Photo By Kate Luffman/Tennessee Athletics
Lady Vols basketball fell to South Carolina 93-50 on Sunday afternoon. The loss marked the worst margin of defeat in program history.
After the game, Tennessee head coach Kim Caldwell met with the media to give her thoughts on the game. She was asked about the team’s mental makeup, what she said to them, why things get so bad and more.
Here’s what she said.
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Opening statement
“We just had a lot of quit in us tonight and that’s been something that’s been consistent with our team is we’re not comfortable and things don’t go our way and I have a team that’ll just quit on you and you can’t do that in big games. You can’t do that anytime in the SEC, but you certainly can’t do that at a program like this.”
On her message to the team
“Win your next game. Win your next game. It’s embarrassing. We’re embarrassed. Win your next game.”
On why when things go bad, they go really bad with this team
“Yeah, that’s a question for them about why they can’t stick together.”
On halftime adjustments whe was hoping to make
“Yeah, we wanted to run some offense. They went into a zone, and we looked a little bit scared versus zone. We didn’t run anything. We didn’t put pressure on the rim. We wouldn’t even get the ball inside the paint. So we talked about running some sets that would get us inside the paint. And so we could play inside out or we could go high-low and we didn’t do that.”
On facing South Carolina’s zone
“Yeah, they did a really good job of covering up the rim for us. I think we were doing a decent job at the beginning when they were in man of playing inside out. We were able to attack and get to the rim. And then when we just had to stand out there and launch threes, it got ugly pretty quick, and we didn’t have the discipline to just run any offense.”
On the concern of not being able to deal with a 2-3 zone
“I think that it hit a point where we were just launching them. It hit a point where it was just everyone was just going to shoot it, and that’s not offense, that’s not pretty. That’s why the score looked the way that it looked. Historically, we’ve been pretty good against the zone. That was another thing we talked about at halftime. We’ve seen zone where our zone execution up to this point has been good. It’s been efficient. I think one thing that they do is they cover up so much ground, they limit you getting those offensive rebounds against it. So if you miss your first shot, they’re going the other way.”
On how to fix a team quitting in February
“They have to fix it. They have to decide they want to fix it.”
On the team huddles late in the game, if they’re in the right spot mentally or sitting there defeated
“I don’t necessarily know that they’re sitting there defeated. I don’t know that. I do know we don’t have the leadership we need player-wise. And we’ve talked about for a couple weeks, it can come from anyone, anywhere, but we do need somebody that is respected and does things the right way to step up and lead this team from a player standpoint.”
On challenging players to step up as leaders
“I think they just have to. I’ve had individual meetings. We’ve met with them. I’ve said it publicly that we need leadership. We need people that want to win. I think consistency is a big problem with this team right now. So it’s hard to lead as a player when you’re not consistent as a player. When you don’t do what you’re supposed to be doing every single day, then you don’t have the respect of your teammates. We do have a few. We have a few young ones that I think they could step up and lead because they do things the right way.”
On struggling defending inside
“I mean, we had a scout. Guard the paint, guard them at the rim, be in your gaps. Towards the end, we were fine by, if they hit a three, they hit a three. But stop letting them go to the rim. And it was like we were surprised when they caught the ball in the paint.”
On Mia Pauldo’s struggles, if getting hit in the face early made an impact
“I don’t think she made bad plays. I think she still played hard. I just think her shot didn’t fall tonight. And we are better when she’s better.”
On Talaysia Cooper’s game in her return to her home state, former school
“I think she could have played better, quite frankly. I don’t want to be disrespectful to your question, but we have bigger problems and we just have to fix the team.”