Summitt expects to cut down the nets this year

[UConnCat]

Allison Feaster, who went on to play in the WNBA, scored 35 points for Harvard in that game. I think the game was at Maples. Stanford lost both Folkl and Nygaard days before the Harvard game. Folkl was an All-American and Vanessa Nygaard was honorable mention AA. Very similar to UConn in 2001, though UConn had more time to adjust to Svet's injury...and had Diana Taurasi to replace her.

 

[Husky68]

I just don't think it adds anything to the conversation about this year's team. Now, if we're talking about a thread devoted to the top losses suffered by a team you don't like, it'd be high on my list. But that's an entirely different conversation.

I just don't think it adds anything to the conversation about this year's team. Now, if we're talking about a thread devoted to the top losses suffered by a team you don't like, it'd be high on my list. But that's an entirely different conversation.

I think it does. Same coach, lot of same players only now seniors. Choke once, got to be in the back of your mind. Things start going bad, other fans start chanting Ball State as game gets tight in early NCAA rounds. I can almost see it!

 

[Justavisitor]

Logic says TN should never lose to Ball State, but regardless of talent, too much youth and players out of position will lose to many teams. I would think a team with USA professionals would lose to no other country, besides maybe the Aussies or Russia, but a bad mix without a strong leader is capable of losing to lesser talent, as recently witnessed with Team USA.

 

[Justavisitor]

I think it does. Same coach, lot of same players only now seniors. Choke once, got to be in the back of your mind. Things start going bad, other fans start chanting Ball State as game gets tight in early NCAA rounds. I can almost see it!

Every team can turn the corner with experience. Somehow ND and TexAM found it within themselves to not lose to the same team for a 4th time. Same players and same year and same coaches.

 

[alexrgct]

I think it does. Same coach, lot of same players only now seniors. Choke once, got to be in the back of your mind. Things start going bad, other fans start chanting Ball State as game gets tight in early NCAA rounds. I can almost see it!

I sort of agree. The senior class of LVs came to Knoxville with sky-high expectations, but they haven't made it over the hump. Obviously, they've made it past the Ball State hump, but they've definitely gotten tight as the favorites in the past three NCAA tourneys, and if things get tight again, who knows what will happen.

Once that senior class is graduated, Ball State is totally irrelevant. Until then, it marked the first of a series of disappointing losses that the LV Class of 2008 still has going in the NCAA tourney (i.e., I'd consider it an active streak). The good news for them is that the losses have gotten progressively less shocking over time.

 

[EricLA]

bingo Alex. and when you have a rival like tennessee who is hated by many UCONN fans, why NOT bring Ball State up? low point in the past 29 years that just occurred 2.5 years ago. it's not like it happened in the 80's or 90's.

i love seeing tennessee fail. i love the fact that they've not made it out of the elite 8 in the past 3 years. i love the fact that in the next 3+ years they are firmly behind UCONN in recruiting. if we ever play them, i hope we win by 50 or more. that's part of having a hated rival. on the flip side, i can certainly acknowledge that they should be a top 5 team all season and should make the final 4 and on paper are a talented bunch. and i can certainly acknowledge Pat is recruiting very well, but she's fighting it out for 2nd place behind UCONN since 2009.

doesn't mean i dislike them any less. i'm certainly not going to treat their fans they way we, or UCONN in general, are treated on their board. and i'm not going to pretend i ain't totally psyched when they fall flat on their faces.

 

[Icebear]

alex, they have tons of baggage from the last three years. The test for them will be if they are in a tournament game and things start going south. In such a situation will they panic and give in to old habits and fears or stabilize and pull things out. I expect the former since they have had little big time success to date.

 

[UConnCat]

Response to our Justavisitor:

Uh, no. Tenn's team had Bjorklund, Cain, Fuller and the top-rated freshman class in the country that year. It was Tenn's 33rd game of the season. We're not talking about a BCS conference team; it was a 16-point loss to Ball State out of the MAC conference for god's sake. It was a debacle in every respect as evidenced by the Tenn coach's post-game reaction as described in that unforgettable NY Times article.

I assume you're referring to Team USA in Europe and that's a silly comparison. The USA team consisted of 8 players and was put together on the fly at the end of a grueling WNBA season. There was very little preparation time and the USA lost to good, experienced and well-prepared professional teams that have played together for a lot longer than a few days. Those European professional teams were not the equivalent of Ball State.

