Texas @ Tennessee 11/21

Bobcat said:
Sky King to Penny...... I did not blame them for the loss!!! BUT when TWO SENIORS go 5 for 29 with very poor shot selection, it had a big impact on our offensive struggles and contributed to our problems in general. Several missed free throws and Rori got an unnecessary 10 second call. They both have FORCED very poor choices in their shot selection and hopefully that improves. If we are to get better, we need Hunter and prob Kobe to come along on the defensive end and contribute because they are both far more polished offensively.... They are seniors and we need them to play like it!!! Pointing out facts is not criticism, but mere observations...
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Key words "we need them" as they are very important members of our team.
 
I swear I'm gonna have nightmares about that Tennessee 2-3 zone defense. Was it just me, or was Tennessee not even contesting Rori's entry pass to the top of the key? It's like they were purposely inviting that play in order to get the ball out of Rori's hands; and, we kept running it over and over. Funny thing is that the TV announcers kept saying Matharu needed to be the recipient of the entry pass (instead of Audrey or Joanne). And, it finally worked (once) as Matharu nailed her shot.
 
Moooooo said:
I swear I'm gonna have nightmares about that Tennessee 2-3 zone defense. Was it just me, or was Tennessee not even contesting Rori's entry pass to the top of the key? It's like they were purposely inviting that play in order to get the ball out of Rori's hands; and, we kept running it over and over. Funny thing is that the TV announcers kept saying Matharu needed to be the recipient of the entry pass (instead of Audrey or Joanne). And, it finally worked (once) as Matharu nailed her shot.
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I doubt it will be any comfort but it wasn’t just you. I hope Vic & Co come up with an effective scheme to counter the zone because after seeing how our offense came to a halt in the 4Q, we’re going to see zone D again and again this season.

If Hunter were available today, I hope he would have given her the chance to score points even if her D isn’t yet up to his standards.
 
Classy coach; great kids. Coach does a good job of crediting opponent. He acknowledges mistakes of his team without diminishing accomplishment of opposing players. No one goes under the bus.
 
utfannforlife said:
This game goes go show that even good coaches (and Vic is a damn good one) get out coached sometimes. Kellie Harper and staff deserve credit.

Going forward not a ton for me to overreact too. Having Aaliyah at the 4 would cure a lot of what ailed us down the stretch (the boards and not having a big target to hit that high post jumper)
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It's not that the coaching hurt us.The last 2to 3 minutes in the 4th quarter.Shots should have been taken by Harmon and Mathuru.Not Taylor or Warren or Gaston they were off the whole game.I am very disappointed in the play of thoses supposes to be leaders of the Team.
 
I hope they don’t read this either. But they are 18-21 year olds who most likely live and die by social media. I know my granddaughters in college do. :whiteflag:
 
The things that were all question marks going into the season reared it's head, especially in the 4th. Not having a lot of size at guard and in the post to rebound and defend will continue to be an issue. And the lack of consistent outside jump shooting.

Vic also has to do a better job against Zones and putting the RIGHT players in position to take shots. Defense is important but there has to be a balance with also being capable offensively.

Scoring for this team just seems way too hard. And there's no doubt that they are going to see more zone just as they did last year. Kendall needs to be getting meaningful minutes if/when she returns from injury.
 
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It was tough to watch at times and what no one has talked about is how decent Ebo played cause she really held her own outside of going at Key( which nobody had success). Holle gave good minutes and I hope when they watch film they see that she came in and brought something( I thought she shoulda got a shot at Horst on). Harmon played like a freshman for the first time and still outplayed the seniors tbh. What I mean by she played like a freshman she wasn’t dynamic like the Stanford game. Harmon, Matheus, and Ebo have grabbed they starting spots but I feel like the other 2 spots even JAT are up for grabs after this game. I think as a experiment I would like to see Harmon, Hunter, Mathru, Moore, and Ebo start and JAT & AW come off the bench. I think that we could get a better offensive start and if the defense is lacking bring the seniors in to steady everything.
 
