Tennessee at Texas 01/23/2025

I, too, thought the zone call was odd. But can't argue I guess?

Glad to see Jak keeping to get time. Butttt was I the only one cringing at when she (instead of Lee) was the third trying to break the press?

Great games from Lee, Jones, and Booker. Harmon was steady too!
 
Wowza, what a game! I am so proud of the ladies, and happy to be a fan. Lead changes may have set some kind of record! I'm leaving the critique up to the pros on this board!:yippee:
 
Granted their threes kept them in it but I was impressed with TN's getting inside the arc for nice and high percentage shots. We only got called for 10 fouls (it did seem like they were letting the players play) but still took almost as many FTs as we did (vs their 22 fouls). They were penetrating well. Of course, I think we were too. Just an even game.
 
Now THAT was an SEC game!!! Pretty high quality stuff from both teams the entire game. Booker was Booker, but Taylor Jones saved the day! Rori did well under all that difficult pressure. It was nice to have Lee come in with the ball handling that you need from a guard to help attack full court pressure, and defensively her ability to keep offensive players in front of her was huge.
 
I have watched zero TN games this year and I thought we would play the "OU defense", which I guess we mostly did. Some thoughts:

1. I've never seen Texas suffer three inbound time violations. EVER.
2. TN did to us what we routinely do to others.
3. Someone stated "they don't play defense". Excuse me?! They don't rebound, but they were glued onto our players with full court press
4. I think we didn't press as tough as we usually do because:
a. We were trying to save our energy playing with 7 players
b. TN is so quick that if we tried to press to closely, one miss and they're down at the basket by themselves..
5. I've never seen whole "line change" like what TN did tonight. At first I was wondering why, but then I figured out their strategy. Put in 5 players, tell them to run as fast and hard as they can, wearing out Texas. Burn up all your energy and we'll put in another team 3 minutes later and you can rest.
6. I also believe this line change strategy made Vic go into play it slow mode, which resulted in us shooting with less than 5 seconds in the shot clock
7. And by the way, never seen that many shot clock violations from a Vic team

Good luck and good coaching won that game!
 
I like the analyses I've seen from you folks. Would just like to add that I am gratified that I am not sitting here stewing about the refs. The girls got to play ball tonight.
 
Yup, TN runs the "play 10 greyhounds" strategy. 10 players with lots of playing time
Screenshot 2025-01-23 at 10.37.11 PM.png
 
Credit Tennessee. They played tough. In the end, we both shot 50% but we had 10 more shots and 15 more rebounds. I know how it looked, but we had 9 more offensive rebounds, 20 more second chance points, and we shot our average. We beat them in the paint - Jones was exceptional. Tenn relied on a foul heavy defense. That is a very good Tenn team but I stand by my defense statement. They made 9 threes (53%) and shot 50% overall and still lost. We did not play our best game and still scored 80 points. Good lord they pressed us for 40 minutes and yet we only had 12 turnovers. The press was annoying, but it wasn’t effective.

Tennessee is going to continue to have close games but lose a fair share of those games until they can actually stop the other team rather than just slow them down.

God love Taylor Jones.

Booker is on another level.

Harmon is a warrior.

Moore is gutsy.

Lee and Preston are going to be fun to watch as they mature.

(Just have to say that seeing posts questioning Vic’s use of a zone is one of the funniest moments on this board ever. Vic played a zone. Stunning.)
 
Last edited:
What an exciting win. Texas seemed to be taking the air out of the ball the whole game to me which didn’t surprise me. That’s one way to keep TN from scoring their usual 94 points. One negative effect it had in my opinion was it kept the energy down a bit in the arena. No scoring runs to excite the fans and not that much of a press because I’m sure they didn’t want to play into TN’s run & gun show. Man they were hitting their threes I think like 80% in first half.

