(Photo via @LadyVol_Hoops on X)
Lady Vols basketball was big favorites in the game against Texas A&M, but didn’t have enough in the tank to survive. Instead, Tennessee fell into a deficit it couldn’t climb out of, losing 82-74.
After the game, Lady Vols head coach Kim Caldwell met with the media to give her thoughts on the matchup. She was asked about the system, what she wants to see going forward, what went wrong vs. the Aggies and more.
Here’s what she said.
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Opening statement
“Yeah, we didn’t have it tonight. We got in too big of a hole to start the game, and then coming out, I think we clawed our way back to start the second, and didn’t really come out of the locker room at halftime. Got ourselves in a hole again, and then once again, ran out of time down the stretch to try to fight our way back.”
On the reason for defensive breakdowns
“We didn’t keep the ball in front of us, is what the biggest part was. We got caught on a lot of scout-specific things. Had a hard time keeping one in front of us, and then once she could get to the middle of the floor, she could go wherever she wanted to go. Again, we talk a lot in this program about two dribble more, keep the ball in front of you, try to get them to pick it up in two bounces, and they go nowhere, and we didn’t do that very well tonight.”
On if the team was dragging this week, low energy
“We talked at length about defense. Start with defense, start with defense, start our defense. I think that we play our best when we’re getting stops on the defensive end. It fuels our offense, and we get momentum from that, and they went on a 10-0 run. Again, scout-specific things, get back in transition, and get back after the turnover. Keep the ball in front of you. These are the shooters, and so that was disappointing to see. And then again, they had some life to them at times. It just wasn’t consistent enough.”
On Texas A&M building an early lead
“I don’t want to take anything away from them. They shot the ball very well. They played well. They played at a high level. I think we were a step slow to everything. I mean, we were not where we should be, so then we were scrambling, and our closeout to it we were just off. We were behind on every single defensive rotation.”
On what she’s learned about herself, adjustments she wants to make after this year
“I think big picture, there’s a ton we’re learning right now. I think when you talk about a career, you talk about how to build a program, and all of those things, you’re learning a lot. You write them down, and you continue to figure out how you want to build this, and what to learn from going forward. And this coach reached out to me the other day, and said, ‘Your second year is always your hardest year.’ I said, ‘Well, I’ve never heard that.’ It’d be nice knowing going into your second year.”
On what she says to people who blame her system for the losses
“Yeah, I mean, I don’t think we’re doing much of anything. I don’t think we’re doing much of anything, and so I don’t have anything to say about that. I think that all of our errors are, at the end of the day, on me, and I think that’s understood. I think that comes understood with being in this responsibility.”
On the attitude of the team, not being able to finish
“Yeah, I think, again, we went back when we weren’t able to get stops, and hit that big three. It was a dagger for us down the stretch and took the wind out of our sails.”
On Janiah Barker’s night
“She was really efficient for us offensively. I think she was the only player in the first half that had an offensive rebound. She was taking good shots, she was playing at pace, they were doing a good job of finding her, and we need multiple people to step up. I like it when our stat line is a whole lot more balanced, and again, I’m proud of her and her game, but we need consistency throughout the team.”
On righting the ship defensively with little time before the postseason
“Yeah, we have limited practice time left. We have to have a day off. We’ll have another one-day prep going into Oklahoma. We’ll do a lot of it with film, we’ll do a lot of it with breakdown. I think there was a point in time in the year where we were pretty solid defensively, and that was kind of what we hung our hat on, was our half-court defense, and we just need to find a way to get back to that.”
On Zee Spearman getting back on track in the second half
“I think that’s one of the consistencies that we need, and so she’s one of the ones that needs to be a consistent scorer for us, and a consistent defender for us. I think she’s one of our best defenders, if not our best defender, and so we need that out of her going forward.”
On the press not improving this year
“I think last year we were very consistent in who we played and how we played them, and our substitution patterns were consistent all year long, and they’re not this year. We don’t have consistent substitution patterns. We are not playing the same rotations. We’re very inconsistent about who can be on the floor, who shows up, who’s what, and then you’ve been inconsistent with injuries, as well. But I think consistency of knowing what we’re going to get out of each player can get better down the stretch.”
On what she saw from Mia Pauldo while she was out, if she didn’t play much because of restrictions
“Yeah, so we didn’t see a lot of her. She did travel with us to Ole Miss, and when you’re in concussion protocol and if it’s that bad, then you’re resting. So she would come in and do her treatment, she would be around, but I think tonight, just looked a little off first game back. That’s a tough ask in a situation where it was not going well for us.”
On the challenge of playing Oklahoma
“Yeah, they play incredibly fast. They share the ball. We’re going to have to guard the 3-point line, and we’re going to have to guard the post. We haven’t been good at doing either lately. We’ve got to guard in transition, and it’s really going to come down to can we guard them, and we’ll have, again, one day prep, so we’ll have to watch film, get practice here, and then it’s an early game, too, so we won’t even have shootaround time, unless it’s at 6 AM.”
On the response she’s looking for
“I think that we need to get back to looking like we looked five days ago. I thought we looked okay when we played Texas. I thought we looked like a Final Four team when we played Texas. That’s the same kids, the same team. It’s five days ago. I don’t know if it actually was five days ago, but it was not very long ago. So let’s put our finger on that, and let’s get back to that. Let’s get back to the version of us that was when we played Missouri. Like, same kids, the version of us when we played Kentucky. Let’s just get back to who we were.”
On some of the things she’s learned this year
“I think all of those things are big picture. Those are philosophy and how to build, and I’ll share those when the season is done. Right now, I’m very focused on continuing to try to win this group.”
On steering the team’s mentality the last three games
“Yeah, that is exactly what I said. We have to get back to who we were. I don’t have words to make this one feel better right now. This is one we didn’t think we should’ve lost. Again, they played great. I don’t want to take anything away from that. But that we have shown that we can do it, and we have to get back to it.”
On what went wrong in the final 90 seconds
“The defense stopped on the back end. I think that after we cut it to two, we had momentum, the crowd got into it, things were feeling better, and then I think they went down on the other end and hit a shot. We maybe missed a rotation on that one, and then they hit a three shortly after, and then we ran out of time.”
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