Tennessee

[stwainfan]

Horston played today.

 

[visitingcock]

Congrats on a win. Hey! It was against a P-5.

 

[Plebe]

Congrats on a win. Hey! It was against a P-5.

Who cares. Rutgers is horrible. I don't understand this p-5 idol worship.

 

[Coler]

Who cares. Rutgers is horrible. I don't understand this p-5 idol worship.

We might be horrible, but at least we don’t wear orange.

 

[genzhusk]

Who cares. Rutgers is horrible. I don't understand this p-5 idol worship.

agree. p-5 bias. if the team is atrocious it shouldn’t matter what conference they are in.

 

[visitingcock]

Who cares. Rutgers is horrible. I don't understand this p-5 idol worship.

Must I use blue for everything I type in jest?Don’t you know me well enough by now?

 

[visitingcock]

agree. p-5 bias. if the team is atrocious it shouldn’t matter what conference they are in.

It doesn’t but no P-5 school should ever let their talent Level drop them below Quad 2. There are no excuses especially for a rich Big Ten school that has the money to pay for facilities, tutors, chartered jets etc etc to give them a recruiting edge over schools on much tighter budgets.

But “should” ain’t “does.”

 

[Plebe]

It doesn’t but no P-5 school should ever let their talent Level drop them below Quad 2. There are no excuses especially for a rich Big Ten school that has the money to pay for facilities, tutors, chartered jets etc etc to give them a recruiting edge over schools on much tighter budgets.

But “should” ain’t “does.”

I really don't buy in to this mentality.

Sports should not just be decided by a spending contest. Sports should not just be a ritual in which the trophies and glory are handed to the fat cats by default.

So no, this is neither a case of "should" nor "does".

 

[UcMiami]

It doesn’t but no P-5 school should ever let their talent Level drop them below Quad 2. There are no excuses especially for a rich Big Ten school that has the money to pay for facilities, tutors, chartered jets etc etc to give them a recruiting edge over schools on much tighter budgets.

But “should” ain’t “does.”

Looking at the level of competition so far from most P5 schools is disheartening, and many don't face any until their conference schedule begins. Some will start 10-0 and then struggle to reach 18 wins for the year!

 

[SECbbfan24]

Who cares. Rutgers is horrible. I don't understand this p-5 idol worship.

Honestly there are quite a few mid majors teams who would do pretty well in some of the P5 conferences. Not saying they would be the top team but I wouldn’t discredit many of these mid majors. Much tougher outs then a lot of these bottom of barrel P5 conference teams

 

[visitingcock]

I really don't buy in to this mentality.

Sports should not just be decided by a spending contest. Sports should not just be a ritual in which the trophies and glory are handed to the fat cats by default.

So no, this is neither a case of "should" nor "does".

Should in terms of reality - not morality

 

[stwainfan]

 

[triaddukefan]

 

[EricLA]

My mood after Tennessee's beatdown:

 

[Puppy Love]

Historically, Tennessee never had to score a lot of points. They were going to out work, out tough and out rebound every team, so the other team couldn’t score, either. This years team doesn’t appear to have any of those qualities and doesn’t appear to have replaced that approach with an offense that can score a lot of points. I can’t help but wonder how much their coach has adapted to the changes in the game since she played. I think Jordan Horston is tough enough to play the old way but she might be the only one.

 

[eebmg]

Historically, Tennessee never had to score a lot of points. They were going to out work, out tough and out rebound every team, so the other team couldn’t score, either. This years team doesn’t appear to have any of those qualities and doesn’t appear to have replaced that approach with an offense that can score a lot of points. I can’t help but wonder how much their coach has adapted to the changes in the game since she played. I think Jordan Horston is tough enough to play the old way but she might be the only one.

As far as offense is concerned, you need to push players in practice to do things exactly as you want it to be with endless repetition and at real speed. I am guessing there is a lot of corner cutting and rah rah faint praise in the TN practices. Attention to detail is often best observed in well run out of bounds plays. UConn is always spot on and I imagine it is the same in the best programs but I never see any precision with TN.

One thing that I have heard the announcers say is that they do not understnd why TN does not pressure and trap alot more than they do. They have depth although it is clear that the quality was over hyped but she still throws out 11 in a game so at least run them into the ground a bit.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

You can have multiple alphas on a team, but if they can't work together then you're doomed. A lot of ball-dominant players on this squad and it shows. It spills over into defensive intensity which by any measure there is very little.

 

[Dillon77]

Did anyone catch Andraya Carter during the halftime show of the S. Carolina/Stanford game yesterday? When asked if people should be concerned about the Vols -- and remember, she's an alum -- Carter said people should be very concerned. She then concisely proceeded to skewer virtually every aspect of the Vol's play, from turnovers and team composition to wavering intensity levels on both sides of the ball.
The other commentator (was that Steph White?) mumbled something about it "being a long season," but Carter didn't back off her analysis.

