Sunday Games 01/12

[uconnell]

Woot! Woot!

Always nice to see the Lady Vols go down!!!

Go Vandy!!

What's the difference between the Vols going down and the Titanic? The band playing.

 

[Bayareahusky]

Thank you for posting Margo's comments..... she always shoots it straight with unvarnished opinion..... I love hearing her take on things.

The more I listen to Holly, the more I think she is just in this over her head. I always hear quotes like "They wanted it more"..... Until defense is important to us, we are not going to win" and "We need to learn from this" It all sounds like a broken record..... In LV case, their problems are almost totally caused by bad coaching. They have good players..... they need to be DEVELOPED!!!

All the LV losses.... HW sounds like a tired audio loop..... and what is with the quote "Until defense is important to us........" That seems like she is offloading responsibility on the players. I have said it before..... I would LOVE to attend a LV practice..... just what do they learn? what do they practice?

LVs need someone with head coachng experience/ability..... an alpha dog..... they desperately need a Batman, not a Robin..... What would Dean or Elzy be like from within? Easy to see how a Mitchell or Walz would be a step up..... Funny listening to Vol Nation clamor for Tyler (too much adoration for "everything Summit") and Caldwell (really? was she THAT great th places she has been? what did she accomplish at UCLA?")

Any way you look at it, LVs need a change at the top.... unless the players really DO suck, and I do not think that is the case.

 

[RadyLady]

Man, I really like Margo. She tells it like it is. She should be part of Tennessee's post mortem on games.

 

[Icebear]

Poor Margo's problem is she still thinks "We're Tennessee," means something. Not so much anymore.

 

[RadyLady]

Poor Margo's problem is she still thinks "We're Tennessee," means something. Not so much anymore.

to them is has meaning. To be a fan only when the team is winning is to be a fair weather fan.

 

[HuskyNan]

A few questions for those in the know:

Why didn't Russell log more than 14 min for TN? Thought I read earlier this season that she was as good as advertised as a center.

The kid is still just a freshman and this is the time of year that freshmen usually hit the wall. College teams play a lot more games than high schoolers, and more frequently. January or thereabouts is usually the time that the physical and emotional toll starts to become apparent, especially for an elite player like Mercedes. Players like her hate losing and want to do something about it but don't know quite what to do in her new setting. This is all in addition to being away from home, probably for the first time, and adjusting to college.

 

[Wbbfan1]

Nan

With Mercedes, I think its more then she hit the freshmen wall. IMHO she's not been the player that the Lady Vols were expecting. They expected a dominant post player and so far she hasn't live up to that expectation. Sure it takes longer for post players to develop but IMHO she should be averaging more then 7.7 points and 5.25 rebounds a game. Part of it she was over hyped in some circles when she was designated as the #1 player coming out of high school. Her play with Team USA U17 team in 2012 did not reflect she was the best player coming out of High School in 2013.

http://www.utsports.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/mercedes_russell_852208.html

Do I wish that Geno & CD didn't stop recruiting her or Mercedes had interest in UConn, you bet as Geno would develop her talent to maximize her abilities. Time will tell if the Lady Vols can. However, one side of me is happy she didn't choose UConn, as Kiah may not have developed as much as she has because of fewer minutes played. Right now and no reason for it to change Kiah is having a bigger impact for UConn then Mercedes is having for the Lady Vols.

The kid is still just a freshman and this is the time of year that freshmen usually hit the wall. College teams play a lot more games than high schoolers, and more frequently. January or thereabouts is usually the time that the physical and emotional toll starts to become apparent, especially for an elite player like Mercedes. Players like her hate losing and want to do something about it but don't know quite what to do in her new setting. This is all in addition to being away from home, probably for the first time, and adjusting to college.

 

[Icebear]

to them is has meaning. To be a fan only when the team is winning is to be a fair weather fan.

Problem is she thinks she can make it have meaning to the team. Either you have school and team pride or you don't. It is hard to regain when you lose it.

 

[Zorro]

The general feeling over on Volnation (other than that they got jobbed by the refs) was that the LV simply lack disciline. e.g., Simmons flinging the ball at the basket whenever the itch strikes to do so, failure to get really serious on defense, etc.An other e.g., when Harrison picked up her fourth foul last night, she also was hit with a T which fouled her out. According to a fan over on the VN, she hit Lisa Mattingly with an F-bomb. (This is, of course, hearsay and the mods may wish to disappear this post. But can you imagine the wrath of Geno if one of his players so forgot herself as to foul herself out on a tech like that? She could definitely look forward to accumulting some splinters.)

 

[DobbsRover2]

The general feeling over on Volnation (other than that they got jobbed by the refs) was that the LV simply lack disciline. e.g., Simmons flinging the ball at the basket whenever the itch strikes to do so, failure to get really serious on defense, etc.

