Another atrocious shooting night from the Tennessee Lady Vols cost them in a 79-66 loss to the No. 3 ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish on the road.
This is kind of becoming a regular thing. If you are playing the Tennessee Lady Vols, just drop back into a compact man, guard the paint, and let them shoot outside.
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It’s not like they’re going to make anything.
Putting their Smokey Gray uniforms to shame on Monday, the Lady Vols shot a pathetic 4-for-15 from three-point range in the game, and this was the most embarrassing of their losses.
Don’t get me wrong.
Notre Dame is a great team, and them winning is not a shocker. But in an offense based on tempo and quick scoring, the Lady Vols should have had more easy three-point shooting opportunities. They could never capitalize.
Part of the reason is that Holly Warlick did not have her players prepared to get past Notre Dame’s up-tempo style. The Irish forced 20 turnovers on the Vols and also drew 22 fouls on the night.
It didn’t even take a red-hot shooting night from the Irish, who were only 4-for-9 from three, to stop the Lady Vols on this night.
Diamond DeShields and Basharra Graves are the only two players who kept Holly Warlick’s group from being blown off the floor, which they were for the first three quarters.
But Mercedes Russell once again showed no aggression under the basket, and the offense looked lost for long stretches at a time.
Once again, the Vols got beat by aggression and tempo from the other side and poor shooting on their side.
They have now fallen to 11-6 on the year and will likely drop out of the Top 25 this week after that game, and Warlick’s seat should continue to get warmer.
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Perhaps before the season ends some of these players will live up to their recruiting hype, but it does not look that way right now.