Some lessons to be learned

from the Tennessee/Baylor game tape for Baylor’s next opponents (though, it will help if Griner has another off first-half and if your guards actually hit a shot or two). A great game plan by Tennessee, but they fell just a little bit short.

The Lady Vols took numerous shots against No. 1 Baylor — 82 to be exact. They pulled the trigger from all points on the floor. Several times, they bunched several attempts into a single possession. They even channeled their inner Don Quixote, going right at Brittney Griner and shooting over the 6-foot-8 All-American.

They did just about everything but make enough shots. The Lady Vols’ 29.3 percent field goal accuracy (24 for 82), coupled with a huge rebounding effort, gave them a glimpse of their ambitious objective.

Yah, it’s the first time the Vols have lost two in a while since… well, since Flo Rida was… Low, but wasn’t it nice to see Baugh kick butt?

With LSU losing again (granted, to #19 Ohio State), I’m wondering who the challengers will be in the SEC. Will Florida make some noise? Is Vandy going to surprise folks?

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Jere’ on Tennessee

Tenacious Summitt Still Driving Tennessee

A throng of callow freshmen from 2008-9 has matured into confident juniors. Tennessee became one of only two teams to defeat second-ranked Stanford and went undefeated through its 16 SEC games in the regular season.

The Lady Vols are not without flaws, lacking a true point guard and the defensive voraciousness of past championship teams. Injuries have slowed the 3-point specialist Angie Bjorklund (foot) and center Kelley Cain (hip and back). Still, Summitt will take her chances with imperfection.

“Hey, if a frog had wings, it wouldn’t bump its butt,” she said.

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Pseudonimity sneaks in

some SEC links before tonight’s important tangle between Georgia and Tennessee:

Auburn doesn’t help their postseason chances, losing last week at home to Alabama
and yesterday to South Carolina.

Arkansas wins at home against LSU.

Alabama making a bit of a late season run, winning against Ole Miss.

Florida dominates Mississippi State, snapping a four game losing streak.

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Chat Alert!

Pester Graham at 4pmEST, see if he can untangle the Bracketology mess the Baylor loss has made.

Also, make sure you check out EPSN2 tonight when Georgia goes after #4 Tennessee (7pm EST) followed but the Big 12 match up between #23 Iowa State and Texas.

Ryan Black says the Lady Dogsare trying to ‘shut up’ the Lady Vols (not a very lady-like headline), Carroll Rogers of the AJC says Georgia is “looking for rarity against Vols — a win streak,” and Coach Landers thinks his team is ready for the “raucous arena.”

Maria Cornelius at Inside Tennessee previews the game and Vol fans will be happy to know that Angie Bjorklund will be back in time for this SEC showdown.

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Chat wrap!

(I am such a question-submitting slacker! sigh) From the chat.

steve (ann arbor): Has Pat Summitt ever had a more(evidently) aggravating 24-2 team?

Mechelle Voepel: This statement made me laugh out loud, and I’d bet a lot of Tennessee fans would acknowledge the same. The team has talent, and I think they have heart … but they lack a type of killer instinct that is usually present at Tennessee. I’m not even sure if that’s the right term, but it’s something like that. That said, they’re still unbeaten in SEC play and they’ve seemed able to scramble out of trouble. I’m sure the real worry is if they have another stink bomb of a first half as they did against Vandy last Sunday, but it’s deep into the NCAA tournament against a team that the program doesn’t emotionally “own” the way Tennessee does with Vandy. If Tennessee gets in too deep a hole in the tournament, can they climb out once they’re at the Sweet 16 or beyond level? I’m sure that’s what Summitt and her staff are trying to prevent.

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It always amuses me when people say

they don’t think Pat Summitt has a sense of humor. Clearly, they haven’t been paying attention.

This gem from last night’s game against Kentucky: “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were throwing the game.”

Well, it wasn’t so much “throwing” as it was “throwing away,” as the Vols had a serious case of turnover-itis. They got it together for the second half, but their performance did raise some questions for Q: Lady Vols Beat Wildcats, 73-67, but how far can they go?