 

[connboy77]

This is probably going to be one of Pat's last decent years of coaching. I can't believe I'm saying it, but if Uconn doesn't win, I hope Summit does.

I don't think you will find to many people on this board agreeing with you!

 

[Justavisitor]

Response to our Justavisitor:

Uh, no. Tenn's team had Bjorklund, Cain, Fuller and the top-rated freshman class in the country that year. It was Tenn's 33rd game of the season. We're not talking about a BCS conference team; it was a 16-point loss to Ball State out of the MAC conference for god's sake. It was a debacle in every respect as evidenced by the Tenn coach's post-game reaction as described in that unforgettable NY Times article.
.

Cain was a freshman and she only played 14 mins that game. After Cain went down with the injury, the deer in the headlights look spread across the entire team. Fuller was never the same after her knee injuries. Angie was a sophomore. I don't care how many regular season games they played. It was their first tourney game and that's alot for freshmen to handle without a leader and when playing out of position.

 

[doggydaddy]

Cain was a freshman and she only played 14 mins that game. After Cain went down with the injury, the deer in the headlights look spread across the entire team. Fuller was never the same after her knee injuries. Angie was a sophomore. I don't care how many regular season games they played. It was their first tourney game and that's alot for freshmen to handle without a leader and when playing out of position.

It was BALL STATE. Seriously, please stop making excuses. And that "deer in the headlights" look has followed them around for 3 years. Including Simmons last year. She was god-awful that last game. Hey, so was Taurasi her last game of her freshman season. So maybe that won't repeat for Simmons. The Seniors? I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[EricLA]

from the ESPN recap after the game...

The Lady Volunteers (22-11) had never lost in the first two rounds of the tournament, going 42-0 through the years. Tennessee also became the first defending champ to lose its opening game in the women's tourney.

a little bit of ignominious history for you. i mean it was the first time since 1982 that they failed to make it out of the first round. i'm sure in those 27 years they had a few young teams make it to the tourney.

 

[Justavisitor]

Actually, no they had not ever had a team that young, which is why they are now getting back to recruiting smaller classes. The original 6 pack seemed brilliant at the time and brought 2 championships (paid off), but recruiting classes of that size plus injuries put them in a major rebuilding phase. No coach likes to start freshmen, but they most certainly don't like a line up with 4 freshmen and 1 sophomore. I do welcome any insight on someone finding a team with line ups that young that have done better. For the record, it's just as easy to sit back in your favorite chair and criticize, as it is to give excuses. That's what message boards are for. It fills the time until the season begins and then all teams will have the ability to get it done on the court. At the end of the day, they have one year left to solidify their legacy. The only question is "what will that legacy be?" Only they have the power to determine that and our banter is just that, alot of talk.

 

[RoyDodger]

i mean how many big games will we have? 5-8...otherwise i expect our bench to average more minutes all the way across.

and simmons and stricklen will be one of the best 2/3 combos in the country. strick can shoot from anywhere and simmons has the tennessee record for three's in a game. we may not have a "pure" shooter like bjorklund, in that starting lineup, but they are as good of a shooting perimeter trio as there is on any other top 10 team.

spani is a pure shooter however, and she will be our designated gunner off the bench.

I'm curious, tnvolfan, does it bother you that the Tennessee women's basketball team is called the Lady Vols? Seems Tennessee is living in a distant, pre-Title Nine past, when women as athletes were looked down upon as unworthy. I could see that name when women's basketball was just starting out. It took awhile for the prejudices to disappear. But this is the 21st century. Isn't it time for Tennessee to recognize that all teams that play for Tennessee are entitled to the same name: Volunteers or Vols?

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Four comments from someone with no horse in this race --

1. Re Lady Vols - I might be interested in tnvolfan's response, but OTH, what a trademark! Lady Vol volleyball and softball have certainly been successful as well. Most teams, do you reallyknow if they are the "Lady ..." or not? Good branding, I think.

2. I know that the Tenn message board has had its moments, but in my experience, Tenn fans in person have been great. While I know I'm not a UConn fan, there are other programs - with no rivalry issues - where I attended away RU games and did not come away with a great opinion of the fans. For example, Iowa State and Duke fans were not hospitable. So I just put Tenn message board comments down to "rivalry based".

