Lady Vols basketball took a few steps in the right direction in a blowout win over Southern Indiana, but it wasn’t a stark improvement in its last game before SEC play.
No. 18 Tennessee (8-3) recovered from a slow start to crush the Screaming Eagles 89-44 at Food City Center on Dec. 22. It wasn’t the most confidence-inspiring win, but Lady Vols coach Kim Caldwell said it was a “slightly better” result to go into the holiday break with than the 24-point loss to Louisville on Dec. 20.
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“We were hard on them,” Caldwell said. “We didn’t share the ball against Louisville. I think we had 32 times where we took a shot off of zero or one passes, which is not acceptable and it’s something we talked about. We had 19 assists tonight and we still didn’t shoot it great. So it’s a step in the right direction.”
Tennessee begins conference play Jan. 1 against Florida (2 p.m. ET, SEC Network+) at home.
Here are two concerns for the Lady Vols going into their SEC schedule.
Lady Vols still struggling to convert turnovers to points
Caldwell has been displeased with the Lady Vols’ transition offense — specifically, not scoring off the turnovers they force with the press.
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That problem didn’t improve against Southern Indiana, which was far more concerning than not being able to convert enough against Louisville (26 points off of 20 turnovers). The Lady Vols scored just 36 points off 29 forced turnovers against the Screaming Eagles.
Ideally, Caldwell wants them scoring off of every turnover, and they are nowhere near that against inferior competition.
Against quality opponents, the Lady Vols can’t force enough turnovers — 10 against NC State and 12 against UCLA. The attempt to convert them to points is worse. They had more forced turnovers (30) than points off turnovers (25) against Stanford.
Scoring off turnovers is one of the most important aspects of Caldwell’s system, and if Tennessee can’t start doing that, it will get destroyed in SEC play.
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She said the biggest issues are not running to the right spots, not playing as a team in transition and not trusting teammates to make the right play.
“I think we’re trying to get ours. Putting our head down and we’re going to the rim, we’re trying to drive through five people instead of playing together and trusting that we’re going to get it back. And people don’t think they’re gonna get it back,” she said.
Talaysia Cooper has another off night
Talaysia Cooper had her first single-digit scoring game of the season, and it was the second straight game where she didn’t seem to play with the same juice she typically does. She hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to avoid a scoreless night, but shot 2-for-9 from the field, though she had seven rebounds, four assists and two steals in 17 minutes.
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She also looked off in the loss to Louisville, despite scoring 14 points on 50% shooting, and had four assists, three steals and six turnovers.
Caldwell said Cooper “struggled tonight to see the right play, the right read on the ball screen,” which was something they prepared for.
Tennessee needs Cooper at her best on both ends of the court to win in the SEC. Caldwell put the onus on the junior guard to remedy the slump.
“I think we have time to fix it if her head space is in the right (place),” Caldwell said. “If she comes determined to fix it, she’ll fix it.”
Cora Hall is the University of Tennessee women’s athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: cora.hall@knoxnews.com; X: @corahalll; Bluesky: @corahall.bsky.social. Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks:knoxnews.com/subscribe
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Two concerns for Lady Vols basketball going into SEC play
