Reaves presser

[stwainfan]

I thought I'd post this. If any want to watch it. New Tennessee assistant coach Reaves .
Sharrona Reaves Introduced as Lady Vols Assistant

 

[DaddyChoc]

thanks... Im sure its the same coach's mumble jumble

 

[j66kicker]

Sounds like a perfect fit - she grew up on Rocky Top Road (Holly: "I couldn't even make this up.")

 

[Bayareahusky]

Thank you for posting..... hope she can give the LV program shot in the arm.....

 

[stwainfan]

I think it sounds like a good hire.

 

[CoachBill]

simple Honesty = I do Not envision this Hire making a distinguishable difference. In my view studying the Lady Vols programs each and every year , they need a true difference maker, change maker. do not see the Lady Vol program as one that "fully gets it " in terms of philosophy, on court product,player development, recruiting .
And I just see this as another hire that simply won't change much.

Coach Reaves certainly comes across as a quality, nice person. This is simply a professional, basketball assessment

for Coach Warlick's sake ( seems like a very nice woman )... when this season ended and she made certain comments about seeking change, "new ideas",etc...
I had hoped that she might realize what She & that program needed was to step outside of comfort zones & true CHANGE... and in my view this hire does not / will not provide that.

Coach Warlick hired someone she thinks will boost recruiting ? maybe. myself and a lot of basketball people will contend that is Not among their biggest issues in trying to return to being a legit Final 4, National Championship program.



One man / coach's view.

as always... we will see

 

[Carnac]

simple Honesty = I do Not envision this Hire making a distinguishable difference. In my view studying the Lady Vols programs each and every year , they need a true difference maker, change maker. do not see the Lady Vol program as one that "fully gets it " in terms of philosophy, on court product,player development, recruiting .
And I just see this as another hire that simply won't change much.

Coach Reaves certainly comes across as a quality, nice person. This is simply a professional, basketball assessment

for Coach Warlick's sake ( seems like a very nice woman )... when this season ended and she made certain comments about seeking change, "new ideas",etc...
I had hoped that she might realize what She & that program needed was to step outside of comfort zones & true CHANGE... and in my view this hire does not / will not provide that.

Coach Warlick hired someone she thinks will boost recruiting ? maybe. myself and a lot of basketball people will contend that is Not among their biggest issues in trying to return to being a legit Final 4, National Championship program.

One man / coach's view.
as always... we will see

CoachBill, in the short time you've been with us, You've gained the admiration and respect of a lot of us here in the yard. Your assessment was an honest and non-biased one. I don't know all of the details regarding the internal turmoil now residing in their program, but I would agree that your observations are spot on. Change starts at the top. Team chemistry appears to be at the forefront of their problems. Some would also argue a lack of leadership on and off the court is a glaring problem. I remind you of the definition of insanity. There must be some serious changes (in several areas) made over the summer if this program is going to remain viable.

Some reports out of LV Nation this past season say that the fans want Holly replaced, as they have given her a vote of no confidence. However their late season run deep into the tournament, and the high cost of a buy-out, may have bought Warlick another year or two as the Lady Vols's coach. Perhaps Coach Reeves can begin to make inroads into eradicating the cancer that has begun to eat away at the very core of their program.

I'm sure Warlick and her have already had lengthy discussions on what the immediate needs of the program are, and the best way to go about effecting change. Team chemistry always involves players. They have to get along with, and embrace each other, other wise, they are doomed to failure. Most of the top ranked successful teams have great team chemistry, and play as a unit, play as one. No selfishness, no egos, no finger pointing, no jealousy. Some close to the program suggest this is not the case.

But.....as you say, we'll see.

 

[Bayareahusky]

I do Not envision this Hire making a distinguishable difference. In my view studying the Lady Vols programs each and every year , they need a true difference maker, change maker. do not see the Lady Vol program as one that "fully gets it " in terms of philosophy, on court product,player development, recruiting .
And I just see this as another hire that simply won't change much.

for Coach Warlick's sake ( seems like a very nice woman )... when this season ended and she made certain comments about seeking change, "new ideas",etc...
I had hoped that she might realize what She & that program needed was to step outside of comfort zones & true CHANGE... and in my view this hire does not / will not provide that.

Coach Warlick hired someone she thinks will boost recruiting ? maybe. myself and a lot of basketball people will contend that is Not among their biggest issues in trying to return to being a legit Final 4, National Championship program.


Coach Bill - I am right with you in your commentary...... This whole switch of assistant coaches seems to be either a personality conflict between Elzy and Holly (yes I have heard the rumors), or Holly's move to keep the heat away from her job security..... perhaps both

Your comment on REAL CHANGE really hits at the heart of what is needed.... CHW has changed an assistant coach, called for "new ideas" and called for a greater work ethic.... I think the LV coaching staff needs to assemble a formidable offensive scheme and focus on the fundamentals of the game first and foremost......