3. I don't think the Ball State game is relevant except as Icebear suggested - should Tennessee find itself in a similar situation. Players change. Yet, an emotional reaction in a like situation - maybe.

4 - Until the teams take the court, like was suggested earlier in the thread, it is just banter and guesswork. I suspect Tennessee will be better than many UConn fans claim and maybe not as good as they hope. I also suspect that Pat and her assistants will find a way to manage the minutes.

Oh - and only when you are talking Tennessee (and UConn) is an elite 8 departure somehow disappointing in the abstract (for the rest of us, it might be disappointing when it happens, but after the fact "great season". Just saying.

 

[Zorro]

No offense, but Napoleon expected to have dinner in Moscow.

 

[Kibitzer]

The height of optimism, of course, was the pep talk General Custer gave to his men before the Battle of Little Big Horn: "Remember, men, don't take any prisoners!"

Being the highly disciplined troops that they were, they followed his orders to the letter and indeed did not take a single prisoner.

So much for the value of stats.

 

[tnvolfan65]

It doesn't bother me at all that Tenn is the Lady Vols. It's part of their identity and tradition. I don't think it has anything to do with being recognized as equals.The reality is the Lady Vol brand has as much respect if not more than the Volunteer brand. It can be as empowering as degrading.

 

[RoyDodger]

It doesn't bother me at all that Tenn is the Lady Vols. It's part of their identity and tradition. I don't think it has anything to do with being recognized as equals.The reality is the Lady Vol brand has as much respect if not more than the Volunteer brand. It can be as empowering as degrading.

I respectfully disagree. Emphasizing the gender of the players in the team name is inherently degrading especially where the other gender isn't so emphasized. Why isn't the men's team called the "Gentlemen Vols?" Other schools have changed team names to avoid emphasizing inappropriate references, such as the St. John's University team name change from "Redmen" to "RedStorm."

For UConn fans, try to imagine our UConn women referred to as the "Lady Huskies."

Tennessee's women's basketball team name sounds like discrimination to me. And if the school is receiving any Federal assistance, it could certainly be argued that it violates Title Nine which reads:

"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance..."

—United States Code Section 20, [1]​

​

 

[Wonkster]

The height of optimism, of course, was the pep talk General Custer gave to his men before the Battle of Little Big Horn: "Remember, men, don't take any prisoners!"...

.
I always wondered just which Indian was taking notes at the time.
.

 

[msf22b]

My impression is that Massengale hasn't participated for weeks. Early season struggles are possible when your young, anointed PG doesn't even practice!
But I do agree that the talent level is high and despite this group not coming together the last three years, there is no saying that they won't this year.
My big question is Simmons; surely a talent but so undisciplined. All by herself, she can win and also be responsible for losing games.

 

[Vowelguy]

Things start going bad, other fans start chanting Ball State as game gets tight in early NCAA rounds. I can almost see it!

That's funny that you think that fans of Lamar or Austin Peay or whoever the Vols face in the early rounds this year are (a) going to show up to watch their WCBB team and (b) are knowledgeable enough to be aware of a game from 3 years ago.

 

[Zorro]

I think it is interesting that Pat has already (in fact, before last season ended!) annointed Massengale as the savior of LadyVol basketball. An awful lot of pressure to put on a freshman. I also think it will be interesting to see how she and Simmons interact on the court. Sharing the ball may be a problem.

 

[EricLA]

I think it is interesting that Pat has already (in fact, before last season ended!) annointed Massengale as the savior of LadyVol basketball. An awful lot of pressure to put on a freshman. I also think it will be interesting to see how she and Simmons interact on the court. Sharing the ball may be a problem.

i'm not so sure she anointed her the savior - i mean as much as i like sticking it to pat and tennessee, i think she said ariel was the PG of the future. i think it depends how stubborn pat is. it's pretty clear letting one player jack up shots won't work against a quality team. tennessee's really never run much offense, but they've not recently had such a high level PG.

 

[Icebear]

i'm not so sure she anointed her the savior - i mean as much as i like sticking it to pat and tennessee, i think she said ariel was the PG of the future. i think it depends how stubborn pat is. it's pretty clear letting one player jack up shots won't work against a quality team. tennessee's really never run much offense, but they've not recently had such a high level PG.

Pat's comment was closer to Z's version.