. Every single year we hear Tenn fans talk about the improved offense for next season, and how the coaches have been preaching guard play, ball movement, blah blah. And what do we see? Same old.

Offense consists of a few perimeter passes to start the possession, but very rapidly, it degenerates into a one on one game, a miss, and then CRASH the O-boards. That's what Pat taught for almost 40 years. And that's what Holly knows.

If they were to play together right now, even as shorthanded as UCONN is, we'd win by 40+. And that's with us being without Chong, Boykin and Butler. Don't fans realize that not only will Tennessee get better, but so will every single other team in WCBB? After all the hype for Tennessee, I was shocked at how average they looked.

I will not go so far as to say they aren't a top 10 team because I have no idea how good the rest of the top 10 teams are. But at this point, in order of the top 4-5, I'd say...

UCONN
Baylor
ND/SC (pick em)
Maryland

Say what you will about Freese - she does way more with far less talent than Tennessee. Better coach than Holly. I'm just so surprised... I mean this is the PSU team who needed OT to beat Holy Cross, AND they were without Banks. Sheesh!
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I watched most of the first quarter and part of the second. Tenn did not impress me.
I checked out the Penn St site Roster and they listed Banks as #3. I didn't see her in the game or on the bench--how did I miss her??
I only checked out the game to watch Brianna.
After the first game for Penn st I would have thought Tenn would be up by 30 in the first quarter.
Tenn's best offense was passing to the Bigs under the basket.
 
j66kicker said:
I saw part of the TN-PSU game. I was impressed with TN's talent - especially Graves, Russell, Cooper and DeShields. Cooper is insanely athletic on defense. Clearly they will get a lot better as they play together more.

But besides ND, Duke, TN, SC, OSU and Baylor, UCONN is also notorious for being considerably better later in the season than in their first game. Just sayin...
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The most common thing for MOST well coached teams--they get better as the season progresses. Geno works to have them peak about April 1st.
 
Watched the game and was disappointed in UT. This team is loaded with talent and I mean AA type talent but as a team I saw no leaders, lot of one on one play (13 assists) and no cohesion. They have the talent to be great but are missing a leader to get them there. Honestly I would take any one of their kids they are that talented, I think UT will either settle with their new normal or replace Holly, kind of sad as when I first became a fan they were the team to beat.
 
It is interesting to watch and see how long UT lets Holly coach the team. I think it is pretty clear (and has been for awhile) that she is not the right coach to get the team to championship level of play.... but do they really care? They continue to make the NCAA tournament and win 2-3 games... and they continue to be one of the leaders in attendance (2nd last year with over 10k a game last year). Maybe that's good enough for the AD. WBB isn't a huge revenue generator for Universities. If they are ahead or even (which i have to assume UT is), then that maybe be good enough.
 
I am going to chalk this game up to 1st game type jitters for both teams. Neither team was in , lets say mid-season form , to be kind. As to say neither team looked that good. But again , its early.
Sorry to see Breanna Banks hurt again...........Hopefully its not too bad. But the boot on the ankle/foot didn't look too encouraging.
 
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[QUOTE="j66kicker, post: 1478632, member: 444.
Carolyn Peck gave Penn State sort of a faux compliment at the end: "These young bucks will be able to COMPETE in the Big Ten!" Basically a diss on the the B1G (left unsaid: "...but of course NOT in the ultimate supremacy that is the SEC...of course...")[/QUOTE]

I was surprised by CP's choice of words here. If she had said 'young cubs' ' ( Lady Lions), that would have been ok, but 'young bucks'??

But, hey, that's just folksie, ol' Carolyn for ya.
 
Take a good look at Tennessee because that will be us in 5-10 years when Geno is gone.
 
UTenn's problems last night looked very familiar:

1. a startling inability to take care of the ball
2. disorganization on defense that moots their athletic and/or size advantages at different positions
3. an offense that only occasionally generates good ball movement

Their bigger problem is that these are the same things that have been plaguing the team at the end of their recent seasons, not just at the beginning. If Holly & Co. really knew how to coach them up, we'd be used to seeing a different look come March, but IMHO these problems have been persistent for them and have consistently led to early exits from the tourney.