Tennessee Lady Vols point guard Meighan Simmons drives me nuts and I don’t even have a strong rooting interest in the team. She has got to be among the most maddeningly fascinating freshman talents in the country because it’s almost impossible to know whether you want someone to rein her in or just show her the ways of the Force because it’s so strong within her.

In the undercard, UNC and Duke see-sawed their way across the court until Waltiea Rolle secured the 62-60 Tarheel victory with a swat. The game shouldn’t have been that close, but I’m guessing the two teams set a combined low for free throw shooting percentage.

Check out DWHoops’ report on the game.

FWIW, I liked the ESPN broadcasting team a lot.

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Just in time,

Pseudonymity shows up with the SEC links and starts by saying:

Congratulations to Andy Landers on his 850th career win as Georgia defeats Alabama handily.

I didn’t see this one coming: Mississippi State gets first SEC win against Auburn, beating them at home.

Vanderbilt gets a road win against Florida in 2nd overtime.

The first meeting between LSU and Ole Miss was a 78-43 LSU rout. The second was much the same, a 76-38 LSU victory.

South Carolina edges Arkansas in overtime on the road.

Some thoughts on tonight’s Tennessee-Kentucky game.

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Reflecting on the week ahead

is Graham:

Monday

Duke at North Carolina (ESPN2/ESPN3.com, 7 p.m. ET): The Blue Devils have won just once in their past six trips to Chapel Hill, so home-court advantage isn’t without meaning. In terms of trends that have more to do with the players currently on hand, we might know how things are going to go by the second television break. In North Carolina’s three losses, its opponents averaged 52.3 percent in the first half. Only Georgia Tech didn’t eclipse 50 percent en route to victory, and it got to the free throw line 20 times before halftime. As for Duke, the less said the better about its first half at Connecticut last week. The Blue Devils attempted just five 3-pointers in Thursday’s 82-58 victory against Miami, their fewest all season and the first time in single digits.

Tennessee at Kentucky: It’s a road game for Tennessee against perhaps its closest challenger, and it’s a game in which Pat Summitt’s team is likely to still be without Angie Bjkorklund. In other words, SEC supremacy might not be on the line for Kentucky, but as a representative of the 11 teams chasing Tennessee, SEC self-respect is at stake. Kentucky wins games by dominating the turnover battle and surviving on the boards. That’s not a great matchup against a team that can survive a few turnovers, in part by winning the rebounding battle. Kentucky is 10th in the SEC against the 3-pointer. Can the Lady Vols’ Taber Spani, coming off back-to-back 18-point performances and a 10-of-17 effort on 3-pointers in the past four games, stay hot?

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Get your SEC links here!

(via pseudonimity)

Kentucky demolishes Auburn with a balanced attack.

Georgia edges Arkansas in overtime after slow start at home. [There does not seem to be a good writeup on this interesting SEC match, but the replay is on ESPN3 for the next couple of days.]

Vanderbilt remains unbeaten at home, defeating LSU.

Ole Miss beats Florida on the road.

Alabama gets first SEC win, defeating Mississippi State on the road.

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Hooray for Pseudonymity

and the SEC news (some of which you’ve read about, but Ps. did put in the time and effort of gathering, and we’re grateful!)

LSU upsets Georgia, now on a two game skid. Both teams only score 20 points in the 2nd half!

Tennessee beats a determined Arkansas team behind Strickland’s 26:

Vanderbilt overwhelms Ole Miss with a new starting lineup:

Toles leads Auburn past South Carolina in closing minutes of the game:

Down at the half, Kentucky ends up beating Alabama.

Florida beats Mississippi State.

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Maybe Ohio State

simply plays better when they’re unranked.

Last night, the #23 Buckeyes lost a lead, and then the game, to Michigan. Michigan had never beaten Ohio State twice in a season and the Wolverines had not won in Columbus since Jan. 21, 2001.

In the ACC, #15 Florida State won a barn burner and #22 Miami survived North Carolina State.