Texas only had 12 turnovers and at least 4 of those were in Q1. Surprisingly Texas only forced 12 turnovers. It wasn’t Tennessee’s defense that forced shots late in the clock, Texas appeared to be deliberately doing that because they often had decent shots earlier in the clock they passed up. It was nerve wracking to watch especially early on until I began to understand it was more by design.

So now TN has 4 SEC losses by a total of 8 points. That’s tough. It looked like Ruby Whitehorn had to be consoled after the game.
 
Last edited:
We were Tennessee’s first two possession loss. Lost by 2 to LSU and by 1 to OU and Vandy. Their fans must be clinging to moral victories. To be that good and yet have 4 conference losses already. Brand new coach so maybe they are encouraged.
 
It’s 12:45 am and I just watched the presser. Good stuff. Still too much adrenaline to go to bed. Watched the last 4 minutes again. Sure feels good to have a team that performs in crunch time. 19-2 ain’t bad. Look forward to Mississippi on Sunday. Mississippi has a nice team so should be another fun game. Hook Em
 
Ole Miss plays really tough defense and they were impressive in the first game of the season against USC in Paris losing by 2. This will be quite the test
 
WCBBNUT said:
We were Tennessee’s first two possession loss. Lost by 2 to LSU and by 1 to OU and Vandy. Their fans must be clinging to moral victories. To be that good and yet have 4 conference losses already. Brand new coach so maybe they are encouraged.
Click to expand...
I'm glad you pointed that out, that we are their worst loss of the year. Makes me feel better. I did not know Tenn was that good. Their threes nearly killed us. Their ability to drive to the basket was a problem too. Taylor and our rebounding saved the day (barely). Their defense was great. I guess we could meet them again in the SEC tourney. I would not be looking forward to that.
 
Sangre Naranjada said:
And as much as I love the game Oldacre has, her relative immobility was an obvious liability tonight. Thank God Taylor didn't get in foul trouble.
Click to expand...
That's what I have enjoyed about this team, they can win in different ways depending on the games. Pound the ball inside, mid range them to death, get out and run, but the defense is always there. They can go big when they have the advantage, or small when the opponents bigs are quicker.
 
I had watched several Tennessee games this season and I’ll just say I rarely get a pregame cocktail, but I ordered a double last night.

This coach was a really good hire and Tennessee will be a problem. I doubt any of these teams that beat them will want to face them in the conference tournament or postseason and I’m SURE the Lady Vols will be seeking redemption and would love some rematches. I know their fans travel well, but I thought we’d see more of them in the Moody last night. I’d hope it’s not because of their losing streak and had more to do with weather and other logistical issues. I’m not mad about lol
 
Sangre Naranjada said:
And as much as I love the game Oldacre has, her relative immobility was an obvious liability tonight. Thank God Taylor didn't get in foul trouble.
Click to expand...
The eye-opening part of Vic's defense is he expects the Bigs to be out defending on the perimeter. So you see Jones and even Oldacre out there doing the "poke" as the opposing team is traveling around the arc to get to a better position. The Bigs aren't expected to steal the ball, but it's adds a bit of delay to the opposing team's offense. Yeah, Oldacre seems to labor to get down the court, but she does it.

I asked one of the assistant coaches that when they have one-on-one with recruits or transfers do they show them the tape of a typical Vic defense to let them know what they're signing up for. She said definitely, they bring up the type of defense and expectations they have if the player signs with Texas.
 
One thing about last night's game. As we were settling into our seats, my wife said, "Doesn't look full. But parking garage was crowded". Then, my seat neighbor said, "Hmmm. Doesn't look like a big crowd"

Now that there's so many eating and drinking areas, people tend to show up to their seats late. Especially annoying were the couple that showed up 4 minutes into the game where it was very tight and they had to navigate (get people to stand up to get past them) through 8 people.