They will improve but not very much in those key areas -- at least that would be my guess based on Holly's recent squads. Elite 8 looks to be the ceiling once again.
 
I just went back and replayed Holly "the wonder coach's" pregame talk and her theme was RELENTLESS! TN was so psyched after the speech that they went out and fell asleep standing up! RELENTLESS my butt! How can you work in the presence of Pat Head Summitt for close to 30 years and have absolutely NO CLUE how to coach a WCBB team!
Please God, PLEASE make TN keep Holly Warlick for the next 20 years!
TN has to improve (you would hope so anyways) and UCONN gets back Ms. Boykin & Ms. Butler, and have CT & TN meet in the NCAA Tournament, UCONN would win by at least 50 points!
There isn't one TN player I would take over our roster including Lawlor & Polido! Our team has more spirit, hustle, & heart than ANYONE on TN's present roster IMHO! CT puts out more effort in 1 minute than TN puts out in the whole 40 minutes!
 
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Not a great showing for Tennessee, but i think there is definitely final four potential on this team.

I think UT's rotation will end up being:
Russell
Graves
Deshields
Carter
Cooper

Reynolds
Nared when healthy
Jones

Middleton didn't look very good and Dunbar could develop into a Sidney Spencer type of player but has a long way to go. The defense looked pretty bad but everyone is getting adjusted to new players and new roles so it's to be expected early on. Tennessee historically plays outstanding defense so I have high hopes it will improve.

Offensively there is also a lot of promise even if it didn't show last night. Russell looked light years better than she did as a freshman, she's big, mobile and finishes around the basket. Graves was terrific and looked like her freshman form when she was the top freshman in the nation. Deshields looked rusty but was very much focused on feeding the posts which resulted in some turnovers but also some easy layups. She shot poorly but she'll end up being a top scorer again.

Tennessee's offense as a team looked poor. The typical throw the ball around on the perimeter to find an angle for the post and if that doesn't work, go one on one or jack up a tough shot. It isn't a championship offense, but a player like deshields can bail them out of tough spots and appears to be a better post passer than anyone Tennessee had a year ago.

I think the Final Four is a realistic and good goal for Tennessee. They have their best roster to take them there since 2008 and have a nice combination of size, experience and talent. They aren't touching UCONN but no one is this year. I think they can compete with and beat the likes of anyone outside of UCONN, ND and Baylor.
 
I agree with everyone stating UT has talented players. What I have seen over the past couple of games is the B1G will give any team a game. OSU and PSU fouled excessively and probably cost both of them the game IMHO.
DD is DD. I am most impressed with Cooper, similar to how I feel about Collier.
 
More specifically about Tennessee's talent level, I think if you (hypothetically) removed Stewie and Moriah from the picture but restored Natalie / Dejenae / Saniya, the average talent level of the remainder of UConn's roster would be at best equal, and perhaps a bit inferior, to the average talent level of the Orange Ones.

BUT, if a (sadly hypothetical) game were to be played on a neutral court between the de-Moriah-ed, de-Stewie-d Huskies and the actual Lady Vols, I think UConn would win by 10-15 points at least. That would be because of better team defense, better ball control, and smoother offense with better decision-making about where the ball should go on the next pass. The Vols are the canonical case of a team being far less than the sum of its parts (i.e., players).

Having said that, I saw a few plays last night the showed some really good passing by those in orange. Diamond made a backdoor feed to Russell, who was cutting to the basket, for a score. On another play, one of their guards found Russell who had encamped behind Penn State's zone, and she made an easy layup. The pass had to go over the hands of the defenders but be within Russell's reach, and it was.

I am guessing that these were designed plays that they practiced in just the way that they executed them in the game. It's when they have to go off-script because of a disruptive or surprising defensive approach that they go astray -- at least that is my speculation.
 
