Lady Vols basketball had no issue with Winthrop at home. Tennessee jumped out to a quick start and continued to pile on en route to a 112-40 win over the Eagles.
After the game, Lady Vols head coach Kim Caldwell met with the media to give her thoughts. She was asked about the games from Alyssa Latham and Mia Pauldo, returning from the trip to California, steps moving forward and more.
Here’s what she said.
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Opening statement
“I thought it was a better offensive day for us, which we desperately needed. It’s the one thing I wanted today, is I wanted for us to push pace in transition and wanted us to share the ball. I don’t want to just see the ball go in the hole, and I think it did that, and I think it did it pretty consistently. So that was really what we needed, really what our focus was, was on our offense coming into this game. And hopefully this can be a big step for us.”
On if something clicked for Alyssa Latham during the break
“Yeah, it definitely clicked for her. I think obviously we had a lot of practices and at the first couple she was really tired. And then ever since then, she’s been out of area, rebounding, blocking shots. I mean, just looks like a different player. Jumping higher, moving quicker, leading, talking to her team and I think all of that is really important for her and is important for our program.”
On what clicked for Mia Pauldo the last two games
“I just think she’s playing with more confidence. And with freshmen, the more games they get under their belt, the stronger and stronger they’re going to look down the stretch. And she’s a great player and when she’s on, our team looks better.”
On Mia Pauldo’s energy in her system
“Yeah, and she really showed that tonight. I think from the very beginning of the game, she was a spark for us. She was all over the place. She was getting steals, she was pushing pace in transition, she was making the right pass, and she did it on both sides of the ball and she was really the one that made our whole team go.”
On the benefit of having over a week off
“Yeah, we needed the week. I think that they would have rather played, but I think we got better from it and you can slowly see us starting to get better. And so, we just needed to string some days together, work on some different things.”
On the trip out west being a turning point of the season
“I think so. And I think it paired really well with the fact that we had time in our schedule to work on some things and put it together. And now school is not in session, too, to really take a big step because we have time.”
On what she said after the first quarter having seven fouls
“Yeah. We said, ‘Stop fouling.’ We said, ‘Stop fouling,’ all game long, but they finally listened. They were tired of the game stopping.”
On the Pat Summitt reunion she attended earlier this week, knowing more about the history of the program than the players
“I know. It’s sad, isn’t it? And it gets lost on me. And you’re in an arena like this and you walk down the hallways and you just see all of the history and it’s in our face every single day but it gets – you get to a point where you’re so worried about fixing what we need to fix. Let’s fix our foul shots, let’s fix our offense, let’s fix this. And you get just so focused on yourself. So I think it was really important for them to see, I don’t want to say the weight we carry, but to see what we represent and to see that everything that we are doing is bigger than us. And everything that we have has come from players and coaches that were here before us.
“They did a great job and they loved it. They weren’t whining, you know, you take people, you have players that you ask them to do stuff outside of practice, they really enjoyed it. They were talking about it the next day in practice. They were referencing they can only save two points and rebound. And I said I wish that we could do that. They wouldn’t even give me 15 minutes of practice. I asked for the first three drills where they could only give me two responses. But for them to hear about Pat and hear about her from her players and people that lived through it, I think it was such a valuable lesson for them. And again, sometimes it gets lost on me of what they don’t know and those reminders need to come back more often.”
On if the response out of half was more so what she wanted
“It was. I think that we were still a little lax at times in that third quarter. They had 13 in that quarter. They probably should have only had eight. But we tried some different presses and the majority of those came off just missing those new rotations.”
On what impressed her the most about having 28 assists
“I think that was good. I think they took pride in it. It’s a game where you could really be selfish and you can say, well, I want to get mine and I’m gonna pout if I don’t have it. And we wanted to get 30 assists. We were close to it. And I think we’ve talked about sharing the ball, swinging the ball, making the next play and they did that.”
On Jaida Civil’s game
“She had a few turnovers I think that were pace-related. But you got to take it on both sides of that. She’s out of area, rebounding, she’s soaring over people, she’s going to get the ball. And so, that was her focus tonight was she’s gonna go get rebounds. And I gave her a point goal and she’s like, nope, I’m just going to get rebounds. I’m just going to get rebounds. And that is a selfless player. That is a player that just wants to make sure that she gets extra possessions for her team. And I do think she did a really good job of getting to the rim with ease, making the right play, hitting some shots. I thought it was good for her.”
On Janiah Barker’s game
“I think the best part about her game was how efficient it was. I mean, her stat line, she didn’t miss very many shots. She didn’t take very many bad shots. She passed up some to pass to her teammates. She was very, very efficient. I think for her going forward, she needs to continue to be efficient.”
On Jersey Wolfenbarger having a better game
“She had a good week of practice, a really good week of practice. I agree with you. She doesn’t make a lot of mistakes for us. We just like to get a little bit more out of her. And she had good touch around the rim today. She made the plays. More rebounds. I think she could get a few more rebounds on the offensive end, but she looked poised. She looked under control today.”
On how important Alyssa Latham’s role is
“Yeah, it’s big. I mean, it’s as big as she wants it to be. And those are conversations that we’ve had. I trust her to go get rebounds for four quarters. I trust her to get steals. She can play in the front of the press. She can play in the back of the press. She can box out. She can guard a guard. She can guard five. She can shoot a three. She’s not shooting it very well but we’ve talked about that, trying to get her back in the gym because she had been shooting it pretty well. She can score on the outside, she can score on the inside, and she’s a pretty good passer. And so, the more aggressive she wants to be, the better our team will be.”
On having 25 second-chance points, how much of a focus that was compared to other games
“I think it was around the same. I think we had a size advantage, so I don’t really want to clap too hard for them on that. I think our Stanford game, we did a really good job of rebounding on the offensive end and it won us the game. And so it was good to see it carry over tonight. I do think as the game went on, those numbers, we were at 50 some percent, and that number dropped towards the end.”