Sincerely hookem said:
It was tough to watch at times and what no one has talked about is how decent Ebo played cause she really held her own outside of going at Key( which nobody had success). Holle gave good minutes and I hope when they watch film they see that she came in and brought something( I thought she shoulda got a shot at Horst on). Harmon played like a freshman for the first time and still outplayed the seniors tbh. What I mean by she played like a freshman she wasn’t dynamic like the Stanford game. Harmon, Matheus, and Ebo have grabbed they starting spots but I feel like the other 2 spots even JAT are up for grabs after this game. I think as a experiment I would like to see Harmon, Hunter, Mathru, Moore, and Ebo start and JAT & AW come off the bench. I think that we could get a better offensive start and if the defense is lacking bring the seniors in to steady everything.
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lol why is everyone saying Audrey hasn’t been playing well? Audrey has been great for us on the defensive end until she gets tired. She does the little things that really don’t show up in the stat sheet. Allen-Taylor is who has not been playing well and like I said before it’s on offense and defense. I don’t think this slump will last long I think she just has to adjust to everyone around her. I give it a few more weeks and hopefully we see the old Joanne back but right now I’d let her come off the bench and see if that calms her down a bit because, she seems like she has to score now and force shots instead of letting it come to her and it’s just causing bad shots to constantly get sent back to the 3 point line.
 
I just hope Audrey is OK and available to play the next game. Last we saw of her she was being helped off the court and directly to the locker room
 
Based on yesterday's player availability, the only thing I question is Femme not getting more time in the second half (instead of Gaston). Femme seems more athletic (jumping) than Ebo and Gaston, and a better natural rebounder (she had 4 yesterday in limited minutes). Not sure if both Femme and Ebo have played on the court at the same time in either of our home games; but, perhaps that would have been worth a try to counter Tennessee's size down low.

Without Kyndall and Kobe available, we didn't have any other option other than to play Audrey and Joanne as many minutes as we did; and, Audrey an Joanne are the better overall players right now, especially defensively. But, they need to make better choices with their shot selections; and, they both need to play under more control.

The jury is still out with Shay for me; I was surprised Vic put her in there in the first half (9 minutes total); but, I guess the starters needed some rest. She missed both her shots, had 2 rebounds, 1 block, and 1 turnover. That was our team's lone block. Not sure if she held her own defensively overall; but, perhaps her length would have helped a bit had she played more in the second half.
 
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Moooooo said:
It's a tough pill to swallow because we were up as many as 12 points early in the 4th quarter. Could have been a second great RPI win on the road, but too many mistakes by our players and coaches down the stretch.
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We were always going to lose a game. That being said, I would rather it be while we are shorthanded on the road against a quality opponent instead of later in the season in league play.

And looking at this loss the reasons were self inflicted
 
utfannforlife said:
We were always going to lose a game. That being said, I would rather it be while we are shorthanded on the road against a quality opponent instead of later in the season in league play.

And looking at this loss the reasons were self inflicted
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I agree that the chances of us going undefeated were slim to none. And, if Tennessee was going to be the only non-conference game we'd lose, I'd be fine. But, we still have tough games at Texas A&M and in Vegas against Arizona; no guarantees we'll go 3-1 against our ranked non-conference opponents. And, no guarantees we'll go undefeated in conference play.

Just like every win counts and matters, every loss counts and matters. As I said before, losing a game where you were behind most of the game versus losing a game where you had a double-digit lead in the 4th quarter aren't the same (or at least they don't feel the same).
 
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Moooooo said:
I agree that the chances of us going undefeated were slim to none. And, if Tennessee was going to be the only non-conference game we'd lose, I'd be fine. But, we still have tough games at Texas A&M and in Vegas against Arizona; no guarantees we'll go 3-1 against our ranked non-conference opponents. And, no guarantees we'll go undefeated in conference play.

Just like every win counts and matters, every loss counts and matters. As I said before, losing a game where you were behind most of the game versus losing a game where you had a double-digit lead in the 4th quarter aren't the same (or at least they don't feel the same).
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I'd say the most important aspect of losing any game is what can be learned from the failure. I have a great deal of faith that Vic and the staff will use this loss productively. Zone busting 101 would be a good place to start, in my opinion.
 
