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Tennessee Lady Vols embarrassed at Florida: Three takeaways

By Caleb Calhoun

DALLAS, TX - MARCH 15: Smokey, the mascot of the Tennessee Volunteers, performs during a time out in the second half against the Wright State Raiders in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at American Airlines Center on March 15, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
DALLAS, TX - MARCH 15: Smokey, the mascot of the Tennessee Volunteers, performs during a time out in the second half against the Wright State Raiders in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at American Airlines Center on March 15, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /
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Things have gotten worse since that loss at the Auburn Tigers last week. The Tennessee Lady Vols just suffered their second-worst loss of the Kellie Harper era Thursday night, falling on the road 84-59 to Kelly Rae Finley and the Florida Gators.

UT scored the first bucket, but Florida then went on a 9-0 run. They never trailed the rest of the game. Although trailing 32-20 in the second quarter, Rocky Top was still in the game in the third quarter, at one point down by seven. However, Florida closed that quarter on an 18-4 run and maintained control in the fourth.

Harper’s team, which came into the game ranked No. 7 in both polls, falls to 19-3 and 8-2 in the SEC with a trip to the No. 10 ranked UConn Huskies set for Sunday. Florida, meanwhile, improves to 16-6 and 6-3 in the SEC with a trip to the Georgia Bulldogs set for Sunday. Here are three things we learned from the Tennessee Lady Vols’ loss.

1. Florida’s tempo was a problem.

With a potentially dominant inside-out offense, UT wins scoring out of its half-court sets. Well, just three days removed from an overtime win against the Arkansas Razorbacks, they were not ready for the tempo Florida brought. Finley brilliantly made it a fast-paced game and used her guards to dominate.

All three starting guards had double figures, and Kiara Smith led the way with 25 points. More importantly, the tempo caused another turnover problem for the Lady Vols, as they had 18 on the night. That’s been an issue in the past, but it was different here because Florida often converted those turnovers into points.

2. Keyen Green is severely missed.

Not only did Florida force the Tennessee Lady Vols to play their game, but they also hung with them on the inside. Alexus Dye had 10 points, and Tamari Key had eight points, but Key got into foul trouble, forcing Harper to play Small most of the game. In the past, with a player foul trouble, she could have put Keyen Green in and still had the edge in the post.

The end result was Florida actually winning the rebounding edge 40-38 and Key finishing with no blocks. Tess Darby was the only advantage that came out of this, as she went 3-of-4 from three, but Dye was the only player to score 10 points. That inside game was neutralized through foul troubles, injuries, and no more depth there.

3. Free throw shooting added insult to injury.

This wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the game, but Rocky Top was embarrassing at the foul line. They finished 7-of-15 on free throws, which is very uncharacteristic of them. Here’s the problem: the reserves were all awful. Brooklynn Miles was 0-of-4 from the line, and Kaiya Wynn was 0-of-2. Dye missed her only attempt, and Jordan Horston missed four of five.

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Honestly, it was really part of an off-night shooting for the Tennessee Lady Vols outside of Darby. Sara Puckett, who’s supposed to be an elite shooter, was 0-of-3 from three. Without Darby, the team was 1-of-9 from outside. When you combine that with the free throw issue and Horston having six turnovers, Jordan Walker having five and Rae Burrell having four, you get this showing.