Anyhoo, Vic thanked the fans for the large crowd. I then went to look at the stats and although it didn't seem to be true, it was the largest home crowd this year! (but it's also embarrassing that OU got a bigger crowd against us)
Screenshot 2025-01-24 at 8.40.38 AM.png
 
racerx5908 said:
One thing about last night's game. As we were settling into our seats, my wife said, "Doesn't look full. But parking garage was crowded". Then, my seat neighbor said, "Hmmm. Doesn't look like a big crowd"

Now that there's so many eating and drinking areas, people tend to show up to their seats late. Especially annoying were the couple that showed up 4 minutes into the game where it was very tight and they had to navigate (get people to stand up to get past them) through 8 people.

Anyhoo, Vic thanked the fans for the large crowd. I then went to look at the stats and although it didn't seem to be true, it was the largest home crowd this year! (but it's also embarrassing that OU got a bigger crowd against us)
Screenshot 2025-01-24 at 8.40.38 AM.png
Click to expand...
Arkansas?
 
Run Pincher said:
Is there one for Texas? I really don't care to watch the TN-PC.

Tough, hard fought W. Although I really don't care to play them again, that looks like it was by far their best 3pt shooting game of the season. Thankfully, if we do play them again, they probably won't duplicate it.
Click to expand...
That link is for Texas’ post game press conference.
 
A year or so ago, Jones was terrible on the hard hedge. Her lack of lateral mobility was painful. Oldacre is even worse. Oldacre tries but is just too big to chase guards behind the arc. Jones to her credit….and to the coaches…..is now decent to pretty good with it. She now anticipates better and gets out higher and causes the dribbler to redirect just enough. TN took Oldacre off the court. Keeping the guard from turning the corner on the pick is mandatory. Jones did a pretty good job. And Holle was struggling as well. Lee is really good with defending the pick.
 
I like the surprise element of switching to a zone for a couple of possessions. Just to see how the other team reacts. I think Schaefer was trying to give his players a little rest as well. Well…..it shocked me. But TN surprised no one with two quick threes. Not sure you’ll see Schaefer do that again. Jak with her length out top is a decent advantage for a zone. But not last night.
 
Run Pincher said:
Is there one for Texas? I really don't care to watch the TN-PC.

Tough, hard fought W. Although I really don't care to play them again, that looks like it was by far their best 3pt shooting game of the season. Thankfully, if we do play them again, they probably won't duplicate it.
Click to expand...
Our press conferences are on the Longhorn Network app and website.
 
The Lady Vols were incredible to watch. Their style makes for exciting basketball. Their coach gives the fans exactly what they want - fast with high scores and lots of threes. They are the best in the country from the three, averaging 12 per game. But…

Man to man with a press is the very definition of old school defense. And Tennessee doesn't do it well. They pressed for 40 minutes and only forced 12 turnovers, lost in the paint and got twenty (20!) fewer second chance points. We had 15 more rebounds including 16 (9 more) offensive rebounds. They were annoying but not effective. Folks, we scored 80 points and held them to 18 below their average. We took 10 more shots and I don’t think they took a single charge.

The beauty of Vic’s game is he expects superior defense and offense. Quality shots always and crash the boards for the second chances. Tennessee has incredible offense but their defense is just basic. It looks really good because they are so damn athletic but it is extremely simplistic. They tried to gas us with a 10 man rotation and it didn’t work. Booker played 40. Rori 37. Jones 30.

The proof is in the pudding - Jones scoring 21, Booker scoring 26, and only one three from Lee. Taking away someone’s outside game but not stopping in the paint is simply not good defense. Especially being we don’t rely on an outside game… ever.

Tennessee is going to beat anyone in a shooting match. They are going to lose to most teams that show up with a defense. I predict they will lose three of their next 5.

There are only two Top 25 teams that are also Top 10 three pointers. Both of them lost this week.
 
Last edited:
I’m finding Lady Vols fans are very similar to OU football fans. Loathe to give Texas any credit for beating them but quick to bring up history of more championships. I’m sure it’s a bitter pill lol
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Recent Threads

Back
Top