Tenn problems Why Tenn Lost

[Tonyc]

I had posted my thoughts on building a team in another thread the other day. I talked about team chemistry and transfers and building a team nucleus. Tenn has not played together long enough to build good chemistry therefore have not built a nucleus or built team chemistry. They are relying on out talenting teams. They have two lineups where they interchange groups of players. They only play a few minutes with each other then are sitting on the bench. It is very hard to build a team with that little playtime. They get in the game and a short time later theyre on the bench. What happened yesterday showed that. UConn imo could've won by alot more. UConn went through a period where they turned the ball over quite a bit and those turnovers were unforced and not really a result of Tenn defense. Then at half time UConn regrouped and exploded and won by 30 pts. To play the number 15 team in the country and beat them in one half by 30 pts is something else. IMO the reason Tenn lost so badly was because they havent built anything. What they have is a team of very talented players, who have not had enough time to learn to play together and build cohesiveness, and chemistry. There are many teams that have alot of transfers that are very talented. You can beat lesser teams with talent, but it is very hard to beat top teams by out talenting them because top teams have alot of talent too and many have played together for a long time.

Tenn's has a good number of seniors that will graduate this year. What will Kim do? She does have some pretty good recruits coming in. Will she continue to go after transfers and portal players or will she build a team which will take time. We will see.

 

[Charliebball]

I agree with 98% of your post but I do think that Tennessee's pressure did have something to do with some of UConn's turnovers......it was great teaching lesson for UConn and will hopefully help them deal with the press in the future.....

 

[CL82]

To play the number 15 team in the country and beat them in one half by 30 pts is something else.

Especially when you are tied at the half. That was an incredibly efficient offense and smothering defense. Hopefully a taste of what we're going to see in the postseason.

 

[cabbie191]

I think there are a lot of factors, including Kim's system. Other things possibly influencing their season overall and yesterday's game specifically.

1) Back in November when Kim dismissed Ruby Whitehorn from the team, with I believe sorrow and reluctance, she clearly stated that this was to protect the integrity of the team and the Tennessee brand name in coming years. Implied in this is that Whitehorn was not only a very talented player, she was perhaps the most popular player on the team and the action was going to be quite disruptive to the team chemistry. Add that to what Tonyc cites!

I don't think it's any secret that post Pat Summitt, the Lady Vol teams have on and off been plagued by a lack of cohesive play which results in part from a lack of close bonding between teammate. So many games their body language is really pretty sad. And Tennessee is certainly not the only team - been an issue IMO on recent Notre Dame and USC teams as well. And gracious, didn't we benefit from this by Kaleigh's decision to transfer to UConn?

As a side note, what we see on some other teams in this regard just heightens my respect for Geno and staff to have maintained for over 40 years such a strong "us" mentality and ethic versus any "me" outbursts.

2) Specific to yesterday's game, I think the second half showing of Tennessee likely was impacted by A) a worst case scenario of aftershocks of their totally no-show against Mississippi State (wonder if they were looking ahead to UConn and took Miss State for granted); B) the angst of having to deal with brutal weather that they aren't used to (the majority of the players are from southern states) (and this includes worry about how their families were coping); C) having games rescheduled or threatened to be rescheduled; D) having their travel to Hartford delayed so long that their scheduled practice time on Saturday was moved to Sunday morning.

3) I was impressed by their engineering a 20-point swing in the first half but I wonder if that effort just emptied their energy tank. It probably was a bit deflating to have gone up by 4 to then have the Huskies quickly tie the game up at the half ended.

 

[Huskee11]

A talented team with lack of cohesiveness is certainly part of it. But that talent was on full display in the second quarter and they had enough cohesiveness to have 16 assists on 24 baskets. UConn players may not have been nervous at halftime, but plenty of fans were.

Why did things turn so dramatically in the second half?

One answer is that it is the nature of the game to have ebbs and flows. Think virtually any NBA game.

And as you note the lack of cohesiveness did bite them, lots of one on one play and forced heaves from deep while UConn stayed true to its identity.

There are many reasons why UConn outscored Tennessee by 30 in the second half. Don’t underestimate the exhaustion factor. I saw the same thing in the Xavier game, by the late third quarter both Xavier and Tennessee were basically jogging back on defense while players like Shade and K9 had not slowed down at all. Watch the layups by K9 and how she went past the defenders like they were standing still.

If you ever saw UConn practice, you know why. They go full speed every minute in practice, that is the expectation. Very hard to sustain it at UConn’s pace for 40 minutes, even if you are a fast paced team like Tennessee with a line change philosophy designed to wear down the opposition.

 

[HuskyNan]

There is a Tennessee thread on the General board