Personally, I've watched parts of a few games and couldn't give you an elevator paragraph about who the Vols are right now.
What's that line about the whole being greater (or less) than the sum of its parts? Well, that takes coaching and buy-in from the team.
Maybe this team (coaches and players) can pull it together, but it's got to start happening sooner rather than later.

 

[cancontent]

Did anyone catch Andraya Carter during the halftime show of the S. Carolina/Stanford game yesterday? When asked if people should be concerned about the Vols -- and remember, she's an alum -- she said people should be very concerned. She then concisely proceeded to skewer virtually every aspect of the Vol's play, from turnovers and team composition to wavering intensity levels on both sides of the ball.
The other commentator (was that Steph White?) mumbled something about it "being a long season," but Carter didn't back off her analysis.

Personally, I've watched parts of a few games and couldn't give you an elevator paragraph about who the Vols are right now.
What's that line about the whole being greater (or less) than the sum of its parts? Well, that takes coaching and buy-in from the team.
Maybe this team (coaches and players) can pull it together, but it's got to start happening sooner rather than later.

Andraya Carter deserves more camera time whenever humanly possible in my opinion. She's doing great work regardless of the network involved. Her attention and detail and ability to break it down where it's simple to understand for casual fans is awesome.

 

[UcMiami]

You know Geno years ago talked about how recruits have changed during his career - that in the 80s and 90s HS kids played and practiced with a HS team and mostly played AAU locally with the other locals and held local practices. That evolved to helicopter AAU teams and personal trainers and the HS recruits no longer got the practice in team play, they had advanced their athleticism and individual skills but lost team concepts. Teaching those team fundamentals at both ends became paramount to developing a good college team.

I think that is something even the great Pat struggled with at the end of her career, and her successors haven't figured out. Having toughness and intensity isn't enough if you don't understand defensive rotations and help defense, and it doesn't help if you don't know when and where to set screens or make cuts on offense. And installing a 'system' isn't just drawing Xs and Os on a board, but actually teaching the concepts and the correct stances and the theory so the players can adapt as the defensive and offensive positions shift.

 

[huskeynut]

In his post game presser, Geno addressed this aspect of P5 vs G5 mid majors. And it makes sense.

The portal is literally "free agency" for college sports. A player is highly recruited/ ranked for a national power team. They sign on and don't pay their freshman year. Bingo - I go to the portal to go to a school were I will play.

Mid major/ G5 schools do not take in a lot of portal transfer. These teams recruit well initially, develop their players, build a commeradery and a chemistry of playing together for more that one year. In many cases, the coaching is better that some of the big named schools.

Transfers mean you have a short window to assimilate these players into your culture and style of play. Doesn't always work.

Listen to Wes Moore and Vic Schaffer and their post games pressers. Both reference it.

 

[SECbbfan24]

Transfers mean you have a short window to assimilate these players into your culture and style of play. Doesn't always work.

Listen to Wes Moore and Vic Schaffer and their post games pressers. Both reference it.

This is why its dangerous and probably not sustainable to live on transfers to build your team or be the foundation at least. They may assimilate down the road but it may take a long time to even get there.

With the 2023 class having zero recruits and it being senior heavy as is, they will have to go portal shopping again to help build next years group. Assuming Horston and Rickea go to the WNBA.

 

[MSSportsGuy]

I think that is something even the great Pat struggled with at the end of her career, and her successors haven't figured out. Having toughness and intensity isn't enough if you don't understand defensive rotations and help defense, and it doesn't help if you don't know when and where to set screens or make cuts on offense. And installing a 'system' isn't just drawing Xs and Os on a board, but actually teaching the concepts and the correct stances and the theory so the players can adapt as the defensive and offensive positions shift.

Pat was all about effort and I recall Holly saying the same thing. During one of Warlick's less press conferences she went on and on about effort. I watched that game and commented then I thought the effort from the players was just fine but they seemed to have no plan on how to produce points and defensive stops. Games require effort, but they also require strategy.

I am someone who still thinks Harper is an upgrade from Warlick on the coaching end but her failure to recruit at the level needed for TN to sustain success is troubling. She's already made staff changes and after going shopping (successfully on paper) in the portal they came up empty again. I truly wonder what is happening there. Also while I do think she's a better game coach, the upgrade isn't that significant overall.

TN has struggled for years with stopping the outside shot when 3s are falling for their opponent and seem to have defensive lapses during games where a talented team can go on a run that has buried them on a few occasions.

 

[SECbbfan24]

TN really needs to move on from using “the summitt disciple tree” as a criteria for hiring coaches. The sooner they do that, the quicker they have a shot at bettering their program.

 

[Blakeon18]

Saw a fair amount of this one. LadyVol has athleticism/height and basketball talent.
But....????

Gonzaga is a solid team...imo...they have no business playing even [plus one] with LadyVol.
Great win for them.