Tennessee season | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Tennessee season

Any team that plays an unconventional style has a shot at catching teams off guard who are not used to it. I will not be surprised if the Vols start out well.
The question is: once teams see tape, have time to practice, play them more than once -- does it still work?
 
Vowelguy said:
Any team that plays an unconventional style has a shot at catching teams off guard who are not used to it. I will not be surprised if the Vols start out well.
The question is: once teams see tape, have time to practice, play them more than once -- does it still work?
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Well Caldwell has a really good record.
 
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Nobody will want to play this LV team….40 minutes of hell and they have 7-8 athletes now to enforce their style. Top ten team by year end, no doubt here. They will lead the SEC in PPG, 3pt made per game, shots per game and steals per game…absolute nightmare to play against.
 
Darwin said:
Nobody will want to play this LV team….40 minutes of hell and they have 7-8 athletes now to enforce their style. Top ten team by year end, no doubt here. They will lead the SEC in PPG, 3pt made per game, shots per game and steals per game…absolute nightmare to play against.
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And the scary part, they are only going to get better as the season progresses. The reads. The conditioning. The aggression. Yikes!
 
Vowelguy said:
Any team that plays an unconventional style has a shot at catching teams off guard who are not used to it. I will not be surprised if the Vols start out well.
The question is: once teams see tape, have time to practice, play them more than once -- does it still work?
Expand ...
Yep. A few things to add. 1). Teams don't practice against pressure defense enough because of a host of reasons, the biggest reason is player skill set or player depth. 2). Teams don't practice enough against these types of defenses because of time. You may face Vandy on Tuesday who play a totally different style and then 2-3 days later you are facing a swarming aggressive defense like the Lady Vols. It throws you off. It works as long as the Lady Vols stay committed to the defense. If they are not committed and play it every once in a while, it does them no good.
 
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First game of the Caldwell era. Tennessee already set a program record for steals in a game with 26. The old mark was 20.
 
JellyBean said:
Yep. A few things to add. 1). Teams don't practice against pressure defense enough because of a host of reasons, the biggest reason is player skill set or player depth. 2). Teams don't practice enough against these types of defenses because of time. You may face Vandy on Tuesday who play a totally different style and then 2-3 days later you are facing a swarming aggressive defense like the Lady Vols. It throws you off. It works as long as the Lady Vols stay committed to the defense. If they are not committed and play it every once in a while, it does them no good.
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Yes, if they don't stay committed to defense, they may lead the SEC in losses. ;)
 
donalddoowop said:
Yes, if they don't stay committed to defense, they may lead the SEC in losses. ;)
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Seems like AR or MO with A&M not far behind will lead SEC in losses but we’ll see what happens.
 
Darwin said:
Nobody will want to play this LV team….40 minutes of hell and they have 7-8 athletes now to enforce their style. Top ten team by year end, no doubt here. They will lead the SEC in PPG, 3pt made per game, shots per game and steals per game…absolute nightmare to play against.
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Huh? OMG, it must be November as all the "rah-rah" LV fans are once again running amok with over exuberance. Looking at their schedule (cupcake city once again) they play 2 P4 games (FSU who they lost to last year and Iowa in this year and 1 good Mid-Major in Middle Tennessee-again they lost last year). That means there are 9 mid-major teams on the schedule in Nov/Dec so I am sure we will continue to hear how everything is different now but starting Jan 1 with the SEC schedule and UConn on the horizon, I suspect nary a word from this lot.

Let's see how this "new style" holds up when the LVs play against bigger and faster teams. This years edition of Tennessee is only sporting 2 players taller than 6'2" so this is not a big team.
 
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DefenseBB said:
Huh? OMG, it must be November as all the "rah-rah" LV fans are once again running amok with over exuberance. Looking at their schedule (cupcake city once again) they play 2 P4 games (FSU who they lost to last year and Iowa in this year and 1 good Mid-Major in Middle Tennessee-again they lost last year). That means there are 9 mid-major teams on the schedule in Nov/Dec so I am sure we will continue to hear how everything is different now but starting Jan 1 with the SEC schedule and UConn on the horizon, I suspect nary a word from this lot.

Let's see how this "new style" holds up when the LVs play against bigger and faster teams. This years edition of Tennessee is only sporting 2 players taller than 6'2" so this is not a big team.
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Samford has a 6'5" player. Yes will be different when SEC play starts. If we were in SEC play now. No it probably wouldn't look good. There is also time to improve before then.
 
DefenseBB said:
Huh? OMG, it must be November as all the "rah-rah" LV fans are once again running amok with over exuberance. Looking at their schedule (cupcake city once again) they play 2 P4 games (FSU who they lost to last year and Iowa in this year and 1 good Mid-Major in Middle Tennessee-again they lost last year). That means there are 9 mid-major teams on the schedule in Nov/Dec so I am sure we will continue to hear how everything is different now but starting Jan 1 with the SEC schedule and UConn on the horizon, I suspect nary a word from this lot.

Let's see how this "new style" holds up when the LVs play against bigger and faster teams. This years edition of Tennessee is only sporting 2 players taller than 6'2" so this is not a big team.
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I’m not a LV fan. But I know a good team and style when I see one.
 
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UT brought in a boat load of athletic and talented transfers. Their style of play this year with that deep rotation of athletes will be problematic for most teams. They will lead the nation in turnovers created, steals, shots taken, 3 pt shots taken and made (even if % is lower than average) and possibly PPG. All that while playing full court press for 40 minutes and rotating fresh legs every 90 seconds. Yeah, it’s gonna be a problem for most teams, top 10 types included. I expect this LV team to climb the rankings fast. They won’t be unranked for very long. Their OOC schedule is very soft, they may likely enter SEC play 11-0, only FSU is ranked in that span, and after their recent loss maybe not anymore.

Mulkey does the same early and tbh it seems to work for some teams. Probably the perfect move for a new team with a new coach and system, they will enter conference play full of confidence.
 
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Bizarre stats in the game against UT-Martin. Clearly not a talented opponent. Tennessee forced 31 turnovers and grabbed 33 offensive rebounds which led to 84 field goal attempts and 23 free throw attempts! Tenn made 33 of its 84 field goal attempts (yes, 51 missed shots!), made only 9 of 39 three-pointers and made 65% of its free throws. How are they going to shoot against more talented teams that won't turn the ball over 31 times and play better defense?

I'm not sure Tenn will be rewarded for its crappy schedule and climb the rankings. Between now and January 5th (Oklahoma) the toughest tests will be #19 FSU that just lost to Illinois and unranked Iowa. One non-conference game on the road (@Memphis).
 
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This pressure defense has created a lot of turnovers. A lot of points of the turnovers.
 
I can remember early on when UConn had some press/trap defense, although the outlet was almost always to a big girl standing under the basket, not for three. I think it works pretty well if you are trying to shut down the other team right from the start. I still think the problem is going to come down to recruiting. My thought is that a top 10 player is more likely to go to a skills oriented coach (Staley, Auriemma, Ivey) than to sign up for knowing that you are going to run yourself ragged every single day. To be clear, I really like Coach Caldwell, I’m just not sure that this is going to work out at the D1 level. If she’s able to adjust her strategy a bit, I think she stands a better chance. It’s going to be telling towards the end of the season to see the level of exhaustion.
 
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