Green Bay stayed perfect in the Horizon League after winning a dog fight with Butler. The Ducks were no match for Stanford, and UCLA put away Arizona State.

Friend Pseudonymity has the “who can figure what’s going on here?” SEC wrap up:

Dawn Staley got her first win against a ranked team at South Carolina by upsetting Georgia behind Newton’s 5 of 5 from the 3 pt. line.

#6 Tennessee overcame a first half deficit to rout Mississippi State behind Johnson’s standout performance.

Kentucky grabs the lead in the final minutes to beat Ole Miss.

Arkansas beats LSU in low-scoring game.

Florida beats Alabama to stop the bleeding at four.

Wednesday saw much of the same ole same ole amongst the ranked teams: #3 Duke smooshed Clemson, #2 UConn survived Rutgers, #2o Iowa State handled Nebraska and #5 Texas A&M v #12 Oklahoma was an Adams/Robinson duel where DRob won the battle, but DAd won the war.

#25 Texas Tech was not so fortunate against Texas, as the Longhorns got a nice win.

BU is now 8-0 in the Am. East. Ditto with Middle Tenn St. And Bowling Green’s home win streak didn’t survive its encounter with the Rockets. From Swish Appeal: Toledo’s “Steel Curtain” defense ends Bowling Green’s 23-game home winning streak

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A little stomp, squeak and stumble

That sound you heard was the transmission joining the wheels that fell off earlier: Northwestern knocked off Ohio State, 64-53.  That’s the Wildcats first win over the Buckeyes in 19 tries.

Either Georgia is giving notice, or Arkansas record was a paper tiger. The Bulldogs took down the Razorbacks, 59-56.

#10 Michigan State survived #25 Iowa, 63-60 and #9 UCLA managed Oregon State, 58-46.

It was close early on, but eventually Kentucky tamed South Carolina, 66-48.

#13 Maryland is now 0-2 in the ACC, because Boston College took’em down 78-69.

Tennessee continues their destruction of their SEC competition. This time it was Florida, losers by 43.

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Some SEC links from Pseudonymity, but

the one that’s most of concern in this observation from a Tennessee fan:

Second:

At almost every timeout during the second half Wendell Hudson (UA coach) used less than half of the allotted time to talk to his team and they then returned  to the court to just stand there.  At least once it seemed their whole team was in a trance staring at our bench probably thinking (so that’s what a coach looks like).

Now to the links:

Buoyed by Tuomi’s 22 pts, Vanderbilt defeats Auburn

LSU dominates Alabama

South Carolina falls short in another nail-biter

Arkansas holds off Mississippi State

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Psuedonymity psends more pSEC news

This game must have been fun (unless, of course, you shout Geaux Tigers): South Carolina rallies from 18 down to beat LSU

Auburn cruises to 73-56 win over Florida and Vanderbilt “Finally holds a lead” (ouch!) to win SEC home opener against Mississippi State

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From Friend of the Blog Psuedonymity,

a little SEC news:

Tennessee beats LSU in SEC opener without making a 3-pointer, first time since
1999

Vanderbilt loses lead and game to Ole Miss in SEC opener

Georgia overpowers South Carolina in SEC opener

Auburn pulls away from Alabama in SEC opener

Kentucky prepares for Duke

From me, on one of tonight’s more intriguing games:  Check out the non-Duke affiliated site DukeReport:

Joanne P. McCallie Previews Kentucky

Jasmine Thomas & Krystal Thomas Preview Kentucky

Blue Devils Meet With the Media Prior to Kentucky Game

No. 3 Duke and No. 10 Kentucky Will Tip at 7:00 PM on Tuesday on ESPNU.

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From Lady Swish

The Silent Majority Poll

A few weeks ago, we debuted our ranking of the top teams outside the BSC Conferences (ACC, Big Ten, SEC, Pac-10, Big East, Big 12). Now that the season’s started, we’re back for Round Two.

I also like their post-prediction, “Ummm, we can explain” lines.

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