RSHERMVIKES said:
I just went back and replayed Holly "the wonder coach's" pregame talk and her theme was RELENTLESS! TN was so psyched after the speech that they went out and fell asleep standing up! RELENTLESS my butt! How can you work in the presence of Pat Head Summitt for close to 30 years and have absolutely NO CLUE how to coach a WCBB team!
Please God, PLEASE make TN keep Holly Warlick for the next 20 years!
TN has to improve (you would hope so anyways) and UCONN gets back Ms. Boykin & Ms. Butler, and have CT & TN meet in the NCAA Tournament, UCONN would win by at least 50 points!
There isn't one TN player I would take over our roster including Lawlor & Polido! Our team has more spirit, hustle, & heart than ANYONE on TN's present roster IMHO! CT puts out more effort in 1 minute than TN puts out in the whole 40 minutes!
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Is it just me, or did it look like the team was asleep through Holly's Relentless pre-game talk. It did not look like the team was buying into it.
 
JoePgh said:
More specifically about Tennessee's talent level, I think if you (hypothetically) removed Stewie and Moriah from the picture but restored Natalie / Dejenae / Saniya, the average talent level of the remainder of UConn's roster would be at best equal, and perhaps a bit inferior, to the average talent level of the Orange Ones.
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Not hypothetical - that's us next year (plus Bent, Irwin and The Real Danger)
 
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I looked thru the comments on volnation. Best one I saw was "if PSU were playing UCONN they'd be losing by 70". Then someone else responded: "If we were playing UCONN we'd be losing by 70!". A bit of an exaggeration, but interesting that a LV fan would say that.
 
VA Huskie said:
I looked thru the comments on volnation. Best one I saw was "if PSU were playing UCONN they'd be losing by 70". Then someone else responded: "If we were playing UCONN we'd be losing by 70!". A bit of an exaggeration, but interesting that a LV fan would say that.
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Not necessarily an exaggeration. If they played UCONN, UCONN might want to win by 70, leave the starters in, set a few records, etc., rather than take the foot off the gas in the second half.
 
VA Huskie said:
I looked thru the comments on volnation. Best one I saw was "if PSU were playing UCONN they'd be losing by 70". Then someone else responded: "If we were playing UCONN we'd be losing by 70!". A bit of an exaggeration, but interesting that a LV fan would say that.
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I think that if UCONN wanted to they could beat most teams by 70. The OSU score could have been much worse than it was.
 
JoePgh said:
I think if you (hypothetically) removed Stewie and Moriah from the picture but restored Natalie / Dejenae / Saniya, the average talent level of the remainder of UConn's roster would be at best equal, and perhaps a bit inferior, to the average talent level of the Orange Ones.
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I strongly disagree. For starters Kia > DD right now and even a healthy DD may still not close that gap.
Morgan > Anyone On Lady Vols roster
Gabby> Anyone On Lady Vols roster
Mercedes = Butler best Case.
Collier would be the most talented player on Lady Vols roster.
KLS has potential to be best player on Lady Vols roster.
Boykin & Chong could crack the Lady Vols starting line.
Name a player on Lady Vols than would start over UCONN starting line up of Butler, Nurse, Tuck, Collier, & Gabby.
 
easttexastrash said:
I think that if UCONN wanted to they could beat most teams by 70. The OSU score could have been much worse than it was.
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Yes, tOSU could have been so much worse, but why use your best up and not give the young 'uns time to play? I know you aren't suggesting that. Plus, if the Huskies were to do that, how long before someone got seriously hurt. The problem with this game was it was so early in the season that Geno had to let the big dogs run quite a bit, and Stewie had to play late to get her minutes in after a couple of dubious foul calls sat her down for so long.

Late in the game Mitchell was on the bench. Players around her were animated, looking at the Jumbotron, yet she stared straight ahead. It was the 100 yard stare. A bubble burst. bereft of hope. Yeah, your team ain't going where you've been dreaming about ... this year at least.
 
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