Lady Vols basketball fell flat on Thursday night, losing to Mississippi State 77-62 in Knoxville. After the game, Tennessee head coach Kim Caldwell met with the media by herself.
Caldwell was asked about low energy, the lead-up to the game, how she plans to fix it and more.
Here’s what she said.
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Opening statement
“I think that was pretty clear from the very beginning of the game. I knew it in shoot-around that it was gonna be bad, it was gonna be ugly. I didn’t think it was gonna be that ugly. They out-worked us, they out-toughed us, start to finish.”
On what she saw that made her think it was going to happen
“I think the prep leading up, people not wanting to play, not listening, having to go back to repeating ourselves, and being late to warmups. So, things like that just were kind of a slap in the face. This was a game I knew we really needed to win. We talked about that. We talked about it’s SEC night, you have to show up every single night and play. And I think their heads got a little bit big. They thought they beat them once and that they were gonna walk in and beat ’em again, and they put it right to us.”
On if practices became inconsistent again
“I think the practice following our media (on Wednesday) is just listening, the amount of ‘lock in’. We were practicing fine. Obviously we weren’t missing as many shots as we did today, but it was just the amount of repeating, the amount of ‘Alright, we’re talking on the sideline and you’re not on the floor, you don’t know what you’re doing.’ We’re not locked in, we’re not focused.”
On doing a poor job guarding the 3-point line
“Effort, I just don’t think we got out there. They hit some tough shots. I don’t think we got out there, and I think the main thing is we just got beasted on the inside.”
On making sure this doesn’t snowball
“It very well could. They have to make up their mind and fix it. We’ve been harping about rebounds. We’ve had a bubble on the rim to where our practice guys haven’t been able to make a shot. We’ve really focused on it. And until they see it’s a problem and they see that it hurts us, it’s gonna continue to hurt us.”
On if she felt like the team ever gave up
“I don’t know that we gave up. I don’t think we ever showed up. And I think that there’s a difference between that. I don’t think that we ever had it and we were hyped and we looked great. I think Mia had some pump to her, I think Mya had some pump to her, but I don’t think that there was ever any energy coming in for us to lose it.”
On Talaysia Cooper’s offense, shot selection
“I mean, she should have made some more. I think she did a better job. She was getting to the rim, she was shooting the layups at the rim. None of us shot well at the rim tonight. But we worked on counter-moves all week. We didn’t put those out there. But some of them were just straight line drives that didn’t go in.”
On the guard rotation
“I think foul trouble really hurts us, and then we have some players that we can trust to play the fouls, and some players will go in and play scared to the fouls, and we’re still learning that. I think that that kind of goes into individuals being consistent in practice.”
On the team being late to warmups, not playing well
“I hadn’t seen that version of them. And I told them this, in shoot-around, ‘I have not seen this version of you in about 20, 25 days.’ It started to creep back in. And again, it’s my fault. I’m the coach. Like, I can sit here and be frustrated all I want with them. But if I’m seeing it, it’s my job to fix it, and obviously I didn’t fix it. But I don’t know if it’s just that it’s back to, ‘Okay, we beat ’em once, we’re gonna beat ’em again.’ Kind of what it felt like. And when you are in the SEC, we have some leaders that have been here before that should know that that is never the case in this league.”
On why Mia Pauldo played seven minutes in the first half
“She was in foul trouble.”
On losing the rebounding battle, what she wishes they did better
“That we would have boxed out, or we would have crashed. Just anything. I mean, we really got out-toughed. We tried to run in transition before we ever got it. But we just didn’t box out from the very beginning of the game. And it’s on the whiteboard in red.”
On if she feels better because they’ve proven they can win SEC games
“I think so. I think they’ve all seen success. They all know that they can do it.”
On leadership issues
“Leadership is me, top down. So, it starts with me, and then it goes to whoever our leaders are, preferably the people that have been here before, played under me before that, understand it, that have been through losses like this before. That’s really important. But we have a couple people that have played at high levels that really understand that you have to show up every single night. The great teams, they show up every night.”
On the message to the team after the game
“It was a lengthy list. I’m not gonna share all of it, but a lot of it’s on the stat sheet and a lot of it is how we act.”
On what she wants to change personally
“I think that I should have done a better job of just cutting it, of I’m gonna be done repeating myself. I know you guys aren’t locked in. We tried to get ahead of it in shoot-around, but I think at that point in time, it was too late.”
On missing shots at the rim
“I don’t think anyone went in there and missed a layup on purpose. And I think a lot of them were good drives, of where it was one-on-one drive at the rim, we went up strong, we didn’t fade away from contact. We had some in the first half, but were atrocious, we didn’t hit the rim. But for the majority of them, they were pretty good drives. I would think that the more we share the ball and the later in the shot clock this team gets, the better we look. So, it kinda varies play by play.”
On if she’s surprised there’s leadership issues at this point in the year
“I don’t necessarily know that I’m surprised. Because again, I think that comes from me. It’s my job to raise them as leaders and have those conversations. And, well, I don’t think that I’ve been doing a very good job at that, so a little bit disappointed that I felt like last year’s team, we learned this lesson. I think that there are people, again, have played levels that have learned this lesson. And the mindset today still wasn’t 100% where it needs to be.”
On preparing for UConn
“You gotta fix us first. And if it looks like it did today, we’re gonna get ran out of the gym in the first quarter. And so, we gotta fix us first and then start our prep for them.”
On what lessons she hopes her players take
“We won’t know if it translates immediately. But I think the biggest lesson is how you do anything is how you do everything. And so, how you take care of your body, how you show up, if you get shots up, if you watch film, if you’re watching individual film, if you’re putting in work, if you’re practicing as hard as you can every single day, it pays off or it doesn’t.”
On conversations about the UConn game with the team, the game being bigger than them
“Yeah, I think, again, tomorrow is a lot about us and then we’ll get to that. But yeah, it can’t be about us. Anytime it’s about us, it’s terrible.”
On bad body language, low energy
“I’m hopeful that they’re mentally tough enough and strong enough and seen enough success that they won’t take it there. I am gonna be hard on them. I mean, and I don’t blame them, but when you’re sitting there and your fans are walking out and we don’t have any response. We don’t have anything. And again, it’s not everyone. Some people did play with a little fire and a little passion. But that’s just not who we have been. It’s disappointing to take a step back. And so, I mean, I told them at the end of the halfway through the second maybe, I need my team to show back up. Where’s my team? Because this is the old team and we can’t continue to move like this.”
