Tennessee 2025, part 2
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WBBTakeover
WHO CAN GUARD TESSA???!!!!
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Kim Caldwell is killing their brand. This isn't just a basketball issue. It's a perception issue. Her character flaws are becoming more noticeable every time she opens her mouth to speak. This is not a salvageable situation, IMO.
I thought that they could wait it out another year, but now--I'm not so sure. They may need to cut bait and hire a coach (Tammi Reiss?) who is mature, accomplished, and possesses the right traits (charisma, empathy, passion) to help the program rebuild its tattered brand sooner rather than later.
I thought that they could wait it out another year, but now--I'm not so sure. They may need to cut bait and hire a coach (Tammi Reiss?) who is mature, accomplished, and possesses the right traits (charisma, empathy, passion) to help the program rebuild its tattered brand sooner rather than later.
EricSD
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Kim's comments are complete hogwash. By abandoning the hockey line substitutions, she also "had to" abandon the full court press? Ridiculous and ignorant.
UConn full court presses for much of the game and could go longer if needed, but scores are usually so far out of reach in half 2 that it makes no sense to do that. She does NOT need to sub literally every 2 minutes. She could do 5 minute stretches. Back in Vivian Stringer's days, Rutgers would unleash "40 minutes of hell" and press the entire game without resorting to Kim's gimmick defense.
There are articles out there that talk about the Tennessee practices putting the track team practices to shame (meaning they are intense and fast paced etc.). These are 18-22 year-olds and if they are in great shape, it's totally possible to play intense full court press even if you leave your line in longer.
And as far as identity goes, she never REALLY was committed to the system. Sure she hockey lined for much of the season, but her other coaching "strategy" was to reward players from line 2 who played well to be starters next game, and demote players from line 1 to come off the bench. Crazy. How does that work in practices for chemistry? How good would UConn be if there was no consistency with our starters being on the floor in practice together?
Basically, though, she's saying she doesn't know how to coach a team other than her method that worked in Division II. As someone said here, there's a reason literally NO OTHER top team coaching staff uses this gimmick of a coaching strategy.
By the way did anyone catch one of the freshmen on the bench when a Tennessee player (maybe Spearman) was driving to the basket midway thru Q4? She went one on 3 into traffic, spun left, right, left, right, and traveled. Then the camera pans to the bench and the player says "What t#e f ***? Pass the ball!!"
Abandoning the gimmick defense had zero to do with her inability to teach anything resembling offense. It harkened back to the old Pat strategy - recruit athletes, play one on one basketball, jack up a shot, and crash the boards. THAT is not a strategy of success, but Caldwell puts the blame in the wrong place. She blames abandoning her scheme when she should have talked about her inability to teach any kind of coherent offense.
UConn full court presses for much of the game and could go longer if needed, but scores are usually so far out of reach in half 2 that it makes no sense to do that. She does NOT need to sub literally every 2 minutes. She could do 5 minute stretches. Back in Vivian Stringer's days, Rutgers would unleash "40 minutes of hell" and press the entire game without resorting to Kim's gimmick defense.
There are articles out there that talk about the Tennessee practices putting the track team practices to shame (meaning they are intense and fast paced etc.). These are 18-22 year-olds and if they are in great shape, it's totally possible to play intense full court press even if you leave your line in longer.
And as far as identity goes, she never REALLY was committed to the system. Sure she hockey lined for much of the season, but her other coaching "strategy" was to reward players from line 2 who played well to be starters next game, and demote players from line 1 to come off the bench. Crazy. How does that work in practices for chemistry? How good would UConn be if there was no consistency with our starters being on the floor in practice together?
Basically, though, she's saying she doesn't know how to coach a team other than her method that worked in Division II. As someone said here, there's a reason literally NO OTHER top team coaching staff uses this gimmick of a coaching strategy.
By the way did anyone catch one of the freshmen on the bench when a Tennessee player (maybe Spearman) was driving to the basket midway thru Q4? She went one on 3 into traffic, spun left, right, left, right, and traveled. Then the camera pans to the bench and the player says "What t#e f ***? Pass the ball!!"
Abandoning the gimmick defense had zero to do with her inability to teach anything resembling offense. It harkened back to the old Pat strategy - recruit athletes, play one on one basketball, jack up a shot, and crash the boards. THAT is not a strategy of success, but Caldwell puts the blame in the wrong place. She blames abandoning her scheme when she should have talked about her inability to teach any kind of coherent offense.
