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Tennessee Lady Vols’ Season Ends in NCAA Tournament Loss to Louisville: 5 Takeaways

By Caleb Calhoun

Feb 12, 2017; Knoxville, TN, USA; Tennessee head coach Holly Warlick reacts during the game against the Texas A&M Aggies at Thompson-Boling Arena. Mandatory Credit: Saul Young/Knoxville News Sentinel via USA TODAY Sports
Feb 12, 2017; Knoxville, TN, USA; Tennessee head coach Holly Warlick reacts during the game against the Texas A&M Aggies at Thompson-Boling Arena. Mandatory Credit: Saul Young/Knoxville News Sentinel via USA TODAY Sports /
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The Tennessee Lady Vols lost to the Cardinals in the second round of the women’s NCAA Tournament. Here are five takeaways from the Volunteers’ loss.

For only the second time since the women’s basketball NCAA Tournament began, the Tennessee Lady Vols will not be playing in the Sweet Sixteen.

For the first time in school history, they lost a second round game.

Holly Warlick’s team was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament Monday night after they fell to the Louisville Cardinals 75-64.

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With the loss, Tennessee closes out the season 20-12, while Louisville improves to 29-7 en route to the Sweet Sixteen.

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

1. The inconsistency was consistent until the end.

Yep. Once again, the Tennessee Lady Vols were guilty of major droughts that cost them this game. It has been the story in every loss they suffered this season, and this game was no different. For three and a half quarters, Tennessee and Louisville went back and forth. The Lady Vols even took the lead at the end of the third.

But for the first half of the fourth quarter, Louisville dominated. They ended up building an 11-point lead. The Lady Vols fought back and cut it to within 5, but that was all they could get it too. In the end, after the game was in hand, free throws put the Cardinals back up by 11 when the final buzzer sounded. Still, this game came down to one terrible drought in half a quarter…the fourth quarter.

2. Diamond DeShields was not herself.

She fought hard until the end, but this was just not Diamond DeShields’s night. It was similar to the uncanny off night Chamique Holdsclaw had against the Duke Blue Devils in that 1999 NCAA Tournament loss. Her shots just weren’t falling. And that hurt because Jaime Nared was on her game with 28 points and 11 rebounds.

As a result, the Tennessee Lady Vols suffered offensively. They ended up shooting 5-for-18 from three, under 30 percent, because DeShields was 0-for-3. She was 3-of-12 on the night overall, and if not for her skills at getting to the free throw line, she would have had an even worse night. But thanks to those skills, she still had 15 points, even if it was a bad night overall. Part of that had to do with another factor, though.

3. Foul trouble became a factor.

Jaime Nared, Jordan Reynolds, and Mercedes Russell all finished the game with three fouls. However, many of those came at the end. The big issues was Diamond DeShields getting four fouls early on in the fourth quarter. As a result, she could not be the aggressor she needed to be, and she could never get into a rhythm.

That’s why she struggled on the night. We said going into the tournament that the Tennessee Lady Vols were not deep enough to have a starter get in foul trouble. They certainly weren’t deep enough to have DeShields get in foul trouble. But that’s exactly what happened. And it’s why the offense became an issue.

4. Mercedes Russell was a non-factor offensively.

She was aggressive and played her heart out with 13 rebounds on the night, and yes, she did have 11 points. But Russell has to do way more than that for the Tennessee Lady Vols to reach their full potential. She is one of the best inside presences in all of college basketball and only shot 4-of-9 from the field while going 3-of-6 from the free throw line.

All year long, while DeShields has been the star, it should have been Russell. DeShields is great, but Russell should be the primary offensive option and then be able to kick it out to Jaime Nared and DeShields. Not demanding that the offense go through her is why the Lady Vols lost. She had trouble handling the Cardinals as they collapsed the paint in their half-court sets. And Tennessee couldn’t afford that given their lack of transition plays, which goes to our final point.

5. Perimeter defense wasn’t there.

It’s much harder to do this against the Louisville Cardinals than the Dayton Flyers, but the Tennessee Lady Vols needed to force turnovers and defend the three. We said that going into the tournament. They did not do either one of those things well enough to win.

Tennessee forced 11 turnovers while they committed 13 of their own. Meanwhile, the Cardinals shot 7-of-16 from the three point line, good for 43.8 percent. Those numbers are why they were able to put up 75 points, and they also limited transition buckets for the Lady Vols, which is why they only had 64 points. That is why they lost this game.