Tennessee 2025, part 2

[EricSD]

What a treat watching Tennessee go down yet again. What was with the total blow by from the coaches? They didn't even look at each other and barely shook hands. Coach Yo did hug a few Tennessee players as she moved down the line...

 

[msf22b]

Ole Miss played competent BB, UTenn didn’t.

 

[Stagnant]

Hurst should have played more tonight

 

[Baller29]

 

[Vowelguy]

Hurst should have played more tonight

This is the problem with "the system." Your 2nd best player on the floor gets 24 minutes.

 

[Stagnant]

If she had Sarah Strong… she wouldn’t take her out 3 minutes into a quarter… right? 😬

 

[bballnut90]

I've defended her on here but I'm not a fan of the blow by from Kim. Not a great look as a head coach when you've just been blown out.

Did anyone see catch her interaction with McMahon this time? Cotie famously was a poor sport in their handshake line a year ago when she was with tOSU, but this time torched the Lady Vols for 39. I'm guessing there isn't much to report on but thought it was worth mentioning.

 

[bballnut90]

Hurst should have played more tonight

24 minutes is a pretty significant number when she averages just 9 mpg coming into it.

 

[CaliHuskyFan]

The hockey line substitutions aren't working, & it looks like the hockey-style roughness is also catching up to them. Last two games - both losses - they were whistled for 29 & 25 fouls. Barker fouled out both games, and Civil also fouled out against Ole Miss. Barker committed 5 fouls in 20 minutes (19 minutes vs Texas), Civil upped that ante & got her 5 in 11 minutes tonight. 😱

 

[EricSD]

The whining over on the UTenn board is funny. Tons of complaints about the foul disparity. Tennessee is an overly physical team that plays borderline dirty. I remember when UConn used to play UCF - IIRC Coach Abe told the team to "foul on every possession and every play as the refs won't call every foul" (I'm paraphrasing from memory so I'm not saying that's exactly what she said). It was painful to watch and I'm sure a nightmare for the players - I constantly worried about our kids getting injured.

So basically, unless a UConn player was driving to the basket, and fouled while shooting, or a UCF player set an illegal screen, or put 2 hands on the player with the ball, nothing else was called. The bumping, hip checking, impeding progress thru the lane, grabbing, pulling, etc. was beyond pale.

And I noticed Tennessee played that way against UConn. I haven't watched all their games, but I've seen enough to realize they took a page out of Coach Abe's handbook on nasty defense.

First, overly physical play can lead to injuries. Second, it's how a less talented team can slow down or try to stop a more talented team. Third, it borders on cheating but if they can get away with it, and the refs refuse to call it, then I guess it's going to be allowed. Fourth, it makes the game unfair to the team that is actually trying to run real offense, or play real defense without fouling. And finally, it rewards poor coaching and defense by letting their players play a form of street ball. Good on the refs for getting hip to that kind of nonsense.

I've said it before - it seems Tennessee has recruited a bunch of athletes, some of whom have basketball skills, but aren't actually teaching them about good basketball. Jack up 3's, crash the boards, lots of 1 on 1 play, use overly physical defense, and hope it's enough. So glad it's proving not to be.

 

[Geew1992]

Hurst should have played more tonight

I was sayin this too. Hurst is the only consistent 3 point shooter. Coach really needs to stop with these mass/quick substitutions.

 

[msf22b]

UTenn seems to have a limited offense…3’s from the corner, force your way into the paint and crash the boards.

Ole Miss won the overall rebounding battle…It’s true, UTenn took more shots, but missed most of them.

The best teams run pretty sophisticated offenses these days, Tennessee seems mired in the past. Hard to see how they can regain their past glory which appears to slip further and further away.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

In TN’s defense…I did see a more concerted effort, even when they were wide open, to not just jack up 3s and work for closer shots. That changed offensive timing quite a bit and they were turning the ball over. And forget the hockey thingy (which also seems to be waining a lil bit), but all that pressing is tiring them out more than their opponent. !t’s demoralizing because it’s become so easy to beat. Moderation and situational would be better…because the season is swiftly coming to an end. At this point, I would mostly play those players who I know will be here next year and work on chemistry. Cuz…Barker has left the building…through the FRONT door. 🤣

Strange how when players that are known for making 3s take them….you get better outcomes. Yes…you Miss Hurst.

 

[Bjbod]

You want respect from your team? Model it when interacting with your peers.

 

[Iluvacc2]

Coach Yo took it in stride though!

