Conference play has not been kind
Little mistakes have dealt crucial blows to the Lady Vols over the last few weeks. Thursday night in Austin was no different as Tennessee has now lost four of their last six games.
Tennessee took the floor against Texas without head coach Kim Caldwell on the sidelines (congrats on the baby boy, coach!).
Defensive rebounding late in games has been a problem for the Lady Vols over this cold spell, and it reared its ugly head again last night. With 46 seconds remaining, a missed shot from Texas’s Madison Booker bounced off the back side of the rim, but no Vol got a body on Taylor Jones, and her layup off the offensive rebound made it a 76-74 game.
A timeout led to an advancement and sideline out-of-bounds possession for the Lady Vols, and much like she had done all night, Ruby Whitehorn had the answer, driving the lane and making a floater to tie the game back up.
However, Madison Cooper decided it was her turn, hitting a 12-footer with 27 seconds left, and it turned out to be the game winner. With a chance to tie or take the lead, Tennessee struggled to get an open look. With 8 seconds left, Samara Spencer finally broke free a bit, drove the lane, and when Texas’s defense collapsed, she kicked to the corner to Zee Spearman, but Spearman, just a 31% three-point shooter, missed the shot. Jones got the rebound for Texas, and that was all she wrote.
Again, the glass plagued the Vols all night. Tennessee had 17 defensive rebounds, Texas had 16 offensive rebounds. Overall in conference play, Tennessee has played exceptionally well considering they’ve now played three top 10 teams across these seven games, but they have to rebound better if they want to find some level of sustained success. They’re shooting well in conference play, hitting threes at a 36.3% clip, and they’ve cleaned up some of their turnover woes, as their 17.9% turnover rate in conference play is second best behind South Carolina’s 17.6%, but the offensive glass continues to be an issue, and it coupled with over aggressiveness in passing lanes leading to too many shots by the rim. In Tennessee’s four conference losses, they’re allowing 27 shots around the rim on average, and teams are making them at a 65% clip.
I bring both of these points up because Tennessee hosts South Carolina on Monday night. South Carolina does three things better than just about anyone else in the country: create shots around the rim off of offensive rebounds and fast breaks, prevent turnovers, and chase teams off the three point line. Those three factors are unimpeachably important to the success of Tennessee, and if they want to pull a massive upset, they’re going to have to keep Joyce Edwards and Chloe Kitts off of the glass and find ways to get open shots against the stingiest defense in college basketball.
It will be the toughest test to date for this team. We will see you all on Monday at TBA.