Lady Vols basketball is coming off a 72-point win over Winthrop after over a week break in action. Next, Tennessee will head north to Brooklyn for a clash with Louisville. Tip-off is scheduled for 11 a.m. ET and will air on FOX in the Shark Beauty Women’s Champions Classic.
Ahead of the trip, Lady Vols head coach Kim Caldwell met with the media to give her thoughts. She was asked about what Louisville brings to the table, what she’s looking for from her team and more.
Here’s what she said.
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On what stands out about Louisville’s offense
“I think they push the ball really well. They can do both, they can push in transition well, they can play slow. They have a ton of different sets, they’re very deep. They’re the deepest team we have played. Everyone on our scout, and there’s a lot of them on the scout, average at least eight points. And so every player has to be ready to guard, and we have to play team defense.”
On what stands out about Louisville’s defense
“It’s a big win (over North Carolina). I have watched them a lot and I’ve been watching them in real time and I think that they always play higher than they’re ranked. And so I think that 22 was maybe just because they didn’t start ranked high. I think that they’re a top 15 team in the country. They, again, they’re very deep. They play a way that I respect. They play possessionless. Everyone can shoot, everyone can drive. They’re a very skilled team. They can also put the clamps on you defensively. They showed that in the last game. And so, I think it’s going to be a really big test for us because, yeah, they were ranked 22nd, but again, I think they’re a Sweet 16, Elite Eight team.”
On how much more prepared they are to play a ranked team this time
“I think we know what it takes. I think we know what it looks like. You know you have to value every possession. You know you have to take care of the ball, you know the rebounding is going to be important. So it does help that we have some ranked games in big-time stages under our belt before we head to New York.”
On when she noticed Alyssa Latham was finding her rhythm
“I think as soon as we got back from our California trip, she had a new level of focus, and she was really determined to increase her role. And she is somebody who loves Tennessee and really wants to win. And anytime you have a player that values that before anything about themselves, it’s really important and it makes you listen to what they say and value them as a player. And I think as she had that break, she really dominated in practice, and I think that that helped her confidence. And again, the better she is, the better our team is.”
On neutral-site matchups being beneficial for the team
“I think every time you can play a ranked opponent, it really doesn’t matter where it is, but you’re getting to play the best of the best and you’ll be ready in March and you’ll be ready in the thick of SEC play and you don’t have to try to figure that out once you’re already in SEC play. And I think that that’s why we scheduled the way that we do. And it is a cool event. We went there last year. It is kind of a big-time atmosphere and I think our players will be ready for it.”
On Mia Pauldo’s confidence level
“For me, I think I’ve always seen it. So what you guys are getting to see now, I see every day in practice, and what you guys are getting to see – and putting weeks together, I’ve known she always had that. I knew that when we recruited her, I’ve seen it in practice, it was only a matter of time. And I think that’s the player that, who she is right now, I think that is her baseline of what you’ve been seeing. She’s not always going to shoot great, but she does not turn the ball over at a high clip. She’s very poised, she creates shots for other people. She is a good shooter. She can score a little bit more at the rim, so we want to continue to get more out of her. But she’s a great player. And again, I’m not surprised.”
On what she likes from Zee Spearman has done
“What I love that she has done is she’s our rim protector. We were really exposed at UCLA because she was so preoccupied by the big that our guards’ defense, or lack of defense, was really exposed because she couldn’t clean up their messes at the rim. And she was able to do that vs. NC State. She’s been able to do that vs. almost everyone. She is very good at protecting the rim. She has really cut her fouls down this year, whereas this time last year she was getting sat almost every game, close game or not, because she was in foul trouble. So she’s learned how to guard at the rim without fouling. She is going to be better than she’s playing right now and I think she’s playing really efficient right now. She’s cut her turnovers down in her last couple games, taking shots in rhythm. She’s one of the best scorers in the country off of the ball screen so continuing to get her to sprint to the rim.”
On where the team is with SEC play around the corner
“I’ll have a much better answer to that after we play Louisville. I think we’re getting better. I know we’re getting better. And so I really hope that we can take a step and beat a ranked opponent before we get into the thick of things.”
On what she’d like to see from Mya Pauldo to get back in the mix
“I think she is a really good shooter for us in practice. Just hitting them in games. Really scrapping defender, but cutting her fouls down so she can stay on the floor a little bit longer. She is somebody that just has great heart. She just gets out there and she scraps and she’s not afraid of anyone or anything and I think that that’s something you can’t teach.”
