I actually think there's pretty solid eyeball evidence that Tennessee languishes on the road this year more than the expected variance. They haven't just lost on the road; they've looked bad doing it. Yes, Nneka was terrific, but they looked just awful against Stanford. Losing to Virginia is inexcusable. Even though they eeked out a win against Rutgers, that game told me more about Rutgers than it did about Tennessee (i.e., Rutgers is not a significant threat to any of the top teams). And then there was tonight, where it's not like Kentucky put together a command performance or anything to beat them.
Meanwhile, I thought they looked very spritited and pretty good even in defeat to Baylor and pretty dangerous early in the season against Miami. I think young players are more affected by home vs. road crowds (as well as the effects of travel and being out of normal routine), and they do have a very young backcourt. And since the backcourt is the engine that powers an offense in general, that can be a real issue.
Overall, I'm starting to think this incarnation of the LVs is indeed a little worse than last season's. Although Massengale may be a true PG, she's a freshman and is going to be inconsistent. They can't seem to keep everyone healthy simultaneously (and indeed, you can point to Spani being out as a factor that could have swung this game in their favor had she been able to play). Meanwhile, the coaching-by-committee approach sounds good in theory, but in practice, this team desperately needs the vintage Pat Summitt. I truly hope that Pat is finding joy and staying grounded by continuing to coach, but she was clearly more effective as the hard-nosed, focused competitor than she is as more of a symbolic inspiration.
Still a lot of season to be played, but last year, Tennessee eeked out a tough game against UK on the road. This year, they barely lost. Yes UK is somewhat better, but I have to conclude that at minimum Tennessee is only as good as they were a season ago...which wasn't near good enough.
from what I read here) and actually it was a good game to watch. Johnson is a rebounding monster and TN did come back from 12 points down but some of it was becouse the offense of KY was horrible. The call against Striklen was a very bad call and should have been a no call. At this point it looks clear that there is a seperation in quality between the 4 top teams (Baylor, ND, UConn and Stanford) and the teams behind.