As a former coach myself, I would love to have the LV's roster..... they are talented..... as previous poster said, let's see how they do with things.

 

[CoachBill]

Carnac - along with what you toched on ( internal dynamics ) that have been chronicled & discussed by Holly herself , in my view a consistent issue with program for a while is the overall competency of Staff with the on court product / Execution , basketball philosphies, Teaching details.

This includes ( X & O's - both ends , Discipline, standard of "effort", Strategy ( both ends ), Scouting, Fundamentals, Team play, Player development, Recruiting philosphy of putting team together )




In the press conference Holly talked about :

1 ) how her biggest concern coming out of the season is the recruiting aspect . I sincerely don't think that is their biggest concern.

2) how she wants 2 aspects to be their signature when people watch them Out working teams & level of Compete
That was pretty much all she kept harping on.
In my view.. their limitations in terms of being a Final 4 caliber program extend beyond the two aspects.. and have for a while. And I just don't get a sense that she / her staff fully "get it " . I watched that Presser looking to see if she would convey more of an understanding of what separates programs such as UConn, Notre Dame, Oregon State, etc...
in regards to "on court " / Execution from her program.

 

[CoachBill]

Bayareahusky - Amen

 

[EricLA]

Am I the only one sort of shaking his head? I did not listen to the presser, but Warlick wants her teams to "outwork other teams and compete at a higher level"? If that's not a recipe for mediocrity, I don't know what is.

Going back to Pat's earliest days, that's always been the mantra of Tennessee teams - to be more physical, more aggressive, harder working on the O-boards, and tenacious on the defense. That worked in the 80's and 90's, but pretty much stopped working in the new millennium. Sure Pat had the 2 NC's with Parker, et al, in 2007 and 2008, but that's been all she wrote. In years past, Tenn almost always had better teams on paper, and often because of the talent gap they were able to achieve great things.

Now the talent is so spread out with at least 10 different teams landing the top 5 kids (ND x 3, Kentucky, Tennessee x 2, SC x 2, Texas x 2, UCLA, Ohio State, UCONN x3, Louisville, Nebraska, Baylor, etc), it's more about team play, great coaching, great chemistry, and probably more than a little bit of good fortune. If Tennessee continues to rely on basically no taught offense, but stressing working harder and competing better, I can't see how that works at all for them.

You look at teams who are really well coached, and there's such a difference between the way they run offense, and the way clunkier teams like Tenn do. UCONN isn't the only team that runs motion offense and teaches their kids to read defenses as opposed to "just run plays".

Right now they still have a lot of talent. But they lost some really good players and bring in no real high level help. Cooper, Carter, Nared, Deshields and Russell are a great starting 5, but with no offense, and a very limited bench... I certainly don't think they have the components for a serious final 4 run. The time for Warlick to shake things up is when there's a vacancy like there was. Instead of swinging for the fences, she sort of bunted...

 

[CoachBill]

ericsandiego - Amen !

 

[UcMiami]

CoachBill - as I have always known the level of someone else's brilliance is measure by how much they agree with my way of thinking, and you sir are Brilliant!

A very delicately stated analysis of the past 8 (or longer) years of TN basketball. When Pat was forced to step down, they chose her associate head coach to replace her, who stated in a rather lengthy video piece that her plan was to do exactly what Pat had always done, and she surrounded herself with loyal faithful followers and tried to do exactly what she remembered Pat doing - to me a clear recipe for disaster in anyone in any walk of life taking over a top job from someone else. If that is what you think the job entails, then you are the wrong hire - Holly was a good soldier suddenly put in command of the army. As an associate coach focused on defense the TN defense had been ossifying for a number of years and whichever of the assistant coaches were focused on offense had followed the same pattern - and nothing has changed with the assistants on the staff since 2011 - Lockwood has been there forever, and Law while from outside the TN 'family' comes from one of the most offensively challenged old BE teams (Rutgers) though at least CViv has a dynamic vision on defense.

This new hire looks like more of the same though who knows. Bringing in someone who has a reputation for innovation on offense or defense, or for player development would certainly have signaled 'new blood', hiring someone whose only reputation is for recruiting as you say doesn't address the core issue - build an exciting and winning team on the court and recruits will knock on your door. Try to recruit to a team that disappoints pundits and fans and it will always be an uphill battle.

My other concern is that she has moved around so much - mostly 3 year stints which for a recruiting coordinator means that you are really only there for one full recruiting class from identification to signing. That is a pretty short term record.

