Lady Vols basketball went on the road to play UCLA and left with a blowout loss. The Bruins defeated Tennessee 99-77 behind a strong offensive night that UT had no answer for.
After the game, Lady Vols head coach Kim Caldwell met with the media to answer questions. She was asked about how the team can reach its ceiling, what she learned from the game and more.
Here’s what she said.
More From RTI: WATCH: Lady Vols Basketball HC Kim Caldwell Talks After 22-Point Loss to UCLA
Opening statement
“We talked about coming into this game, that UCLA is kind of Final Four ready. They’re playing at a level different than anyone else in the country right now. We knew we were going to have to be really, really good to beat them. And I think when you play a team like that on the road with so many young new players, every mistake we would make gets exposed. And we’re going to have a lot of film to try to clean up for our next game.”
On why she substituted quickly and in waves
“That’s how we play.”
On what they have to do to make a Final Four
“We got to cut down our mistakes. Our mistakes right now are just cringy, to be honest, for lack of a better word. Turning the ball over too much, our shot selection still needs — our offense was not necessarily the problem today. This was the first time I’d seen our defense be that bad. We’ve been pretty good defensively, but again, it’s why you play the game. It’s why you play this game so early in your schedule with so many new ones. We’re not afraid of it. We’re not scared of it.
“Our goal this year was to be better in the SEC and we didn’t play anyone last year to help us do that. And we didn’t learn these lessons until we got into SEC play. We’re learning them now. And if our team will watch the film and make the adjustments, then we’ll be ready by the time we get in the thick of it.”
On what she learned from this game
“When you have freshmen on the floor and you have new players on the floor, sometimes you just have to do it. If you’re going to trust your players and you’re going to trust your freshmen, and that’s what we’re going to do, then you have to put them out here and you have to let them fail a little bit and you have to let them see what it takes.
“Because again, we need those players. We need those players when we get into January and February and I think that’s where our leaders are doing such a good job of not saying you’re a freshman, you can’t do that. They’re continuing to pour in, they’re continuing to teach, continuing to encourage our new ones. And I think as long as they stay the course — if you’re a freshman anywhere in the country and you’re playing four minutes a game, you’re blessed. And we’re playing you and we’re letting you go out there and make the mistakes. And, again, we just have to learn from them. We can’t continue to turn the ball over the way we’re turning it over. We can’t continue to have the defensive lapses that we have been having. And they were just tenfold tonight.”
On what Gabriela Jaquez did to hurt the Lady Vols
“We didn’t not guard her on purpose. She found her spot. She moves incredibly well without the ball. We talked about her just being such an underrated player and a glue player. She just makes things happen. She’s always moving. You can’t guard her and take one second off or she’s going to capitalize. And then she got off to a great great first half and we lost her too many times and she hit open shots. And I mean that’s the thing about this team that makes them ranked where they’re ranked or where they’re going to be ranked is you have so many players that can go off and if you’re not locked in and you’re not focused and you’re not ready for the challenge, then they’re all going to go off at once and what happened to us is going to happen to multiple people.”