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I’ve seen this a lot and I don’t understand what about this year’s roster was ill-suited for her system. Cooper seems like a premier fit for a high-speed pressing lineup with her length and athleticism and Barker/Spearman are mobile bigs who can handle that better than most 4s/5s. To me the wrong style of player would be a Tess Darby type. I genuinely do want to understand if there was a style misfit because all I can think of is that they weren’t a great shooting team
BRS24
LisaG
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IMO, a high volume pressing team needs a few things - athleticism, bit of speed, and most importantly, an understanding of how, when, and where to press. If A happens, then B, if not, then C, etc, etc. The entire team needs to work in unison. UConn defenders are usually on the same page with pressing, where TN last night seemed to be, let's do it and if it doesn't work, peel off.
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I think it’s that they are all the same type of player. Part of the system is shooting 3s, and a lot of them, yet none of them are 3 point shooters. There’s zero leadership. They don’t pass the ball well.
Darby may not have the speed but she could shoot the 3. And they were a way better team with her last year.
.-.
nwhoopfan
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Yeah, but didn't she have a plan when she arrived? Starting to rebuild in Year 3 is not a good look. What were Year 1 and Year 2 for?
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I think the larger issue is Tennessee’s internal perception of where their program currently stands. You fire Kellie Harper to fish out a coach from the mid-majors. This to me sounds like they didn’t have a plan for the program’s leadership in the first place.
As for the roster, I think it’s a case of poor coaching but also poor attitudes and demeanors from the players. Tennessee didn’t bring in players that fit the system or the personalities required for the system to work.
As for the roster, I think it’s a case of poor coaching but also poor attitudes and demeanors from the players. Tennessee didn’t bring in players that fit the system or the personalities required for the system to work.
victor64
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You seemingly live and die with the three yet you have hardly anybody who can shoot them.
I think she can coach but Tennesee is a bad fit. Hockey shift subbing does not work with SEC athletes with corresponding big egos.
I think she can coach but Tennesee is a bad fit. Hockey shift subbing does not work with SEC athletes with corresponding big egos.
TheFarmFan
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It appears our poor friend @stwainfan has been in the fan witness protection program since Feb 8. Honestly, I'm actually quite curious what the non-crazy (are there any?) Lady Vols fans think about where the program should go. I feel like the rest of us are just a bunch of rubbernecking vultures...
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Who the heck knows. Like the famous quote, everyone has a plan until you get hit. Then it is is like, what happened? Year One was totally not expected. Same with Year Two. Year one you working with the players who stayed and you get their buy in and build. Year 2, you recruit players who you think will fit your vision of the style of play you want to see and you add pieces, who have the talent but for whatever reason, things just can't mesh, and you go from there. Years 3,4,5 and maybe 6, will depend on what happens in Year 3. Alot just depends on who stays, who goes, and who they are able to recruit.
.-.
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Hello, posting for the first time after decades (?) of lurking. Anyway, as some of you have mentioned, Caldwell's system has three (3) defining components:
1. Forty min. of full court press
2. Volume shooting from behind the arc
3. Hockey line substitutions
Successfully running this system intrinsically requires assemblage of a team with the following characteristics, at minimum:
1. Ten players who are equally capable of shooting the 3
2. Two equally capable players at each of the five positions
3. That the players can be split into two units of five, one at each position, both of which have the chemistry to play as a stable, cohesive unit throughout the season, as well as the ability to seamlessly maintain the momentum of the players it is replacing on the court
For obvious reasons, no school at the highest D1 level can assemble a team that fulfills each of these conditions--not even UConn which, of course, has one of the deepest teams in the NCAA tournament this year. But as at least one poster has pointed out, none of the players on Tennessee's team (despite all of them being Caldwell's recruits with the exception of Cooper, Boyd and the departed Wynn) is a 3-point specialist. Indeed, of the team's best players, Talaysia Cooper owns the team's best 3-pt make percentage (34.2 NCAA College Women's Basketball DI current individual Stats | NCAA.com) which is respectable but nowhere near Azzi's percentage. Nor, as someone else mentioned, does Caldwell play two consistent platoons of five. Well, not only are the rotations themselves changeable, but quite damningly, Caldwell apparently has no understanding of the relationship between substitutions, strategy and game flow. When, in Friday's game, the players on the floor finally had managed to get themselves within 3 points of tying up their game against NC State late in the third quarter, Caldwell did one of her hockey substitutions, thus breaking all momentum and catalyzing what would eventually become an insurmountable Wolfpack lead. Worse, many of the players she subbed in are amongst the less skilled on the team.
