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Tennessee Lady Vols lose NCAA Tournament game to UCLA: 5 takeaways

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - JANUARY 21: Tennessee Volunteers fans hold up a cardboard photo of women's basketball coach Pat Summitt during the game against the Connecticut Huskies at Thompson-Boling Arena on January 21, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee defeated Connecticut 60-57. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - JANUARY 21: Tennessee Volunteers fans hold up a cardboard photo of women's basketball coach Pat Summitt during the game against the Connecticut Huskies at Thompson-Boling Arena on January 21, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee defeated Connecticut 60-57. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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The Tennessee Lady Vols fell to the UCLA Bruins in their March Madness opener. Here are three takeaways from the women’s basketball Volunteers’ loss.

After drawing skepticism about even making it into the NCAA Tournament, the Tennessee Lady Vols managed to prove they didn’t belong in their first game. Holly Warlick’s team lost to the UCLA Bruins 89-77 in College Park in a game that wasn’t even that close.

Tennessee backed into the NCAA Tournament to keep their streak of never missing the Big Dance alive. But there was plenty of speculation and reason to believe that they had no business getting in. On Saturday, they only proved the skeptics right.

With the loss, they finished the season 19-13 overall. Meanwhile, UCLA improved to 21-12 and will face the No. 3 seed Maryland Terrapins in College Park on Monday. Here are three takeaways from the Tennessee Lady Vols’ NCAA Tournament loss.

1. Shooting in every way became a problem.

This one you can’t really even put on Holly Warlick. Amidst all the horrible ball movement that happened throughout the season, the Tennessee Lady Vols didn’t lose today because of that. They fell apart in this game only because of poor shooting. Tennessee shot worse than 27 percent from the three-point line and only 52 percent from the free throw line. Can you blame Warlick when her players can’t hit their free throws? Of course not! Believe it or not, Warlick got them open looks in this game. They just couldn’t convert.

2. Evina Westbrook just had an off-day.

This team goes as Evina Westbrook goes. That was the case all year. Westbrook is the star of the team, and she had a horrible game on Saturday. She shot 2-of-10 from the field and 1-of-5 from the three-point line. On top of that, she also had 6 turnovers. Sure, she had 9 assists. But her poor shooting and her issues handling the ball became an issue for the whole team, which is why they lost this game.

3. The inconsistent quarters ended this team. 

This plagued the Tennessee Lady Vols all year, and you can put this on Holly Warlick. Not showing up for quarters at a time are why they lost half their games. In this one, they were outscored in the first quarter 28-14. However, they cut it to 4 with the second and third quarters. But then they let UCLA pull away in the fourth. The big issue, though, was not the fourth. It was the first. Bad quarters like that were an issue all year, and Warlick continued to let her team fall asleep at times. It happened again on Saturday, which is why they lost.