 

[CoachBill]

CoachBill - as I have always known the level of someone else's brilliance is measure by how much they agree with my way of thinking, and you sir are Brilliant!




UCmiami - Lol ( touche )

 

[msf22b]

Interesting (slightly positive) thing about the program is that it was widely anticipated (including on their board) that a slew of players would transfer after last season's demoralizing results.

Perhaps as a result of their mini-run in the NCAA's, that exodus does not seem to have materialized.
So at this juncture, they lose Graves (was Nared a senior?) but retain much of the rest (with no recruits).

 

[UcMiami]

Interesting (slightly positive) thing about the program is that it was widely anticipated (including on their board) that a slew of players would transfer after last season's demoralizing results.

Perhaps as a result of their mini-run in the NCAA's, that exodus does not seem to have materialized.
So at this juncture, they lose Graves (was Nared a senior?) but retain much of the rest (with no recruits).

I always thought all the postings on the TN site were projections from the poster's own disappointment and not based on any actual knowledge or access to the players themselves - thankfully a type of speculative posting that gets quickly squashed by our moderators here. And what little trickled over onto this board was most people commenting that the VolNation board posters were expecting player transfers after the season and not actual speculation about player transfers.
But I agree given some of the team dynamic visible during games, that no one has transferred is a positive.

 

[Volup1]

Interesting (slightly positive) thing about the program is that it was widely anticipated (including on their board) that a slew of players would transfer after last season's demoralizing results.

Perhaps as a result of their mini-run in the NCAA's, that exodus does not seem to have materialized.
So at this juncture, they lose Graves (was Nared a senior?) but retain much of the rest (with no recruits).

I don't foresee Tennessee losing any current players. Jaime Nared will be a junior. We lose Bashaara Graves, Jasmine Jones (redshirt with recurring concussion history), and, possibly, Andrea Carter. Carter has her master's degree and wants to play another year; however, her bad knees may keep her from doing so. Tennessee medical staff refuses to clear Jasmine Jones for contact (too risky). Jones has indicated that she may look for another school that WILL clear her to play. We will bring in two new players (Shaquilla Nunn with one year of eligibility and frosh Kamera Harris). We are hoping to get up to five commitments from the 2017 Class.

 

[Bayareahusky]

I had heard of a "either it is her or me" ultimatum regarding dislike of Elzy..... which led to her departure..... just what I heard..... and perhaps LV fans thought that may have led to other defections..... but all seems intact there.... especially with their new hire....

Gee, I hadn't heard of that situation with Carter..... I always like listening to her in the pressers.... she is very sharp..... maybe a future in coaching?

 

[Volup1]

I had heard of a "either it is her or me" ultimatum regarding dislike of Elzy..... which led to her departure..... just what I heard..... and perhaps LV fans thought that may have led to other defections..... but all seems intact there.... especially with their new hire....

Gee, I hadn't heard of that situation with Carter..... I always like listening to her in the pressers.... she is very sharp..... maybe a future in coaching?

Yes, Carter is very sharp indeed! I think she will play if she possibly can, but if she can't, she will land on her feet. Any kid who takes American sign language as her foreign language and then spends her extra time coaching at the Tennessee School for the Deaf has my greatest admiration.
Two things have, I think, helped prevent any defections from the team: 1) Some festering team chemistry issues have been pretty much resolved. The players and team are in a good place. That's one reason why we saw such a team rebound at the end of this past season and (2) With only 8 or 9 players returning this fall everyone can see an opportunity for substantial playing time if they continue to work to improve teamwork and enhance their personal skill sets.

Reaves will help immensely, but she is not the answer to all of our problems as several of you have indicated above. I agree with you. Coach Elzy is now back at her old job with Mathew Mitchell and we wish her well at Kentucky.

 

[UcMiami]

Thanks for the insight Volup1 - I also didn't realize about Carter's knees being that bad. The Jones situation is tough - she seemed like a good player, but having two years lost in a row to serious complications from concussions is not a good sign, and reminds me of the Stanford (?) player who the school's medical staff would not clear for basketball - she sat out a couple of years I think until she transfersed to TX and was cleared to play again. With everything on concussions coming to the forefront now schools and doctors I am sure are taking few chances. I remember watching a TX game and being more concerned about any contact to that player (Carey?) than the actual basketball game.

 

[Bayareahusky]

Yes hope all will be settled on multiple fronts in multiple places!!!! May everyone do well..... Can't wait to start back up in the fall

 

[LadyVols9]

there's some talk in Knoxville that Elzy went to either KY or Fl to seek a job and didn't tell Holly. might have been the final straw after getting no recruits. no sources on that though. just letting you know what I've heard....

 

[Bayareahusky]

.... and if that is the case .... don't blame Holly a bit for the move... I would be peeved as well