Many posters, both on this board and on Volnation, have observed that the success of this system relies upon forcing turnovers and wearing out the opposing team which doesn't work against Power 4 caliber teams capable of breaking the press and playing 40 min. of basketball at full intensity. I'd also suggest, based upon what I've just outlined, that at least one factor underlying the ineffectiveness of this strategy on Tennessee's part is Caldwell's own incompetence in applying it in the first place. According to one poster on Volnation, "apparent willful ignorance of the obvious problems with her system at this level certainly makes her LOOK like a " ( Post #18, https://www.volnation. com/forum/threads/nc-st-post-game-press-conference.382254/). Like others, I surmise that one motivation for the doubling down is that she doesn't have the knowledge or experience to coach any other system, but perhaps unkindly, I also suspect that she doesn't have the analytical ability, critical thinking skills and/or flexibility of mind to learn any other strategies and/or integrate elements of different ones and apply them judiciously--at least, that is what I deduce from her own response in the postgame presser to the question of what she learned over the course of the season that she'll apply to next season which was that it wasn't the appropriate moment to list all of the issues to be addressed but that the overriding lesson she'd absorbed was to "keep your character when your prayer doesn't match God's plan" (Post #1, https://www. volnation.com/forum/threads/nc-st-post-game-press-conference.382254/). I have no idea what that means, but anyone who would ever attribute this season's results to some deific intention rather than to Occam's razor (which in this case means a failure to prepare and also to adjust in real time during games) is likely someone incapable of logical thought. It's not a coincidence that the most successful coaches in women's bball--Geno, Tara, Dawn and (despite her complete lack of class and character) Kim Mulkey--all have considerable brains.
1. Forty min. of full court press
2. Volume shooting from behind the arc
3. Hockey line substitutions
Successfully running this system intrinsically requires assemblage of a team with the following characteristics, at minimum:
1. Ten players who are equally capable of shooting the 3
2. Two equally capable players at each of the five positions
3. That the players can be split into two units of five, one at each position, both of which have the chemistry to play as a stable, cohesive unit throughout the season, as well as the ability to seamlessly maintain the momentum of the players it is replacing on the court
For obvious reasons, no school at the highest D1 level can assemble a team that fulfills each of these conditions--not even UConn which, of course, has one of the deepest teams in the NCAA tournament this year. But as at least one poster has pointed out, none of the players on Tennessee's team (despite all of them being Caldwell's recruits with the exception of Cooper, Boyd and the departed Wynn) is a 3-point specialist. Indeed, of the team's best players, Talaysia Cooper owns the team's best 3-pt make percentage (34.2 NCAA College Women's Basketball DI current individual Stats | NCAA.com) which is respectable but nowhere near Azzi's percentage. Nor, as someone else mentioned, does Caldwell play two consistent platoons of five. Well, not only are the rotations themselves changeable, but quite damningly, Caldwell apparently has no understanding of the relationship between substitutions, strategy and game flow. When, in Friday's game, the players on the floor finally had managed to get themselves within 3 points of tying up their game against NC State late in the third quarter, Caldwell did one of her hockey substitutions, thus breaking all momentum and catalyzing what would eventually become an insurmountable Wolfpack lead. Worse, many of the players she subbed in are amongst the less skilled on the team.
Many posters, both on this board and on Volnation, have observed that the success of this system relies upon forcing turnovers and wearing out the opposing team which doesn't work against Power 4 caliber teams capable of breaking the press and playing 40 min. of basketball at full intensity. I'd also suggest, based upon what I've just outlined, that at least one factor underlying the ineffectiveness of this strategy on Tennessee's part is Caldwell's own incompetence in applying it in the first place. According to one poster on Volnation, "apparent willful ignorance of the obvious problems with her system at this level certainly makes her LOOK like a " ( Post #18, https://www.volnation. com/forum/threads/nc-st-post-game-press-conference.382254/). Like others, I surmise that one motivation for the doubling down is that she doesn't have the knowledge or experience to coach any other system, but perhaps unkindly, I also suspect that she doesn't have the analytical ability, critical thinking skills and/or flexibility of mind to learn any other strategies and/or integrate elements of different ones and apply them judiciously--at least, that is what I deduce from her own response in the postgame presser to the question of what she learned over the course of the season that she'll apply to next season which was that it wasn't the appropriate moment to list all of the issues to be addressed but that the overriding lesson she'd absorbed was to "keep your character when your prayer doesn't match God's plan" (Post #1, https://www. volnation.com/forum/threads/nc-st-post-game-press-conference.382254/). I have no idea what that means, but anyone who would ever attribute this season's results to some deific intention rather than to Occam's razor (which in this case means a failure to prepare and also to adjust in real time during games) is likely someone incapable of logical thought. It's not a coincidence that the most successful coaches in women's bball--Geno, Tara, Dawn and (despite her complete lack of class and character) Kim Mulkey--all have considerable brains.