On building consistency in practices
“I think we’ve seen improvement in that. I think that we’re kind of through the chunks of our schedule where we have to have long days without games in sight and they should be fired up for this one. We should have great practices and school’s not in session. There’s no other distractions other than basketball. And so if they’re not locked in right now, it’s going to be a long year.”
On what she’s liked about what Jaida Civil has done recently
“I think Jaida could give us more and I think she knows that. Those are conversations that we have. She’s a selfless player, so I don’t know if I said it to you guys or not, but going into the last game, I talked to her about getting to the rim or scoring more. She goes, “No, I’m gonna get 15 rebounds. I’m gonna get 15 rebounds. I just want to go rebound the ball.” And you can see her rebounding out of her area, you can see her going to rip them down. You can see, we watched it on film, a couple teammates going with one hand and her just taking them from them, even our own team, with two hands. Just a sense of urgency to be a selfless teammate. But again, she’s here to score the ball. She’s here to be an offensive factor for us, so just continuing to grow that confidence in her that that is what her role is.”
On teaching playing defense without fouling in her system
“It’s hard because we pick up the entire court. We wanna be aggressive, we wanna let them bang around in practice. We want to build toughness, we don’t really wanna call a lot in practice because we want them to be tough, hard-nosed, blue-collar kids. And then obviously, they’re used to fouling in practice and they get in a game and then they got to stop fouling. And so that’s a fine line of what days do you call it, when do you call it? So normally all of preseason we don’t call it, then as we get into the season, we start calling it a little bit tighter. So, you know, some fouls you’re okay with, but the dumb fouls, the fouls that are so far away from the basket, the fouls that are lazy, you’re just gonna put two hands on people, we’re not good with. The fouls where you’re gonna try to block someone’s shot where you didn’t need to, just make them hit a contested shot. We’re still trying to limit those. But I think that is one thing that we are clearly getting better at is cutting our fouls down.”
On what she’s learned about her team
“There’s a lot. You learn a lot every single day. And I think it changes on weeks, it changes on opponents of what we’re trying to do. And I think the biggest thing you learn is that it takes time and you have to develop and you have to learn and grow. And just because you’re great on paper doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s just gonna get on the floor and click. You gotta continue to get games under your belt and they gotta learn chemistry on the court.”
On her top priority for the team heading into SEC play
“Top priority is transition offense. We need to be able to score the ball in transition. If you’re gonna, again, if you’re gonna create havoc and you’re gonna get turnovers, you gotta be able to score off of them or you’re pressing for no reason. I want our shooting percentage to go up, but I think a lot of that goes with getting easy wins in transition. And then rebounding is going to be huge for us all year ’cause if we’re gonna continue to miss shots, we’ve got to be able to go get them.”
On Jaida Civil pointing to her teammate after hitting a three
“It talks about what I talked about earlier. She’s a very selfless player of it’s never about her. It’s always about her team. It’s always about what she can do to make our team better. And that’s rare this day and age that you have a player of her caliber who has been brought up as one of the top players in the country, and it’s always about what she can do for other people. And she has been that since the day she has gotten here, and I hope she is like that every single day for the next four years.”
On if there is a percentage of points she wants off turnovers
“I don’t have a goal in mind on percentages, but obviously, I want to score off every single one. And we’re to the point right now where we’re not even getting a shot off on every single one, and that’s where I’m having a hard time of, hey, you gotta be able to shoot. You gotta put yourself in an advantage where you can get a layup off of these. And we’re not even putting pressure on the rim to try to get the shot off. Sometimes we’re turning it right back over and that’s not acceptable.”
On what she wants from Nya Robertson against Louisville
“I think what she has done in a short amount of time is maybe underlooked. She was a non-efficient player coming in and it’s something that we had talked about, talked about, talked about. And we wanted her efficiency to get better and better and better and it has. And I don’t know what it is right now, but her shot selection has gotten so much better. Her turnover rate has been cut down. Her body has changed. She’s playing better defense. She’s playing great. And she is somebody that I was really hard on early. I mean, really hard on in film, really hard on in practice, and she never wavered. She’d look at you, she said, “I’ll fix it.” And she’s fixed it.”