Sangre Naranjada said:
I'd say the most important aspect of losing any game is what can be learned from the failure. I have a great deal of faith that Vic and the staff will use this loss productively. Zone busting 101 would be a good place to start, in my opinion.
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We could still employ the same lessons had we won the game. :cool:

I think we were prepared for their 2-3 zone, and it wasn't a surprise; seemed like Rori was instructed to feed the player standing at the top of the key; but, we had the wrong players in the wrong positions (even though it was what Vic drew up). Or, our players simply failed to knock down the uncontested jumper (other than Matharu, as Audrey and Joanne just weren't shooting well yesterday).

The learning lesson (to our coaches) is that when you need a play to be made, don't instruct your best playmaker to give up the ball so early in the shot clock, and never get it back.
 
I think we are gonna have trouble in league play due to zero production from our bigs inside. I was hoping we had more options, but at this point its slim pickins.
 
DINO22 said:
It's not that the coaching hurt us.The last 2to 3 minutes in the 4th quarter.Shots should have been taken by Harmon and Mathuru.Not Taylor or Warren or Gaston they were off the whole game.I am very disappointed in the play of thoses supposes to be leaders of the Team.
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The coaching did hurt us, Vic even said so in the presser. And he had it exactly right. Up or down 4 points in the last 90 seconds and it’s your job as the coach to get em home.

Namely I thought it took entirely too long to get Matharu in the middle of that zone to make a play. But he acknowledged it, which leads me tj believe that the odds of it happening again are slim to none
 
Moooooo said:
I agree that the chances of us going undefeated were slim to none. And, if Tennessee was going to be the only non-conference game we'd lose, I'd be fine. But, we still have tough games at Texas A&M and in Vegas against Arizona; no guarantees we'll go 3-1 against our ranked non-conference opponents. And, no guarantees we'll go undefeated in conference play.

Just like every win counts and matters, every loss counts and matters. As I said before, losing a game where you were behind most of the game versus losing a game where you had a double-digit lead in the 4th quarter aren't the same (or at least they don't feel the same).
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We took the #16 team to overtime on their court, with a packed house. We started two freshmen (only because the 3rd freshman was unavailable) and it's the 3rd game. Most here agree that a win was in our grasp. Last year we did a lot of moaning and groaning, wondering WTF Vick was doing. He said all along that his teams improve through the year and voila - Elite 8. I like the comments and observations (most more knowledgeable than mine) and they make sense. We have weaknesses and will need to adjust. Looking forward to seeing it happen.
 
utfannforlife said:
The coaching did hurt us, Vic even said so in the presser. And he had it exactly right. Up or down 4 points in the last 90 seconds and it’s your job as the coach to get em home.

Namely I thought it took entirely too long to get Matharu in the middle of that zone to make a play. But he acknowledged it, which leads me tj believe that the odds of it happening again are slim to none
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Vic was protecting his team.
 
chuckhorn said:
I think we are gonna have trouble in league play due to zero production from our bigs inside. I was hoping we had more options, but at this point its slim pickins.
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Tennessee was full of trees. I don’t think we’ll see that much team overall height in League play.
 
CreakyHorn said:
Vic was protecting his team.
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We'll respectfully agree to disagree. As a coach I can objectively say that not putting Matharu in the middle of that extended 2-3 zone that Tenn was running when they held us scoreless for over SEVEN minutes was a mistake. She was unquestionably our best scorer in that game. Now I am sure he had a reason he waited so late to do it, but your choices/reasoning are only as good as the result. They work you're a genius, if they dont then you've make a mistake. Thats the responsibility you have to take when you're sitting in the big seat.
 
utfannforlife said:
We'll respectfully agree to disagree. As a coach I can objectively say that not putting Matharu in the middle of that extended 2-3 zone that Tenn was running when they held us scoreless for over SEVEN minutes was a mistake. She was unquestionably our best scorer in that game. Now I am sure he had a reason he waited so late to do it, but your choices/reasoning are only as good as the result. They work you're a genius, if they dont then you've make a mistake. Thats the responsibility you have to take when you're sitting in the big seat.
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And to Vic's credit he took full responsibility.
 
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