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Edit to above: Cooper made the most 3s (61) and had the second-best 3 pt made percentage (34.3 [Women's Basketball Cumulative Statistics]). Also, the word at the end of the quotation from the Volnation poster is "d[*****s]."
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If she wants to press all the time, I think she needs to add some variation to the press strategy. She deploys it is a way that is predictable and I think it would keeps the opponents on their toes if they don't know what type of press they're seeing -- it would cause more hesitation with passing the ball and probably result in more turnovers. I think she needs to study how Texas, Louisville and UConn like to press to find that variation in pressing techniques and then randomly switch to those styles between possessions.
UConnCat
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One guess is the coaching staff rents an Airbnb in the portal. Like the title of the Beatles song, "Hello, Goodbye."
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If you ask volnation… the coaching staff should get fired. The AD throws $1.5mil to Kara or Shea. And just like that they’ll have a new coach and a winning season!
.-.
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One of the problems with the press is that the constant line changes make it more difficult for the players to be able to work together effectively. Then, when you add in the predictability factor, it negates the effectiveness. If you try to change up the style, it’s likely that the line changes will make it worse, not better.
The second issue that I find with the press is the ‘offense’ they are trying to run is predicated on the press generating turnovers. When the press fails, and Tennessee has to rely on the half court offense, they look lost.
Coach Caldwell seems to completely lack situational awareness. She’s going to do the line change no matter what is happening the floor. That’s a momentum killer.
I pretty much think the whole thing is a dumpster fire and needs to be scrapped.
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Unfortunately, 1.5 million doesn’t buy as much as it used to.
BRS24
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Considering how well Kara and Shea are doing, I don't see this happening. Too many minefields. Too many expectations that are dependent on history, and not reality.
southie
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Well, that's an opinion. And, obviously the committee disagrees with your take. Bottom line is that the committee evaluates a team's entire body of work throughout the entire season.
Rocket009
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TN deserved to be in the tournament by their record - they also deserved to lose in the first round. Seeding worked.
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We good with "fallen apart" now or no?
.-.
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And this is what’s so incredulous about the LV program to those of us not in Vol Nation. It doesn’t seem that long ago that you couldn’t have a conversation about WBB without including the LV. Now, that conversation seems normal.
Stanford may be the next candidate for that club. The combination of Tara leaving, the inception of the transfer portal and NIL, and the implosion of the PAC-12/ move to the ACC has left the Cardinal headed in the wrong direction. Bottom line: it’s tougher than ever to stay relevant in the hunt for national prominence. Makes what Geno, Dawn, and Kim continue to do more impressive.
Stanford may be the next candidate for that club. The combination of Tara leaving, the inception of the transfer portal and NIL, and the implosion of the PAC-12/ move to the ACC has left the Cardinal headed in the wrong direction. Bottom line: it’s tougher than ever to stay relevant in the hunt for national prominence. Makes what Geno, Dawn, and Kim continue to do more impressive.
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WBBTakeover
WHO CAN GUARD TESSA???!!!!
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If they fire Caldwell after April 1, they cut the buyout in half. Maybe they can use the money saved to entice Kara (don't think they're getting Shea unless they increase that salary even more). Kara will at least listen for 2 million. It's her alma mater, after all.
Let the perpetually delusional have their moment. They're still relevant, but not in a good way.
I don’t think she’ll leave Duke for a bigger paycheck. Someone here alluded to a meeting with UT administration that did not go well. Besides, Duke is a unique brand, and she has laid the foundation for long term success there. And, why come to the SEC and have to play Dawn, Kim, and Vic on a regular basis?
The truth is, Pat Summitt built UT WBB into such a force that it could not be ignored by a school in a conference that worships at the altar of the gridiron. The powers that be probably hated spending money on WBB, but a dynasty demanded attention. The culture at Duke is way more accepting of basketball than the culture at any SEC school. I think Kara knows she can achieve her goals at Duke without fighting the culture wars she knows exist at a large state university where football eats first and other sports accept the leftovers.
.-.