I too think that all that is needed is a little discipline and better refs to get the Vols back to an NC game. X's and O's are overated, especially the O's, and the Vols just need to pass the ball into the paint, which will allow them to score 100+ points like they did against Troy and Lipscomb. Not sure why UTenn got away from that plan that worked so well against those two teams.

 

[UcMiami]

A couple of more losses like this and the team may lose whatever spirit and cohesion it has. Graves tweeted after the game: "If I was free to actually speak my mind. [grumpy face emoticon]. https://twitter.com/BASH931

I agree that HW's post game floundering was pretty pathetic. Boiled down to : I don't know how to get them to play defense.

Wow - that is not a good tweet to have posted by a player after a game (and a good reason for Uconn's ban on twitter in season.) I can understand her frustration, but ...
I do find it interesting that a couple of highly ranked players are seeing very limited minutes - Russell at TN and Harper with KY. I expected more from both, and I agree Nan, that they are freshman and the wall issue, but I don't think either has been getting much run from the start.
I also agree with the poster who said the KY mass (and frequent) substitution pattern has to play havoc with the offensive end of things. They are young players and should be able to go full out for ten minute stretches in a game, so rotating substitutions should still allow for all out effort for the 40 minutes of dread theory and allow for more continuity in the offensive flow.
Love Margo - may not always agree but she lays it out there and hits a lot of good points in her analysis.
In the coaches show, there was the Shea story about the game in Providence when she was stuck on the bench for the whole first half. At half time Geno comes up and asks her how many points she had, then how many rebounds, at which point Shea is seeing red. He then says, thats the same number you had in practice the last two weeks! The reason I bring this up - head coaches have to be willing to discipline players in game situations. There must be someone on the TN bench who is willing to play defense, so Holly should start sitting starters until she finds someone, and until they get the idea that playing defense means minutes on the court. I suspect though that part of the problem is that they haven't practice smartly - giving weak side help takes a lot of practice for both the helper and the on ball guarder - the on-ball person has to channel the ball into the help side person, and the help side person has to be anticipating the need for help.

 

[Zorro]

Now, more than ever, I am happy that I have never acquired the Twitter habit. I could not understand 10% of what was going on in that exchange. And PLEASE don't anyone explain it to me, because I really do not want to know. tyvm. 10-4, over and out.

 

[Zorro]

I too think that all that is needed is a little discipline and better refs to get the Vols back to an NC game. X's and O's are overated, especially the O's, and the Vols just need to pass the ball into the paint, which will allow them to score 100+ points like they did against Troy and Lipscomb. Not sure why UTenn got away from that plan that worked so well against those two teams.

Actually, Dobbs, the denizens over yonder DID have a few quite uncomplimentary comments about the lack of a discerbable plan on offense. And also about Graves and Russell spending so much time on the pine. And the generally unsatisfactory nature of Holly's performance as coach.Many of them seem to want Melanie back, while others just wish for a "big time coach". (No one, however, suggested trying to lure Geno away from UConn.) Schadenfreude is unadmirable! I really wish I did not enjoy it so much. I would be a better person. So it goes.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Gee, where have our Lady Vol buddies gone? not

Course, if the outcome tonight is not to our liking tonight, they will be on this site like stink on a bug.

 

[Icebear]

Actually, Dobbs, the denizens over yonder DID have a few quite uncomplimentary comments about the lack of a discerbable plan on offense. And also about Graves and Russell spending so much time on the pine. And the generally unsatisfactory nature of Holly's performance as coach.Many of them seem to want Melanie back, while others just wish for a "big time coach". (No one, however, suggested trying to lure Geno away from UConn.) Schadenfreude is unadmirable! I really wish I did not enjoy it so much. I would be a better person. So it goes.

How would they realize that? There has never been a discernible plan on offense other throw the ball up and get the rebound for a put back.

 

[DobbsRover2]

Actually, Dobbs, the denizens over yonder DID have a few quite uncomplimentary comments about the lack of a discerbable plan on offense. And also about Graves and Russell spending so much time on the pine. And the generally unsatisfactory nature of Holly's performance as coach.Many of them seem to want Melanie back, while others just wish for a "big time coach". (No one, however, suggested trying to lure Geno away from UConn.) Schadenfreude is unadmirable! I really wish I did not enjoy it so much. I would be a better person. So it goes.

From what I can tell, the VolNationals want players who can pass, and pass the ball into the paint for the post players. That has always been the Vol creed -- shoot and crash the boards, and they rode it to 8 NCs so you can't say it didn't have some big success. Besides the lack of the Holdsclaw\Parker superstar in recent times though, they also have had way too many years without good ballhandlers, and that is going to stall out an offense. Massengale has been decent at times this year, but she's too inconsistent and may be tailing off in SEC play