 

[WBBTakeover]

Coach Yo took it in stride though!

She had no choice. Had she snapped back at Kim, the media would've taken Kim's side.

She allowed that woman to rest in her petulance.

 

[DefenseBB]

Oh boy Tennessee LOST AT HOME to Texas A&M tonight 82-74… looking like a 16-12 Finish and 8-8 in conference. I guess they still make the NCAAT as they do have 5 Quad 1 wins and a top 3 strength of schedule…but boy would it be delicious if they missed the Tourney…

 

[Phil]

Oh boy Tennessee LOST AT HOME to Texas A&M tonight 82-74… looking like a 16-12 Finish and 8-8 in conference. I guess they still make the NCAAT as they do have 5 Quad 1 wins and a top 3 strength of schedule…but boy would it be delicious if they missed the Tourney…

They will finish with the #1 SOS

 

[Vowelguy]

Oh boy Tennessee LOST AT HOME to Texas A&M tonight 82-74… looking like a 16-12 Finish and 8-8 in conference. I guess they still make the NCAAT as they do have 5 Quad 1 wins and a top 3 strength of schedule…but boy would it be delicious if they missed the Tourney…

A P4 team needs to really stink to not make the tourney these days. The bubble is so soft.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

They will finish with the #1 SOS

I’m assuming the worse your record gets the stronger your schedule appears.

 

[Baller29]

 

[EricSD]

It's awesome seeing Tennessee crash and burn. Couldn't happen to a nicer fan base LOL. You should hear some of the comments on their board - time to "fahr Kim" and they could have their "pick of the litter". Staley, Walz, Mulkey are just a few of the names being floated. They could have "anyone they wanted if the AD went about it the right way". Yikes!

I don't see how Tenn would miss the tourney - even if they lost the rest of their games including the first round in the SEC tourney. But I will say this - the lack of effort and hustle by the team, the lack of anything resembling offense, the lack of defense save for the front end of their full court press, the amount of one on one play and jacking up a 3... and the crazy subbing patterns - it's like a bad high school team. The chemistry is completely lacking, and the coach has no control over the players.

By the way, great game by Barker (29 points on 5-5 from 3 and 6-6 from the FT line with 10 boards), but Pauldo is the only player the coach brings to the post game presser? WTF?

Speaking of Barker, did anyone catch the play on an aTm free throw that was missed? Instead of boxing out, Barker turned, and with both hands, shoved the aTm player backwards. Horrible sportsmanship, but the refs missed it.

 

[Puppy Love]

Very early on, I speculated that Tennessee’s “system” was not going to be successful. However, I thought it would result in occasional upsets, blowout wins of quad four teams and mostly close losses to good teams. If this team was truly recruited to play the way Coach Caldwell wants to play, and not just the best they could get with the money they had, then it’s an epic disaster. Athletes pick colleges for all kinds of reasons, but I can’t imagine signing up for this mess. This spring should be interesting.

 

[Puppy Love]

Rethinking my previous comment…no matter how the team was assembled, it’s a disaster. Tennessee has some decent athletes and there’s no reason they should be playing this badly. The responsibility seems squarely on Coach Caldwell.

 

[Phil]

I almost fell off my chair when I saw an LV fan post that you couldn't blame this on the refs. But my faith was rewarded a little later when I saw:

No that’s not true.
The officiating has been very very bad.

While I agree with the observation, I suspect we weren't on exactly the same page. It looked like the refs were trying to help get the Vols back into the game.

The Aggies are a deeply flawed team. If you put together film clips of lowlights, it would probably run 20 minutes. They traveled, they had passes picked off, they struggled to get the ball into play after made baskets, they had passes picked off, they had passes that didn't get picked off because they were so bad they just went wild, they had several close calls with a 10 second call, they did get called for five seconds at least once and it should have been more often.

They were under 50% from the free-throw.

They were outrebounded.

They had more turnovers.

They have 6' 5" Lauren Ware, but did not manage a single block. (I was a fan of hers when she was a freshman at Arizona but she's not as good as she was as a freshman.)

They did manage to hit baskets, 56% from the field, 58% from beyond the arc, which saved them. Pryor was Impressively fast and seemed to score at will; I was genuinely shocked when I looked at the box score and saw 22 points, it felt like 35.

They almost squandered a 19 point lead, letting Tennessee crawl back to within two points with about two minutes to go, and I thought Tennessee was going to finish them off but they didn't score another point, giving the Aggies the win.