Tennessee Lady Vols Embarrassed 79-61 at Auburn Tigers: 5 Takeaways

The Tennessee Lady Vols got blown out on the road by the Auburn Tigers 79-61. Here are five takeaways from the women’s basketball Volunteers’ loss.

Using a full-court press, the Auburn Tigers overcame a 25-10 first-quarter deficit to dominate the Tennessee Lady Vols three straight quarters after that and win a blowout at home, 79-61.

Coming off of an elating win over the No. 6 ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Holly Warlick’s team looked like it would pick right up where it left off early.

The Lady Vols jumped out to a 14-0 lead and looked red-hot. But Auburn regrouped. After their 25-10 first-quarter deficit, they outscored the Lady Vols 49-17 in the second and third quarters and took complete control.

With the loss, Tennessee fell to 11-7 on the year and 2-3 in the SEC, while Auburn improved to 14-5 and 4-1 in the conference.

Here are five takeaways from the Tennessee Lady Vols’ loss.

1. The Tennessee Lady Vols have no idea how to beat a press.

This falls squarely on the shoulders of Holly Warlick. This team showed earlier in the week it can handle tempo after beating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. But it has no idea how to beat a press. Auburn ran a full-court press on the Lady Vols all night. It resulted in 22 turnovers and a plethora of bad plays.

But even more embarrassing was what happened when they beat the press. If Auburn runs a full-court press, having a player like Mercedes Russell down low should mean a guaranteed score if you beat the press, right? Wrong. The Lady Vols did not feed Russell enough, which leads to our next point.

2. Holly Warlick is blatantly lying about her team’s fatigue.

Warlick has been insisting that it’s okay for her to run seven players throughout the season, and she keeps saying the lack of depth isn’t a problem. But if that’s the case, how come the Tennessee Lady Vols would keep slowing it down every time they beat Auburn’s press on Thursday?

Look no further than what happened with Mercedes Russell. She shot nearly 80 percent from the field. 80 PERCENT! But she only had 14 shots. The numbers should’ve been larger because she should’ve gotten the ball every time the Vols beat Auburn’s press. However, when they did that, they would slow it down and try to score out of their half-court sets, giving Auburn time to get back. Either Warlick is the worst coach in world history at teaching a team how to beat a press, or this team is far too tired to be able to run at that tempo.

3. Perimeter defense is wildly inconsistent.

Three days after holding the Notre Dame guards in check, the Lady Vols got torched by Auburn’s guards on Thursday. Katie Frerking and Janiah McKay combined for 51 points in this blowout win for the Tigers. Meanwhile, once again, Diamond DeShields was the only consistent guard for the Lady Vols, scoring 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting.

Nobody else among the Lady Vols guards was useful, showing that they still remain wildly inconsistent on the perimeter. Auburn turning this game into chaos may have been part of it, but another part could be the fatigue that Warlick won’t address. There’s also another point here.

4. The Tennessee Lady Vols have no true point guard.

Diamond DeShields is a combo guard who does it all, but as an elite scorer in the back court who can also play aggressive, it’s ridiculous for her to have to also run the point. She is the only person who knew how to beat this press and had help from nobody else because nobody else knows how to run the point. The result was DeShields nearly getting a triple-double with 17 points, eight assists, and nine rebounds.

Holly Warlick needs to fix this issue because DeShields is currently the only player who knows how to move with AND without the ball. She and one other player are the only bright spots right now with this team.

5. Mercedes Russell is turning into a superstar…finally.

She was once a five-star recruit, but Mercedes Russell took time to develop. Now, however, she has become a complete player, and it is one of the few positives to take away from this game.

Russell did a perfect job of getting in her position under the basket to help the Tennessee Lady Vols beat the Auburn press, and in the process she finished with 26 points on 11-of-14 shooting. She added 11 rebounds and also shot 4-of-5 from the free throw line. And she got physical too. Russell continues to do her part for this team, so she once again deserves some praise.