An honest look at Tennessee vs UConn next season

Thanks DD. But I could care less about Tenn. My biggest concern which never gets addressed is the disparity between men's and women's basketbll in THE BIG EAST. Starting to look like the old Yankee Conference plus Uconn !

Because I think it's important. And what would my coffee be like without banter with you ?

This will not be a competitive game. 

The Big East -Women- will not be a competitive conference. 

it’s why I turn to Cornhole tourneys for fierce competition. 

Thanks DD, I found that roundtable discussion very interesting.

As a minor note, I felt like Blake was dominating the discussion too much early but that changed and I think there were good contributions from all three.

I've read many of John Adams' articles as well as Cora Hall's, but I'd never seen either of them. Jon roughly fits my expectations were Cora's a lot younger than I had realized.

I was particularly intrigued by Cora's take on the resumption of the Tennessee UConn series. Neither John nor Cora have any expectations that this will be a matchup of equals, but Cora talked about the recent explosion of interest in women's basketball fueled by Caitlin Clark, which is brought in a lot of new fans (that's good) but some of these new fans have no appreciation for the history ( not so good). She sees this series as a way for the media to bring in some of the history of the sport. I agree. I am very happy there are new fans but when they expound about how some plate or player is the best they've ever seen in their life, and this is the first year they been watching, I have a mixed reaction. Thanks for joining us but don't act like the sport was just invented.

The date of the game is not yet settled but they seem to think it will be November or December. That's interesting, because historically the game was in the middle of conference play. Maybe it has been settled but that won't work. They both talked about the challenges of this game. I think both of the missed one small factor — Caldwell is introducing a new style of play. I think history will show that the rear examples of a team managing to be UConn can happen sometimes if they play a very different style of game. Villanova comes to mind. That's obviously not always the case, there have been games where the ball just doesn't fall through the hoop and other games where we've run up against a truly superior team but that's not going to happen in the next UConn Tennessee game, so their new approach might throw a wrench in the works. The flipside is that it takes time to institute a new system, so if the game is as early as November, they will only have had practices a couple exhibition games in a couple of early-season games to get prepared. I think UConn will be favored by a lot but the later it is the more Tennessee has a chance to get an upset.

When I talked about how well Tennessee will do next year, they initially didn't bring up the new makeup of the SEC. I actually wrote down a note to talk about this but both Cora and especially John, came back and hit the subject hard.

Adams identified four teams, South Carolina, LSU, Texas, and Oklahoma where he didn't think Tennessee could be competitive. He won on to add three more (Alabama, Mississippi State, Kentucky) where he saw real competition for Tennessee. Cora added Auburn and Vandy where Tennessee could struggle. I was surprised neither mentioned Mississippi, who may well finish fifth the conference.

Cora opined that Tennessee could finish eighth in the conference, but the way she said it you got the impression she was saying it to shock the Tennessee fans and reset their expectations. Adam said they could come in 10th.

There's more but that's enough for now.

This is going to sound like--already, actually is--sacrilege, but UConn probably needs the game as much as Tenn. Because of its exceptionally weak--and getting weaker--conference, every OOC game UConn plays, it needs to maximize TV exposure and TV revenue. It's no longer really a rivalry, but, so far as ESPN was willing to pay for it and in so far as it gets hyped, it's important to UConn.

Most of us might wish for better rivalries--say, games against the West Coast giants, Southern Cal and UCLA. But Tennessee still stirs the animal instincts in fans. As Phil says, above, it's a rivalry with a deep history, like Sox-Yanks.

Never Eva Eva admit that again!! Lol

My cousin is in a cornhole league. At first I just thought it was a joke. Nope.

It's true for sure. New coach with a new system with so far 3 new transfers that will probably start. Maybe returning Spear is a good player. But the others? Can they adapt to this full court 40 minute pressure that Caldwell is bringing from Marshall? And will that type of defense and fast shooting offense work in Div I and the SEC??  I have my doubts. 

are we sure that's how she'll have them play? They've been recently ... stocked (hehe) ... with bigger, stronger players. That system works best with faster, more athletic types.

Will be interesting to see.

Had this past season seen a different set of lineup options, I thought Geno might press and run.

Not sure the new group here is aligned for that as well. Aaliyah and Nika were central to that strategy. Aubrey and Paige remain. Ash and KK fit in. Q showed some decent individual defense and certainly has the motor. Ayanna? It's one way to keep players rotating and happy.

One last thought on the LV situation. the running and pressing style seems to produce good teams, but almost never great ones. The orange mess already had that ... and jettisoned two much revered former players ... who each had records most programs would die for... So, where do they go from here?

I thought Key could have taken a covid year coming up... not in draft, not in portal ... just fading away?

Hollingshead is still there, right?

Will we recognize them if every score doesn't involve three attempts and eventually an ugly putback?

Superfan who was banned from their site and now posts under a different name says this about the portal players Tennessee signed - "The biggie was the former 2022 SEC freshman of the year Samara Spencer, All-ACC freshman Alyssa Latham, and ESPN Top 100 #30 recruit Lazaria Spearman. Three skilled players with P5 experience that fit Coach Caldwell’s system and are SEC talents."

So, how did they actually play last year?

Spencer is a good guard. But one more short (5'6") guard. She averaged 13.9 PPG 4.6 RPG and 3.5 APG. 33.6% from the field, 26% on threes. 115/95 Assist/TO Ratio.

Alyssa Lathem is a 6'2" forward. 8.6 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 46% from the field, 28.6% on threes, 21 assists, 70 turnovers.

Lazaria Spearman is a 6'4" forward. ON the slim side, she averaged 6.3 PPG, 6 RPG, 50% from the field. 1-5 on threes. 14 assists, 40 turnovers.

Good additions. But seriously, this guy should just tone it down.

Shea is doing a great job recruiting and laying a solid foundation. Vandy has always been the elite, brainiac, non-jock school in the state. It will kill Vols fans if Vandy passes them....