Lady Vols basketball prepares for LSU after learning from its mistakes in the loss to Oklahoma.
Samara Spencer was at Food City Center when Kim Caldwell, the head coach of the Lady Vols basketball team, arrived to meet with the media.
In Tennessee’s 87-86 loss to Oklahoma on Sunday, the senior point guard went 6-for-16 and committed six turnovers. Spencer made the decision to start making improvements right away rather than moping about the loss.
“As a coach, that means a lot,” Caldwell stated. “She didn’t enjoy her playing style. Her game wasn’t very good. She woke up early, went to the gym, and watched a movie this morning. With those players, you can win.”
Tennessee doesn’t have time to correct its faults in games, which is always the case in the SEC. For the second consecutive game against a top-10 team, the Lady Vols will host LSU at Food City Center on Thursday.
Tennessee’s first practice following the defeat must be the first step toward consistency. Instead of focusing on their previous performance, the Lady Vols must continue to improve.
“Making sure that we have that response today is going to be really important,” said Caldwell, “and making sure that we can take accountability for the mistakes we made in the game and then actually go out in the practice and try to fix it.”
Throughout the season, opponents have struggled because of LSU’s aggressiveness. Teams must put forth a lot of effort to appear good because it has the second-best offensive rebounding rate in the nation, one position higher than Tennessee, and is ninth in opponents’ effective field goal %.
The game against LSU makes improving on the glass even more crucial after the team’s season-low 33 rebounds in the defeat to Oklahoma.
“Once you dive into your film, you see how aggressive they are on defense, just how hard they play and how many offensive rebounds they go get,” said Caldwell. “It’s going to be just as hard, if not harder (than Oklahoma).”
Possession becomes even more crucial because of Tennessee’s strategy, which pushes opponents to turn the ball over and generates offensive rebounding opportunities. The Lady Vols must take good care of the ball when they are in possession.
That was not the case in the defeat on Sunday. Even though Tennessee’s total of 18 turnovers was significantly lower than Oklahoma’s, it was still inexcusable.
“I think we need to do a better job of just slowing down, playing on two feet,” Caldwell stated. “That’s what really killed us our last game was our turnovers.”
The Lady Vols frequently had poor quality shots when they did get them. They only made 28% of their 3-point attempts and 46% of their field goals. Oklahoma outperformed by eight percentage points.
The lack of movement in the half-court was Tennessee’s issue. Poor shots at every point of the shot clock resulted from the Lady Vols’ inability to generate enough action.
Tennessee will either have their shots blocked or not at all if they put out the same half-court effort on Thursday at Food City Center.
“I think we stood and watched a lot last game,” Caldwell remarked. “If we stand and we watch against LSU, we’re going to stand and watch them take the ball and go score.”
